Thoughts on this mix of our original rock tune
- Thread starter Stubby03
- Start date
bozmillar
New member
The song has everything it needs to be a good song, but the mix needs a lot of work. I'd start with the bass and drums, because that seems to be the weakest part of the mix.
Drums: I'd start over completely. Start with the overheads and bring in the close mics to give them more power. Stick to high pass and low pass filters for now. Not that other filters are bad to use, but I think there are some missing basics on what you should and shouldn't be EQing. Once you have your EQ close to right, you can start worrying about compression. Right now your snare sounds like a super muffled something brought through a transient designer.
The bass is very rumbly and loud. How did you track it?
The guitars and vocals are less problematic, and I think once you have the bass and drums right, the guitars and vox will be much easier to drop in. I think the main issue is just an overall overuse of EQ to try to solve problems that EQ doesn't solve.
Are you using reference material to compare your mix to?
Drums: I'd start over completely. Start with the overheads and bring in the close mics to give them more power. Stick to high pass and low pass filters for now. Not that other filters are bad to use, but I think there are some missing basics on what you should and shouldn't be EQing. Once you have your EQ close to right, you can start worrying about compression. Right now your snare sounds like a super muffled something brought through a transient designer.
The bass is very rumbly and loud. How did you track it?
The guitars and vocals are less problematic, and I think once you have the bass and drums right, the guitars and vox will be much easier to drop in. I think the main issue is just an overall overuse of EQ to try to solve problems that EQ doesn't solve.
Are you using reference material to compare your mix to?
Thank you for the feedback. I tracked the bass with a 57 and direct. I want a heavy sound with the bass. But I do not want it overpowering. The drums I will start from scratch. I use reference tracks, but not as often as I should. I will start using them all the time. I will use your suggestions. Thanks again.
I'm no expert at all, so read what you will into this. The song sounds to me like an awesome 80s power-metal hit, and I think the arrangement and composition is sound indeed. The recording/mixing, however, stumbles on just about every front. Please don’t be discouraged by this, I’m only writing what I hope everyone else would write to me if I uploaded this. After all, that's why we're doing this! 
In general, you should begin by removing any and all reverb plugins save whatever you have on the vocals. I think both the choice of reverb and the amount serves to obscure most elements in this mix, either directly or by placing them in very different places. Hold out on the reverb until it sounds a lot better dry. Then see if you need some. If it isn't reverb, say on the guitars, then think about how you can dampen the sound of the room you're recording in. Blankets and pillows - anything will do. The vocals are the only thing that sound pretty good, and even though I think they may be hi-passed a bit high, that may turn out to work perfectly once the rest of the issues are addressed. I’d leave it for now.
The snare sounds extremely compressed, either because it is or because it has little to no top end or both. For this type of song, you might want to try the exact opposite – very little low end, and a lot more of the string-thingy’s on the bottom side. Add a huge plate reverb with a decent amount of pre-delay, but perhaps don’t mix it as high as they did in the 80s ;-) The snare should at least be a lot snappier.
The kick is mostly “woof”/”oomph” on my monitors, and forced me to listen at quite low volumes – especially at the end. What is lacking here is the “click”-sound, which should be a lot more audible whilst the “woof” sort of just fills in a short space after it. Try and find some of the click, turn it up a lot and lower the volume of the kick overall. EDIT: There might not be a click on your recording. If this is the case, I believe it's fairly easy to get a hold of a sample or two and trigger them when the kick plays. I've never tried that myself, though.
The cymbals are obscured by something, but I’m not skilled enough to hear exactly why. I sort of hear the moment they are struck, but more for a brief time after before they prematurely disappear. Not sure what that is about, but it might sort itself out once the guitars are addressed.
You don't need to have much string and attack on the bass for this genre, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3yScwtYzKE , but a little more would go a long way. There are massive bass sounds out there with a lot of string-sound as well, I've always been partial to this compromise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CprfjfN5PRs
I think I heard some toms in there. Turn those suckers up
I think some hi-passing of the guitars are in order, to get some room for the kick and bass guitar. Maybe a shelf too, but definitely look for some mud and boost the mids and high mids – there should be plenty of room with that vocal.
Those are my two cents. You can make really rapid progress here, so you should have a lot of fun with it!
In general, you should begin by removing any and all reverb plugins save whatever you have on the vocals. I think both the choice of reverb and the amount serves to obscure most elements in this mix, either directly or by placing them in very different places. Hold out on the reverb until it sounds a lot better dry. Then see if you need some. If it isn't reverb, say on the guitars, then think about how you can dampen the sound of the room you're recording in. Blankets and pillows - anything will do. The vocals are the only thing that sound pretty good, and even though I think they may be hi-passed a bit high, that may turn out to work perfectly once the rest of the issues are addressed. I’d leave it for now.
The snare sounds extremely compressed, either because it is or because it has little to no top end or both. For this type of song, you might want to try the exact opposite – very little low end, and a lot more of the string-thingy’s on the bottom side. Add a huge plate reverb with a decent amount of pre-delay, but perhaps don’t mix it as high as they did in the 80s ;-) The snare should at least be a lot snappier.
The kick is mostly “woof”/”oomph” on my monitors, and forced me to listen at quite low volumes – especially at the end. What is lacking here is the “click”-sound, which should be a lot more audible whilst the “woof” sort of just fills in a short space after it. Try and find some of the click, turn it up a lot and lower the volume of the kick overall. EDIT: There might not be a click on your recording. If this is the case, I believe it's fairly easy to get a hold of a sample or two and trigger them when the kick plays. I've never tried that myself, though.
The cymbals are obscured by something, but I’m not skilled enough to hear exactly why. I sort of hear the moment they are struck, but more for a brief time after before they prematurely disappear. Not sure what that is about, but it might sort itself out once the guitars are addressed.
You don't need to have much string and attack on the bass for this genre, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3yScwtYzKE , but a little more would go a long way. There are massive bass sounds out there with a lot of string-sound as well, I've always been partial to this compromise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CprfjfN5PRs
I think I heard some toms in there. Turn those suckers up
I think some hi-passing of the guitars are in order, to get some room for the kick and bass guitar. Maybe a shelf too, but definitely look for some mud and boost the mids and high mids – there should be plenty of room with that vocal.
Those are my two cents. You can make really rapid progress here, so you should have a lot of fun with it!
Thank you. I will take all the help I can. I recorded the guitars in a approx. 14x25 room, with a 57. I placed acoustic panels around the amp. I'm really gonna dig into everybodys advice on this. Sometimes I think I'm making progress, then bang. Back to the drawing board. lol. I have learned not to record guitars with the reverb. Add later. I recently started recording the drums with more than 2 mics. lol Again, thanks
The track has a muffled sound overall. The guitars are leaning right, vocals and drums left. Vocals are too low. At one point in the song, the lead vocal seems to shift right for a moment, then back to the left. I'd suggest you start by taking off all FX. Work on getting a raw balance with levels and panning. Mute everything but drums, bass, and lead vocal. Get those working together, then add the guitars and harmony vocals.
ido1957
9K Gold Member
The drums need the most work, specifically the snare needs to get some snap in it and the bass is a bit boomy. The volume is good but there's a lack of clarity. The vocals lean right at times - not sure why you chose to mix it like that. Guitars are good, bass is fine if you're going for a deep bottom end. Excellent song, love the vocals which are top notch. The rest of the backing instruments are great too. Just work on the drums a bit for starters.
I started from scratch will the drums. I did have them to compressed and pretty muffled. I don't have vocals going to the right. I will recheck them. Thanks on the vocals comment. I hate singing. Always have. I'm pretty self conscious when it comes to singing. I just started singing in highschool, because I was the only one who could sing and play at the same time. lol Appreciate all the comments. Cant get better without them.