Advice on my Progressive Metal/Djent mix

C

constantthought

New member
Any tips on how to tweak this track I have been working on for a better end result/more professional mix?

View attachment Test Projekt.mp3

Also, one question, on the part after the chorus I have one double tracked guitar with a -25 pan L and a 25 pan R and another guitar playing a rhythm part just on center and i can hear it "phase" if that makes any sense? Just after 2 mins 30ish. Any ideas? I've tried altering there frequencies through a vst but that didn't achieve much and to be honest I hadn't a clue what i was doing by altering the frequency and I still don't really haha.
What even is the difference between mixing and mastering? like what kind of quality mix am i expected to send of to be mastered to guarantee a worthwhile result?
//bombardment of questions over :p

Anyway. I would appreciate the advice as I am planing on making my EP as soon as I develop the skills and knowledge to record it up to caliber.

Ciaaaaaaaaaoooooo
Joshwa
 
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101 people have clicked onto this post but only 2 people have listened to the track? come on guys it only takes a few minutes to give it a listen and say your thoughts
 
Mixing-Engineers-Handbook

That may be a worthwhile book to pick up. If you ever get into recording live, there is also a recording eng handbook. It's a good place to start. You can also search google for what frequencies effect what instruments and how they react. There are certain "magic" frequencies for each instrument and how they play well with others.

For your rhythm hi gain guitar try really spreading them out. Go all the way left 100% and all the way right 100%. Make sure you record 2 separate tracks too for double tracking so it doesn't just sound like a loud mono signal. Cool sounding jam though.
 
Well, its painfully long to start with and the arrangment is a mess. I liked the kick sound but it was too loud imo. There was alot going on guitar wise. I didnt hear anything that sounded terrible, just not right. I need to listen again. Someone will be able to give you better advice than i can about your mix, just be paitent.
 
Thanks for the replies, and I'll see if I can pick up that book next payday. I am a complete amateur to mixing atm and there is only so much you can achieve by guess work so I think this will help.

With regards to the actual song this is just a rough layout of riffs atm with no real structure yet. It is just purely the guitar and drums so it may sound a little empty or uninspired currently but eventually when I have sorted out my guitar tone it will start to get interesting. I have been working on a few things tone wise for a few days now and it is sounding a little better but I am thinking of investing in a USB audio interface to clean up my guitar tone a bit. Atleast I assume this will happen, I am unsure if it will actually improve the sound quality that much over using my mid-range sound cards line in.

Here is the update of just the beginning of the track with bass to help level out the over all tone.
View attachment Tone test 2.mp3
Bass may be a little low actually listening to it now but I can fix that later. Let me know if I am heading in the right direction at all.
Thanks
 
i love the guitar riffs at the beginning, as others have said the drums mix is a bit all over the place but i can appreciate the talent here - sounds like some latter day Dream Theater (after Six Degrees era) with some of the riffs

by the way love the part around 2m 50 with cleanish guitars start to come in
 
Thanks innerdream, I'm going to work on the drum mix tonight and hopefully get a reasonable tone across the board. I doubt this track will make it onto the EP as it is just a collection of riffs to test my tone/mix but if i can develop and refine it then it may. It was only written and recorded in an eve so it is pretty basic atm.

So does anyone have any specific technical advice at all to help clean things up a tad before I mess about with it? The next step is to sort out the drums and clean up my guitar tone so any input on how to go about that would be great

ta!
 
constantthought said:
101 people have clicked onto this post but only 2 people have listened to the track? come on guys it only takes a few minutes to give it a listen and say your thoughts
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that a lot of those people are guests that click onto posts, and that they don't have access to click on the links.
 
I thought the guitar playing was good.

I thought the drums were a bit too busy. They're flying all over the place. Placed against the crazy guitar playing, there's just too much competition for the spotlight.

I thought the gutiars dominated the bass. Was there even a bass in there?

When the keys come in there's a real midrange buildup from like 500hz to maybe 2000hz.
 
Thanks dude, in the op the bass wasn't there no but I am adding it now once my computer lets me (cpu problems guuuuhh). With regards to the other parts it is all just a tone test really so I have something stable to work with in the future, so most of this will not go any further than just being a test track.
I know the part you mean with the keys build up so I will try and even that out. Its actually still guitar just with a shed load of reverb.

Now lets see what can happen today
 
Would have preferred a sound cloud link. I think people are much more apt to listen to your clip if they didn't have to download it.

That said, kick needs to be tighter for this genre and by tighter I mean you picked a pretty round kick sound when IMO you should have gone with something punchy and clicky.

Snare gets ducked a lot by the guitars. Even with low tuned guitars like this, a roll off at 80-100Hz would help, especially if you ever add a bass to the mix.

Don't like the all drums programmed at 127 sound as well and there is to much room mic mixed in.
 
I think its good. It needs vocals, I realize its just a test, but its too long, you're going to lose alot of people halfway through. You definitely have some talent, now its time to edit. I'm listening on bad laptop speakers but I dont think the mix sounds too bad, just need to clean up some of the mud. Just keep working on your mixing technique, you'll find the mixes get a little better everytime
 
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