just looking for honest feedback

shortedaman

shortedaman

Avid Audio Analyst
ive been recording the guys for several months now. im sure you can tell from the mp3's that the performances might be lacking. however i would like honest feedback in terms of tracking and mixing. so far this is only a rough mix. i dont have the greatest room or speakers. so please, especially those of you with decent rooms :) let me know what problems you find. thanks!


the tracks are intro, runaway, and conquerors.

http://www.soundclick.com/dhsh
 
Those mixes are awful. I sure hope you're not charging them for that.

The main problem is obvious - it just sounds like a couple mics in a live room while the band haphazardly runs through a song. It's a mush of noise, bad sounds, and clashing frequencies. No clarity, no depth, no seperation, no good. You need to multi-track.
 
are these multi tracked?

Id agree with Greg that it does all sit together and sounds muddy, there's no separation or depth...this sounds like its just a quick recording made in a room live, from what I can hear :o

Start giving each track its volume, then pan them out, then EQ them if needed, then give them some depth, reverb/delay, if needed....just following simple steps should give them more separation..

dunno much about the genre but the performance sounds good, so at least theres the foundation..


can I suggest reading Mixing Audio by Roey Inzahi...informative without being wordy, and well worth the time put aside to read
 
yea everything is multi tracked except for the drums. i had to sum them through my mixer to my interface. i only have two inputs. could yall maybe be more specific? im trying here.
 
Id work on the drums first...EQ them so that kick and snare are punching through (this is all going to be going on in the 100-250Hz region)...then match the bass in with them..listening to it Id EQ it some gain around the 800-1kHz...then bring the guitars in on them...

Im far from an expert...but at the moment its sounds like the instruments have been brought up to a volume level...panned a little then not much else...they are all sitting in the same space


hopefully the rock guys can be more specific :o
 
From 220hz-1.6khz(just as example) there are three full octaves of notes/tones, this is where you need to shelf/EQ to place things in their own spot, especially with this genre when everything is full on blaring. As KC mentioned this is the range you should work with first. I hear a huge clump at about 450hz.
 
also, what should my fx chain look like? compressor first eq second then reverb? im using cubase le4. oh and also should i be panning the drums hard left and right ? or 80 to each side? and if anybody can help me figure out how to bounce my two drum tracks to one track, id appreciate.
 
shortedaman said:
also, what should my fx chain look like? compressor first eq second then reverb? im using cubase le4. oh and also should i be panning the drums hard left and right ? or 80 to each side? and if anybody can help me figure out how to bounce my two drum tracks to one track, id appreciate.
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FX chain for what?

the overall mix or individual tracks?

I dont know Cubase but you should be able to highlight both tracks then bounce them down to one file within the project or just put them in the project by themselves and export it to one wav file then start a new project with that file
 
shortedaman said:
the fx chain for individual tracks. as of right now im mostly talking about the drums.
Click to expand...

there is no set rule...but I guess you already know that...but generally you'd have the reverb at the end...


sometimes a have a second comp on the bus, with a gentler ratio to catch anything the EQ might have introduced, but I seldom use acoustic drums so it may be a little different...and basically everything you are doing is "on the bus"


whatever though id put everything back to zero and just concentrate on getting something workable from them first..then introduce the bass and so on
 
exactly what do you mean when you say put it on the bus? in cubase there is a thing for each track that says inserts. this is were all my vst's are. is that what you mean?
 
shortedaman said:
exactly what do you mean when you say put it on the bus? in cubase there is a thing for each track that says inserts. this is were all my vst's are. is that what you mean?
Click to expand...

when I set up a mix, i'll group the tracks together...all my drums will be directed to a drum bus ( a separate channel on the mixer)...on that bus there will be say a stereo bus compressor, like a Fairchild, and the drum room reverb...then each track will be treated...generally a mono compressor on each of the kicks, snare and some EQing..


but if all your drums are on one track then there is zero individual treatment on each drum...so in essence its almost the same as a bus when it comes to adding compression...I like to really compress kicks hard but you cant because you'll also be compressing everything else really hard...Id be loathed to stick anything but some gentle stereo compression or a limiter even on the drum track...look at EQing the areas I mentioned and some reverb, see if that get anything usable


Sorry if this doesnt sound right...Im not an expert....but I do believe you'd really help yourself by getting individual tracks when tracking drums, but maybe Greg will chime in, hes a drum expert...maybe theres a way to get better results from two mics
 
i didnt use just two mics, i had the whole kit mic'd. into my mixer then used the main outs and sent them to my interface.
 
shortedaman said:
i didnt use just two mics, i had the whole kit mic'd. into my mixer then used the main outs and sent them to my interface.
Click to expand...

You're still screwed unless you do A LOT of trial and error and get everything just right in the mixer before it goes out as a stereo track. You're basically spinning your wheels.
 
shortedaman said:
i didnt use just two mics, i had the whole kit mic'd. into my mixer then used the main outs and sent them to my interface.
Click to expand...

ahh sorry man I thought they were just two mics.....well unless you're treating them with built in FX in the mixer there may as well been two mics when it comes to treating them in cubase, because you've only got two channels to work with anyway...you still cant treat the snare and kick separately

seriously, and I dont mean this disrespectfully, you'd get better results out of software, even if you used drum replacer software to fix the snare and kick then keep the cymbals, overheads, room whatever


I had i listen again to runaway in case I was being harsh but it still sounds as it did to me... muddy and without definition because frequencies are masking other frequencies :o
 
I listened to Runaway. Lot's of energy and good playing. Lot's of speed. Boy one take of the vocals and my throat would be shot for an hour.

First thing that struck me was that the drums have no presence. All the highs sound rolled off. No "pop" to the snare and the overheads are really subdued.

Guitars are a bit harsh. Too much midrange, like in the 2300hz to 3000hz range.

The bass was pretty indistinct.

During the guitar solo that started at 2:39, I had trouble hearing anything else.
 
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