Seeking advice/tips/help

M

mississippidave

New member
I recently worked on a cover of a Porcupine Tree song (Train). This is my first mix with a new FocusRite interface/better mics and reasonably decent headphones. I used Garageband.
I'm certainly not a sound engineer, but to my ear (In various headphones and in my car system which is how I often gauge my mixes because I don't have great studio monitors) this sounds fairly dialed in. But I'm just wondering if there is anything that jumps out at a more experienced mixing ear that you might do to make it more well rounded? Any glaring errors? And if possible if you could dumb it down as much as possible, I'd really appreciate it! ha! I used this track as a practice run for what I'm hoping will be some kind of DIY album ... I know I have a lot of room for improvement in my mixing though.

Also I don't really pride myself on being some kind of awesome singer or anything. My focus has always been more on my arranging/writing/playing ... I felt happy with the way this cover turned out just from the standpoint of putting my own spin on the tune.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 
This was my first time trying out X/Y stereo mic-ing...But I used two different mics ... A Shure Sm81 and an AKG P170. Also next time I plan to use more sound padding. I bought some little portable sound proofing foam set ups. But in the mix I panned the acoustics slightly left and right of center. Not much like maybe -5 on each.
 
I was trying to zero in on the low thud from the strumming. Perhaps angle one of the mics away from the soundhole, more toward the bridge - assuming the other is at the neck/body.
 
I think what you might be hearing is the way I strum the guitar... I don't use a pick so my hand often hits the body of the guitar on my downstroke. I'll try to be more cognizant of that on future recordings. I tried to have the mics positioned in a way that was demonstrated in online tutorials about x/y mic-ing. (Not to close to the soundhole.)
 
mississippidave said:
I think what you might be hearing is the way I strum the guitar... I don't use a pick so my hand often hits the body of the guitar on my downstroke. I'll try to be more cognizant of that on future recordings. I tried to have the mics positioned in a way that was demonstrated in online tutorials about x/y mic-ing. (Not to close to the soundhole.)
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Do you have a high pass filter on the guitar tracks? If not I would throw one on and bring it up to 150-200 Hz and see if that doesn't manage that low thump
 
Yeah.. I can be bad with that thump sometimes when I get carried away - with a pick no less.
 
mississippidave said:
I recently worked on a cover of a Porcupine Tree song (Train). This is my first mix with a new FocusRite interface/better mics and reasonably decent headphones. I used Garageband.
I'm certainly not a sound engineer, but to my ear (In various headphones and in my car system which is how I often gauge my mixes because I don't have great studio monitors) this sounds fairly dialed in. But I'm just wondering if there is anything that jumps out at a more experienced mixing ear that you might do to make it more well rounded? Any glaring errors? And if possible if you could dumb it down as much as possible, I'd really appreciate it! ha! I used this track as a practice run for what I'm hoping will be some kind of DIY album ... I know I have a lot of room for improvement in my mixing though.

Also I don't really pride myself on being some kind of awesome singer or anything. My focus has always been more on my arranging/writing/playing ... I felt happy with the way this cover turned out just from the standpoint of putting my own spin on the tune.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Click to expand...

The Rhythm Guitar is biting in a bad way. The Second Rhythm Guitar (picking part - then strumming) is too different then the main part.
The Heavy Guitar is kind of bland - just sits there. The Vocal are exceptional - very nice quality to them - although they need to be smoothed
out as they peak at different time. The drums are not percussive - and sit in the mix kind of weird.
 
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