Is there something Wrong with the Way I Mix?

Battlegun

Battlegun

New member
Hello all. I just wanted to get the advice from those more experienced in mixing on how my mixes sound. Below is one of my most recent compositions. I've read and watched plenty of material on how to properly mix, but I still don't feel like my songs are as "up-front" as they should be. I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.

 
Seems a little one dimensional and also "peaky". The dynamics of several of the synths seem to be filling up so much sonic space that its affecting the entire mix. I would do some leveling/compression of the non central/lead elements and maybe some different verbs or short delays to move them more to the rear of the sound stage
 
Nice Composition , I agree with Gtoboy , it seems crowded , could benefit from more definition of the separate elements , The bass seems to be hiding a bit too much . Keep at it , you are working with a nice piece of music , it will come .
 
I'd echo the comments about some 'peaky' parts and hidden bass elements. It's crisp and clear to my ears. The video that helped me the most was this one from Graham (Recording Revolution): YouTube

I took that a step further and did the process he recommends at every section of the song and made notes about the levels I was setting so I could automate it when I was ready. Helped me get a really good clean mix. I know what you mean by missing this "up front" type of sound, I'm still not happy completely, but his method helped me at least get to a new level of skill with mixing.

Great composition on the song, it sounds really good.
 
There is an acoustic guitar that is very heavy in the low end. In fact it's pretty heavy from maybe 70hz through maybe 400hz. But it has no presence. It doesn't have much energy above 4K or so. That's where an acoustic guitar gets its sound and can stand out in a mix. So that acoustic guitar is getting muddled in with the rest of the instruments.

There is a low end rumble throughout a lot of the song. A lot of it comes from the bass, but there are other instruments contributing as well. To me that doesn't serve a song like this well.

There may be spots where compositionally there are too many busy parts that are competing with each other.
 
Thanks for all the replies. So when you say that there are too many "busy" parts in the song, how would I fix this without removing instruments (or is that what I should do)?
 
I would guess that by busy TripleM means competing. Maybe feature one instrument at a time by cutting a frequency space for first one instrument than return it to normal while you cut the same on another and/or mute/unmute parts to create movement and allow more focus to each part
 
There is not much definition to the bass part. TripleM's comment on the acoustic guitar is valid, the only high end to it seems to be the string squeaks. During the 'wind part' at 3:00 the instruments are very muddy/indistinct, then there is competition between all the various parts after that.
 
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