Either my ears are going, or my stuff sounds like crap. Need help

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pcstudios

Member
I am a home studio guy, been at it for 10 years or so working in Pro Tools on a Windows 10 computer. By this time, I should hear things or be able to figure out how to manipulate the tracks so it sounds pleasant. This is my first paid project that's going out to be sold physically and online that I've engineered. I've been working on this project for over a month, recording - editing - mixing - mastering for a friend of mine. On his last CD he went to a really great engineer at a real studio, and it turned out great - although it wasn't convenient to get down there and back. I'm closer by and cheaper so it worked out better for him to record here. But he had vintage pre's and good mics, and I'm using $500 mics and $300 pre's, going into a PreSonus converter.

I've got a song (actually 10 songs, but this one is just the example here) and it all sounds too digital, too crunchy, too gritty. The highs are gritty instead of smooth. The lows wallow around in the low end mud, although the bass sounds good to my ears by itself, when it's added to the rest of the tracks it sounds like crap - especially after going through my master chain.

So I've uploaded just the bass part, the mix, and the master of one of his songs. If you guys have any ideas of how to remedy this mix, let me know. I'm tired and I've decided I'm not going to do this for a part time job anymore because of how disappointed I am in this project. But I need to finish the project somehow.


bass - Banjo Hangout Jukebox

mix - Banjo Hangout Jukebox

master - Banjo Hangout Jukebox
 
So are you referencing this against his CD?

You're right, it's not really pleasant. But if you've got the raw tracks, you've surely got some different compressor flavors and reverbs to work with to sweeten up the vocals. I am not sure a banjo can be made to sound pleasant, so that needs to be tackled within the mix so it's not too edgy.

Just a quick listen in the cans and the bass is really weak. How was it recorded? I mean, it seems like it just wasn't captured.

Vocals are on top of each other both in the stereo field and to a large degree in the same frequency band. I'd pan them more to the [opposite] sides a bit and then decide if the guy's going to be a high tenor with the female underneath, or you'll pull some bottom from somewhere in the male vocal and notch it so the female comes through more clearly.
 
I'm using 5" KRK rokkit speakers to monitor, besides some Fostex T50-RP headphones. I'm so disgusted. Yeah, I'm comparing this to the CD he made earlier in the "real studio."

For compressors I've got the CLA-2A & CLA-76. I also have Waves RVox. I'm using a RVox lightly together with the CLA-2A, with less than 4dB of gain reduction on each. Maybe I need to use them more aggressively. The bass is an acoustic upright, mic was about 8" from the treble side of the bridge. You're right, it's as if the real sound of the bass didn't get captured. I can work on the re-panning of the vocals.


Thanks guys,
 
I'd try the 76 compressor on the vocals, and maybe a plate reverb on a bus with a tiny bit of predelay only for the vox tracks, and them a room reverb of some other type for everything else, lpf/hpf so the bass is not too reverb-y, but zero predelay.

I'd be tempted to retrack the bass but if there's real bass content in the track then I'd EQ and compress it to let it punch through on the bottom more.

Is there a guitar at all in there? You've got a hole in the upper lows, since the singers are high, and the banjo and mando are really in the same space. Pan those wide too (wider than vocals). The bass could fill it out if it was there, and interesting, but it just seems weak in the knees.

Things I'd probably do:

Bus the instruments all together and duck them against the vocals bussed together. That'll let you maybe drop the vocals back a dB so they don't sit on top as much, but will still be just as clear.

Do all this in the mix with maybe 1 dB compression on the mix bus.

Work on the overall mix EQ to smooth things out.

Don't master until you've got the mix in better shape.

P.S. Fix that mando plink at the end of the intro, right about :07.
 
pcstudios said:
I'm using 5" KRK rokkit speakers to monitor, besides some Fostex T50-RP headphones. I'm so disgusted.
Click to expand...

That's part of your problem. In particular the KRKs. Not to sound like some of the 'room treatment nazis', but how is your room???
 
I agree already with the KRK's giving you an issue before I even hear anything. Especially if your room is not treated acoustically...Been there, used them.

The links are not working so can't give any further advice.
 
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