Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

On Fri, 3 Nov 2006, Wade wrote:

> --- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, Sean T Lamont <lamont@...> wrote:
>
> > So since I just finished my first full mix, I thought I'd throw it on line
> > and get some feedback. I'm pretty sure that both the vocals and the
> > maracas are mixed too high.  Everything is either a stock apple loop or a
> > logic-based virtual instrument, except the strat and the vocal tracks.
> >
> > http://itchy.serv.net/~zeno/CommitToGroove.mp3
>
> Pretty cool. It may be your first mix in Logic but it's very obvious
>it's not your first mix,   period.

This is true.  But I get better every time I do it. At least, I hope I
do. :)


>
> I'd say the maraccas are in subjective territory. If you hadn't drawn my attention to them,
> I'd probably have felt they were fine level-wise. Maybe they're fractionally over present -
> but that's a maybe, I still like them how they are.

Yeah, Another responder said he thought they were fine, but I think it
would feel a little more balanced just a hair lower.

>
> The vocal, yeah that could use some treatment. You've got tons of reverb which gives the
> impression the vocal's washing all over the soundscape. It's possible that just lowering the
> main vocal level will fix this, but I'd recommend less reverb proportional to the dry vocal
> level as well. Maybe a little EQ treatment as well to make her sound like she fits in
> amongst the instruments more. It's hard for me to say off the bat - she's veeery treble
> while the song is bass and mid heavy, so it's not like there's a clash, but I sorta didn't get
> that illusion that she was there with the (virtual) band.


Live instruments are always tricky ,and the voice is the only real 'live'
instrument - the strat is live, but it's also coming through an external
effects processor with an s/pdif output, so it's not like it's mic'd.

Do You think I should EQ down the high end of the vocal track? In my head,
the vocalist actually isn't quite right, but I only had two voices lying
around the house, and it was her or me, and this seemed infinitely
preferable. :)

I'll have to check the reverb on the vocal track, but I actually did one
thing that was totally intentional, which was push the last 'word' of
certain vocal phrases through a stereo delay loop, which ends up bouncing
parts of the voice as an actual rhythmic element, which was what my intent
was. I'm not sure if the additional reverb on the vocal track made it
fuzzy or not, I'll have to listen to it again.
>
> Btw, what plugs did you use to master the track? All Logic or some 3rd
>party too or what?

All logic. I actually just figured out how to D/L and install audio units
earlier in the week. :)  Most of them are out of the stock inserts, though
minorly tweaked.

I'm pretty impressed with the logic virtual instruments, especially the
EP, and sculpture. I was actually going to buy a Nord Electro, which has
one of the best boards for dynamic rhodes I've found, but the one on logic
7 is almost as good, so I may just buy a new controller. The one weak
point I would say is that there's not so much emphasis on acoustic
instruments in the stock instrument set, but this may just be a matter of
getting a better acoustic sample set. (there's no alto sax, for
example) I've not tried to load any third party samples as of yet, but I
think my sampler (emu) isn't compatible with the logic-based sampler
(forget the name)

Thanks for the feedback.



>
> Cheers,
>
> - Wade
>
> ---
> http://www.garageband.com/artist/aeriae
>
>
>
>

Sean T. Lamont                ---               The way you watch Television and Movies
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