My new song with help of Airgigs and BandLab

Shredd, if AI has it's way you might be able to get John Lennon or Paul McCartney to sing on your songs for maybe low as $5 in the future. :LOL:
 
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I KNOW, right?!?

I'd love to have Sir Paul sing on my trax.
But the way it's going, I suspect the most notable outcome of AI infesting our lives is going to be dead families every 50 feet, splattered on sidewalks by driverless cars that think they're being nuked by North Korea...:confused:
 
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Clay Joule has been using musicians he found on Fiverr for years. Like any other job, people have to be vetted.
 
There are videos comparing online Mastering to a person doing it. Sad to say, even many of the human services just slap a limiter on it and jack the tops. It's like getting your car fixed: you take it to the same shop because they've done a good job over the years, have gotten to know you, and warn you of impending issues. Once you find a good mixing and mastering engineer (which in most cases will be 2 different people) they become part of the process just like your favorite guitar.
 
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Robo Roadkill, Shredd.

MJ, one of my hesitations for mastering at the local studio I linked prior is that I wasn't too impressed with the demo's they have online. Is there a frequency range that recordings/instruments should stay in for optimal sound? If so, are those highs and lows controlled with a limiter and/or compression?

This another one we just finished up. Ivan shows his chops on this one. I intend to offer it to Laura. Her voice has some grit to it when she summons it and I feel she can pull this off nicely.
https://www.bandlab.com/revisions/1...000d3a428fff?sharedKey=dDXgBBKRU029guOPk3vhiw
 
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Nick there is a general EQ curve that many Mastering engineers use as a starting point. But these are very small moves. In Mastering, 1 or 2 dB is a lot. The compression and limiting is very specific to the song. I'll give you an idea of what I normally do.

I use Fabfilters Multi-band compressor to control the low end and make sure the kick and bass are tight. Sometimes I will sidechain the low mid band for expansion to make sure it remains "thick" relative to what's going on in the low end. I'll typically apply the overall EQ to the entire mix after I've controlled the low end and I also typically make the EQ dynamic so the song has some feeling of movement. Generally, you start with the low end and get it under control you might find that the tops take care of themselves for the most part. Finally, I use the Fabfilter limiter and I set it for -0.197 (per Streaky's recommendation) and I turn True Peak OFF (this in of itself could start a new thread, lol). I use Youlean meter and also iZotope Insight and I normally target -7 LUFS, more or less. I also use imaging and other tools for spatial placement and dynamics.

If you send me a mix (not previously mastered) I'll master it for you and you can compare it with the automated master from Bandlab. It would be an interesting experiment to compare the difference. You're welcome to post the results if you like. DM me if you want to.
 
Slugworth said:
Robo Roadkill, Shredd
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:LOL::LOL::LOL:
Slugworth said:
This another one we just finished up. Ivan shows his chops on this one. I intend to offer it to Laura. Her voice has some grit to it when she summons it and I feel she can pull this off nicely
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Tasty jam fer sher. You're right - Ivan the drummer ripped on this tune...it's gonna be interesting if/how vox on this tune come out. That girl Laura has great power in her voice. Maybe male b/up or harmony vox? Could be killer...
 
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Shredd, this weekend she is re-recording No Guess. She is going to do three versions. 1) Sing in her most comfortable/natural range using the cadence or pattern I used in my vocal guide recording for her. 2) Start off in my pattern and build her range throughout the song. I told her to please pick her spots to shine 3) Her higher pitch (linked here prior) following my pattern exactly. I told her that with her voice she is likely going to sound great in even a less soulful pattern. Whereas my voice is repelling at almost any pattern/pitch :D. It's going to be interesting how that one turns out, but I have confidence in her.

She will be recording Me Time (rock) and Did We Get It Right (lite rock or possibly fusion) this weekend. I sent Ivan a new one that's going to have a Samba beat, which wasn't the intent because it started as a rock riff. I messed around with it to 90 bpm samba drums and it fit very nicely. No Guess started as a rock song too, but I couldn't deny it wasn't far off from a traditional country/country-rock song. Out of curiosity I asked Ivan to do a revision for a train-beat and it just seemed a natural fit. From his background of jazz and latin music I doubt he ever tried a train beat before. Dude nailed it and had it back to me within a few hours of my request.

Here's another musician/mixing/master for hire site https://soundbetter.com/
I haven't looked into yet. I found it through reading a Quorum post related to song protections.
Thanks for your input.
 
MJ, Thanks again for your kind offer. I found a guy on Airgigs a couple days ago that offers mixing/mastering for $25. I asked him what type of equipment he uses (like, I would know the difference..lol) and this is his reply.

"Nick, I hope you're doing well. I'm excited to offer you my mixing and mastering services to enhance your songs. The DAWs I frequently use are Pro Tools and Cubase. I also have a variety of plugins, including the Waves package, Izotope Bundle, State Digital, Fab Filter, and Soundtoys, among others. The choice of tools depends on the project and the appropriate application of each.

Regarding equipment, I use a Presonus console with Firewire audio interface, professional audio monitors, also from Presonus, and Sennheiser mixing headphones.
As this is our first collaboration, I'd be happy to provide you with a free demo mix for you to assess my skills. Additionally, in my services, I offer unlimited revisions, meaning we can tweak the mix as many times as needed until you're completely satisfied."

I sent him individual tracks of Still No Change. I also sent him the BandLab mix/master I did of that song as reference and listed the effects I added. I should be getting his demo back tonight. He, like Laura and Ivan is Argentinian. I will post his mix here. I can send you tracks too, if you want? What's the best way to post downloadable tracks here?
 
I can send you tracks too, if you want? What's the best way to post downloadable tracks here?
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Nick, it's all up to what you want, not me.

Use some kind of cloud storage such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc., and link to it here if you want to make it available to the public.
 
This is the new mix demo of SNC.
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Did you mix this, or did you pay someone to mix it? The reason that I ask is, with some simple slip-editing for 30 ~ 60 mins, the timing errors could have been easily solved and the song tightened up. It's got a funk groove now and it really needs to be as tight as it can be. I really like the direction the tune has taken! It has the basic elements of a potential hit song. The rest is execution.
 
MJ, thanks for the inspiring words. He (Mariano) mixed it as a free demo. If I accept for a mix and master he charges $25 for both.
Ivan (drummer) told me to either rerecord my tracks or ask Mariano to quantize it for timing errors. Is that the same as a slip-editing?

I would like to send my tracks to you by Google drive.
 
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Nick, it's not the same and the timing errors have not been resolved. $25 for a mix is probably not enough to include that kind of editing. Sending DM now.
 
IMO, there are some issues with this BandLab master: 1. I hear some compression pumping going on, 2. It would be too loud for my taste (and streaming services will simply turn it down as a result of the integrated loudness of -9 LUFS). And 3. the true peak value almost reaches +1 dB!
 
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Arjan, good to know that info. Thanks.

Laura sent me her track (3 versions) to Me Time and No Guess (revisions) last night. We are close on No Guess, but vocals are still not quite right. I had a thought last night that instead of trying to communicate by messaging (writing), what I think will work better is if I send her an audio .wav in which I play we I go verse by verse with her and let her know where she sounded great, which one's need a change, and try my best to give an example by singing it how I hear it in my head. Hopefully this will translate well. We are close to finding a nice balance and I think if we get it right she'll shine on that song.

Link to Me Time (bandlab) rough demo below. I asked her prior to recording that if she can get her voice into raspiness/grit to use in spots where she thinks it will fit best. I think she nailed it! Only thing left is for me to re-record guitar on some spots that weren't in time. Her volume levels will need to be addressed during mixing. Please let me know what you all think of it?

https://www.bandlab.com/revisions/d...000d3a3f8d9e?sharedKey=4RJDJ5vCtU6v3YqauJMfBQ
 
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-mjk- said:
Nick, it's not the same and the timing errors have not been resolved. $25 for a mix is probably not enough to include that kind of editing. Sending DM now.
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Thanks MJ. He said it does include editing to for that price. He might be trying to build up reviews and attract more users? His demo I linked I'm pretty sure wasn't edited for timing. I asked him to go ahead and do a full song edit, mix and master for SNC. He replied today and said it will be ready soon. I will upload it here.
 
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Full Airgigs (Mariano) edited, mix, mastered version of Still No Change
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Not that I'm in the ballpark to give a worthy critique of this...not even in the same league. Not even in the same sport. I feel like I've succeeded when I do a mix and nothing gets left out, and all the tracks are on the same tempo!:rolleyes::D

BUT - FYI: the link above leads to a "blocked access" message...
 
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