ARGH! Two months down the drain on this?

[nightflameauto]

I thought my damn ears were broken. Pardon me for blogging out my slfpwnt moment of fail, but thought some might find this amusing.

You may have noticed I haven't been posting many clips lately? Yeah.

So, at some point in early December I started setting up a new template mix for recording. I've been using the same essential template ever since I got the 8100 (which has been a few years) and was ready for something different.

I'd get a mix going that sounded good to me, take it to the car, and every damn time it would sound hollow, yet still muddy, and like somebody had tossed a blanket over my ears. Could not, for the life of me figure it out.

At one point I set the amp back up with its initial settings, went back to my standard bass tone, and tried plugging the old drum kit back in. Tried that, and the same result.

BLARGH!

Queue several weeks of every night in the recording room trying different amp settings, different bass routing, different mixes, different mastering, different string types, different boosts (and I don't usually boost my rhythm tones). Every single time the result was the same. Muddy, blanketed, hollow, shit.

I spent most of last night going over old mixes and trying to find what I'd done differently. Probably my favorite overall tone was the old Overkill medley. That was layers of 8100, R1 and Tubecake, and subtle layers of the Studio Pro to push the high-end, with a quad routed bass tone. Did it. Sounded like shit.

I went to bed feeling like I'd lost my ears and had no hope of finding them again.

I woke up this morning with a shitty Tone-King style guitar tone (all amp settings at noon FUCKER) in the DAW, while my usual settings are more cranked mids, bass around 7, treble around 4, and a set of question marks over my head as to what to do now. Literally, sat at the desk, looking like this: The wife even walked in, looked at me and told me I looked so perplexed.

I set the clip to loop, and started clicking random shit in frustration. Suddenly, even through my non-ideal monitors in my non-ideal room, the blanket lifted. *CLICK* blanket. *CLICK* no blanket.



I go check the old mixes again, come back to the new one. SON OF A BITCH! I always run a "room" aux that every instrument gets routed to as way to sort of pull the whole mix together. It uses a reverb plugin with a high-pass on it to keep things from mudding up and show only mild reflections so even if you only have one side of guitars going it still sounds like they are in a room, and when the whole "band" kicks in all instruments sound like they are together rather than separate entities slapped together. Well, at some point in setting up my new mix I had switched from my old reverb plugin, a particularly bright and sparkling reverb that really just shows up as a sheen in the high end and barely registers at all in the main mix with a new one that's deep, pushy, and over-the-top full of mid-stomping power.

I put the old plugin back in place, finished up a preliminary mix and master and listened to it on the way to work. I need to go back and set my "real" guitar tone back up to fill in the mids better, but GAWD DAMN it's the first mix in two months I've done that doesn't make me wanna hang my head in shame.

tl;dr -> I'm dumb. Expect new clips soon.

In the meantime, I've come up with some riffs and tunes I'm pretty proud of, so nailing down this mix issue was REALLY frustrating me.

Feel free to come in and kick me! Or, you know, if you're feeling charitable, offer your own recording moment.

[clipless bumper]

I'd openly mock you - but I really don't have a clue what you just said..........

[Telephant]

I'd openly mock you - but I really don't have a clue what you just said..........

I think the jist of it is basically new reverb setting = shit. Old reverb setting = glorious.

Well Night, at least you know your ears aren't broken!

[nightflameauto]

I'd openly mock you - but I really don't have a clue what you just said..........

That's OK. I only understand about 1/4th of it myself.

I think the jist of it is basically new reverb setting = shit. Old reverb setting = glorious.

Well Night, at least you know your ears aren't broken!

Dunno if I'd go that far, but at least if they are broken they're broken in the same way they always were rather than some new, even worse way.

[Sizzler]

Not going to poke fun at all.

I have one of these "template" related disasters once every two years or so. Just last month this happened: I had a template with separated drums out and everything setup just how I like it for my "real" mixes. Haven't used it in over a year as I have been super lazy. Somehow the project template became corrupt and I don't know when it happened. Went back through Time Machine and realized I cleaned up all my TM backups up to about 3 months ago.

Bye bye sweet template.

I don't want to recreate it right now so all my clips are stereo right from SD with no tweaking.

[nightflameauto]

pamukParty:

I've had some of those types of disasters too. Horrible feeling when you realize all the work you put into setting up that mix template is gone.

[Sizzler]

pamukParty:

I've had some of those types of disasters too. Horrible feeling when you realize all the work you put into setting up that mix template is gone.

Yep

Good thing in your case it was fixable once you nailed the root cause.

[nightflameauto]

pamukParty:

I've had some of those types of disasters too. Horrible feeling when you realize all the work you put into setting up that mix template is gone.

Yep

Good thing in your case it was fixable once you nailed the root cause.

This time. Yes.

Twice before: One was a laptop lost by the repair place (when I was stupid and didn't have a backup). One was a night of herp-a-derp where I clicked clear/delete instead of restore from the backup. On my entire Logic directory. Only lost about four years of work that time.

[Sizzler]

pamukParty:

I've had some of those types of disasters too. Horrible feeling when you realize all the work you put into setting up that mix template is gone.

Yep

Good thing in your case it was fixable once you nailed the root cause.

This time. Yes.

Twice before: One was a laptop lost by the repair place (when I was stupid and didn't have a backup). One was a night of herp-a-derp where I clicked clear/delete instead of restore from the backup. On my entire Logic directory. Only lost about four years of work that time.

Now that's a bad one! Damn I'm shivering just thinking about it and sounds like something I would do.

[nightflameauto]

Now that's a bad one! Damn I'm shivering just thinking about it and sounds like something I would do.

On the bright side, everything I did AFTER that sounds way better than what I had before, but that was a tough pill to swallow at the time. I still have the bounces and/or CDs of some of the tunes, but to lose all the working files still kills me. Some of those songs deserve a refresh with my new skillz, and I have little patience for re-programming drums once something is done once.

[Markdude]

Reminds me in a little way of my workflow.

Start project. Make tons of tweaks as I go (maybe even for weeks at a time) and treat it as a big learning experience. Tell myself that once I'm somewhat satisfied with the mix, I'll organize everything and delete the tracks/automation/markers and make it my go-to mix template, then when I start new songs I'll only have to make small tweaks! Genius! Then somewhere along the way I just fucking give up and start completely over.

On a more positive note, I've got my drums template sounding better than I've ever achieved before and I'm pretty psyched. I'm sure once I add other instruments to it, it will suck, but I'm happy right now, damnit.

[Cirrus]

You've probably worked it out already, but slapping on processing as an automatic thing without really thinking about isn't da bes.

Better to keep it simple and only add an effect, tweak a setting or process a track because your ears tell you it needs to happen.

[nightflameauto]

You've probably worked it out already, but slapping on processing as an automatic thing without really thinking about isn't da bes.

Better to keep it simple and only add an effect, tweak a setting or process a track because your ears tell you it needs to happen.

What's really sad is I know this. I just got so used to always having that "room" aux I didn't even think about it as I was putting together this new mix.

EQ things though? When people recommend automatic things there? Those drive me bonkers. Some supposed pro audio dude recommended removing 3db of 500hz from absolutely every track in every mix you do no matter what and I was all .

And yeah Markdude, the drum thing was where this whole process started for me. I think I've got a better drum mix now by far. Just gotta work out the last of the tweaks between the bass and guitar.

[Cirrus]

Some supposed pro audio dude recommended removing 3db of 500hz from absolutely every track in every mix you do no matter what and I was all .

That kind of stuff slays me. It's like "Oh, you've heard all the recordings I'll ever make in the future already then? Cool, thanks for the advice"