I posted this as a WIP a couple of months ago, but the search function is b0rked and I can't be arsed to trawl through pages to find it so apologies for a fresh post!
You know what I'm thinking about your latest track G. - you find yourself a perfect genre where you shine mate and I really like it.
Very mature work, welcome to over XX club (with me and Dave in it) lol.
Cheers,
Darek
EddieZilker
This tune cooks. Really like what you did with that theme. Drum & Perc is flawless. Seriously, excellent work.
tehlord
Thanks ma homies.
Interestingly, this was the first track I did a final mixdown on using some AKG K271s. I started out getting the main balanced mix on the HS80s, but used the cans for fine tuning, and to avoid my bad room issues. Apart from a couple of HF parts being a little too forward i'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
TranceLover007
So the word is "AKG K271s" - will definitely suggest that to Mike.
Cheers G.
Darek
Looney4Clooney
pretty neat. Hate the term cinematic. I loath it.
Strings at the beginning have weird rhythmic starting point that sound weird. That high string with the low leaves this huge gap that sounds weird. I would use the lower octave, harmonics, and double it an octave higher. The low strings. Well i think when there is not much going on, you need a bit of movement. That lone flute just sounds out of place. Double that with bassoons or an english horn. About the choice of placement. If you are going to use a slightly off time start, make it more obvious. Otherwise it sounds like a mistake.
THe main issue is that you aren't using the orchestra in a traditional way but it seems like you are trying. I would forget that. I would make it more electronic. Use distortion on the strings. The drums need some fuzz too. In fact, the track seem to want to be aggressive and driving but alot of the sounds for example the strings have no attack. The problem is that they are too synthetic to be real, too real to be synthetic. And that is where you don't want to be.
The drum mix is pretty poor and that seems to be the main thing. Really try to get a git with overheads and squash those. The snare needs to be alot snappier.
The horns again , they just seem to be alone which is just weird sounding. IT seems like you are too shy to state a theme with them and it just ends up sounding like you are mucking about. The articulations are really hard to hear. And the volume from pp to FF is the same. When the percussion come in at the end, barely audible.
And when ever you state something that is a solo line, you need some sort of response counter point unless like it is a tutti section.
I think overall, you lack a bit of knowing what to bring out when and where. Prioritize your elements, and make them more prominent. Think of all the instruments as like singers that take their turn singing, This is why this kind of stuff has so much automation. Lke that the beginning some really cool electronic things but they aren't really used to full effect. The trick is to make something loud when it is fist state, and you can lower it once people hear it as it stays in youe head ubvonsioucly.
Watch a movie say in the jungle. The foley guys will always make the scene setting with bugs and noises loud and as it progresses, they pull back as it isn't needed. Kinda an illusion but useful because it makes more room for other things,
Good stuff tho. Keep it up.
EddieZilker
quote:
Originally posted by TranceLover007
So the word is "AKG K271s" - will definitely suggest that to Mike.
Cheers G.
Darek
+1 - Thanks for the tip. Already have it up on Amazon in my browser.
TranceLover007
Yeah, last few days/weeks we have hell of the time to figure out which ones from our short list of headphones would be the best for our production job, I guess we are leaning towards AKG K271 as G. suggest.
Cheers,
Darek
tehlord
quote:
Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
pretty neat. Hate the term cinematic. I loath it.
Strings at the beginning have weird rhythmic starting point that sound weird. That high string with the low leaves this huge gap that sounds weird. I would use the lower octave, harmonics, and double it an octave higher. The low strings. Well i think when there is not much going on, you need a bit of movement. That lone flute just sounds out of place. Double that with bassoons or an english horn. About the choice of placement. If you are going to use a slightly off time start, make it more obvious. Otherwise it sounds like a mistake.
THe main issue is that you aren't using the orchestra in a traditional way but it seems like you are trying. I would forget that. I would make it more electronic. Use distortion on the strings. The drums need some fuzz too. In fact, the track seem to want to be aggressive and driving but alot of the sounds for example the strings have no attack. The problem is that they are too synthetic to be real, too real to be synthetic. And that is where you don't want to be.
The drum mix is pretty poor and that seems to be the main thing. Really try to get a git with overheads and squash those. The snare needs to be alot snappier.
The horns again , they just seem to be alone which is just weird sounding. IT seems like you are too shy to state a theme with them and it just ends up sounding like you are mucking about. The articulations are really hard to hear. And the volume from pp to FF is the same. When the percussion come in at the end, barely audible.
And when ever you state something that is a solo line, you need some sort of response counter point unless like it is a tutti section.
I think overall, you lack a bit of knowing what to bring out when and where. Prioritize your elements, and make them more prominent. Think of all the instruments as like singers that take their turn singing, This is why this kind of stuff has so much automation. Lke that the beginning some really cool electronic things but they aren't really used to full effect. The trick is to make something loud when it is fist state, and you can lower it once people hear it as it stays in youe head ubvonsioucly.
Watch a movie say in the jungle. The foley guys will always make the scene setting with bugs and noises loud and as it progresses, they pull back as it isn't needed. Kinda an illusion but useful because it makes more room for other things,
Good stuff tho. Keep it up.
Big grats for these crits brutha.
I really can't disagree with anything you've said there. This was really an exercise in working to a brief (albeit a fun challenge based on making a Bond style theme).
All the orchestration theory I learned was 25 years ago so I think i'm stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment, in that I know what I want to hear, but don't have the best tools (in the form of LASS, Cinebrass etc) or the correct technical and practical skills to transfer ideas to audio. That'll happen over the next year though.
I'll agree about the percussion as well. Although i'm fairly happy with the elements and the way they're sitting together, I think there's far too much in the way of HF transients banging through the mix. I just need to adjust my ears to the new AKG's as they'll be what I'll be relying on after a basic HS80 mixdown. I'm still stuck with a really monitoring setup so it won't be ideal.
Again, thanks for the in depth. It's appreciated. :cool:
@ D
The 271's are closed back, which I needed as I'll be using them for tracking as well. The K240's are supposedly a little better for mixing on AND a little cheaper so my advice would be to go for those. They will take a little getting used to though, as any new monitoring setup will! :)
