Original rock song tips to improve mix?

minerman

minerman

Tonetard
Hey everybody,
Let me know what I can do to improve my mix on this. Thanks in advance.


"Afraid of the Dark"
http://www.soundclick.com/share?songid=7491579

BTW Lots of great info in this forum, trying my best to apply what I learn toward my music. This is the most technical & informative forum I've found in the short time I've been recording!
 
One thing that bothers me is there is a wider stereo field in the snare drum than the guitar. The guitars need to be wider IMHO. Still like the tune and it sounds cool. Wider, fatter guitars would really liven it up.
 
Thanks Murdersgalore,
I have the rhythm gtrs panned as far L & R as they will go. The snare is dead center, any tips for widening them out, or making the snare seem less so? Thanks for the listen & compliments!:)
 
Giving it another listen I think there is either a room reverb of some sort on the snare that needs tamed a little. Is this a drum vsti of some sort?
 
Yeah I use Beatcraft for my drums, & I put a vst reverb on the snare, as well as everything else. I thought it was pretty minimal, but I'm pretty new at this, so I might have went overboard with the reverb. Maybe turn the verb down on th snare? Thanks!
 
Yeah that may help. I did the same thing with the reverb when I started out. Sounded fine to me at first but then proved to be too much. A friend of mine long ago told me "dude, with reverb set it to where you think it sounds cool and then give it about half of that". lol
 
minerman said:
Thanks Murdersgalore,
I have the rhythm gtrs panned as far L & R as they will go. The snare is dead center, any tips for widening them out, or making the snare seem less so? Thanks for the listen & compliments!:)
Click to expand...

Try panning the guitars a little less and throwing a mild stereo delay on each one. Maybe like 25% with 15ms on one channel and 10ms on the other. Something like that. I did that to my track earlier and it widened it up a bit.
 
Thanks royalt213.
I tried another vst with a "stereo wide" effect & it seemed to help some. Took some of the 'verb off the snare also. I haven't re-posted the song on SC yet, may tinker with it for a few days to see if I can improve it. Thanks for the tip, I'll try that as well as do some experimenting on my own. And, thanks for the listen too!!!:)
 
This is probably just a personal taste thing but I would have liked the vocals to be more subdued in the mix. Without the benefit of having the controls in front of me I'm not exactly sure what I mean by subdued, but I imagine a little less volume and maybe a little less bright. Otherwise cool tune, I like it.

MattDee
 
Thanks Matt,
I have to do about 90% of my recording/mixing with phones (I know not to do final mix with phones!), & was listening to the song again & noticed the vocals were a little "bright & harsh" sounding. I eq'd them a tad, but won't be able to break out the sprks for the actual mix until later this week. I have gotten "decent" results (to my ears anyway) using this method. I can't use my monitors to mix due to my neighbors & my wife, don't want to stir up a hornet's nest!:) Thanks for the listen & tips, should re-post this in a couple days. BTW, if you can think of anything else I might try, I'm always open for suggestions. Thanks again!!!!
 
Pretty good sound, man!
Guitars sound nice and gritty and the bass compliments them nicely. It does sound very mono though. How many guitar tracks do you have here? You should spread the different elements out in the stereo field thru panning. It'll give you more depth. Your drum sound's great, really like it. Nice song and good mix!

Joey :):):):)
 
Thanks Joey!
I have 5 guitars total, 2 left side, 2 right side, & the lead. The left & right don't play together all through the song, just around the chorus & the little lead intros. I have them panned as far as they will go on this version. I gonna try to re-post this tonight, I added a vst effect to just the rhythm gtrs, & it seemed to help spread them out. I've also been tinkering around with the free Waves plug-in, but they're probably not gonna be on this one (yet anyway) Thanks for the listen & tips, & thanks again for the compliments!!!
 
Thanks Murdersgalore!:)
I backed off a little on the snare reverb, added a wide stereo effect to the rhythm guitars, & toned the eq on the vocals down a little. Thanks for the listen & especially for the tips & compliments!!!:):):)
 
I'm really liking your song. nice sounding guitars, and wouldn't change anything.
Sounds both raw and polished at the same time. Good ol' Rock & roll.
I will check out more of your tunes on Soundclick. I'm there, but not posted much.
 
Thanks johnnymegabyte,
Post your link & I'll check out some of your tunes!!! I actually re-posted this yet again, I listened to it on another system & the bass was way too loud. Maybe one day I'll learn how to do this shit!:D Thanks for the comments, but thanks mostly for listening.
 
sounds good! i guess the only improvement i would make is getting the bass to stand out more. maybe give it a nice growl/bit of distortion to let it cut through.

keep up the good work!
 
Everything seemed fine to me. If I had to nitpick, I'd say the vocal could drop back a hair... and whatever stereo-widening effect is on the lead guitar kind of bugs me. I always think of the lead guitar as a second vocal... it deserves a spotlight, front and center.... splitting it just makes it blend in with the rest of the music.

But that's just nitpicking. Generally, I'd say it was definitely good.
 
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