mixing my two piece band

H

hardcore guy

New member
I'm in a synth/drums two piece. We play very loud in a style similar to Lightning Bolt (http://www.myspace.com/laserbeast). I am pretty new at recording, although I'm trying to learn everything I possibly can. Over the last few months, we recorded a few tracks into my Aardvark q10 using adobe audition. All my indivual tracks sound pretty great but I have been struggling with mixing, some songs are harder than others seeing as how they were all recorded at different times, often in different rooms with different mic placements.

Basically my trouble is this, I can get all the drums together to sound good, I can get the synth alone to sound great, but once I add them together, everything gets muddy and a lot of things get drowned out. I figured this must be because I'm over crowding certain frequencies. It has become especially hard due to the fact that the synth is used to provide all highs and lows (outside of drums) in the mix. Any advice on clearing things up by cleaver eqing would be greatly appreciated.

You can hear one bad quality mp3 at our myspace to get an idea of our sound: www.myspace.com/theycallmegreyhound . I don't need to hear that the snare is too ringy, I like it that way. And I don't need to hear that the drumming isn't always on time, it doesn't matter nearly as much to us as rocking out, playing loud and having a good time. Punk ethics I suppose.
 
I should also specify that the main problem I'm having is the low end from the synth, drowning out the sound of the kick and toms. Although the kick won't come back out unless I boost the midrange instead of the lows around 80-100hz and then the tone is pretty poor. The tone of the synth also is lacking without taking space in those frequencies. Is there any way the two can co-exist peacefully?
 
hmm, as far as the kick not cutting through, did you try boosting the higher frequencies, like 1000-2000hz in addition to the low end? ive been mixing my rock group and i find that sometimes thats where the 'slap' of the kick is.
 
also i forgot, what i meant is like doing a really tight notch boost somewhere btwn 1000-2000. set the Q to about 10.
 
sorry i cant seem to make replies in just one message. i just checked out your song on myspace, frankly, i think it sounds awesome! keep up the good work! do you have other songs online?
 
thanks for the compliment. that's the only finished song so far. it was the easiest to mix because we didn't do any overdubs. anyhow, what i've been doing is boosting the kick around 80-100hx and 1000hz. sometimes that's not enough though and if i boost 1000hz too much, the snare bleed starts coming out and giving the snare a poor sound. anyways, i guess i'll just keep experimenting until i get things right.
 
I don't really do much panning. The two overheads over the drums are at hard right and left, all close miked drums are in the center. I recorded a direct synth track and an amped synth track and they don't really sound too good panned separetely. I think I'm just going to have to turn the down the lows of the synth to bring the kick out in the mix and ask my mastering dude to boost the low end on the finished result. Sound like a good idea?
 
"I think I'm just going to have to turn the down the lows of the synth to bring the kick out in the mix and ask my mastering dude to boost the low end on the finished result. Sound like a good idea?"

i'd try to get it right before it goes to mastering. is there anyway you can tell where the kick is "centered" (like 60Hz? or 80 Hz?) and remove the synth from just that area? sometimes that works for me with kick and bass.

"And I don't need to hear that the drumming isn't always on time, it doesn't matter nearly as much to us as rocking out, playing loud and having a good time. Punk ethics I suppose."

long may you live!!!!!!!!!

Mike
 
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