I just started recording again after a 25-year hiatus (my last home recordings were done on a 4-track Tascam tape machine) and I've made every dumb mistake in the book. A lot of those I've fixed. The biggest challenge I'm having is with mixing. I'm fine with setting relative instrument levels and using effects, etc, but I just don't have a good ear for tonal balance - getting proper EQ settings for the individual channels to mesh into something with proper overall tonal balance eludes me. I fixed the obvious mistakes I was making at first (e.g., eliminated everything from the master bus, brought channels to below -3db, reduced the master to -6db, etc). But I'm still not quite there and I don't trust my ears after thinking previous versions (before I fixed a lot of stuff) were borderline listenable (they were not). So I was wondering if some folks here would listen to the song below (in dropbox) and offer some comments. I don't care what you think of the song (tastes vary) or it's structure, etc... I'm just curious as to whether you hear clipping, whether there's too much high end, too much low end, insufficient mids, etc etc - basically, distortion and tone (EQ) issues. This song is not in (merely) "acceptable" form yet - I realize that - but I'm trying to figure out how far out I am (I'll probably need professional help, which is fine). This has been mastered using a Landr medium setting - the mastering is not at fault for the questionable shape it's in. I'm not going for what most folks think of as hi-fi or FM radio-ready by today's standards - my favorite music is the late-80s Creation Records stuff (yes, lots of reverb, not the highest fidelity) - but I also don't want it to sound like complete sh1t from an EQ perspective. Anyhow, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Edit - Updated version 2 (again, sounds much better... details for those interested in post #21 below... thanks for all the help)
Edit - Updated version 1 (sounds much better - thanks for the help - much rounder and fuller):
[I increased the bass and bass drum levels in the mix as well as the low-end for both; increased the low-end on the whole mix but reduced the sub-low frequencies; gave a tiny boost to the high end on the vocals; and cut the length and depth of the reverb in some spots where it clearly wasn't necessary]
Dropbox - carnival (v02b mast med wav).wav
Still work to be done - it sounds much better. The two main remaining issues are that (1) the low end, while it's fuller, lacks definition, and (2) I think there are a lot of battles for frequency going on in the mix in various places that I can't fix by myself. It still sounds a bit unbalanced, but it's much improved.
Original version:
Dropbox - carnival (v02 mast med wav).wav
Edit - Updated version 2 (again, sounds much better... details for those interested in post #21 below... thanks for all the help)
Edit - Updated version 1 (sounds much better - thanks for the help - much rounder and fuller):
[I increased the bass and bass drum levels in the mix as well as the low-end for both; increased the low-end on the whole mix but reduced the sub-low frequencies; gave a tiny boost to the high end on the vocals; and cut the length and depth of the reverb in some spots where it clearly wasn't necessary]
Dropbox - carnival (v02b mast med wav).wav
Still work to be done - it sounds much better. The two main remaining issues are that (1) the low end, while it's fuller, lacks definition, and (2) I think there are a lot of battles for frequency going on in the mix in various places that I can't fix by myself. It still sounds a bit unbalanced, but it's much improved.
Original version:
Dropbox - carnival (v02 mast med wav).wav
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