Analog-Umph wrote:
You know matt, it's interesting that you say this.
Why?
Because for years I've been meaning to tell you that your mixes are too bright. (Obscene amounts of high frequency content.)
Part of Jarre's 70's and 80's music's charm is that they are fairly rounded/warm sounding. This is both intentional on his part and part of the equipment he worked with, especially the tape. Oxygene and Equinoxe sound as great as they do in our minds because of the way he treated ALL of the sounds. Even the ones that came from additive sources which when recorded nowadays from the same instruments immediately sound to our minds as "fake" or uncomfortable to listen to.
In nature acoustic instruments have a rounded and limited frequency spectrum, the way Jarre created his patches and/or processed sounds for those two albums, and for many afterward leans towards the same naturalistic approach, which is why purely synthesized sounds (alongside orchestral-like arrangement) sounds so interesting/timeless to us, because they are so similar to the way we expect acoustic instruments to sound and be used.
But the frequency content of your mixes is the exact opposite of Jarre's naturalistic approach, which in my view is the last missing piece you somehow keep missing - whether intentionally or unconsciously, I don't know.
You've got the notes, the rhythm and the feel of the original piece down, except for the way the sounds actually sound. Listening to your O2 cover, it's Jarre's most ambitious piece, and it's funny reading the people commending you on the timbral quality of the cover, which I feel is actually the weakest part of your cover - everything else being perfect.
Been meaning to tell you this for 4 or 5 years at least. Only out of an interest to see you conquer that last challenge, because, as you say, that's exactly what you want to do.
I understand what you are trying to say/convey here Analog, and I must tend to agree. Making music, playing music is an art. Mixing music is most certainly an art aswell.
Before continuing my post I strongly want to adress that I absolutely DO NOT want to put Matt down in his efforts and works he's doing, because I admire the way he recreates Jamie's music with the equipment he has, which is by all means a very good achievement in it's own and one to which I humbly bow my head!
That being said, the art of mixing (and also the way JMJ, or he wants his sound engineers to approach it) is one of tonality and frequency layers...
People more than once ask me how to mix a song, and I always tell them to look at music/sounds as a 3-story house. on the ground floor you have your drums and bass, on the second level are the guitars, keyboards, brass and other accompanying instruments. On the top floor finally the vocals and eventual leads/solo's...
Give each instrument it's own frequency range, and ONLY the frequency range that it really needs or is necessary for the part to 'sit right' in the mix. I.e. a bell sound (like the famous Fantasia patch on the D-50) on the keyboard in most songs doesn't need all the low-end (anything below 1k aboutish). So EQ that out (high-pass filter). Give each instrument it's space in the mix frequency-wise, and also some slight panning can create so much room for instruments to sit right. If you hear exceptional overtones in a sound which dominate, create a bell-curved EQ with a very small Q-factor, ramp up the dB of the EQ and go searching for it (use your ears and find it by sweeping through the frequency-band). Once you found it, drop the dB's to negative values to remove that from your mix. Basically... get rid of ALL the frequencies that your particular sound doesn't need, because it will clutter the mix, and it'll choke your multiband-compressor/limiter on the master-bus in ways you wouldn't believe!
Also be diligent in mixing into the sub-band (the low low-end) and the air-band (anything above 8 to 10Khz). It's a common mistake many people make when first mixing their tunes, and mostly because they don't have the right monitoring-equipment. I.o.w. their equipment colours the sound and they mix into that, which in turn results in a 'coloured' mix.
So my first and best advice would be, get a pair of really good (flat frequency-response and straight) nearfield monitors to mix your work on. Second comes into place some room treatment. You don't want too much reflections from your room, because they do colour your mixes. Third ofcoarse, use common sense and as with ANYTHING in music... less is more! Don't try to be fancy or anything, just do what is needed and makes it sound good and solid. Don't go fader-riding and such. If a part in your mix is inaudible, usually that part isn't to soft, but other parts are to loud...
Hope this all makes sense?
