First post, would love some criticism on my mix (all tracks recorded by me)

omonoiatis9

New member
Hey guys, newbie here. I recently heard a mix from a professional that sounded great so I started getting into this thing. I imported his mix in my DAW, and started tracking everything myself from scratch (drums programmed with superior drummer 2 however) trying to get as close as possible to the mix. Needless to say I'm probably light years away from that, so there's no reason to make a comparison. I'll just post my mix and would be nice to receive some criticism since I think that's the best way for anyone to improve.

Here it is

Thanks in advance
 
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I don't like this kind of music at all. That said, I couldn't pick out any faults in the mix.
 
Strongly agree with Kindafishy. Good mix, and it's definitely not someone just getting into it.
I like everything but the cymbals. Sounds more washy than "tingy." Like lacking some attack.
 
Thanks a lot guys. Honestly I haven't been at this for a while but that sounds like a great compliment and it's motivation for me to keep practising. This is the 4th mix I've ever worked on. The 3 others being my band's demo which I did a year ago, and I don't think they sounded great. I did spend a lot of time looking things/tutorials/terms up on the internet and a bunch of forums during that gap however. My account is old as fuck because apparently I made one 6 years ago (didn't even remember, figured out when I tried registering yesterday and it said the username was taken) asking a newbie question about Nuendo.

Sammydix, thanks for the criticism on the cymbals, I'll keep that in mind and try to work on them.

Also here's a few things I think about my mix, in case someone has something to add to that:

I believe the low end and foundation of the mix can be improved a lot still but I don't know what I'm missing. The kick does cut through the mix without being too loud and while the bass is distinguishable, I feel like it would blend a lot better with the guitars if it was a professional mix, making it feel more like an extension of the guitars themselves. I also think the mix is a bit too rich in the high's. I'm not sure if it's because of the cymbals solely, or if it's a combination of the cymbals and the guitar tone which might be slightly too bitey.
 
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Solid. Not usually a fan of that big reverb sound on the drums, but this sounds great...
Honestly, one nit: The cymbal on the left could come in just a bit. Gets distracting out there...for some reason the one panned hard right doesn't do that for me.
When are the vocals coming?
 
Solid. Not usually a fan of that big reverb sound on the drums, but this sounds great...
Honestly, one nit: The cymbal on the left could come in just a bit. Gets distracting out there...for some reason the one panned hard right doesn't do that for me.
When are the vocals coming?

Thanks BroKen_H. To be honest I didn't use any reverb on the drums at all, just the snare because I don't like it being too dry and want it to have some depth. I'll check the cymbals out the way you mentioned, thanks for the idea. As for the vocals, probably not any time soon. Not for this song at least. I can't do metal vocals for shit therefore for the time being the things I'll be recording are limited to instrumental covers, something original I might come up with (instrumental still) and I'll start adding vocals when I start recording for my band again.

Yeah so, I hate you. Have a nice day.

Kindafishy, I'm far from a person to give advice, BUT, if you are mixing metal (because that's the only genre I've ever done) I can help you out. I learned a lot of useful things on how to get a decent guitar tone (Record dry signal for example instead of the tone you like, gives you both the flexibility to change your sound as you go and also blend it with the mix better), I discovered an amazing plugin for bass and I figured out a way from a metal mixing tutorial on youtube to make superior drummer 2 sound more real. SD2 is a great program for drums that even pro's such as Periphery (Misha Mansoor) use, but the way the kits are in their default state kind of sucks, you need to mix the drums yourself. Which the tutorial helped me do.

The drums sound very triggered.

Hmmm.. Triggered? What do you mean? As in, they have too much attack? Because well, technically they are all just "triggers" since it's a VST instrument and not real mic'ed drums. But if you mean what I think you mean, I think the reason is that I used maximum velocity for nearly every hit throughout that song.. And that's a very bad habit that I have to start fixing.
 
What I mean is that it sounds like you're using a drum program. The cymbal hits all sound the same.

Do you have the "alternate" option turned on in the "humanize" section of Superior Drummer?
 
What I mean is that it sounds like you're using a drum program. The cymbal hits all sound the same.

Do you have the "alternate" option turned on in the "humanize" section of Superior Drummer?

...Alternate option? Didn't even know that existed until now, so the answer is probably not, unless it's turned on by default. I'll check that out, thanks for the tip.
 
Drums are definately not human.

The mix is quite good. You can hear everything perfectly. That being said, I think that is the actual problem of your mix.

In my humble opinion, of course.
 
If you touch this mix, that's when you'll have problems. This is really, really well mixed - sounds professional. Nice one man!

EDIT: I have to agree with some of the others, the drums sound pretty canned. To me, it mostly the cymbals that give it away.

TheLurker
 
I still laugh every time I see this post. Most people don't want criticism...
But really, there's not much to criticize. Mix in a real drummer or get better with the canned and you've got it, man.
 
I still laugh every time I see this post. Most people don't want criticism...
But really, there's not much to criticize. Mix in a real drummer or get better with the canned and you've got it, man.

Well, criticism is the only way to get better. That being said, why the laugh?

Also what do you mean exactly by "canned"? Is it a term that describes a frequency problem or is it just another word for programmed drums? 'Cause everyone in this thread mentioned issues with the drums and I agree, but I can't exactly pinpoint the essence of the problem. I'd be grateful for any pointers
 
I thought the playing was really good. Tight doubling. I may have caught one spot where it wasn't super tight. But generally real good.

I thought the guitar tone was real good. A bit amp-sim-y. Not a ton of chug to the tone. But still real good.

I'll never understand metal drums. It sounds good, but I'll just never get the machine-gun stuff. That's just me.

I think you could get away with nudging the bass up a db or three.

But overall a good job I'd say.
 
No, I just usually would think asking for help with a mix or feedback with a mix. By saying "Criticize my mix" you're just opening up for insults. It's just my brain.

Canned meaning "in the box" Yes, programmed. Usually when I'm programming drums, I get three or four snare samples that sound close but not exact. Put them in semi-random and alter the velocity to make it sound more "real". Same with hi-hats...when I play live, my left foot is constantly moving, never the same clutch (if you know what I mean). Especially cymbals benefit from this as they're quite out front and if you hear the same cymbal crash about three times in a row it starts to sink in that it's "canned". It takes a lot more work to do all that, but it usually comes out sounding really nice if you already know what good drums should sound like.
Same with guitar amp and cab sims. If you already know what you're doing when you mike a cab and set the tone and gains, you can make them sound decent. Good ears will still be able to tell, but 99.9% of your listeners aren't going to care if it's close.
 
No, I just usually would think asking for help with a mix or feedback with a mix. By saying "Criticize my mix" you're just opening up for insults. It's just my brain.

Canned meaning "in the box" Yes, programmed. Usually when I'm programming drums, I get three or four snare samples that sound close but not exact. Put them in semi-random and alter the velocity to make it sound more "real". Same with hi-hats...when I play live, my left foot is constantly moving, never the same clutch (if you know what I mean). Especially cymbals benefit from this as they're quite out front and if you hear the same cymbal crash about three times in a row it starts to sink in that it's "canned". It takes a lot more work to do all that, but it usually comes out sounding really nice if you already know what good drums should sound like.
Same with guitar amp and cab sims. If you already know what you're doing when you mike a cab and set the tone and gains, you can make them sound decent. Good ears will still be able to tell, but 99.9% of your listeners aren't going to care if it's close.

Maybe that was the wrong choice of words, but by "criticize" I'm implying constructive criticism, and everyone has been doing just that so I'm thankful for it.

Thanks for the clarification and the tips, I'll start experimenting more with it
 
Well, criticism is the only way to get better. That being said, why the laugh?

Also what do you mean exactly by "canned"? Is it a term that describes a frequency problem or is it just another word for programmed drums? 'Cause everyone in this thread mentioned issues with the drums and I agree, but I can't exactly pinpoint the essence of the problem. I'd be grateful for any pointers

I mentioned the cymbals... as well as someone else did. There is very little variation of sound in the cymbal hits - they all sound virtually the same... To me, even if the kick and snare are the same sounding hits, I can't really tell.

TheLurker
 
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