Pop Rock/Punk song... mixing advice?

K

keevhren

New member
Pop Rock/Punk song... updated mixes... bass help!



Just finished up a first mix of this local band I tracked a week ago. Thoughts? In most everything I've done thus far I feel like drums never cut through enough after mastering so I've tried to keep them as loud without killing the mix as possible... any suggestions on my attempt at it? What about the rest of the song? Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Last edited:
If I knew myself how to mix a drum kit I'd say something constructive and helpful. However, on my monitors the drums sound clear. I'm really only saying this because I can distinctly hear your bass drum and its not killing everything else, unlike my mixes which are one extreme or another. Sorry, I'm a newb and completely useless, lol.

But yeah, the drums sound good to me and seem to blend fine with the mix. So rest easy, the average dummy (like me) will think it's great. ;)

Hey, at least my reply will bump your post to the top, where someone who knows what they're doing will see it. :laughings:
 
The snare seems sample replaced. Every hit sounds exactly the same and robotic. That's cool if you need or want to replace it, but get a more human feel out of it. The vocals are too roomy. That long decay reverb doesn't mesh well with the style of music. The kick and bass are kind of mushy and muddy. More beater attack and more bass attack and midrange will help both pieces stand out more. This type of music needs to be tight and the sounds need to be snappy. Think NOFX.
 
Totally agree with Greg. To much verb. It would sound much more in-your-face without all the reverb on everything. What are you using to replace the snare, or is this a v-drum kit? I also think the couple guitar leads you have are a little too tinny and could stand to come up in the mix.

On another note... 4 minutes is a little long for a punk song, right? ;)
 
try to fully mix w/o reverb. i think its easier for the beginning & this song doesn't need much reverb anyway.
 
Greg_L said:
The snare seems sample replaced. Every hit sounds exactly the same and robotic.
That long decay reverb doesn't mesh well with the style of music.
Click to expand...

yeah the reverb is too much - not sure what it sounds like without it or reverbing the entire mix instead.

Im not listening on monitors so hard to tell about anything else
 
all great advice, i listened in my car (which has some pretty awful speakers) and noticed the kick and bass both needed to have the muddyness taken out of them along with a few other things... less verb etc... about to go make some revisions and will post the results once I'm done... thanks again for the help thus far!
 
okay so disregard the previous mix for the most part... it does sort out the excessive reverb issue and such but the low end was still pretty messy...

I just did a 3rd mix, trying to tighten up the low end and am not too happy with it:



The kick sounds a lot better when I listened in my car but the bass is still just distorting the hell outta my speakers and making an awful sound during playback. Additionally, I feel like the 3rd mix (this one) is seriously lacking in the low end of the mix as a whole... any suggestions of getting bass to sit well where I want it and to fill out the gaps in the bottom of the audio spectrum?

It's a lone DI track, and if my memory serves me correctly, I've got the following plugins on it: ampeg svx -> CLA-76 Blackey -> SSL Channel -> DAD Tape (ideal) -> RBass (Bombassic setting I think?)... which is my pretty much what I've always done for bass DI tracks. Thoughts on how I can possibly fix it?

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions thus far... it's much appreciated as always!
 
Very good dated college rock sound. The vocal sets the mood and is very derivative, but is also really good.
 
i feel like I'm not getting anywhere with this track... I've been working on it for 5 hours thus far today and still can't seem to get the low end how I want it... It's absolutely driving my insane to the point where I just don't know what to do to fix it.

Here's my most recent mix (sans vocals... just trying to get the music to all sit together now as I'm having so much difficulty).

I feel like the drum kit sounds as if it's behind or distant compared to everything due to the lack of verb I have any the instruments... the drums don't have much verb on them either, and the kick I feel is still boomy and muddy for the most part.

the bass guitar i'm happy with how it sounds for the most part solo'd, but again, i feel its muddying up the whole mix.

my guitars are also screwing with the low end during the palm muted verse parts... I've got filters on rolling off anything past about ~115 hz and I've eq'd out some weird frequencies on both as well.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Excluding throwing in the towel of course... ha!

The latest mix:

 
Your losing the deep bass in this last mix. Maybe your trying to do to much with something that isnt there. The only thing I can think of is to carve out more with each instrument using EQ, for some reason it still sounds a bit cluttered, but I'm not sure why. Dont throw in the towel. Overall its OK.
 
Suggestion...walk away from this for a couple of days. Then come back and listen with fresh ears. I thought your 3rd mix was the best.
 
I agree.. 3rd mix is the best. Sounds like your drums were recorded with something akin to an SM-57 for overheads. Needs more air. The thing I like, is with each mix (except the last one, which seems like it was mixed out of desperation) is getting better. Keep at it. Reverb problem is continually reduced with each mix, too. When I was starting out, someone told me, with regards to reverb, to get it to the levels you like, and then slowly lower it until you can't hear it anymore. About then, it should be just about right. Not sure if that's sound advice or not, but it sure helped me.

Keep it up.
 
Walked away from it last night and let it sit for a while, woke up this morning and took a fresh stab at it and I'm happier with the results for sure... bass seems to be a lot better to me now... thoughts?



Overall I think it's at a much better spot now so I've started working on the other two songs they did. Thanks for the help thus far... always much appreciated!
 
I think you need to look at the EQ on the hi-hats. I think they have too much very high frequency boost, and need more energy in the upper-mid range, maybe around 4KHz.

Regarding the kick drum, it needs more low end thump around 70Hz. It has a nice attack to it, but sounds a bit unnatural without low end to accompany it. You may find that there simply isn't much low frequency content on the recording of the kick drum, so you may need to put a resonant filter on it to generate a new low frequency underneath it. In Cubase I use the Tonic insert effect to do this and it works really well. You can then blend the original sound with the resonance to get a good powerful kick.

Have you thought about double tracking the guitar part? In other words recording it twice, maybe using different pickups or settings on your amp, and then panning the two parts left and right? This is a really common trick and helps songs like this sound bigger. I think the guitars could be louder in the mix as well, although the double tracking will help here any way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top