Home » R/E/P » j. hall » IMP17 Beat J.Hall Discussion
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| Re: IMP17 Beat J.Hall Discussion [message #333569 is a reply to message #332689 ] |
Mon, 14 April 2008 17:08   |
 Adam Miller
Messages: 178
Registered: May 2005
Location: London |
Active Member |
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Here are my reviews, better late than never...
I'm being harsh tonight because a) Hopefully it's more useful in the long run, and b) I'm tired and grumpy.
Jhall –Low end heavy. Ring on the intro toms muddies up the low end quite a lot. Love all the vocal effects. Good energy, great excitement, but I feel like the compression on the drums distracts slightly from the mix. But definitely the best one overall.
Cymatics- Fucked up! Bit too OTT, scooped, distorted and slammed to really work. Vocal way too far back in the mix. Some nice ideas, but it all needs to be backed down several notches.
Podgorny- Vocal too far back. Drums sound very clean and quite polite- that snare needs a bit of ring on it! Tones are quite good, and balance is also ok- apart from lead vox.
Firefly- I think it’s all been said about the stereo… Low bass out of proportion with rest of mix. Mix lacks impact.
Jtexas- Shite vocal delay. Mix way too dark. Snare drum doesn’t drive in the heavy ‘chorus’ sections like it should really. I think the balance might actually be ok, but it’s hard to hear ‘through’ the tonal imbalance.
Bilybehdaz – I like the idea with the vocal distortion- actually I like the whole idea of the aggression you’ve got in the mix overall- it’s just not as well executed as it needs to be to work without being distracting. Mix is quite hard to listen to as a result.
ICombs- Soooo scooped out. Load of little vocal noises/breaths as a result of the vox distortion you’ve used. Like Jtexas, past the tonal imbalance the actual mix might be halfway decent, but it’s hard to tell.
ATOR- Weird reverbs, weird guitars. You need to stop wrenching what were perfectly decent raw tracks around with gimmicks and just focus on the balance first of all. Nice little backward delay tho….!
Boedoconstrictor – Interesting vox effect. Good basic balance. Drums sound a little emasculated and thin. Low end needs tidying up, but overall I quite like this one.
Uncleozzy – Sounds aren’t quite there; decent intial balance though. Needs a bit more work, top end needs a bit more bite.
Antman- A bit ‘toasty’ for want of a better word! Good balance and excitement, walks a fine line on the verge of overcompression, but gets away with it I think…. Shouty vocal mid section doesn’t work- too distant. Snare drum needs some extra jizz. Whatever that means.
Maxim- Strips out any vestige of excitement from this track. Not sure if this is meant to be an ‘avant-garde’ balance or something, but seriously…. I’m not sure if I can offer anything constructive on this one.
GrantRichard- ‘Slams’- but a bit overcooked I think. It takes a lot of skill to keep truckloads of compression palatable to the ear, and certainly not one that I’ve mastered, but this definitely goes too far.
ScottSelfridge- I like some of the sounds esp in the intro, but the balance is a bit cocked. As are all the gimmicky space delays. Need to watch the guitar vs vocal balance.
Greg Thompson- Nice intial intro. Chorus looses it slightly- too much attacky kick. Kit doesn’t really sit in the space that it really should.
RobDarling- Lack of intro bass means the mix starts off on the back foot. Good balance otherwise, broadly speaking, but thin in the bottom end.
Rkoehler- Small and middy sounding. The whole mix needs to be opened up a lot. Bit heavy on the sub of the bass guitar too.
I'd just like to say it's a hard task trying to match up to J's mix.. I really can't stand to listen to mine now either....
Cheers,
Ad
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| Re: IMP17 Beat J.Hall Discussion [message #333644 is a reply to message #333569 ] |
Mon, 14 April 2008 23:49 |
Antman
Messages: 34
Registered: April 2007
Location: Perth, Australia |
Member |
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| Adam Miller wrote on Tue, 15 April 2008 06:08 |
Here are my reviews, better late than never...
I'm being harsh tonight because a) Hopefully it's more useful in the long run, and b) I'm tired and grumpy.
Antman- A bit ‘toasty’ for want of a better word! Good balance and excitement, walks a fine line on the verge of overcompression, but gets away with it I think…. Shouty vocal mid section doesn’t work- too distant. Snare drum needs some extra jizz. Whatever that means.
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Thanks Adam.
Where do you hear the compression? I've got drums and bass sends grouped together and heavily compressed and mixed in underneath the dry tracks.
I've also got a bit of distortion on a duplicate bass track, which would add to some compression. Otherwise I think that's all I had from what I can remember.
The shouty vocals were meant to sound distant, but yeah I wasn't sure I had them close enough, thanks.
Fair cop on the snare too.
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| Re: IMP17 Beat J.Hall Discussion [message #333680 is a reply to message #331375 ] |
Tue, 15 April 2008 06:19 |
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Firefly
Messages: 19
Registered: November 2007
Location: South Africa |
Member |
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I'd like to say how awesomely cool the whole idea of IMP is, and implore everyone involved in making it happen to keep it up! Time and energy is indeed a precious thing to give away so cheaply.
I'd also like to echo the statement about mixing songs according to the nature of the song, and not trying to push your ideas onto it and beating it until it fits. Its curious that Adam's is generally agreed as being the best of the bunch, and yet conversely probably has the least trickery going on.
I know myself that when I opened J's mix, I said righto: "what could I improve" well, other than opening up the highs, not a lot - its a good mix. Especially considering the source material. Those were very RAW tracks, and so, naturally the end result should've sounded raw. Instead of just sticking to that i went way overboard trying to make everything sound expensive and hifi, and made a right royal mess of everything. (i was like a little kid i was, playing with all the toys i'd never been allowed to play with before). I remember reading an article about the great Andy Wallace, and how he uses hardly any outboard other then his compressor, eq, and verb... lesson learned for next time then (I really should've learnt it by now, but anyway)
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| Re: IMP17 Beat J.Hall Discussion [message #335070 is a reply to message #332625 ] |
Sun, 20 April 2008 00:40 |
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Okay, so I suppose I'm basing my "ideal" mix on my own since I mixed it how I thought it should sound (and Dave McNair didn't shame us all this time). So if you think my mix sucks, disregard my comments. In fact, even if you thought my mix didn't suck, you should probably ignore this. I've also decided to review all the mixes in the PSW IMP folder, regardless of whether they tried to beat JHall. I didn't do this because I like to break rules, but rather, because I got halfway through the mixes before I realised what a dimwit I am.
Anywho, on to the mixes.
Greg Thompson
I really generally like the balance of this. The "stomped-on" snare is very cool too, though it seems to have an odd space around it that I don't hear on the other drums.
I don't love the vocal delay in the second verse or the filtered effect on the bass at the end. And there seems to be some weird panning automation in the left channel before the second "Let go - And Live". But that's just me being picky.
I give this mix four inverted polarities out of five.
øøøøo
Adam Miller
I know this is the mix Brad picked, but I'm just not crazy about it. Sonically it's pretty good, but I just don't feel the energy. I suppose you get extra points for using the real drum tracks and making them sound pretty good.
The vocals, however, are too loud. I feel like if you're going to push vocals that hard, you need to be meticulous with your automation, because you get past the point of being able to hear the words, and into a place where the sound of the vocal can be distracting from the lyric or energy of the track. Sorry for the rant.
(BTW, what's with the reverb tail on the first snare hit?)
I also give this four ⌘s out of five s.
⌘⌘⌘⌘
MGAudio
I like the space around the lead vocal. It's an interesting change of pace.
I could do without the reverb on the drums... Especially the kick. Drums in general are a tad weak. Hi hat isn't lacking though.
You missed the bad edit in the second verse. Your fade-out is also a bit messy. I guess as they say, the Devil is in the details.
££$$$
Rob Darling
Once again, I'm liking the vocal effect. It sounds like a tape delay. Whatever it is, it works. Makes me wish I'd been a little more adventurous with my treatment. Toms need more low end. Snare sounds great. Less Vocal in the choruses, more guitar. Way more guitar..
Three and a half <s out of five >s.
< < < ‹ › >
Greg Dixon
Very Dark. Very Dry, except the lead vocal, which has an out-time-delay. Weird edit during the "let go and live section". Vocals too low. Was this mixed on headphones?
MDifazio Gets Five §§§§§ just for having the balls to put that noise under the "pulsate" He gets two additional ∂∂ for featuring the drum room mics during the chorus. He loses one of his §s for the noise in the second verse, but is instead awarded a π.
§§§§∂∂π
Osumosan
I didn't like this one. Rumbly low end. Not very wide. "Let go" is loud and clear!
ÔÔÔ
Fantomas
I generally like this one. I think you need to tame some some of the high end on your reverb return. Snare doesn't have any crack. This is another mix where the "let go" is too loud, but for the most part, the vocal levels are okay.
∆˚¬…æΩ
E_Houston
FlangeyBass!!!!
Drums sound good.
You get bonus credit for leaving the guitars out of the first half of the bridge. It's not that I don't like the guitars. It's just that ummm. I don't know how you guys can listen to all these mixes objectively. At this point, I'm just excited to hear something different.
JHall
J gets five Halos on his As. It's slightly dark, but it works. Mix is exciting. Bass sounds good. Snare has impact. I don't recall having the vocal track that is playing in the left channel during the second verse. What is it?
ÅÅÅÅÅ
MTeleric
I think Mr Teleric mixed this to cassette. He also didn't fix the bad edit.
Podgorny
Today I went food shopping. I bought a jar of marinara sauce, only to find out when I got home, that it has corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup high up on the ingredient list. What a disappointment. I guess it's what I deserve for buying jarred marinara, but I figured the five-dollar jar might be half-decent. Maybe it IS decent, but my enjoyment will be tainted by the fact that it's practically a coca-cola product.
iCombs
Is that the Sansamp plugin on vocals?
There's some timing error before the first chorus.
Snare sample is kind of cheesy.
This hurts my ears.
This mix gets one of these ¥
JTexas
I've got to be honest. I think this sounds dark, but I don't know anymore. I've been listening too loud, and I'm tired of this song. Guitars aren't very wide. I think your snare sample sounds more natural than iCombs'. The delay on the vocal in the bridge is distracting. I accidentally typed "distractive". I need to get some sleep.
Garret
Bass is small, like it was played through a Gorilla amp. One of those GB-30s, with the 8" speaker and the picture of the gorilla. And the vocal was reamped througha pignose. And cymbals are Camber. I don't even know what I'm talking about any more. Since I didn't give JTexas anything I'm going to combine his ¡ with your !.
¡!
UncleOzzy
UncleOzzy probably has the best name of any of the participants. Except maybe Scott Selfridge. If I had an Uncle named Ozzy, I bet he'd attend all family gatherings with a video camera, and "find" quarters behind the nieces' and nephews' ears.
ßå™Áπ
BoedoConstrictor
`¡™£¢∞§
Cymatics
has lots of weird noises in the background. It's like an industrial song.
˙∆˚¬…æΩ≈ç√∫˜µ≤≥÷`⁄¤‹›fifl‡°·‚—±¼„´‰ˇÁ¨
Beau
I like the delay on the vocal in the chorus.
I'm missing below 200Hz or so.
The guitar stabs in the second verse sound like a car starter.
Antman
Åπ™åπ
TGoodwin
Sounds like you were going to put a comp on the mix bus, but when the time came to choose the plugin, you accidentally clicked on a reverb... But being the laid-back guy you are, you said "fuck it. Cut 'em up!"
ATOR
Nice take on it. Not sonically great, per se, but at least you took the time to do something interesting.
Firefly
ZZZzzzZzzzz....
I'm falling asleep.
Goodnight, all.
"Hartley's Law of Inverse Tonality states that the worse the tone, the more indestructable the amp." -tarmadilo
Kyle Mann
www.kylemann.com
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I like the delay!
it was all very welcome and I did go back in and kick this thing's ass. 
