Multi-layered electronic rock - HARD TO MIX - HELP!!!

therealside

therealside

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Ok, it's the first song on my mp3 page called "End of the World," so any help I could get on this it would be appreciated. Even with mastering it seems a bit quiet, so I am having one heck of a time getting all these layers stacked, which are: Drums, Synth Bass, Electronic Piano, 2 Heavy guitars (panned hard L/R), 2 vocals (bgv panned slightly), and a low synth effect on the chorus which is kind of a saw filter disto synth kinda sound... I'm having trouble finding which should lead the pack, but I know the vocals and drums must stand out the most?!?!? Using Cubase SX2 (sorry can't afford 3 yet, plus I am scared of early version bugs, finally got 2 working ok!!!)

Thanks for the help,
Terry McClain

Follow this link to the mp3: http://www.ampcast.com/therealside
 
The synth bass/drums are too bassy in the beginning, then they disappear during the chorus. During the second verse it's just about right.

I'm not sure what guitar effect you're looking for, a thin guitar in the verse then heavy in the chorus it sounds like. The thin may not be thin enough (then once it's thinned more, bring it up 3-6db). The heavy guitar could be brought up in the mix more, maybe create a second / mirror track slightly offset and panned to the other side. (ala)

Overall it's a very clean sounding recording, and there aren't any major mistakes that I could hear. The other suggestions would be to push the normalization/compression when mastering. I usually use a normalization RMS of about 14db. Any less and it's thin and not utilizing the entire ability of the CD, any more and you start clipping (distorting).

I need to reiterate that this is a good recording as is and only needs some minor tweaking!
 
Bass synth appears to have too much low end, it needs to share a little bit with some of the other elements down there. Vocals seem a bit too loud. General thickening up of the other parts.

Sounds good, could be great with some tweaks.
 
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same as above, it seems to suffer a little from scooped mid disease

but good

edit i'm starting to get the headache i get from the19-21k region (i can't hear that hi, but when it's kinda loud i can "feel" it)
may be the mp3 compression, but it's something i'd check anyway

or maby you just need to back off the ol' L2 a little
(i'm guessing at the limiter but thare is to much of it)
 
giraffe said:
same as above, it seems to suffer a little from scooped mid disease

but good

edit i'm starting to get the headache i get from the19-21k region (i can't hear that hi, but when it's kinda loud i can "feel" it)
may be the mp3 compression, but it's something i'd check anyway

or maby you just need to back off the ol' L2 a little
(i'm guessing at the limiter but thare is to much of it)
Click to expand...

The MP3 codec, by design, only produces frequencies from 20hz to 16,000hz.
 
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Well, remember guys, just cause it won't accurately reproduce the sounds above 16 k (which is a generalization and not true of all mp3 encoding) doesn't mean there's no content above that. There are plenty of horrible artifacts above that frequency.

Ok, bass way too loud, lots of clipping noise or digital hash on this. Sounds like my meters are clipping but they're not. The edge on that snare is making my head hurt as well...ouch.
 
Design limitations of MP3
There are several limitations inherent to the MP3 file format, that cannot be accounted for by using a more efficient encoder. More recent audio-compression formats such as Vorbis, AAC, Musepack and WMA no longer have these limitations. In technical terms, MP3 is limited in the following ways:

Bitrate is limited to a maximum of 320 kbit/s
Time resolution can be too low for highly transient signals
Encoder/decoder overall delay is not defined
No scaleband factor for frequencies above 15.5/15.8 kHz
Joint stereo is done on a frame-to-frame basis
Nevertheless a well-tuned MP3 encoder can perform competitively even with these restrictions.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3

So, yes - it can produce above 16,000hz but does so very poorly. I think some codecs don't even bother in order to 'sound better'.

[I'm still looking for data on the freq. range of MP3s, I remember reading they only do 20-16,000hz ... period]
 
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