Please judge my mix (guitar,bass and drums) :)

porkplan

New member
I just started learning how to mix this past month. I learned a few things but I'm still not confident enough about my music production skills. Maybe you guys can help me, I just need feedback on how I can improve this track that I just finished. Song construction and sloppy playing aside. I want to know what you guys think about the mix and recording quality. I haven't mastered the track yet just mixed it.

When I listened through the speakers it sounded okay to me but using headphones it seems like the rhythm part in 0:20 needs improvement and some other levels of the guitars are sort of inconsistent

https://soundcloud.com/gian-luigi-candava/my-mix

If you guys need to see the eqs that I made I'll just upload them :)
 
Thanks for sharing! First, you've got a GREAT bass tone, and a lovely lead guitar tone. Also, I enjoyed the fact that your music has some great dynamics, which are solely lacking in so much music today. Some thoughts:

Drums
-Quite unbalanced. Overheads are far too loud for the rest of the kit. The ride and crash cymbals feel like they were played on their own as an overdub and pasted on top. Pull them back a good amount so that the kit feels like one person.
-You're losing the kick drum in the bass tone. This is often one of the trickiest parts in mixing. Find the sweet spot of your kick drum (somewhere in the 60-80hz range usually) and boost with a high Q 2-4db. Then cut the same out of the bass. This gives the kick just a little place to sit.

Guitars
-Rhythm guitars need to come up a bunch. They sound like they're being played down the hall in another room, and somehow ended up on this recording. Push them up closer!
-Lead guitar is too far out front. Back it off a few db, and sit it in the middle of this mix. It can take the place of the vocals in an instrumental, so put it front and center. Right now it sounds panned off to the left.

Hope this helps!
 
Hi thank you for your feedback. Regarding the rhythm guitar. I agree it sounds really off, way off haha.
Should I fix the eq of the lead or just the volume and panning? And is it fine that it's in mono and not in stereo?

Again, thank you for the very detailed feedback. :)
 
Hard to tell if the lead needs EQ fixing when it isn't sitting right in the mix. Try backing the level (fader) off a few DB and putting it in the center first. You can probably put a high pass filter up to 150hz at least (if not much, much higher). Take a listen to some of the instrumental guitarists and you'll hear that the lead is not nearly as loud in the mix as you might think. Satriani is a great example. Listen to Crushing Day or something.
 
Everything Brian said. But particularly, bring the lead guit back more than just a few dBs. When it plays, everything else disappears.

I agree about the bass tome. It's really nice.
 
Hi guys thanks. This the new mix I made. https://soundcloud.com/gian-luigi-candava/new-mixxaiff

I realized that the rhythm guitar sounds a little bit off. Maybe too loud?
And a question, is it just me or did I lose some character on the lead guitar? I hope it did not get worse than my first mix. I'm not saying that I like it loud, just the tone itself :) I would appreciate if you compare them. Thanks guys.
 
Also, it seems the sound quality of my recording isn't that good. I'm using a toneport ux2 that's quite old. The guitars are the only ones that I recorded. The bass and drums are both midi programmed. What do you think of the recording quality? Thanks guys
 
All Along the Watchtower?

I like the second mix much better. The first mix was just way too thin. The second mix is a bit fuller (tho still pretty thin). Drums sound much better.

Cool bass playing.

I'd get rid of the chorus or whatever you're using on the guitars. Just makes them sound out of tune.

It seems like there is a ton of space between the bass and guitars. It's as if the bass has no energy above the low-midrange and the guitars have no energy below it. They just don't mesh together.
 
All Along the Watchtower?

I like the second mix much better. The first mix was just way too thin. The second mix is a bit fuller (tho still pretty thin). Drums sound much better.

Cool bass playing.

I'd get rid of the chorus or whatever you're using on the guitars. Just makes them sound out of tune.

It seems like there is a ton of space between the bass and guitars. It's as if the bass has no energy above the low-midrange and the guitars have no energy below it. They just don't mesh together.

I second all of this. The guitars and bass have a frequency gap between them, making the whole mix sound awfully thin. Check your EQ levels on rhythm guitar. What kind of information do you have in the 100-250hz range? You may want to add a few db shelf in this range (unless you previously cut it away, in which case bring it back!).

Check the bass in the 200-400 range. What's there? Sounds like nothing. You should be able to see the space that's missing, in addition to hearing it. If it's a MIDI programmed bass, it's probably a pretty flat sound to begin with. Try a 2-4db shelf from 140hz and below for some power? Hard to tell when it's been programmed where the problem is without seeing it for myself.

Definitely lose the chorus or back it way off of the rhythm guitars. They do sound slightly out of tune.

Overall balance is better. Cymbals could still come down another 2db I think.

Keep working at it!
 
I am New here so don't really know the exact protocol on responding...personally it sounds pretty good to me with the exception of the lead. Sounds like it has too much presence and possibly too much distortion, but that may be the sound your looking for. But it certainly stands way out when its playing. If it were my mix I would push it back more than you already did and let it sit in the mix instead of outside it. Also, I did hear a few lead notes that sounded off-key. Overall sounds good though!
 
Thank you guys for helping me out.

Another thing I noticed is that the drums sounds like it's way back on the mix. What can I do to make it sound closer?
 
If you want to pull stuff forward in a mix, there are a couple of obvious ways:

Turn it up.

Remove reverb and delay.
 
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