Post by Chris WhealyPost by r***@googlemail.comwww.quorumjazzquartet.co.uk
Just listened to the demo tracks on your website - nice playing!
Since I also do alot of mixing and post production, I thought I'd toss
my tuppence ha'penny in about the demo tracks.
When listening on the crappy speakers in my laptop, it sounds as though
the tracks were mixed by a guitar player - or at least someone who likes
the sound of the guitar - since this instrument is in the frequency
range at which these speakers are most responsive. This gives the
effect unfortunately of the guitar being way at the front of the mix, to
the point that the sax is almost an afterthought. This particularly
noticeable on "A Foggy Day" and "Summertime".
When listening on good quality headphones (Sennheiser HMD 280 Pro's),
the balance is better because they can reproduce the bottom and top end
that are missing when listening on the laptop speakers.
o The snare and sax sound like they are very dry . You can give these
instruments more space with a little medium length reverb
o As you're making the mix, always check what it sounds like in mono.
If anything panned centre pops forward when you switch from stereo to
mono, then its probably too loud.
o After you've done a mix, leave it a day or two, then check it on the
crappiest speakers you can find. If it still sounds good, then you've
got a mix that will travel well.
Other than the production process, I think your band sounds great!
£0.025
Chris W
--
The voice of ignorance speaks loud and long,
But the words of the wise are quiet and few.
---
Thanks for the comments! The demo was recorded live in my garage on my
(now ancient) Roland VS1680 with prosumer Rode/AKG mics, good old
SM57s and some DI-ing. We picked the best of 3 takes per track. There
wasn't much post-production - just my attempt at mixing down and
trying to get some natural sounding reverb from the VS1680 FX - but
our guitarist was beside me ;o)
I didn't sum to mono, also my reference speakers are quite bass heavy,
so I think probably I need to compensate a bit. On a previous attempt
we added too much reverb to the sax and it sounded like George
Michael's Careless Whisper, which wasn't ideal for jazz. But yeah,
maybe turned down the reverb too much on sax and drums.
If I get the chance I'll have a go at remixing. Can you recommend any
good books/websites on mixing down? Haven't had too much trouble
micing, but would love to know what the norm is for rhythm section
levels vs solo instruments level in jazz.
You might have also noticed the drums were panned to one spot just to
the side of centre. That's because I attempted to use a 3 mic
technique to simulate those 60s recordings, which has no stereo
imaging. Plus we wanted each instrument to inhabit it's own space in
the stereo field (apart from drums and bass keeping near the centre).
Cheers,
Rich.