Poppy punk

IronFlippy

IronFlippy

Dedicated To My Member
This was basically just a test to get my mixing skills a bit better. It's a Lawrence Arms song that I recorded in a day, then mixed the next day. I haven't added vocals yet, due to a sore throat, but I was wondering what you thought about the mix thus far. I think the guitars are a little muddy still, but my ears might just be tricking me. I hear a little bit of pumping from the compressor too, but that also might be my ears tricking me. I used cab impulses for the guitars because my amp doesn't record well, the bass is DI, and the drums are programmed (man, I wish I knew how to play drums).

This was also my first time mixing on my new monitors, a pair of Tannoy PBM 6.5 hooked up to an Alesis RA-100 amp.

I think the mix sounds a little flat, but it hasn't been "mastered" or anything. Is this something that would happen during that phase, or should I try to work it in to the mix?

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=8969

Thanks in advance!
 
The tones are on the less polished side of bright. Maybe a bit of mastering with something like Ozone would bring out a bit more bite, crispness and punch. It's like you used old strings. Having said that...it's not that bad. The mix seems good to me. What'd you have, a double tracked guitar panned either side with a slight delay on one side?
 
I'm going to go ahead and blame the Rat pedal I was using, it tends to suck up brightness pretty quick. The strings are brand new. It's 2 guitars, panned 80% L/R, plus a third guitar every now and then with the neck pickup to accent parts. The solo/interlude is just one guitar until the second half when a harmony comes in for a line and then just doubles up the original. Thanks for listening!
 
Cool stuff. I like the performance a lot, energy. The mix going on in the bottom end sounds really good to me. Everything happening down there is pretty cool sounding to me. Where you need help is the air and the highs. I barely hear anything happening higher up. To me it sounds like you put an eq on the master channel and cut a lot of the highs. I would suspect the programmed drums to be much brighter for a lot more punch. Everything is really warm but as monkey allen said, you need those highs for the bite and the punch.

As far as the mix goes with the balance, I think it is very well balanced. All the instruments seem to have a good place in the mix and I like it a lot. Let me know if you make some revisions because I would really like to hear it again. Awesome stuff IronFlippy.
 
Mastering will not solve our problems.
You need to work on the mix alot more before getting to the mastering stage.
The mix sounds dull and lifeless.
Use EQ to bring out the best sounds fo each recorded track, or even re record certain tracks if you cant seem to get a decent sound.

Eck
 
The levels of the mix sound fine. Everything sits well nothing is out of place. But it is very dull and lifeless. I agree about the "no air" comment. The whole mix sounds like the highs have been shaved. No big deal though. You can probably fix it without re-tracking anything. I'd go into each track while the whole mix is playing and gently massage the high-mids until you start to get more high end in the whole thing.
 
Does seem to have a bit too much in the mids...sort of gets muddled a bit. Maybe cut some mids before trying to boost any highs, see if that adds a bit more depth to it.

I messed with it briefly, trying to lower some mids, and expand some highs...you might be able to do this over the stereo track, but might need to do it on individual tracks if something seems missing. I just did a little....Flippy Tune
 
i love this band. and this song. the kick needs to be more defined. the guitars need more punch for sure. the toms should be lowered and the kick brought up. you should do the vocals on this too i love this song too much to hear it without the lyrics

edit: are the guitars direct?
edit2: listening to it again, i would say use a different snare sample if you can, the one you are using right now is being drowned and this song especially needs those snare hits to stand out because of how they work with the guitar part.
 
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