Please tell me I'm improving!

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mattr

mattr

Resident moody teenager
Just now out of pure curiosity I compared a snippet of a rough mix I was doing last night (pretty much the raw tracks) with a 'rough mix' of the same song I recorded a few months ago (I'm doing an album with a friend's band I've done stuff before with and we're rerecording some of their old songs for it).

I've never had any education/training in this stuff, and my new interface and Sonar can't make that much of a difference, so is it really just down to practice? I guess I just want reassurance that this expensive and time-consuming hobby is taking me somewhere :)!

Old (vocal-less) chorus...
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=16266

New (vocal-less) chorus...
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=16265

And ideas/hints on how I can improve the new mix before I add vocals to it? I will do a bit more work to it because most of the tracks (apart from the drums) are completely raw at the moment, so it needs a bit more polishing. The snare still doesn't seem quite what I want, and a few tom hits get buried. I also want to beef out the bottom end a bit more but I still don't have a nice pair of monitors and I'm not confident that I can do this without muddying it up. How's the balance with the bass on everyone else's monitors?

Thanks
 
It's not so much the improvement on the mix. I'm finding it hard to believe it's the same band. Version 1 sounds like a live recording at a bad rehersal with a room mic and version 2 an all more polished affair with a LOT more tallent in the playing department. :confused:
 
Same room at my old school's studio used for the drums, but guitars were tracked in the guitarist's living room this time (last time they were done in the studio). Very similar mics used :confused:

The drummer has improved a lot though and can now play rock-solid to a click. Last time he was struggling to play close to the beat, and this time one of his takes was so perfect he actually sounded like programmed drums!

Practice has paid off loads for the band then too :)?
 
mattr said:
The drummer has improved a lot though and can now play rock-solid to a click. Last time he was struggling to play close to the beat, and this time one of his takes was so perfect he actually sounded like programmed drums!

Practice has paid off loads for the band then too :)?
Click to expand...

The drums are the most improved part of this. I don't think they sound programed and hell, what an improvement for a month. I hate to think how much better he's gonna be in 6 months.
 
Well, it was a few months ago. More like 5 months. But yuh, I'm happy :).

Any thoughts on how I can improve the mix? I'm probably recording vocals sometime next week. I'll try and get the rest of it polished up tonight as I only really looked at the chorus last night (singer wanted it to practice to).

On another note, anyone got any suggestions for a pair of monitors around £300? I know it depends on my room, treatment, placement, etc, but people can still have recommendations! I'm thinking a pair of Tannoy reveals as I mixed on a pair at a friend's studio and they seemed, well, very revealing (without being too harsh)!. I mainly mix this kinda of genre but I do need to be able to distinguish little details as some of the songs I'm recording have many guitar parts that all intertwine - I also do some live recording of jazz and acoustic stuff.
 
Monitors under £300. You can't go wrong with a pair of wharfedale Diamond pro 8.2's with change left over to make yourself some home made bass traps to tune your room.

I wouldn't polish up the mix too much before I put the vocals in. Usualy the vocals are the most important thing in the mix. I like to get my drums sounding good with the bass quickly then get my vocals in on top of that. Then I bring in guitars, keys, percussion, BV and effects. If you polish up the mix first you run a big risk of mot leaving enough room to fit the vocals in the mix...you end up EQing the shit out the vox and they still don't fit right so you start shaving EQ off everything else and the whole mix goes to pot. Get the vocals sitting in early with the drums and bass then add the rest. It's like making soup.
 
mattr said:
so is it really just down to practice?
Click to expand...

Yes...yes it is. Well, practice and educating yourself. Most here have no "formal" education in the area of audio engineering, but after doing 100 or so mixes, if you haven't gotten substantially better, you're either deaf or not trying, lol.

I was glad to see you got some low end in the 2nd mix. The 2 are obviously night and day. You'll have to change some stuff when the vocal comes into the mix, so I won't bother critiquing it beyond saying that it's getting way better.
 
Yeah, I'd say the second one is by far better than the first. In about 5 months you'll look back to the second one and be embarrassed that you ever made something like that.

For me, nothing helps more than to sit down and just practice. Every mix I do sounds substantially better than the previous.

Also, I think listening to other songs on hear and pointing out what changes should be made is great practice too. You begin to see the issues that are common in home studios, and you'll start to find the same issues in your own mixes.
 
Thanks :)

Bozmillar... thing is, when I did that one the one 5 months ago I knew that it was rubbish, whereas now I'm actually happy with the sound I'm getting and wouldn't ashamed of them (which I better not be, because the demo tracks are destined for the music collections of all the band's many friends, the iTunes store and the letterboxes of all the local music venues).

That doesn't mean I'm satisfied - ooooh no, once vox is recorded that song will undergo hours/days of tweaking. I'm a perfectionist by nature and (even if it doesn't get me anywhere) can have serious bouts of tinkeritis. And once I'm finally happy with a mix I'll still dig it up a few weeks later for just a few more tweaks :D "Addicted to tweaking"

I'll take a look at those Wharfdales. Still not totally off the idea of the Tannoys though, most likely a second hand pair of the original Reveals. I saw some Precision 6Ds on ebay a while back though which were only slightly over budget, so if there was another pair like that came up I would be very tempted.
 
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