FIRE FLIES - mix help (Stoner, Grunge, Metal)

BCF1

Member
Been workin on this track for awhile, trying to dial up the right tones and all that.
Haven't quite got to where I want to be yet, but while mucking around with this stuff I feel like I lost some of the original energy.
How does this happen from EQ changes ?

Critique, thoughts or ideas on any aspect of the track and/or the mix welcome

UPDATED THE TRACK ON REVERBNATION - NEW MIX

FIRE FLIES by WrisTLocK | ReverbNation

Tweaked the mix some:

 
Last edited:
Hi there,

I am far from an expert, but I will give you my mix critique:

- I find the mix too bright - the low end is missing. I would try looking at either the instrument buss EQ or the mix level of kick and bass.
- Similarly, the guitar tone is quite good but could do with some more low end - like 200-800Hz. I would try some broad EQ bumps in the low end.
- The cymbals seem too present to me - I would look at backing off the OHs in the mix or compressing them a touch more
- I find the drums are missing some energy. I would try clipping the snare and tom drums with JST Clip, TRacks Classic clipper or L1 or L2 from Waves. Also try more parallel compression. You can also try adding some tape or other saturation to the snare.
- I would also try to Waves Neve or Slate Virtual Console on the drums to give more energy.
- For the bass, I would try also adding some more energy and excitement - like RBass, Max Bass or some parallel bass tracks treating each separately.

That said, it is a good mix. Some of my mixes are not at this level and have similar issues. I also am not sure what plugins you have access to.

Hope this helps.
 
Hi there,

I am far from an expert, but I will give you my mix critique:

- I find the mix too bright - the low end is missing. I would try looking at either the instrument buss EQ or the mix level of kick and bass.
- Similarly, the guitar tone is quite good but could do with some more low end - like 200-800Hz. I would try some broad EQ bumps in the low end.
- The cymbals seem too present to me - I would look at backing off the OHs in the mix or compressing them a touch more
- I find the drums are missing some energy. I would try clipping the snare and tom drums with JST Clip, TRacks Classic clipper or L1 or L2 from Waves. Also try more parallel compression. You can also try adding some tape or other saturation to the snare.
- I would also try to Waves Neve or Slate Virtual Console on the drums to give more energy.
- For the bass, I would try also adding some more energy and excitement - like RBass, Max Bass or some parallel bass tracks treating each separately.

That said, it is a good mix. Some of my mixes are not at this level and have similar issues. I also am not sure what plugins you have access to.

Hope this helps.


Hey thanks for the detailed comments jonlint. You touched on a lot of things and I'm in agreement with most of them, a few things plugin wise I will have to research as I'm unfamiliar with the plugins themselves and their usage. Got a lot to dive into and explore. Thanks again bro.

(BTW I heard your recent track on SC and that one is sounding pretty freaking good my friend !! Well done !!)
 
Hi there,

I am far from an expert, but I will give you my mix critique:

- I find the mix too bright - the low end is missing. I would try looking at either the instrument buss EQ or the mix level of kick and bass.
- Similarly, the guitar tone is quite good but could do with some more low end - like 200-800Hz. I would try some broad EQ bumps in the low end.
- The cymbals seem too present to me - I would look at backing off the OHs in the mix or compressing them a touch more
- I find the drums are missing some energy. I would try clipping the snare and tom drums with JST Clip, TRacks Classic clipper or L1 or L2 from Waves. Also try more parallel compression. You can also try adding some tape or other saturation to the snare.
- I would also try to Waves Neve or Slate Virtual Console on the drums to give more energy.
- For the bass, I would try also adding some more energy and excitement - like RBass, Max Bass or some parallel bass tracks treating each separately.

That said, it is a good mix. Some of my mixes are not at this level and have similar issues. I also am not sure what plugins you have access to.

Hope this helps.

I wouldn't do any of that. I would go back to the original mix and leave everything flat, EQ-wise, and see how that sounds. Something, somewhere is way too bright. It might be the overheads, it might be the guitars. You should get a good, decent mix going by just setting levels and panning. If you have any top boosts, remove them. It's bordering on ear-piercingly bright....
 
I wouldn't do any of that. I would go back to the original mix and leave everything flat, EQ-wise, and see how that sounds. Something, somewhere is way too bright. It might be the overheads, it might be the guitars. You should get a good, decent mix going by just setting levels and panning. If you have any top boosts, remove them. It's bordering on ear-piercingly bright....

I think the majority of the brightness harsh or otherwise is coming from my pseudo mastering attempt.
 
I wouldn't do any of that. I would go back to the original mix and leave everything flat, EQ-wise, and see how that sounds. Something, somewhere is way too bright. It might be the overheads, it might be the guitars. You should get a good, decent mix going by just setting levels and panning. If you have any top boosts, remove them. It's bordering on ear-piercingly bright....

Right. You generally want to use subtractive EQ before additive. If the instrument just doesn't have the frequencies you need, cranking them up is only gonna create noise.

It is very present in the high end. Lots of swish and shrillness; not enough boom.
 
I think the cymbals are causing the biggest high end problem. But there is a bit of high end hype in the vocal too.

The guitars are covering the vocal a bit. Pretty good metal tone on the rhythm guits.

The low end is a bit weak - both the bass and the kick.

The snare doesn't have a lot of power - it's kind of thwappy.

The vocal has a bunch of reverb that the rest of the tracks dont have.
 
Very good guitar playing.

Vocals sound a little thin - all presence. Could use some more fullness and boom IMO. Experiment with adding low end frequencies in the 120 - 250 Hz area.

Other than the rhythm guitar it seems to lack low end. The drums should have more thump to them. As is, they don't match the power of the guitar.

Hope this helps!
 
I think the cymbals are causing the biggest high end problem. But there is a bit of high end hype in the vocal too.

The guitars are covering the vocal a bit. Pretty good metal tone on the rhythm guits.

The low end is a bit weak - both the bass and the kick.

The snare doesn't have a lot of power - it's kind of thwappy.

The vocal has a bunch of reverb that the rest of the tracks dont have.

Well said, 3M. That's exactly what I hear.
 
I think the cymbals are causing the biggest high end problem. But there is a bit of high end hype in the vocal too.

The guitars are covering the vocal a bit. Pretty good metal tone on the rhythm guits.

The low end is a bit weak - both the bass and the kick.

The snare doesn't have a lot of power - it's kind of thwappy.

The vocal has a bunch of reverb that the rest of the tracks dont have.


Thanks for the critique

NEW MIX

FIRE FLIES by WrisTLocK | ReverbNation

I think I fixed some of the above mentioned issues : )
possibly created new ones : (

THOUGHTS PLEASE.........THANKS
 
Great tune!
Really good guitar work man.
To me the mix sounds thin and shrill. It lacks warmth and bottom end. Also, the drums are very low in the mix.
I listened to the mix posted in the opening post
 
Yeah thats better, but there are some really harsh frequencies in the high end...probably around 5 to 6k that need taming. What are you listening to the mix on?

I'm listening on krk rp-5's which aren't positioned well in an untreated room. I used a psp preset for a pseudo master and I believe it had some high end boost right in the range you mentioned 5k-8k maybe. Going to revisit mix tonight. Thanks jimi
 
That's a definite improvement. Lots of the harsh low end is cleaned up.

There's still some tho. I think the best way to address that is actually a de-esser on the vocals (early in the chain, before it hits the delay)
 
I like the tune, tight and heavy sounding. Something about the vocal effect bothers me-like i'm hearing a short delay that seems to work against the vocal(right speaker?). Excellent guitar playing, the tone sounds big, not a very dynamic tone but sounds appropriate. Bass guitar seems under represented like if you said there was none i would believe you until that breakdown...It would be the bass and drums that would make this riff sound really huge in a live context. With the criticisms though i think this rocks and your tune is coming across just fine.
 
The new mix gels very well, especially compared to the first mix which sounded like it was going through a blender. I would keep mix 2. nicely done.
 
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