Little Cracks (New Mix)

Steinberg Lounge
1

First song in 14. First since upgrading from 11 after a major computer and back-up crash. Had to upgrade everything but this song came at a good time and eased the pain, somewhat, of the steep learning curves.
Hope you can enjoy it.

All the best
Jonathan

Link is here. Little Cracks | Jonathan Morrison

2

Hi Jonathan,

thanks for sharing :+1:

I like how the lead vocals sit on top of the mix, well done!
The low end could use a bit of TLC e.g. the bass is a bit too wobbly and could use a bit more definition. The snare could also be a bit more up front - that would add momentum to the song.

Okay, that’s it for now. I just wanted to break the ice and hope others chime in as well.

Nice work, mate!

1 Like
3

Thanks for your input, Reco29. I spent a lot of time on the kick and forgot the snare a bit. The bass is a worry. I might have to re record it, now that you mention it. I used a gate on it for the first time ever trying to define the notes better but I think I had a preset reverb which just didn’t work. Back to the studio but with a purpose.
Jonathan

1 Like
4

Hi Jonathan,

generally speaking:
-the low end likes to reside in the centre panning-wise
-careful with reverb on bass/kick; if you really want it (I would advise against it) than be super careful and make sure to EQ the reverb drastically and leave the low low end as is
-compression is your friend to get a tighter signal! Compressors are super important > this would be something I would really look into because they do not only tame a signal but they change the sound as well
-for a better translation of the bass you could add a bit of saturation to the mids (eg by using Quadrafuzz)

It’s always a good idea to check how kick and bass interfere frequencywise. If you open the channel settings of your bass via the “e”-button it will look like this:

image
image583Ă—478 36.3 KB

The blue one will display the spectrogramm of your bass and by clicking on the drop down menu of the brown field you can load the spectogramm of your kick as well. Now, you have an idea if/how they clash and you can tweak the frequencies and/or do things I mentioned above . Make sure to listen to the transients of both kick and bass as well.

Getting the low end right is a tricky one and it may take some time to experiment. You WILL get better at it!

1 Like
5

That’s brilliant advice. I’m aware of what you’re suggesting and use compression as a go to in all I do. The spectrogram is better than I’ve used previously if it does what you say. I’ll definitely rework the tracks accordingly.
I have to admit that I’ve been a touch lazy when recording the kit by not separating the kick and snare from the rest but, clearly, I need to do better. The learning curve continues.

Thanks again
Jonathan

6

You’re welcome!
Again, kudos for playing/tracking real instruments - that definitely deserves a lot of credit!!
I don’t track drums myself but I know that the Recorder Man Technique produces really good results with a minimum of mics. Maybe this is something for you?

1 Like
7

Recorded Bass and Kit again, added some new vocals to the verses including a line which assists in delineating the chord progression.

Here’s a link to the latest mix. Little Cracks | Jonathan Morrison

All the best
Jonathan