Instrumental rock mix - feedback appreciated! (Satriani-esq stuff)

DrewPeterson7

DrewPeterson7

Sage of the Order
Ok, this is a project I've been working on FOREVER (literally - I've been tracking on and off since mid-2010, and the oldest songs were written and demo'd back in 2001 or so) that I wrapped up recording and sequencing drums a couple months ago and have finally gotten the mixes to the point where I'm comfortable showing them to people for feedback.

I'm posting this one because it's got a pretty good mix of different elements, so if there's a problem with something in this mix there's probably going to be a similar problem elsewhere because it's got a bit of everything - heavy guitars, muted and unmuted sections, acoustic rhythms, some background harmony stuff, etc.

[MP3]http://www.drewpeterson.org/04_Red_Skies.mp3[/MP3]

Any feedback appreciated - thanks in advance!

EDIT - updated mix, with a bit more from the high end bass track in the mix. Better?

[mp3]http://www.drewpeterson.org/Reaper.mp3[/mp3]
 
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Sounds very good. The drums sound very acceptable for being sequenced, nice guitar tones and playing. Maybe a bit light in the bass, I feel a bottom end but I don't hear a bass distinctly. Acoustics sound nice when they come in. How did you record guitar? mic'd up or amp sim? Real nice thick tone but not cheesy. I likey. Good job.

Strat
 
Thanks man - especially on the bass, as I've been struggling to get the right balance. The guitars are all real - my Mesa Roadster, quad-tracked (2x Schecter C7 Blackjack with a JB, through a Recto 2x12, and 2x Suhr Modern 7 with a 7+ bridge, into a 4x12, with the Suhr really driving the mix. The cab change was because I sold the 2x12 for a 4x12 while working on this. :laughings:) Ch4 Modern on the rhythms, and the leads were a Warmoth partscaster with a PAF Pro/Fred set through 3 Vintage and the 4x12, mic'd with a single SM57.

I've gotten similar feedback from a few others, that the low end is within the realm of taste for the genre but there's certainly room to increase it, so I'll probably raise the bass guitar a dB or so across the entire project before the next mixdown. Thanks!
 
Definitely needs more bass to me. Not low end in the mix, just more bass guitar. I'd like to hear it. Great job on the guitar tracks. I'm not personally a fan of this kind of guitar noodling buttrock but you did a real nice job of capturing thick yet clear overdriven guitar tones.
 
dobro said:
Drew, forgive the digression - but what's the player you're using for your mp3?
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I too am interested in this player, pretty neat.

Back on subject though, unlike Greg I am very much into this kind of vibe and am quite impressed by your work, (you impressed him with a metal track though and from what I've seen of his posting this is no easy accomplishment!). I was about to submit something I've been working on with a friend but this mix just sent me back to the woodshed. I have so much farther to go, *sigh*.

I'm with the group, bottom end is great, overall mix is very warm and inviting, the composition is top notch stuff. We just need to hear that bass guitar a little more, It's like it's there, but it's not if that makes any sense?
 
Haha yes, I do quite literally despise metal and/or guitar masturbation.

And I do believe that is the stock HomeRecording.com attachment player.
 
Thanks for the awesome feedback, guys! And I'm glad to hear most of you liked it and Greg not-hated it, which given the genre I definitely take as compliment, haha (how the hell are you, Greg? Haven't been around much, what'd I miss?)

Re: the bass... I've got two tracks to work with, cut with a Sansamp RPM pre. The first is an uneffected DI, low-passed around 250-300hz, highpassed around 50-55hz, with a limiter to take off some of the errant peaks and then heavy compression to squash it into shape. The second, the effected out, is set for a bit of grit from the preamp, high-passed around 600hz, with speaker emulation applied via an impulse and ReaVerb, and then both fed into a master bus with a low-pass around 2.4-2.7khz and a bit of a peak boost around 120hz, plus some moderately light compression, probably around 4:1. The Sansamp track is mixed back a bit, probably 4-6dB lower at the track level, and additionally was recorded a bit lower too, I believe, so all in the Sansamp is probably 8-10dB below the DI. This is all off memory, but that ought to be close.

So, I have a couple options to bring the bass up a bit - one, simply turn the bass bus up, which will make the bass louder while increasing the overall low end. Two, I could turn up the Sansamp track while leaving the DI where it is, which won't increase the low end but will give the bass more grit and attack in the mix. Three, I could do a combination of both. Four, I can still get pretty radical with fundamentally reshaping the tone by simply duplicating the DI bus and using that to incorporate a bit more high end and attack into the bass track, and I did experiment with copying the DI and then running it through the same chain as the Sansamp gritty track for a slightly cleaner bass tone but I went back to this ultimately.

Based on what you're hearing, what are your thoughts? Just turn the whole thing up evenly, or bring up the Sansamp track to give the bass some more brightness, grit, and punch while not impacting the "body" of the tone between 50-250hz? From what you're saying, either bringing up the Sansamp or duplicating the clean DI and adding that in as a second high end track may be the way to go...


EDIT - oh, and that's just the forum MP3 player. :)
EDIT #2 - by the way, the computer I recorded and mixed this on is on its last legs, the whole project is backed up and on my new iMac but I was using the Antress compressors a ton on this so I would need to remix it from the ground up on my Mac. It comes and goes and lately I'm on two straight days of not getting it to boot up, so I may be out of luck on doing another mix if nothing changes, lol.
 
Also, I have fairly detailed notes of the full tracking process of this album and may do a mixdown video if the computer holds out long enough, and I'd be happy to share it after I'm done if anyone wants.
 
Well, IF I can get my effing PC to boot again, I'll give it a go. :D

I'm pretty good, man... Took a hell of a chance by walking away from my old job last March, but I had a great summer (great ghost chilis, passed the second CFA in June, rode a 185 mile two day charity road biking fundraiser in August, and recorded most of the leads on this) and landed on my feet, working for a small asset management firm here in Boston which I love. My girlfriend and I split, but there's something about being 32 with a stable job that seems to make younger women find you irrisistable so it's been a pretty good run there too. And I started taking guitar lessons again recently, from a killer local player named Eric Clemenzi (unfortunately, after I wrapped up recording) so I feel like I'm making progress on that front as well. I tore my ACL skiing this spring, but if that's the worst thing I've got going then I don't have much to complain about.

Victory Pete finally check out? I haven't had the heart to stick my head in the Cave yet, so I have no clue. :laughings:
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Well, IF I can get my effing PC to boot again, I'll give it a go. :D

I'm pretty good, man... Took a hell of a chance by walking away from my old job last March, but I had a great summer (great ghost chilis, passed the second CFA in June, rode a 185 mile two day charity road biking fundraiser in August, and recorded most of the leads on this) and landed on my feet, working for a small asset management firm here in Boston which I love. My girlfriend and I split, but there's something about being 32 with a stable job that seems to make younger women find you irrisistable so it's been a pretty good run there too. And I started taking guitar lessons again recently, from a killer local player named Eric Clemenzi (unfortunately, after I wrapped up recording) so I feel like I'm making progress on that front as well. I tore my ACL skiing this spring, but if that's the worst thing I've got going then I don't have much to complain about.

Victory Pete finally check out? I haven't had the heart to stick my head in the Cave yet, so I have no clue. :laughings:
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Dude, don't go to the cave. It's an embarrassment of idiocy down there. Worse than ever. I'm not kidding. It's.....worse....than.....ever.

Sounds like you've had a full couple of years. Glad things are going well for you. The younger women finding you irresistible sounds like a pretty sweet deal! :D
 
I liked the guitar sounds. Playing was good.

The bass level was OK to me.

Maybe a little too much reverb on some of the lead parts.

I'm with Greg on the material. It's difficult to keep my interest with instrumentals in a typical pop format. Without lyrics, it's just the same thing over and over. To me anyway.
 
The women have not been without their perks, Greg. :D

Triple - zero reverb on the leads, actually (save for a little from the amp), that's a stereo delay. Though come to think of it, the lead harmony that comes in briefly on the second and 3rd times through the choruses might have some reverb... Any particular parts it seems too "wet"?
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Any particular parts it seems too "wet"?
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I wish that player displayed playing time - then I could be specific. But it was in the more shredding part in the second half of the song. Actually, I think that guitar is playing earlier in the song and probably has the same delay/reverb. It was just more noticeable to me when it was shredding. And it's all just a personal taste thing. I just tend to like things dryer than most people.
 
So, the guitar solo, most likely? The section that opens with a big pick scrape? And yeah, I wish the player displayed time too. :laughings:
 
Turn up the bass a little & find the frq that gives it definition and add a couple of dB to that & it'll be there bottom & top line.
Well recorded and played but not really my cup of nail clippings.
 
Ok, my PC decided to work last night, so I upped the brighter high end track a couple DB - as it turned out, it happened to be a bit quieter on this track than most of the rest of the album. I finished at like midnight last night and I had to be up by 6 so I just mixed it down to .wav and backed it up, but I'll get a new mix up here tonight. I also tossed a few fills into the tom beat on the intro riff to make it less repetitive.
 
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