Would LOVE some feedback on this mix.

[Powerpop451]

Hello all, so I am turning to you folks, who are much wiser than I am at this mixing stuff, to help me figure out what is going on with my mixes here. I am recording my indie rock/pop band and our second, 5 song EP.

If all goes well with this first post, I would love to hear feedback on more songs that will be on the EP.

The first song, I will just title: "WKP_Song #1"

Anyway, to my ears the bass is not cutting through well outside of my studio monitors (such as car speakers, etc.) The piano is muffled when the full instrumentation comes in and I am sure this is a masking issue and could be resolved by frequency slotting but I have not found the magic combination yet. I also feel the drums could maybe cut through the mix a bit better and overall the mix would be less muddy.

Oh yeah and there is a room mic I have in low, panned to the left that I need to take out because all it is really doing is picking up the picking on the electric guitar. It's not really adding much other than that so that is coming out, but it is still in this mix for now.

See what you guys think. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thanks!
Mark

[RAMI]

I meditated for an hour and was still unable to will your song out of the astral plane. You might want to provide a link.

[Powerpop451]

Originally Posted by RAMI

I meditated for an hour and was still unable to will your song out of the astral plane. You might want to provide a link.

Yeah I know, Not sure what happened there but it is not allowing me to post a link here until I post at least 5 posts. Kind of odd but I guess I will post a few more replies so I can get this song up.

Sorry about that. I am looking forward to your feedback.
Thanks!
Mark

[RAMI]

Keep posting. You've got 3 more to go.

So, how's the weather where you are????

[Powerpop451]

Originally Posted by RAMI

Keep posting. You've got 3 more to go.

So, how's the weather where you are????

haha, right on! The weather here is just lovely now. Although quite cold and windy.

[Powerpop451]

Originally Posted by Powerpop451

haha, right on! The weather here is just lovely now. Although quite cold and windy.

Oh yeah and we had a lot of rain yesterday. There that should do it now maybe I can post this song and if not i will not just go critique someone's song so they will do the same and then I should be able to post my mix.

Here goes...

[Powerpop451]

Please have a listen and let me know what you hear that is wrong and/or right with this mix.

http://www.weknowplato.com/mp3/WKP_Song%20%231.mp3

Thanks!

[bagpipe]

The whole mix sounds a little ... umm ... indistinct? It sounds like a good song, and the singers voice sounds good, but the guitars/piano/acoustic guitar just sounds a little muddied and blended together? I'm new to this so I dont really have any suggestions on how to remedy this?

[RAMI]

Originally Posted by bagpipe

The whole mix sounds a little ... umm ... indistinct? It sounds like a good song, and the singers voice sounds good, but the guitars/piano/acoustic guitar just sounds a little muddied and blended together?

I agree with this. It's a very nice song, and good voice. Nothing sounds bad by any means, just needs some separation.

[Powerpop451]

Originally Posted by RAMI

I agree with this. It's a very nice song, and good voice. Nothing sounds bad by any means, just needs some separation.

Thanks yeah I feel that too, any suggestions though. where to start. I knew something was wrong here. So if anyone has a direction to point me in that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the feedback.

[omalleydp]

Originally Posted by Powerpop451

Yeah I know, Not sure what happened there but it is not allowing me to post a link here until I post at least 5 posts. Kind of odd but I guess I will post a few more replies so I can get this song up.

Sorry about that. I am looking forward to your feedback.
Thanks!
Mark

I have the same problem, so here is post #1

[TeyshaBlue]

Very cool tune....the mix needs alot of work so let's get started.

Overall: This tune has alot of dreamy, amibient elements to it. The pads are pretty wide, which they need to be. The piano, by contrast, sounded like it was mic with a pzm at 6 ft! Not good. Very thin and distant. You really need it to have more presence to offset the synth pads in the background.

The drums have very little definition as well. The kick is basically ok...muffled a bit, but in much better shape than the snare. If you have the opportunity to just isolate the drum tracks, work on that snare and kick sound. They need to be able to anchor this mix and pull things into the middle.

Vocals seem well tracked but seem to be battling the mix for space around 800hz or so. You might look at some subtractive eq on the other tracks in this area to see if the vox pokes out a bit more. It's almost there.

The whole mix needs some help at around 8k to bring a little life into it. I did a little boosting at 4, 7.5 and 10k. Made alot of difference...especially in the piano intro. There's quite a bit of opportunity for some meaningful dynamic contrast, but everything seems to be compressed to more or less the same level.

The whole mix sounds like it was mixed on headphones. Not trying to be a smartass, but was it?
Very nice tune....but the mix is lifeless and indistinct. It's got a ton of potential and I really dig the arrangement as well.

[Powerpop451]

Originally Posted by TeyshaBlue

Very cool tune....the mix needs alot of work so let's get started.

Overall: This tune has alot of dreamy, amibient elements to it. The pads are pretty wide, which they need to be. The piano, by contrast, sounded like it was mic with a pzm at 6 ft! Not good. Very thin and distant. You really need it to have more presence to offset the synth pads in the background.

The drums have very little definition as well. The kick is basically ok...muffled a bit, but in much better shape than the snare. If you have the opportunity to just isolate the drum tracks, work on that snare and kick sound. They need to be able to anchor this mix and pull things into the middle.

Vocals seem well tracked but seem to be battling the mix for space around 800hz or so. You might look at some subtractive eq on the other tracks in this area to see if the vox pokes out a bit more. It's almost there.

The whole mix needs some help at around 8k to bring a little life into it. I did a little boosting at 4, 7.5 and 10k. Made alot of difference...especially in the piano intro. There's quite a bit of opportunity for some meaningful dynamic contrast, but everything seems to be compressed to more or less the same level.

The whole mix sounds like it was mixed on headphones. Not trying to be a smartass, but was it?
Very nice tune....but the mix is lifeless and indistinct. It's got a ton of potential and I really dig the arrangement as well.

Hey Tey!

This has been very valuable info. I was hoping for a lot more info of this nature. I guess my mix is so messed up no one wants to go too into detail about what needs t o happen to fix it.

Ok so let's start with the drums. Basically the drums and piano are EQ'd like mad. They sounded so bad (to my ears) to start with, plus the fact that I don't know what I am really doing to clear out a track so they fit better in the mix, I just keep adding and subtracting and I am sure that is not helping the mix. What I guess i could do to maybe give you all a clearer picture of what I am dealing with is post a basic mix with just panning and volume adjustments. Take out all the EQ, Compression, and plug-ins and then maybe you can help guide me a bit better. I thought I knew what I was doing and was almost done with the song, but it turns out I might have to start all over and mix it again from the start.

Anyway, about the piano, it's an upright piano mic'd from the top with two different condenser mic's. Unfortunately due to low funds they are not the same mic. on the low end of the piano about 5 to 8 inches from the strings is a cheap CAD M177 and on the high end of the strings is a AT4033. It was in a church so a lot of the natural reverb is probably getting into the mic a bit somehow too.

As for the vocals, I have been told that they are too quiet. I didn't really think they were I thought they were pretty much where they need to be if not a bit too loud in places. haha but yeah that is good advice I will try that. 800hz suggestion.

Yeah I guess I could do that frequency boosting on the overall mix like you did or just leave it to the mastering engineer to do, but I would like to be able to fix it in the mix and not rely on mastering to try to fix the mix. As for everything being compressed to more or less the same level, I am not sure what I can do to fix that, any suggestions?

Man, I so thought I was a little more ahead of the game than I guess I actually am. I guess I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn.

As for mixing, I rarely ever mix on headphones. I am using KRK V4 monitors. So again, I guess that proves I am even more in need of knowledge to be a better mixer.

Thanks for your advice and I am definitely going to try it all out. Please feel free to help me out with any other suggestions, tips and words of wisdom. I greatly appreciate it all.

In the meantime I am going to post a link to the "basic" mix with no EQ or compression or effects other than what was put down when tracking.

Thanks again!

[Powerpop451]

Here is the mix in it's most basic form, with just panning and levels. No compression, no EQ, no plugin or outboard effects.

Maybe this will be easier to get to the root of the problem.

http://www.weknowplato.com/mp3/WKP_S...RAW%20mix).mp3

Thanks!

[NL5]

Yeah, as TB pointed out, there is a LOT of room for improvement. You have a pretty serious low mid - mid buildup. I'd say 250-800hz is pretty full. Take his suggestions and post another link. Also, I'd lay of the EQ unless you KNOW it needs it and why. Wildly EQ'ing tends to just make a mess.

[Powerpop451]

Originally Posted by NL5

Yeah, as TB pointed out, there is a LOT of room for improvement. You have a pretty serious low mid - mid buildup. I'd say 250-800hz is pretty full. Take his suggestions and post another link. Also, I'd lay of the EQ unless you KNOW it needs it and why. Wildly EQ'ing tends to just make a mess.

thanks for the tip. So from the stripped down basic mix I just posted I would say the piano and Drums are in definite need of EQ. Wouldn't you? I will just take that basic mix and start over and try the suggestions and try to do very little EQing except to get rid of some mids-lows. in places. I guess what instruments would be good to keep the mids. Kid drums, snare and bass I assume would be places t o remove mids, correct? Then vocals and guitars you want some mids, right?

What about the piano? any ideas? sorry if I am asking all these questions which I feel should be basic knowledge and what i thought I had a grasp on.

[TeyshaBlue]

Originally Posted by Powerpop451

thanks for the tip. So from the stripped down basic mix I just posted I would say the piano and Drums are in definite need of EQ. Wouldn't you? I will just take that basic mix and start over and try the suggestions and try to do very little EQing except to get rid of some mids-lows. in places. I guess what instruments would be good to keep the mids. Kid drums, snare and bass I assume would be places t o remove mids, correct? Then vocals and guitars you want some mids, right?

What about the piano? any ideas? sorry if I am asking all these questions which I feel should be basic knowledge and what i thought I had a grasp on.

I'm traveling right now. I'll give this another listen when I get home tonight.