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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =
USA
955 Posts |
 Posted - 11/09/2024 : 08:53:45
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Ok. So warning, this isn't that great. But it's an attempt.
After some discussion a few days ago around here about the continuing disappointment in the album version of Baal's Back, I thought I'd try to tackle a few of the more obvious problems in the mix using Logic's AI Stem Splitter software. Stem splitter separates vocals, drums, bass, and "other", in this case, guitars. It's NOT perfect and there's some weird audio glitches, but within a few years it will probably sound flawless.
I'm an amateur mixer (I've done some good work and some bad work), and I'm crazy busy, so I didn't dedicate hours and hours to this.
https://youtu.be/bl2Mu4WVKKs
Here's what I did:
- Took the mud out of the guitar track. Just cut out a bunch of the noise and bass in the lower end. I don't know what Dalgety was thinking but the guitars sounded just awful before.
- Made the bass a little more punchy
- Made the drums more bright and crisp, emphasizing the snare and the cymbals. Note: this is to taste. I tend to like that kind of drum sound, and notice that going a little too far on the treble can really liven up a mix.
- Added slight reverb to guitars and drums
- Lowered the volume of the bass track
Vocals: Here's where I went a bit nuts. And I know they sound off but you get used to them after a few seconds...
- Scooped some mud (i.e. low end) out of the vocals
- Added some room reverb to the vocal
- Lowered the volume of the vocal track, a lot. Like 5db.
- Added THREE tracks of LIVE vocals from various live performances of Baal's Back, taken from youtube. I think the song needed messiness and unpredictability, and some ferociousness and mystery. So I synced those performances up and spread them around the stereo. They are TERRIBLE quality, but that may not be a bad thing...
- I made a version of those three live vocals that are MASSIVELY distorted, and that is there too.
Spent some time blending all the vocals to try to find the right balance. Again, a lot of this is to taste, but also, I maybe didn't do so great. Anyone want to take over? I'll send you the Logic project if you want.
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Edited by - Troubles A Foot on 11/09/2024 09:06:40 |
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Brank_Flack
* Dog in the Sand *
Canada
1017 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2024 : 09:56:23
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| Good idea - I like the idea of mixing in live vocals, as the live vocals are a massive improvement over what Tom recorded. The trouble with adding multiple live vocal tracks though is that the timings of different takes are quite different, so the layering effect becomes a bit distracting as things are starting or finishing a few split seconds apart. Maybe it would be less jarring with less layers? Maybe bring the live vocals down to one, or at most two takes? |
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =
USA
955 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2024 : 10:00:57
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| I did time and sync up as many syllables as I could but ultimately didn't want to spend all day on it and I liked some of the sloppiness. But on taking a break and listening later maybe there are too many vocals. I basically think Frank should have doubled it or something so I was trying to replicate what that would be... |
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =
USA
955 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2024 : 10:17:25
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If anyone's curious, this is what it looks like:
https://imgur.com/a/wNs4nQT
I also did general compression, limiting, etc to keep things steady. |
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Skatealex1
* Dog in the Sand *
1670 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2024 : 14:23:27
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| Sounds cool, I agree that simplifying the vocals could be better. Maybe even something like simply using one of the live vocal tracks and then duplicating that and maybe using a vocal plug in effect and or tuning it up or down a little for some interesting vocal harmony track(s) or something... |
Edited by - Skatealex1 on 11/09/2024 21:06:37 |
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The Holiday Son
= Quote Accumulator =
France
2010 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2024 : 12:48:30
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Good idea and great work on the instruments.
Vocals sound indeed quite messy. Too many tracks. Too much reverb.
I would love to hear a version with maybe only one live track equally mixed (or not) with the studio track.
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =
USA
955 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2024 : 12:51:15
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| Yeah you know what, I may just delete this. It kind of stinks. Maybe someone can do better? |
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auxfnx
- FB Fan -
Ireland
39 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2024 : 04:23:00
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This reminded me of something I did a few months back where I got inspired to try to change the drum sound on the pixies 2.0 albums to match earlier pixies records.
as part of doing that i also tackled the vocal track on baal's back when i was doing that one. the issue i found with the vocals in the original mix was the amount of compression on them.
when frank would breathe in or finish his scream, all the lower pitched 'in between scream' sounds got boosted way up in volume and it makes the vocal sound strange and stuffy.
so i did some EQing and gating to try to solve that, as well as the drum sound stuff. can download here if interested! https://mega.nz/file/r4EAXBLY#5pGCsHSxDoSBWiucUKLKzHylmtljH2VixZHjZkmtjSg |
Edited by - auxfnx on 11/22/2024 06:27:15 |
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Topic |
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Baal's Back: Remix!
