Any tips on mix track

[Saloje]

Hello guys and girls

I have this mix project for you to listen and share with me any suggestions and tips. The song is not finish yet as you can hear. I just need to force my wife to grant me her beautifull voice so i can blend it in. Any way , thx for your suggestions.

[MP3]View attachment A Change Is Gonna Come 1.mp3[/MP3]

 

[omonoiatis9]

I think the snare sounds a bit too snappy for this type of music. I would use this kind of snare for fast tempo metal to be honest. You could make its tail a bit longer, either through some reverb or just an entirely different snare sound. But that's just personal taste. Also in the beginning when there's a lot of consecutive ride hits, play around with the velocity settings and stuff to make them sound a bit more varied and give it more of a real drummer feel. I'd do that across the entire song if I'm using a programmed drummer. Another thing, I notice there's many times when there is 1 ride cymbal hit, 1 hi hat hit, 1 snare hit at the same time. Keep in mind a real drummer has only 2 hands, so if you want to make your drums sound realistic you have to make the amount of cymbals/drums played at the same time can be played by a real drummer too. You could argue that the hi-hat is pedal hi-hat, but to me it sounds like a normal closed hi hat stroke, correct me if I'm wrong. Also the toms are perhaps a bit too quiet. Everything else sounds good in my opinion.

 

[Saloje]

Yes it is a programed drummer and i thank you for your tips on how to arrange them. Beginning of song is yet to be arranged when vocal comes and that snare is really giving me a headacke ( sory for english). What do you think of arangments of instruments and paning stuff ?

Thx for tips.

 

[omonoiatis9]

If i'm not mistaken you have the main rhythm guitar panned to the center? If not, at least it could certainly be wider. What I do to make guitars sound wide and give the mix a more stereo feeling is record each guitar part twice, then hard pan 1 take to the left and the other to the right. You have to make sure that you record each part twice though and not just copy paste, because that won't work. I also think that the mix is a bit heavy on the right side in general when all the instruments kick in.

A good general rule of thumb is that you want your solo instruments in the middle, and the rhythm "supporting" instruments panned left and right. But you have the guitar solo panned right.

In a typical mix, the kick drum is centered, bass guitar is centered, vocals are centered and when the vocals go away and a solo replaces them, then that solo is centered instead. You can pan everything else to the sides, and like I said with rhythm guitars I like to at least double track them to give a better stereo feel.

 

[Saloje]

Thx for your tips it realy helps allot. I'l record guitars on separate tracks and pan them left and right. I noticed that i lack some space in mix and i hope i achive that with separate guitar tracks.If you notice i have sax and guitar solo together. Should i center both of them or pan one right or left and the other centered ? Nad yes in that part of the song vocal is present olso, so i'l have vocal, sax and guitar playing in the same time. Any tips on that ?

Thx for your help mate

 

[omonoiatis9]

That depends on you. You decide which part is the protagonist (usually that is the vocals) and have it centered. Now, having vocals PLUS a solo at the same time is pretty uncommon, so I don't know. There is 1 thing for sure: When you pan more than 1 instruments at the same location, make sure that you make space for all of them with EQ.

What I mean? If you put guitar sax and vocals in the center, then EQ each one separately and make sure each one is sitting at a different frequency. For example if you wanna have the guitar at low mids, sax mids, vocals high mids, then you should remove some frequencies (very small adjustments) from guitar EQ at mid and high mid to make space for the other 2 instruments that will be panned in the center. You don't want to have the same frequencies clashing. Ever. No matter the pan. But even more so if you pan certain things at the same place.

I am a beginner also so I can't really tell you where a saxophone or vocals in the frequency range usually sit, but you can google and find out or someone here with more experience can help you.

So step by step: 1. Decide where you want each instrument to sit in the frequency range
2. Make adjustments to EQ (no boosts, just small cuts - try to always work with cuts on your EQing) accordingly to make space for the other instruments