This Ruined Heart

Hey Boo!
The snare needs some treatment - it's a bit raw & stands alone in the mix.
Vox are cool. Bass could use a tiny bit of 3k boost for defiinition.
Parts of this remind me of the Smithereens - ace. Could use a little jangle guitar to balance the distorted ones.
Solo is fine.
Good work.
 
nice work

I see what Ray means about the snare but overall I say it is real nice! Great vocal quality. What's your setup?
 
Nice, catchy tune...
The snare does jump out in a distracting way. It sounds like it was miced from about 3 feet away in a bad room. The toms too, to a lesser degree. Those two things were the only negative things that jumped out at me, but they were pretty distracting.

Positive things I noticed, lest I concentrate too much on the negatives:
Nice vocal performance, and nice guitar tone. The intro guitar riff reminded me a little of Alice in Chains. Cool riff and tone. Also, the overheads sound nice and smooth, and kind of subtle.
 
Boo Radley... great name. It indicates you paid more attention in high school than I did, lol.

I don't have much to add to what has already been posted other than to say that I agree with most of it. FIRST AND FOREMOST, the mix is not bad right now, but it can definitely be improved upon...or not; I mean, if you wanted to put this on a CD as is, most people wouldn't have a problem with it.

But I do think you can probably develop a less "processed" sounding guitar tone, and I think you can drumagog that snare back into the real world (lol), and I think the bass could have more attack and less total squishdown...I may be mis-hearing the bass, actually; I'm not sure.

ANYWAY, nice tune.
 
Thanks for the comments...all very valuable suggestions. At times I start to not trust my ears or my system and you all are definitely the most valuable resource on the 'net for this type of thing. Sorry for the belayed response, but I started obsessing over the snare sound and didn't want to post until I got it under control (which I think I have).

rayc - I added about 2 db at 3k which indeed gives the bass gtr some presence.

amra - I added a little high end to the toms to make them a bit punchier, and pulled them down in the mix a touch to compensate.

chris - I reduced the compression on all of the guitars and bass by a bit to hopefully get a less processed sound.

ch2os7 - My setup is probably not the perfect model to go by, and is definitely "home recording" at its finest. I track everything on a Boss BR-1600, using all of its built in guitar and bass sounds. For vocals, I use an AKG C3000B with a hand towel hanging in front of it as a pop filter, which I must say, works well in a pinch. For drums, here lately I've been using samples of different types of kits and putting the patterns together in ACID Pro. I then export my tracks from the Boss recorder into ACID and begin mixing, adding effects, etc. I used to try and "master" in SoundForge, but here lately I've been doing all that in ACID as I mix.

As far as monitors go, I have a set of powered Roland DS-50s sitting on my computer desk.

Again, thanks for your comments, and I think I've got this mix a little closer to home!!

Brad
 
dayum this is pretty nice. I must say I appreciate the quality of the vocals here (are they you btw?) surprised that a towel worked for you, I'd be afraid to use anything thicker than an old cheesecloth. I use a storebought popfilter though, so I guess I wouldn't know.

So pretty much the what 2 years (!) is definitely shining through... I'd be so burned on a mix after that long, or I'd just have changed it so many times I wouldn't know what was right anymore haha.

You nailed the sound of the snare in my humble opinion, though I didn't hear it before. I can't tell so much if these are real or sampled, lemme know- you just did a great job on gating, eqing and keeping the levels in check, not to mention performance if they are real. something I strive for on my live drums, so great job if real. i mean I really can't tell, the cymbals sound inhuman and human at the same time, some drummers can pull off unreal sounds.

The guitar I was skeptical at first, but it works great with the other instruments including the voice... same skepticism on the bass when it kicked in, but then I was like "this is great levels!" hehe. and good solo work, I'm loving the writing on it and the sound equally. in the second half do I hear harmonizing or is it delay cleverly used? hmm
 
Hey Soundvile, thanks for the kind words...Yes, that is me singing and doing everything else except for the drums, which I programmed from samples. I should have left the original snare sound out there as an example of how an untamed snare can jump out and screw up a mix!! At first, it just had too much bite or something.

The end of the solo does have two guitars playing harmonizing parts, although I can see how a carefully placed delay could almost produce a similiar sound.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top