Rate my mix

Angelapsis

New member
I'm producing my band EP and It's my first time doing it, would you give me any advice on this mix? What sounds good, what sounds bad, clarity, mud, rumble, is it too much reverb, bad panning, too much volume on bass, drums, guitars, bad eq, bad comp?? I'm producing with a pair of sennheiser hd 558 headphonesView attachment Enemies.mp3
 
Were there supposed to be vocals? If so you should get them in there. That crash cymbal that rings non-stop during the heavy parts is really annoying. It's just a layer of noise that adds nothing musically.
 
still no vocals recorded just the backing track, do you mean it's very loud, or very harsh?

---------- Update ----------

there's the mp3, it's not uploaded as a stream :(
 
It is pointless to spend time worrying about mixing a song that has not yet been tracked. When you add the vocal, you will have to remix anyway.
 
I know but we needed the backing track for our promotion video :(

---------- Update ----------

what mics, pre-amps, interface, daw?

1. click track
2. add some upper mids to bass (just a touch). cut low end to remove mushy rumble.
3. bring kick down and sweep eq to remove basketball sound
4. bring snare up a touch
5. cymbals are washy, might be due to mp3. they sit pretty good.

Thank you! I'll follow these steps
 
what mics, pre-amps, interface, daw?

1. click track
2. add some upper mids to bass (just a touch). cut low end to remove mushy rumble.
3. bring kick down and sweep eq to remove basketball sound
4. bring snare up a touch
5. cymbals are washy, might be due to mp3. they sit pretty good.

I used REAPER, shure sm-57 for the guitar, no preamps, focusrite scarlett solo
 
For the first couple seconds I thought you were doing a Quite Riot cover. Doesn't sound bad, just sounds very distant. Kick doesn't sound like a part of the rest of the kit. Unless your going with a live sound I would edit out the guitar noise between chords when everything drops out.
 
no preamps

You almost assuredly did. Your interface or board probably has pre-amps on each of the XLR channels.

+1 on going a bit easier on the crash. That's a simple way to reduce overall noise in the mix. With drums especially, the notes you don't play are among the most important.

Also, I completely disagree with kevinjr. Attaching an mp3 directly is a fine way to share your track. Remember to export as high-quality of an mp3 as you can tho.
 
You almost assuredly did. Your interface or board probably has pre-amps on each of the XLR channels.

+1 on going a bit easier on the crash. That's a simple way to reduce overall noise in the mix. With drums especially, the notes you don't play are among the most important.

Also, I completely disagree with kevinjr. Attaching an mp3 directly is a fine way to share your track. Remember to export as high-quality of an mp3 as you can tho.

Thanks! Also, happy new year.
Yeah I was referring to preamps like, no other extra preamps than the one built in the interface. Do you mean I should remix the overheads or just reduce the level?, Also, I have overdrive on bass, and I'm not very satisfied with the bass mix, I think I should bring up the overdrive or eq it, It is very compressed though. I go along with the guitar leads on the chorus with the bass and I can't really hear them, even though it's compressed I can't feel the bass on the high notes, any advice?
 
I thought the guitars sounded pretty good, especially in the quieter sections.

Overall the mix is missing high end frequencies and the cymbals are swirly. I wonder if this happened in the mp3 conversion.

The mix is also pretty narrow. The cymbals are the only thing I hear that's not down the center.

The low end is dominated by the kick. The kick is super loud and dominating the bass. I'd pull down the kick.
 
I thought the guitars sounded pretty good, especially in the quieter sections.

Overall the mix is missing high end frequencies and the cymbals are swirly. I wonder if this happened in the mp3 conversion.

The mix is also pretty narrow. The cymbals are the only thing I hear that's not down the center.

The low end is dominated by the kick. The kick is super loud and dominating the bass. I'd pull down the kick.

Thanks! actually the overheads are recorded in mono with a large condenser mic and it's panned center, I'm getting the stereo feel from reverb and toms. I also felt that too with the kick drum, maybe too much 2k because the click is very high, but I also believe it could be very high overall. It's kinda hard to listen to these things with regular headphones or with laptop speakers, but It's very clear when you say the details. Thanks!
 
it's difficult for me to comment on this tune without the vocals. I don't have anything to grab on to. Would like to hear when the song is done.
 
Here's the mix with the vocals, everything it's fully tracked. Thanks! I want to hear your critiques so I can mix it correctly.
 

Attachments

  • Enemies Mix.mp3
    8.2 MB · Views: 6
sounds really good to me, like the tune too.
if anything was to be tightened up is the drums but man...when people are listening and doing stuff they wont notice....engineer HR probably will more so. I like some punk too so its the real vibe versus mechanical perfection sometimes thats ok with some of us.

what commercial track did you use to reference?
 
sounds really good to me, like the tune too.
if anything was to be tightened up is the drums but man...when people are listening and doing stuff they wont notice....engineer HR probably will more so. I like some punk too so its the real vibe versus mechanical perfection sometimes thats ok with some of us.

what commercial track did you use to reference?

It's not commercial but I used Highly suspect - Mom for the clean parts, but not for the drums.
 
The song sounds interesting. Vocals sound good, guitars sound good. Your drummer is the weakest link. Since you have an independent overhead track, you might be able to do some manipulation to reduce the dominance of the crash cymbals. The other problem is his timing, especially on the kick drum. Some of those eighth note kicks are just fighting against the groove. If I were mixing this, I would get in there and do some detail editing to shift them into time. If you stick with this drummer, you need to work with him on timing, and get him to lay off those crash cymbals.
 
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