Remember the collaboration that "2funkE" did with Vina a.k.a. Divinaty? We always planned to do a new mix of the track but it never happened, until now!

This afternoon I made a new mix of the track and although it's just slightly different, I believe I managed to "fresh up" the production a little.

I did some compression on the music track to get rid of the "shoebox" effect on the kickdrum, which was just a little too much in the first mix (it's still there, but to a less degree). I also added some reverb and "hi" EQ to the music track, to make it sound a little brighter.

I panned Vina's double vocals left and right, which gives a nice effect I believe, and added some reverb to them so they fit better in the mix.

I don't think I can do any better than this, without re-recording and mixing the entire music track. Let me know what you think about it.

Any suggestions for the mix are very welcome, because we want to donate this one for the NFO2 project. So it has to sound as good as possible!
[This message was edited Wed Feb 11 15:43:36 PST 2004 by funkaholic1972]

Are you sure you aren't Jesse Johnson? Your stuff always takes me back to the days where I used to prance around with broomsticks for guitars and dress up in my mama's clothes. This mix sounds perfect. The only thing I thing I would change about the song would be the snare. I'd keep all the other 80s element of the beat...but just update the snare. Great stuff, man.

some pad keys on the verse would fill it up a bit. U 2 are a good pair. V sounds like Vanity.Great song.

psykosoul said:

Thanks for the compliments, dude!

But, now that you've mentioned it, the sound of the snare really starts to annoy me, :LOL: ! The problem is that the only way to replace it with another one is re-recording the whole song (Ingmar doesn't have a computer, it's all hardware, so that makes it a lot more work to do this). At home I only have the "finished" wav of the last take. But I could try to double the snare with another one, that might solve the problem.

And Tal, the pads aren't a bad idea either, I might try that too...

I'm trying to create a better mix of my vocals. It's so intricate with everything going on. I had the same idea to pan the vocals left and right, I recently learned how that helps the vocal mix into the song. However, it needs to be the exact same vocal recording, other wise it sounds like two different people singing. I kept the second vocal line in the middle, and I doubled the first one and panned it left and right. What's also really cool about that is when you listen with headphones, it sounds like you're inside the vocalists head. I always wondered how they did that.

I'm wondering about the mp3 that Geoffrey sent me. I converted it to wave so I could load it into Cakewalk and then mix it all down again with my vocals. I've got about 5 vocal tracks with different pan settings and I'm gonna add some effects. Did you do any panning on the instruments? If so I wonder if I lost it in all the converting. Let me know. I want to make the best mix possible, but it might have to suffer a little bit. I listened to what you have on soundclick and it seems like the only panning on it is my vocals. So we're probably ok for now.

VinaBlue said:

Tip of the day: You can either pan both vocals left and right, if they are very well done and in total sync. Or...pan both on them in the middle, but lower the volume of one of them, so it'll just sound like one voice, but a very strong voice.

Heavenly said:

They aren't, that's why I copied one and created a third track.



Before I had them both in the middle and the same volume, and I really like panning them, it makes the voice really connect with the music. I sang it twice and pretty well in sync, instead of putting the chorus effect on the vocal. It sounds more natural to me that way. Still working on it.



I like how it sounds right now, with the 3 tracks. I haven't added any effects yet. I should be done by the end of the week. Gotta go to work tomorow.

VinaBlue said:

I had not heard the track in a long time and indeed there seems to be very little to no panning in this mix. It was one of the first songs that we did and probably our mixing skills weren't that much developed at that time. So it is very important to pan out the vocals to get at least SOME stereo effect.

I talked about doing a new mix for the track with Ingmar, but his reaction was lukewarm, he wants to focus on new material. I'm gonna try to convince him to do another mix, I'll see what I can do...

funkaholic1972 said:

Oh, no that's fine. I just wanted to make sure I didn't loose any in the conversion process. Really, for now it's cool as a demo. I mean, there is only so much we can do, since we are in different parts of the world. Plus I know it isn't so easy since you're not on a computer creating these songs. I totally understand. I'll keep working on the vocal, I should get it done by this weekend and I will submit it to Project 2. If they want it, cool, if not, this was a VERY good exercise for me in singing/performance and production/mixing.

It's all good.

VinaBlue said:

Yes, doubling the voice sounds much better than a fake chorus effect.
I'd suggest adding a little reverb. even if you want the vocals dry, add reverb in an unnoticeable manner. it makes the voice a little smoother, and more friendly to the ear.

I agree with Tal...

You two are a great combination!






Jshua

Styles said:

I found this track to be quite inspiring.

This track had me perspiring...

since i dont have broadband, i listened 2 it in lo-fi. It sounded pretty much the same funk coolness 2 me. Is this the final final mix?

I will be waitin 4 the remix!

paisleypark4 said:

Yeah, it's pretty much the same, he just added some delay or reverb on the vocals I think. We are both working on mixes and we are gonna let you all decide which mix is better and submit that for project 2.

I screwed up the music file used in the version now up at Soundclick. I uses the wrong sample rate and compression type, but luckily I found out in time how to fix that. So this certainly isn't going to be the last mix. As Vina said, we are both working on a version and hope you guys will help us choosing the best!

OK, I've just uploaded a new mix with better sounding music file (hopefully). I also got some tips from Vina for the vocals which I tried my best to integrate in this mix. So go check it out...

funkaholic1972 said:

Great job! I would only eq the vocals a bit. I've been taking the mids out a bit on my mix. Other than that, the levels are pretty darn good!