Help with mix

Dobs

New member
I finally got my home studio going and have started recording. I am totally depressed. When I listed to most of your mixes and compare them to mine I notice a huge difference in the overall quality of the mix.

Please listen to the 1st song "God must love laughing" and instruct me on how to begin cleaning this thing up?

www.myspace.com/stevendolbey

Thanks in advance...

SD
 
You certainly have good elements but the mix is odd.
The vocals seemwell recorded & sit on top of the mix fairly well & should unite the whole thing but that's not happening. The stereo image is pretty good except the volume & therefore placement forward of the drums.
If you can turn off all reverb to see if that is the culprit - though it doesn't seem verb drenched the verb might be adding that muddiness. Then you can bring it back a little & an instrument at a time.
The drums & particularly the ride or hi hat are too far up in the mix.
The bass is a little lost which is a pity as the runs are really quite good - try pulling out some bottom & adding some top end so it is better defined.
The rhythm guitar is very much like the bass find it's EQ sweet spot & raise that a chunk whilst lowering whatever the bass seems to inhabit.
the lead line seems to be OK.
The bass drums seems very artificial in the intro - play with it's EQ if you can.
The two guitars when strumming sound VERY similar. Maybe you could alter one with EQ or a plugin so that they sound different & don't tread on each other's toes.
It's a really good song & the vocal performance is good too. Muck about as suggested & post an update. If nohing else that will give an indication of whether or not EQ is the prob or something more difficult.
 
Thanks for taking the Time Rayc. Can you clarify a couple of suggestions?

On the drums, are you saying that I need to place the drums forward or they are too far forward already?

On the bass, I have a +3 EQ boost @ 80 and 750. Then a -3 @ 2500. The rest I leave at -0. Do have any suggestions what frequency ranges I can try boosting and cutting? I really suck at EQ Bass...

Thanks again,

SD

rayc said:
You certainly have good elements but the mix is odd.
The vocals seemwell recorded & sit on top of the mix fairly well & should unite the whole thing but that's not happening. The stereo image is pretty good except the volume & therefore placement forward of the drums.
If you can turn off all reverb to see if that is the culprit - though it doesn't seem verb drenched the verb might be adding that muddiness. Then you can bring it back a little & an instrument at a time.
The drums & particularly the ride or hi hat are too far up in the mix.
The bass is a little lost which is a pity as the runs are really quite good - try pulling out some bottom & adding some top end so it is better defined.
The rhythm guitar is very much like the bass find it's EQ sweet spot & raise that a chunk whilst lowering whatever the bass seems to inhabit.
the lead line seems to be OK.
The bass drums seems very artificial in the intro - play with it's EQ if you can.
The two guitars when strumming sound VERY similar. Maybe you could alter one with EQ or a plugin so that they sound different & don't tread on each other's toes.
It's a really good song & the vocal performance is good too. Muck about as suggested & post an update. If nohing else that will give an indication of whether or not EQ is the prob or something more difficult.
 
The drums are too far forward at present.
Bass boost a little at 250, a bit more than that at 500 & then a tad a 4000 then pull out a chunk of whatever it has in common with the rhythm guitar & just try it without the 3db boost at 80.
Mind you that's just playing with EQ in WMplayer so it may not translate.
It's a good song & has a real indie quality to it - don't polish it too muc just try to get it balanced.
 
have you put reverb on the guitars? or were they recorded with it? casuse they sound miles away. Also try and make the kick drum more defined.
Good song though :)
 
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