Computer Music
What’s wrong with my mix?
Every month we select a stand-out reader demo for critical appraisal by an established artist or producer. This time around Eureka Sön are the lucky nominees, while acclaimed chill out favorites A Man Called Adam takes the reviewer’s chair.
EUREKA SON
Cowboy
Roger Camara
The introduction to the track its nice and breezy, and the baggy break beat gives it a surfy, summer sound, like a combination of Beck when he was fun, and the Dust Brothers. Once it gets going, Cowboy has a rolling groove, but bringing the party back vocals up to the front would set “the good times” vibe early. There’s not enough repetition of the “Hey, now cowboys” vocal hook either, and perhaps its spacing could be more regular – say every 16 bars (for at least the center of the track). It could even appear right at the head of the track, so Eureka Son shouldn’t be afraid of using commercial tricks in the arrangement and mix. They need to get the vocal line itching in people’s brain with some sort of vocal fanfare leading the listeners into the lolloping groove.
It’s a great idea to go from looping riffs to live guitars, as they have done half way trough here, but they should maybe announce the change with a squelchy synth breakdown plus vocal hook (the synths on the recording are good, but they’re not getting any space). They could extend the track a bit and have fun with the final mixdown, splicing several bits from live passes together, reggae-style.
ENGINEERING
The vocal should be louder and more compressed to make it sit better in the mix. Ideally it needs a lower threshold and a faster release time. Then the “Wooh” backing vocals can be really compressed with a slower release. Another area that needs attention on the breakbeat-led track like this is the same sound. It should be a warm indie –sounding “thock”. If this isn’t achievable with their recording setup, they should find a great hip hop snare on a record and overdub it, leaving the live kit sound to do the fills. Lo-Fi recording suits this kind of material, so its all about audio experimentation, not expensive kit. They mention a PC in their details – if they’re working with a limited setup they should look for some good plug-ins.
QuadraFuzz 1.0 and +decimate would be good on the guitars, while old favorites North Pole and D Pole filter would work well on the drums or even the whole mix. We’re Mac users, so we’re not sure of the plugs available for PC’s, although our PC mate recommends the BJ, low fi to dirty things up. Eureka Son should try things like switching to a whole different set of effects, or drying the mix out completely to define the different sections and breakdowns. This will give it drama and dynamics, which it lacks.
The whole mix could also be through a mastering plug-in, such as the Lexiconcompress, Prosonic Dynasone, or even Magneto. These have pretty good presets and are easy to use.
INSTRUMENTATION
There are plenty of good guitar riffs and the accordion-type sound are original, but you do have to be ruthless and distil them to a couple of the best riffs… there are two many going on here. The band should be creating and using even more unexpected sound sources and embedding them subtly around the real drums. A track like this needs almost psychedelic sonic depth that stills sounds completely effortless and fresh.
OVERALL
We like the recording and it’s the sort of track we’d play or license for a compilation if it was extended and dubbed out a little. If there’s a budding producer amongst them, they should invest in a good set of speakers to help improve the mix sounds. Our mixes have improved since we bought some Dynaudio monitors. Also, Carole King taught us about “fist of love” that needs to be wielded in the studio; someone has to say what stays and what goes, while giving each band member room to shine.
