First mix.....be gentle.

A

AMTA

Pack it in a frame.
I've worked a lot with this, and I'm still having problems here and there, so I figured I'd ask for help and see what everyone here.

Bass was recorded direct into my mixer, and drums are EZ Drummer. Guitar was the only thing mic'd. No name for this one yet, or lyrics.

There are some problems I still have to fix with the drums and making them sound more "real".

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=10147
 
I think the drums are the least of your worries. The guitars are way to loud and have way too much midrange in them. Try retracking with less mids and bass and try lowering it in the mix. The bass needs some work too. Maybe some compression get it a little tighter.. try to single out the kick and bass and them working nicely together first then add everthing else.

I think you'll have to retrack the guitar though.

when you do try doing the track 2 times one panned left one panned right. It will open up the mix a bit.
 
wait i'm an asshole.. i forgot, welcome to the forum :D you'll like it here everyone is always super helpful!
 
If you want the drum's to sound more real, I say stay away from the quarter notes on the high hat. It's real noticeable there. The notes sound exactly the same and robotic. Your guitar playing is nice. The guitar's really loud in the mix. Try and get a more balanced tone. Like eeb said, its very midrangy. Keep going though , it sounds good.:)
 
Thanks. I've lurked here for a year or more just absorbing information.

eeb said:
I think the drums are the least of your worries. The guitars are way to loud and have way too much midrange in them. Try retracking with less mids and bass and try lowering it in the mix. The bass needs some work too. Maybe some compression get it a little tighter.. try to single out the kick and bass and them working nicely together first then add everything else.

I think you'll have to retrack the guitar though.

when you do try doing the track 2 times one panned left one panned right. It will open up the mix a bit.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't know what it is, but I just can't seem to get the guitars to sound "right". They sound far away if that makes any sense. I have the mic pretty close up on the grill, and it doesn't seem to help if I put it any closer. I assume that's due to my mixing then? I was going to go for the whole "wall of guitars" sound figuring the other guitar and retracking would fill the space more so they wouldn't sound so far away, but now I'm not so sure.

Also, I tried cheating on the panning and just taking the same set of takes and panning them hard, 50/50, 30/30, etc heh heh. But yeah I should probably just do it the "correct" way.

The bass really gave me a lot of issues because I didn't want to do a whole lot to it coming in, but since I was recording direct that left me with a pretty lifeless bass sound. I'll give the kick/bass thing a try. I seem to be getting a lot of boominess in the kick that I need to get rid of too. I haven't spent as much time on the drums as I probably should.

I have a song of mine that I spent days working on the drums, and it was just a long and tedious process. Trying to get fake drums to sound like real drums, and trying to get EZ Drummer to sound less like EZ Drummer is quite a task for me. I'm a perfectionist, and I'm basically just using this song for practice. I co-wrote it with a former bassist and it's really not representative of my style.

Thanks a lot for the input. I really need to go back to square one....well maybe two for this one and spend more time on it.

At least it wasn't completely horrible was it? :p

Any other comments would be welcome, especially in the light of the fact that I'm pretty much starting over.
 
Erockrazor said:
If you want the drum's to sound more real, I say stay away from the quarter notes on the high hat. It's real noticeable there. The notes sound exactly the same and robotic. Your guitar playing is nice. The guitar's really loud in the mix. Try and get a more balanced tone. Like eeb said, its very midrangy. Keep going though , it sounds good.:)
Click to expand...

Thank you. I can always go through and mess with velocities on the parts to make them sound less robotic. The big hurdle I have is making the kick sound real when it's doing 16th or 32nds.

Looks like I'm retracking the guitar. That's cool though I'm just happy to get some unbiased feedback. The bassist already thinks it sounds great....but I KNOW it's not. :p

I'll be sure to post another MP3 in here when I get everything in working order.
 
I agree with much that has already been said.

(Welcome by the way!)

The guitar playing is good, but they sound kind of boxy and too prominent in the mix. They need more of a spacious sound...maybe harder panning? The bass guitar gets lost many times and would seem to need more definition.

I am not real familiar with this genre, but the performance sounds good. The mix is not representing it nearly as well as it could.
 
heatmiser said:
I agree with much that has already been said.

(Welcome by the way!)

The guitar playing is good, but they sound kind of boxy and too prominent in the mix. They need more of a spacious sound...maybe harder panning? The bass guitar gets lost many times and would seem to need more definition.

I am not real familiar with this genre, but the performance sounds good. The mix is not representing it nearly as well as it could.
Click to expand...

Looks like I have a solid place to start then. I'll start by getting the Bass and Kick in order and go from there.
 
The ending seemed abrupt - if you can let it ring a bit maybe.....
Those hihats are as stated, kinda robotic, but the drum programming otherwise is pretty nice. The kit is bright, I would maybe try a darker kit - less snap/highs. The guitars are straight up the middle and the dual take panning suggestion will as mentioned really open up the mix and allow the bass to come through (it's almost MIA right now). For some reason I want to compress the mix a whole bunch more to level it all out and get that "sound" I seem to hear for most tunes in this genre. Guitar playing is tight, the tone ain't bad but it could be better, less distortion and more clean. Really all you need are a few tweaks and you'll have a sweet mix....:D
 
Agree on the guitars needing a second track to open up the mix, and I would take a look at the guitar eq in the mids as well, perhaps cutting somewhere in the 1 - 1.5k region by a few db. This will become especially important if you ever add vocals to this arrangement. You may also want to play around with throwing a small delay on the guitar part if you are not into re-tracking, as this can sometimes provide a little opening for other elements.

This is a lot better than my first mix was, and I wish I could play guitar like that too! :)

Good job!
 
Nice playing. I'd EQ the gtr that's playing from :44 to the end with a 2 dB wide boost at 200 Hz and a 3 dB wide cut at 1 kHz. On the gtr that comes in at :22 I'd also cut the high end by 3 dB with a shelf at 5 kHz.
 
I didn't expect so many kind words...especially about the guitar playing haha. Anyway, I tried to take everyone's comments and execute them, as well as doing a few other things to my taste of course.

I didn't retrack the guitar, but I did pan the two tracks a bit wider, boosted the highs and cut some more mids out (already had some cut in the original...obviously not enough). I also offset the two tracks to add a bit of delay (not noticeable really, but it does seem to open the mix up more).

To be honest I have a lot better things to track than this song, so I just want to try to get this one the best I can for now. ;)

The guitars might still be a bit too loud and/or muddy. I tried to bring them down as much as I could without second-guessing myself on their levels. If I bring them down too much they tend to get drowned out by the double bass in my headphones. So let me know about this issue specifically if you have something to say (of course I want to know about everything, but you know what I mean :p).

I also went through and made sure no velocities were the same on the hi hat or ride cymbal repetition parts. I compressed the main bus a little all the way around, focusing more on the highs to bring those out a bit more.

Overall I think the mix sounds a lot better now. Bass should be more than audible, or at least it is in my phones. I haven't had a chance to listen to it in my car yet. Mixing on headphones sucks arse for me....these are the kind of headphones that make crappy production sound better than it actually is.

 
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Sounding better & better - the snare in the intro is way too naked though. Throw a 3khz peak on the bass for more definition as it gets a little lost in the fast bits.
The cymbals are a little too loud for my tastes.
Is it my h'phones or does the guitar lean to one side a bit?
Good playing.
 
In the mixer of EZdrummer, is the "room" -slider, I'd take that down some, same with the "overhead" -slider... giving drums little less echo, and quieting cymbals some...?
...I tend to pan guits hard left and right...
Your distorted guitarsounds are very "dry", a bit (very little) chorus or reverb would fix that..?
And Welcome!:D
 
rayc said:
Sounding better & better - the snare in the intro is way too naked though. Throw a 3khz peak on the bass for more definition as it gets a little lost in the fast bits.
The cymbals are a little too loud for my tastes.
Is it my h'phones or does the guitar lean to one side a bit?
Good playing.
Click to expand...

Rayc has some good comments so I'll just quote him again. :)

Yeah the bass is better now but could use some specific tweaks. The guitar is leaning slightly. Pretty good mix overall... Enjoyed the second listen....:cool:
 
rayc said:
Sounding better & better - the snare in the intro is way too naked though. Throw a 3khz peak on the bass for more definition as it gets a little lost in the fast bits.
The cymbals are a little too loud for my tastes.
Is it my h'phones or does the guitar lean to one side a bit?
Good playing.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks. Good to hear I didn't eff it up with the compression as it sometimes can if used wrong.

I agree on the cymbals...wasn't sure if it was just my phones or not. Also the guitar leaning to one side is happening to me too. I thought my hearing was just going bad haha. I will fix those things and the bass.

What do you mean too naked? Needs some reverb?

Jouni said:
In the mixer of EZdrummer, is the "room" -slider, I'd take that down some, same with the "overhead" -slider... giving drums little less echo, and quieting cymbals some...?
...I tend to pan guits hard left and right...
Your distorted guitarsounds are very "dry", a bit (very little) chorus or reverb would fix that..?
And Welcome!:D
Click to expand...

Ok will do on the Room mic. I think I panned the guitar 60% L/R each way. It might just be my phones but things sound way too spread out to me when I pan them really hard (I only have one track per side).

I'll give the reverb/chorus thing a try too.

Again thanks to everyone. Sorry for all my late replies, but I like each take to sit a little before I come back to it and read the comments. That way I get a lot of varied responses.
 
much improved

I heard the 1st mix and just checked out this latest one. I have to say it seems a little brighter and more polished overall. Nice job sticking with it. I enjoy hearing your progress...
 
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