Let's mix a power ballad

Not sure if you guys are interested or not but I thought it would be a cool idea to get hold of a mix and improve it, raise the standard a bit. Here is a version of a song I did a few (5+?) years back. It’s not a bad song but the mix is dire. Download here if you like: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=1824844 Be interesting for comparison purposes. This idea will hopefully help others here as well as myself :sunglasses:

I listened to it this morning and it’s like mud city out there :laughing: So I just tweaked it a bit and it improved almost immediately :open_mouth:

Drums were done in Drumcore. I’ve lost the original files so all we have is the entire kit within 1 WAV. It can be separated using gates and eq but rather than fart about with that, I’ll redo them in EZ Drummer instead.

Bass is a bit boring but functional.

The guitars were all DI’d via Tonelab FX. They may well need to be re-recorded and processed ITB. Not sure yet.

Vox is not the greatest, especially in the middle section, so they may need to be done again also.

What I’ve done so far: EQ’d everything, compressors (incl multiband) added to mix buss. Panned all keys and geetars around to make some space. Levels aren’t 100% either but it’s still a hell of a lot better than the original.

Here’s the latest version: SoundClick

Let’s hear your thoughts, opinions, suggestions…

Cheers
Phil

I’m sure a few of us would take a stab at it… if you share the tracks… Kinda like what Dave S did a little while back with his song Free.

For me, I am not crazy about where the vocal are sitting in the mix, however I’ve only had the chance to hear it on my laptop, so that may not be a fair assessment. I’d be looking to add some depth and make more of a wall of sound thing happen.

cheers

R

Thanks for replying Robin. I don’t really want a 1000 different mixes for this one :slight_smile: I already have an idea where it’s going but just thought it would be fun and educational for peeps to chime in and offer opinions and solutions and see where all this stuff leads.

Cheers
Phil

Well, there you go! You’ve got mine!

:slight_smile: And thanks for it. It’s all good :sunglasses:

The wall of sound comment comes to mind because I always associated the "ballad"s peformed by heavier acts to be the arm-swaying-lighter(cell phone these days)-in the air-emotional-experience kinda thing. The vocal just sits to far out in front for my ears.

Here’s the latest version: > SoundClick

Eh?? Why am I hearing vocals and drums panned hard over in the left channel?
Somethings up there surely Phil… ?

We’ll have to abandon this for now, the whole project is panned left and I’ve no idea how it got like that. Further, I can’t change any of the busses to rectify it :open_mouth: I’m gonna rebuild it in C6 and see how it goes.
Cheers for your input anyway :sunglasses:
Phil