Spanglish Hip Hop/ Reggae anyone? Need Mix feedback!!

[Emphasis]

Hey guys, so here's my work in progress.

https://soundcloud.com/emcee-emphasis/dead-president-hip-hop-reggae

Some of my areas of concern:

Track feels a little Bass Heavy
I got the bass to cut through the mix. I feel like it sits nicely: It sounds good in my monitoring headphones, hi fi sound systems, and in my car. But rattles the hell out of these cheap, 99 cent store, headphones that I use to reference.

Not sure if I should bring the bass fader down a little bit, or add a low shelf, and cut some of the low end.


Guitar cutting through mix?
I feel like the guitar might be cutting through the mix a little bit too much. Especially in the chorus, where the trumpets are one of the lead instruments. I'm not completely sure though. Need a second opinion.

Vocals/ Reverb
Are the vocals too hot? They're not clipping. Just curious how others feel like they sit in the mix.

Also, I can feel that the vox need some reverb, but am afraid to burry the vox in the background if i add too much. I use logic pro, and would usually turn to a subtle 1/16th or 1/18th note delay to emulate room reflections. But i'm thinking about using space designer on this one. ANy pointers?

 

[TripleM]

I think the mix is bass heavy. Or at least there is a low end problem. One issue to me is the bass part itself. It's simply playing a quarter note on beats 1 and 3. Mostly anyway. I would do something a little more involved. The bass is a little boomy.

The guitar level sounds fine to me. To my ear, it's a little too lo-fi. Not enough lower end and not enough highs either.

I liked the vocal. It's dry, and it sounded good that way.

There sounded like a couple issues with tempo early in the song. Performances were a little loose in spots. Things tightened up after about 30 to 40 seconds.

 

[Emphasis]

TipleM, First of all, I wanna say thank you for taking the time to listen to and analyze my track!

I can definitely see what you mean about the bass needing to be a little more involved!
Part of the compositional issue is that it's all midi:
I blended 3 different bass interments, to get the tone that I wanted. It was kind of hard to get them to sit well together, even just on the 1's and 3's lol.

There's a synth/ sine wave in there, which I think might be the source of all/most of the boominess. I'm thinking about cutting that sine wave back in the mix and/or doing some parallel-gating on my Master Bass track to bring out the attack a little more, and counter act the boominess. Either that, or I'm going to have to overhaul the bass track all together.

The other problem I've had is that, unfortunately, I've been mixing with monitoring headphones. Which aren't as reliable as actual studio monitors. Especially for the low end. But It's my only option at the moment.


I'm very impressed that you noticed the guitar's thinness in the mix! I recessed the lower end to carve some room for my kick and bass. Also, to cut out some interments that were in the background during the original recording.
I also recessed the high end. I'm sure there were some issues in the high end too, but can't remember at them at the moment.

I'm definitely going to try to bring some lower and higher ends into the guitar parts now. Thanks again! I'm glad you noticed, otherwise, it would have completely passed me by

Yes! I like the vocals dry too. I'm not a huge fan or vocal reverb in general. Every time I make a song, that's usually the first suggestion that I get, "the vocals are too dry." If i do add some, it's going to be very subtle, just to please the reverb-heads.


I won't lie, the groove issues kind of slipped by me in the beginning of the track. (i've been focusing too much on the body). Is there specific instruments you feel like are a little bit off? I know the trumpet in the intro is a bit sloppy. And i think there might be a little bit of syncopation in the drums before the first verse.

 

[TripleM]

I would not be at all surprised if your guitar doesn't need any low end removed. Listen to be sure of course. But it might very well sit nicely with the bass without any processing at the low end.

Do some work and post a remix.

 

[heatmiser]

Hey...I really like the idea of this one. Love the intro.

As a confessed verb-head, I found the vocals to be too dry, but there you go...

To me, the timing seems too loose for something like this. Doesn't it seem as though the skank guitar part is always coming in just a tad late? That's what I'm hearing anyway...too far behind the beat...just a hair though. It's throwing off the groove for me. This has potential though and I like your vocals and lyrics.

 

[Emphasis]

@heatmiser Thanks for the feedback.

I'll definitely make sure to add a little bit of reverb to the vox.
Admittedly, I'm still getting used to adding room ambience with verb.

I'm very glad you noticed the guitar. I've become so desensitized from listening to this track so much, that the flaws are just starting to slip me by.
Now that you pointed it out, it does feel a little sluggish to me, especially on the second up strokes.


I'ma try to tighten things up and post a mix update soon.