Currently mixing a friends band... care to give it a listen?

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keevhren

New member


Just finished this mix up so wanted to get some feedback if possible. Any critiques, suggestions, praises, gripes, etc welcome!

Much thanks in advance!
 
IMO, snare sounds like it is over compressed/eq'd, and has no real natural feel. It almost hurts in the way it cuts in my ears. Guitars are a bit thin, and bass guitar needs some beef.

With the snare sounding like it does, I find it tough to hear the rest of the tune subjectively.

Really good song tho! The band is really good, and the tones seem to be recorded well. It just does not sit well to me, mix-wise.
 
Yeah the snare has been a huge issue with this whole project. The drummer we tracked didn't have a good snare and neither did I so we had to make due with what we had. I've since dropped in a sample, but I just can't get the snare to sound natural at all and i'm definitely aware that it's destroying the mix. Any thoughts on how to fix it?

Currently I have the snare top and bottom tracks that were recorded live with the kit, and then I have a sample track blended in, and then an duplicate sample track, pitch-shifted down 3 tones and running through a verb plugin acting as only the wet signal to add some stealth body to it (or at least trying to).

On the snare top track... im filtering out everything above 4.5k and below 90hz then boosting a few db at 3k and 2.5k.

Snare bottom i'm filtering out everything above 6k and below 90hz, boosting a little bit at 200hz and 5k.

for the sample i'm filtering out everything above 6k and below 90hz, boosting a few db at 125hz, 1k, 3k, 5k.

they're all being sent to an aux track with the DMG Audio compassion comp on it, getting about 6db of compression, 2:1 ratio, 75ms attack, 162ms release, and then finally into the CLA drums plug with the snare - start me up setting just a tad bit tweaked.

Any ideas on how to soften it up and make it more natural sounding? Maybe I should switch out the sample to a beefier/more natural one? It's frustrating to say the least. ha
 
keevhren said:
Yeah the snare has been a huge issue with this whole project. The drummer we tracked didn't have a good snare and neither did I so we had to make due with what we had. I've since dropped in a sample, but I just can't get the snare to sound natural at all and i'm definitely aware that it's destroying the mix. Any thoughts on how to fix it?

Currently I have the snare top and bottom tracks that were recorded live with the kit, and then I have a sample track blended in, and then an duplicate sample track, pitch-shifted down 3 tones and running through a verb plugin acting as only the wet signal to add some stealth body to it (or at least trying to).

On the snare top track... im filtering out everything above 4.5k and below 90hz then boosting a few db at 3k and 2.5k.

Snare bottom i'm filtering out everything above 6k and below 90hz, boosting a little bit at 200hz and 5k.

for the sample i'm filtering out everything above 6k and below 90hz, boosting a few db at 125hz, 1k, 3k, 5k.

they're all being sent to an aux track with the DMG Audio compassion comp on it, getting about 6db of compression, 2:1 ratio, 75ms attack, 162ms release, and then finally into the CLA drums plug with the snare - start me up setting just a tad bit tweaked.

Any ideas on how to soften it up and make it more natural sounding? Maybe I should switch out the sample to a beefier/more natural one? It's frustrating to say the least. ha
Click to expand...


Yeah, I have some ideas. You gonna have to send me the tracks tho. Just a mix of everything, without any snare, triggers or samples, and the raw/recorded 'top' snare separately. Don't even send the bottom snare mic. You don't need it here IMO.

I am sure I can get you something that will make the recording work.

PM me.
 
keevhren said:
Yeah the snare has been a huge issue with this whole project. The drummer we tracked didn't have a good snare and neither did I so we had to make due with what we had. I've since dropped in a sample, but I just can't get the snare to sound natural at all and i'm definitely aware that it's destroying the mix. Any thoughts on how to fix it?

Currently I have the snare top and bottom tracks that were recorded live with the kit, and then I have a sample track blended in, and then an duplicate sample track, pitch-shifted down 3 tones and running through a verb plugin acting as only the wet signal to add some stealth body to it (or at least trying to).

On the snare top track... im filtering out everything above 4.5k and below 90hz then boosting a few db at 3k and 2.5k.

Snare bottom i'm filtering out everything above 6k and below 90hz, boosting a little bit at 200hz and 5k.

for the sample i'm filtering out everything above 6k and below 90hz, boosting a few db at 125hz, 1k, 3k, 5k.

they're all being sent to an aux track with the DMG Audio compassion comp on it, getting about 6db of compression, 2:1 ratio, 75ms attack, 162ms release, and then finally into the CLA drums plug with the snare - start me up setting just a tad bit tweaked.

Any ideas on how to soften it up and make it more natural sounding? Maybe I should switch out the sample to a beefier/more natural one? It's frustrating to say the least. ha
Click to expand...

Dude, no offense, but that is some of the most retardedly aggressive filtering I've ever seen on snare tracks. I mean everyone does things their own way, but I usually send the snare top and snare bottom to one bus (with the bottom track turned down about 10 - 12 db, assuming both tracks were recorded at the same levels) and then on the bus I will high pass everything at 100hz and that's pretty much it.

The reason IMO your snare doesn't sound natural is because of all this over-processing you've done to it.

Lastly, the whole mix sounds extremely thin. What kind of monitors are you mixing on?
 
The snare as mentioned sounds very unnatural and unpleasant.
There's a general lack of meat & bottom end across the whole track from vocals to bass drum.
It sounds a little like a radio.
Song & soundwise this sounds like it's heading into Buffalo Tom territory - a good thing.
Keep at it - BUT take some time off & let your ears get back to reality.
 
Thanks for all the honest feedback, I sincerely need it to say the least. I think the reason this is being so difficult is that my setup is currently in 'mobile' mode. I had a studio spot for a few years, but moved out of it to do a lot of touring with bands over the last year or so and this is the first record I'm doing since being back home. Only now I don't have a decent room so I'm mixing all of this on my headphones, which I've never done before. Frustrating doesn't come close to describing it. haha. I'm going to start from scratch today and put up another mix hopefully sometime this afternoon. Back to the drawing, errr mixing board I should say!
 
keevhren said:
Thanks for all the honest feedback, I sincerely need it to say the least. I think the reason this is being so difficult is that my setup is currently in 'mobile' mode. I had a studio spot for a few years, but moved out of it to do a lot of touring with bands over the last year or so and this is the first record I'm doing since being back home. Only now I don't have a decent room so I'm mixing all of this on my headphones, which I've never done before. Frustrating doesn't come close to describing it. haha. I'm going to start from scratch today and put up another mix hopefully sometime this afternoon. Back to the drawing, errr mixing board I should say!
Click to expand...

Good to hear man. Just let me know if you would like some more natural samples for the snare. :)
 
New mix:

First off, I changed the snare sample completely and ditched every plugin on the individual channels. I played with the levels of the snare top, snare bottom, and sample track till I had a balance I liked without any processing on them. Then on my snare buss I'm running it through an Equality plugin, rolling off everything under 100hz, and boosting 2db at 4k and 3db at 6.5k. Next I've got a puigchild getting about 2db of compression. And that's it.

I tried to add in some more lows to the kick, boosting 2 bd between 120-250hz.

For both guitars I boosted some 250-600ish to get some more beef into them and do think they sound better now for sure. A-Bing between them with and without the added lows was pretty drastic.

I also brought up the bass in overall volume a few dB, as well as putting an Rbass plugin on it to help fill out the bottom end of it a bit.

Lastly on vocals I brought up the low fader on the CLA Vocals plugin I have on the lead to give it a bit more fullness.

A-Bing between the two mixes (my old and the new one) is pretty drastic. Snare sounds a million times better and more real in my opinion, way less brittle and harsh to listen to. Also there's suddenly this nice addition to the low end that, as yall said, was pretty much non existent in the last mix. So hopefully some steps in the right direction! Thoughts on the new mix? I feel like the snare still might be a bit too present in the mix...
 
Great improvement! It is all starting to gel now. :)

HH is cutting a bit hard at times. Distracting from the vocals at times. Cymbals as well, but that is just my taste I suppose.

Sounding good man!
 
Yeah i noticed the hi-hat after listening to it through my phone's speaker... it was cutting through pretty harshly so I've got to take it down a bit/soften it up. Thanks for all the help thus far, much appreciated as always! It's strange how you think you hear something when you're listening on headphones but then its not there (ie... the non existent low end from the 3rd mix) but then once its there its like "holy crap!" haha. Gonna keep at it today!
 
keevhren I dig this tune and the 2nd mix is a lot better! I feel you on mixing on headphones. I mix at night usually so I need to use headphones as not to wake up my family. For a while I had hit a brick wall on a lot of the music I was mixing. I gave it a listen on my monitors, in my car, and in my friends car and all the changes that were needed suddenly became apparent. Also I dig your friends band! You have any links?
 
Much more definition to the bass but it's a little too upfront in the intro now.. Did you back off the low end on the kick agina - if not it may be fighting with the bass guitar.
The distorted strummed rhythm is a little too loud now.
I like the 2nd mix post better.
Good song
 
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