Mixing gone wrong?

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ManInMotion711

ManInMotion711

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I posted the first mix in the Mix This! thread was told to come here soo. . . here i am. took what advice was given to me and tried to incorporate it into the mix, curious if anyone could tell me if anything is still messed up. there was bass in it but i decided to drop the bass cause it seemed unneeded.View attachment Heat of the hour 1.mp3
 
Sounds pretty bad man. I'm not sure why, but it just sounds over compressed and/or poorly recorded. I'm not trying to insult it, it's good, just keep working to get a better recordings because this sounds like trash cans.
 
I would bring the bass back in the mix, but just make sure your EQ'ing every instrument appropriately. Keep in mind that the bass track is fundamental in having a nice mix, without it, the mix will sound thin.

I'm not sure if there are 2 guitar tracks just panned down the center in this, or if there is just one rhythm guitar.
Try recording the same main rhythm guitar part 2 times, then panning one take 100% left, and the second take 100% right. Your mix will really open up.
 
Well thank bajesus im good at taking criticism, and ive tried to do what i can, the drums are MIDI so i couldnt do much with them :/ i dropped the low end on the guitars and thought it sounded funny but i was following suggestion
 
AscendRecording;4006360 I'm not sure if there are 2 guitar tracks just panned down the center in this said:
theres actually 2 guitar tracks one panned 80% left and the other 80% right
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There's no bottom end at all in the mix. It's like the sound you get when you're sitting next to someone on a bus and they've got their earbuds on and are playing a track real loud.

You mentioned that you had two guitar tracks panned left and right. Somehow they've managed to end up dead centre and they sound very mono.

The playing is fine.

It's all very well to follow suggestions, specially from those who know this sort of stuff, but it's even better to follow your own ears.
 
gecko zzed said:
There's no bottom end at all in the mix. It's like the sound you get when you're sitting next to someone on a bus and they've got their earbuds on and are playing a track real loud.

You mentioned that you had two guitar tracks panned left and right. Somehow they've managed to end up dead centre and they sound very mono.

The playing is fine.

It's all very well to follow suggestions, specially from those who know this sort of stuff, but it's even better to follow your own ears.
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that underlined sentence is probably the best advice ive ever gotten just saying, and so would you suggest bringing up the high end in the guitars a bit and readding bass to make it seem more full?
 
ManInMotion711 said:
so would you suggest bringing up the high end in the guitars a bit and readding bass to make it seem more full?
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I'd suggest bringing the bass back in because I think it would be an overall improvement.

But I don't think that's really the problem.

I think your mix is acutally ok in terms of the relative levels of the instruments so far. But there seems to me to be a problem with how you are monitoring what you do.

For example, if your monitoring system is very bass heavy, then you will be likely to cut it out to compensate, leaving a mix that's very light on the bass end when played on other systems.
Or maybe even your own ears could be a problem. For example, if they've lost some of their high frequency response, you might be boosting this area to compensate.

Have you tried playing your mixes on other systems to see how they translate?
 
gecko zzed said:
Have you tried playing your mixes on other systems to see how they translate?
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i actually havent had the opportunity to try that out yet, where i am all i have are some headphones, or my laptop speakers, where im going will have a much more diverse selection, an what did you mean by, maybe my own ears could be the problem?
 
ManInMotion711 said:
theres actually 2 guitar tracks one panned 80% left and the other 80% right
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When you say 2 guitar tracks, do you mean you played and recorded the part twice?

Man, seriously. I don't know how you can't hear that it sounds like a transistor radio. Do you really not notice there's absolutely no low end in this mix at all? I'm not trying to be harsh, but taking other people's advice or not, it has to be blatantly obvious that this is thinner than a crack whore on a hunger strike. :eek:
 
RAMI said:
When you say 2 guitar tracks, do you mean you played and recorded the part twice?
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i mean the guitar track was played and then duplicated, and being that ive only been really attempting to " mix " songs for about a week now, yes i noticed it but no i didnt know how to fix it, thats kinda why im here, to learn what i dont from the people who have been doing this sort of thing for years
 
ManInMotion711 said:
i mean the guitar track was played and then duplicated, and being that ive only been really attempting to " mix " songs for about a week now, yes i noticed it but no i didnt know how to fix it, thats kinda why im here, to learn what i dont from the people who have been doing this sort of thing for years
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That's cool. That's why I gave you my honest opinion.

Well, one thing you'll learn is that playing a part once and duplicating doesn't accomplish anything other than make it louder and keep it mono. It's the exact same thing as doubling the volume on one guitar track. That's why that guitar is still coming right up the middle even though you have it panned 80% on each side. You could have it panned 100% on each side and the result would be the same: mono up the middle.

You need to play the part again as close to the original part as you can, and then pan them. That will open up the guitars and make them stereo.
 
RAMI said:
.......You need to play the part again as close to the original part as you can, and then pan them. That will open up the guitars and make them stereo.
Click to expand...

Do this and do it within minutes. You will like it.
 
Everyone has already said there is no bottom end to the mix so I have nothing to add in that respect. I just wanted to say this: it helps me to mix just the bass and drums to start with... Normally boosting 40 hz on the bass drum and 80hz on the bass guitar. Get the bass drum and bass guitar sounding really good and then bring the rest of the drums in. After you have a fantastic bass guitar and drm set sound then bring the guitars in....and if anything needs tweaking tweak the guitars to fit the bass and drum mix you have going. You will get a lot better mix like that IMO.
My 2 cents
 
ManInMotion711 said:
the drums are MIDI so i couldnt do much with them
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Of course you can. It just takes knowledge and effort. You sure you haven't got a high pass filter accidentally sitting on your drum track there taking out all the lows?

I'd also reiterate what everyone else says.. there's no discernable pan on your guitars. Don't have the mono button pressed somewhere?

You're also getting ahead or behingd (can't remember which) of the beat a touch more than is healthy in the middle there, I reckon.

Good luck..
 
Armistice said:
Don't have the mono button pressed somewhere?
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I think he's given us the answer to this above somewhere: he recorded a guitar track, then copied and pasted the copy alongside the original, panning them left and right. However, because it is a direct copy, the result is no different to having a single guitar track in the centre.
 
Not sure why you think you can't do anything with the drums. That should be the first place to start. Get your drums sounding good before doing anything else. Turn off all the other tracks and just work on drums. No guitar, no bass, no vocals ( I know there are no vocals in this particular song).

Midi or not, you can do a lot with the drums. Mostly, it seems to be EQ adjustments, or simply removing anything you've done to them already. They might sound good wothout any adjustments at all. Depends on what you are using as a sound source for the drums.

Headphones and laptop speakers are horrible to mix on, but there are ways around it. Listen to a lot of commercial recordings similar to the style of your song. And I mean listen a lot. Switch back and forth between your song and one that is similar. Listen to the differences and try to recreate that feel. Listen to each instrument. Start with just drums, then add bass, then add guitars. then add vox.

Guitars should only be there to support the bass and drums. Don't make them the dominant instrument.

What everyone here said is good advice. But take all that one bean at a time, don't go for the whole enchilada on the first go around.
 
I think we're missing the most important question for the OP. How did you even record this song?

Even if I recorded guitars, used midi drums, and omitted a bass, without mixing at all, it shouldn't sound like this. What are you using to record? Mic or direct input? What program are you using to make the midi drums?
 
For the guitar and bass I'm micing the amps, playing clean then adding distortion to the guitars, and for the drums I'm actually doing it right out of my DAW it's mixcraft 5 I type it all out
 
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