Module 4 Project Share: Convergent and Creative Mixes

[alexruthmann]

Please share your Module 4 finished Musical Structure Graphs here for comment and discussion.

Be sure to share both a link to your mixes (copy the URLs) and post a screenshot of your mix so that we can see your convergent and creative mix settings at a glance.

[ricci]

Hi there,

this is my reference mix for Sledgehammer
sledgehammer/#2flsq

and its screenshot

I was very surprised listening the bass and guitars solos (Tony Levin is one of the best bassist and the guitar parts are really funny and interesting also if they are in background of the original mix).
I used the original mix as reference to set the level of my mix, comparing the different pans and volumes and checking time by time the different sound impact in some sections of the song.

I do not think I' m too far from the original mix, but I guess my mix could be too loud (the horns and the shak?) and it' s not balanced and harmonious with the same amalgam sound of the original version.

Hoping to read your opinion.

Thank you.

[ricci]

I' ll come back with the creative mix in the next few days !

[NataliePerdu]

Here is the link for my Sledgehammer mix http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#1cg8a
Here is my screenshot

I was rather cautious when it came to the levels - I tended to think lower levels were safer therefore better

[tsaylor]

Here is my attempt at a reference mix. I feel like I did a decent job of matching the original mix but I also feel like it could always be better (at some point I just had to stop messing with it and call it good). I really enjoyed listening to the components, especially the interesting bass line and guitar licks. When comparing the sounds I wished I could mute both tracks of the original mix with one button, as it's hard to remember volume differences that are over a second apart. A bit more fine control on jumping to specific points in the song would help speed the process too (not that I'm complaining as it is already a great tool).

I should also mention that when listening I didn't notice the need to pan any of the tracks. I see that other students are using panning so I probably missed something there. Here are my settings:

Reference Mix: sledgehammer/#1wgzi

After enjoying that bass line so much, I decided to make my creative mix more bass-and-drum focused, so I turned up the bass/drums/guitars and panned the bass a bit to the left and the guitars a bit to the right for a bit of left-to-right call/response. I also added a bit more piano because I felt it was originally difficult to hear that instrument.

Then I de-emphasized the Shak and reduced the vocals slightly, panning the background vocals slightly left and the lead vocals ever-so-slightly right, once again to emphasize the call-and-response effect.

Creative Mix: sledgehammer/#43k7i

To me, it sounds pretty nice this way, but I'm sure everyone will have their own favorites (which is what makes it creative). Thanks for the assignment!

[Alan]

This was really difficult, as I have no internet I did this in the Library with headphones with very sweaty ears. Some tracks were very hard to locate and pan for and I could barely hear any piano in the mix. It seamed to lose a lot of stereo when I mixed it but here it is at : http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#4lxju

and here is the screenshot

I will have to do the creative mix on another day after I give my ears a rest but liking this very much!

[JimHenry]

Here is my Convergent Mix for Sledgehammer: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#3vgb6

It looks close to what others have come up with. Except for the horns, I used Alex Case's suggestion of going center, hard left, or hard right with the pan. I was surprised that the result did not sound heavy handed. As others have mentioned, trying to figure out what the piano should be was hard because of the difficulty of hearing it in the reference mix. That became my inspiration for a creative mix.

My creative mix started with the idea of trying to mix things so the piano part could be clearly heard. I extended that a bit to become, how could we have recorded and mixed Sledgehammer if we had a limited budget. The big savings in the budget was to 86 the horn section. I also left out the Shakuhachi because I thought it might be a bit esoteric for this rootsier type of mix. So here is the result: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#1wq0i

[LaraWhitten]

Right on:) Listening to yours I starting visualizing how to do choreography for this. I think that way. Too may dance classes. I didn't hear the lead vox and just having to bg vox and the drum machine at the end, really, allowed me to think of it more in the here and now. Like, before I could feel the solid 4 for the dance floor, but, I kept imagining too many 80's pas de burre's and Bob Fosse cliches. I've heard these songs so much.It was hard for me to hear them any other way. I remember the 1st time I saw this video when I was little vacationing in Panama City Beach, Florida. Then I was listening to some of PG's stuff on Spotify I was less familiar with and it had a hype of, "Hey, hey, hey, hey..." like we hear all the time in top 40 hip hop now. Trip. Good job.

[LaraWhitten]

Here's Sledgehammer followed by In Your Eyes- my laptop speakers sound thin, so, I don't know, what does convergent mean?

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#2n8q8

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/inyoureyes/#3aths

[Alan]

Here is my creative mix which basically reduces the horns and brings the bass & guitars forward as I like their really funky sound.

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#39bhc

I would really like to mix it varying the levels throughout the track to get a better balance in the different parts.

[pixelle]

Only got time for the first half of Module 4 so far:
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/inyoureyes/#5820m

Like Nick “nubbins” said, the pads are pretty hard to pinpoint. Even after trying several combinations between the piano and the pads, I never quite reached the same musicality as in the reference song.
Following the advice to take frequent breaks led to changing my mind after each break. It wasn’t big radical changes, but significant enough to conclude that my ears can barely be trusted. Goniometers are going to be my best friends.

@Alex Ruthmann & Ethan Hein: when you share the reference settings for Sledgehammer and In Your Eyes, please also include those for Air Traffic, which are hard to trace back amidst the multitude of Google+ posts. It’d be helpful to retry Air Traffic and see if there’s any improvement from the totally rushed attempt done a few months ago. Thanks a lot for this challenging exercise.

[ricci]

Here is the link for my version of "Sledgehammer":
Sledgehammer Studio Session Mix

start - 00: 21:00
end - 4:41:00

I' m not an '80 fun so I decide to remove (to mute off) the shak and the drums tracks completely.
The bass and the guitars (a bit on the R pan) are the body and the rhythm of the song.
The other instruments made the arrangement of the song, shaping the colour of the sound and emphasizing the different sections of the song with different pans, lowering the horns and balancig the piano and the prophet.
I put down the PG BG Vox and put up the female BG Vox to enhance "the studio session sound".

I tried to keep the "master volume" to low level to avoid the prophet to create annoying sounds.
I 'd like to add some cymbals, percussion or clapping to give more groove and sweat to the crescendo (3:13) at the end of the song.

Let me know your opinion.

[ricci]

I like the idea behind the creative mix and the sound too.
Perhaps you can ear the absence of the horns at the start of the Verse 3
(2:12:00 your mix time - as per Ethan Hein' s musical structur graph)
Project 1: Learning to Listen for Musical Structure
and a bit in the final crescendo,
but I like the balance you found between the piano 100% on the R pan and PG bg vox 100% on the L pan,
the strings (bass and guitars) and the synths.

I enjoy to listen your mix version.
Great job.

[pixelle]

You’re onto something interesting. At first, it felt like a letdown to remove what makes this song a unique headbanging experience, but I think you uncovered something great by letting the guitars, the piano and the Prophet emerge after 3:12. The three of them now sound like cool 70’s music, as far as I can tell, a bit like the soundtrack of a blacksploitation movie. Anyway, 60’s, 70’s or 80’s, I love it. You could use the 3:12 break as a new melody and build a progression from here. It’s crazy how prolific this song is.

[pixelle]

In Your Eyes creative mix:
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/inyoureyes/#3qaoo

Main goal: find out how much more tribal this song could sound. Apart from not managing to push the percs as much as desired, I enjoyed myself like a kindergarten kid playing Tarzan in the jungle. And then, looking at it a little more seriously, it can also be interpreted as a religious love song (“the doorway to a thousand churches”), or a dance to the God leading to trance.

Apologies in advance to people who like clean and tidy mixes. Mine always sound messy because the intention is to make you want to move on your chair with your ears feeling excited from all sides. It’s hard to achieve this and still sound thoughtfully polished, but I’ll keep trying...

Another thing you’ll notice is that the piano, pads and guitar had to be sacrificed to make room for the tribal rhythm. That's a shame, but I’ll come back to them for the remix attempt in Module 6.

[JimHenry]

My own playing is primarily roots blues. I think a lot of the "sound" of places like the Chess, Sun, and Muscle Shoals studios comes from the limited resources they had to work with. I visited the Chess studios and it was very humbling to realize how much great music came out of such a modest place. It was interesting to see how "Sledgehammer" seemed to evoke that kind of sound as it was stripped down.

I also found it interesting to think about the background that Ethan provided as to who was doing what in the recording. I felt I could hear more of what each track was contributing with Ethan's insights in mind. Based on that, I was making mixing decisions to bring out particular contributions.

[Gallospole]

Well here it is...my reverse mix of Sledgehammer:

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#4shlm

Gallospole

[Gallospole]

My creative mix below...pulled out the guitar and piano completely...still felt well balanced but less dense...I've attached my mixer settings as well...vocal dead center...backing vocals at 3 & 9 o'clock respectively...the same with the prophet and horns...drums and bass, as always, dead center...

Gallospole

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ruthmann/PWYM/sledgehammer/#2lhe8

[JimHenry]

Is there a lesson in the fact that "Sledgehammer" and "In Your Eyes" can be mixed so many ways and still be good songs in all of them? It seems that creating a bad mix of these songs would be the challenge.

[LaraWhitten]

I'm a purist myself in that I don't have much equipment. I think those studios/labels you mentioned had sweeter vocals because of the climate they are situated in. I myself am from about 40 miles from Muscle Shoals and worked as a singer for longer than I wanted too in Las Vegas. I figured that out working there. I want to start recording now and I have no intention of recording anywhere near the desert, not L.A., Vegas, Joshua Tree, San Jacinto jk, none of it. Aretha's vocals were never better than when she was in Muscle Shoals.