Hi all, happy new year.
I have put a bit of a mix together of our latest song. Vocals are still to be completed but I have dropped some in to hear how it sounds. My monitors are awful (I have some better ones coming next week) but I’d appreciate any critical feedback about the merits or otherwise of this mix. I have my own suspicions but would like some extra sets of ears.
http://www.fileden.com/files…omp.mp3
This is MP3 but probably OK for general feedback. My basic goal is to get something good enough to send to get mastered, and give the engineer enough to work with so as to produce something radio / professional sounding.
We are doing vocals complete in a couple of weeks and I will spend some time working on them and think I can get them pretty good, but this example gives an idea of how her vocals currently sit in the song.
I guess the vibe we are going for is Motley Crue with a girly singer… probably not a great example LOL Say Moltley Crue crossed with Avril Lavigne.
Incidently, this is all ntrack and has had the ntrack multiband eq 6db master plugin applied to the mix. Should I really be posting an uncompressed mix??
ugh - double post. how do i delete?
woah that bad eh? 
listening to it again i think maybe needs more snare and the vocals have some sort of peaky annoying frequency there that needs to be cut. solo is too loud.
also, whilst i can hear everything, bass seems tight, guitars gainy but still crunchy and big sounding, kick is there, as is a feature with most if not all of my efforts is that there isnt’ the definition in the parts that you hear on commercial tracks. that is they fight for frequency a little bit. this has always had me beat and I’m not great with a parametric eq and “follow your ears” type tweaking. i am thinking of skewing the vocals to one side in the mix a bit, and making an equal and opposite move in the guitar parts to the other side so they get more “room” in the mix. at the moment the vocals are centre and there are two guitars ~80% left and right.
my new monitors should be here this week and hopefully i can hear the mix more deeply and importantly trust what I’m hearing. at the moment i have a $50 set of PC speakers and I think they are bright, and my phones seems really bassy in comparison, but i cant tell which is telling me the truth!!
I like this.
Mix-wise I’d say (personal preference) ramp up the bass a little somehow…maybe a 120kHz peak (I think…off the top of my head ) to emphasize ‘pluck’.
Apart from that it sounds very professional.
Well done!!
now when i listen in my earbud phones i get an yet another different impression! my new monitors are with the courier but are not arrived yet. better be today or i will be pissed. i am dying to finish this track!!
hey guys, here’s the first complete mix of the song. any obvious improvements i can do before sending to get mastered? will mastering make much difference on a mix like this?
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/8/25/1379313//gtarmix4_comp.mp3
Cheers
Sounds great on cans. Sorry to hit you with this, Monsta, and maybe it’s just me? but just over a 1/4 way in, there’s a little blip. Doesn’t sound like a drum - maybe a dodgy edit. Sleeves up, dive in.
I like it!
The instruments & vocals are very distinct.
My only suggestion is that if I were mixing it, I might try to put a little more emphasis on the entire bottom end.
I also might add some punch to the snare.
Other than that, I think it’s pretty darn good.
very good
Sounds great on cans. Sorry to hit you with this, Monsta, and maybe it's just me? but just over a 1/4 way in, there's a little blip. Doesn't sound like a drum - maybe a dodgy edit. Sleeves up, dive in.
ha ha yeah, maybe you're talking about at 1:12 ish?
That is a tom trigger (we triggered drums in drumagog but it was played on a real kit - just don't have good drum mics) and its entirely possible its a false trigger. I will let my drummer decide - if she hit it she may want to keep it otherwise it'll go.
Well picked up.
Also re. sounds good in cans - I did a bit of mixing in my headphones and on my new monitors. I am a little worried it sounds better in cans than monitors / speakers. my mixing room isn't treated and i'm putting it down to that...
I like it!
The instruments & vocals are very distinct.
My only suggestion is that if I were mixing it, I might try to put a little more emphasis on the entire bottom end.
I also might add some punch to the snare.
Other than that, I think it's pretty darn good.
This. I have had a few comments about the bass end and I think it needs some work. I will play with it but if we get it mastered I will speak with the engineer about this and he may have a better handle on eqing the final mix. I did boost some frequencies in the drums to bring out the snare but I know what you're saying, might be better with more crack in it.
Sounds great on cans. Sorry to hit you with this, Monsta, and maybe it's just me? but just over a 1/4 way in, there's a little blip. Doesn't sound like a drum - maybe a dodgy edit. Sleeves up, dive in.
ha ha yeah, maybe you're talking about at 1:12 ish?
That is a tom trigger (we triggered drums in drumagog but it was played on a real kit - just don't have good drum mics) and its entirely possible its a false trigger. I will let my drummer decide - if she hit it she may want to keep it otherwise it'll go.
Well picked up.
Also re. sounds good in cans - I did a bit of mixing in my headphones and on my new monitors. I am a little worried it sounds better in cans than monitors / speakers. my mixing room isn't treated and i'm putting it down to that...
This track is worthy of perfectionisationment.
I've checked it on an Lappy with chunky JBLs, a pair of Beyerdynamic DT100s out of an ECHO MIA card and Wharfsale Diamonds out of an old Hitachi workhorse.
I don't want to worry you but that blip might also be the point at which a microscopic shift in beat/synch occurs. Halt the trip to the mastering studio;-)
...and he may have a better handle on eqing the final mix