A bit experimental rock, tough mix

M

Minism

Member
Hello everyone,

One more mix for your critique. This time it is an original song. It's in Lithuanian (my native language) and has pretty funny lyrics :)

I am quite happy about the composition, but not sure about all the technical stuff. Is compression alright? Any clashing instrument frequencies? Should I try to get more fancy with the reverbs? Does it 'glue' ok? Does it sound natural (not everything was recorded live here)?.. :)

Thanks!
 

Attachments

  • Nevykelis (Loser).mp3
    8.2 MB · Views: 19
The guitars and bass sound pretty good. Cool song. I like the drum sound too.

The vocal had a cheap-mic sound. The vocal sounded like it was in a different spot from the rest of the instruments. Like the vocalist was right in my ear, but the band was 40 feet back.

The guitars kept moving back and forth in the stereo spread. It was a bit distracting on headphones.

Little pops at :18, :24. A couple more later.
 
i hear the pops too. i thought the best sound was the cymbals/ride. guitars sound very pushed back. vocals sounded ok
 
I like the low end, very punchy and old school. However, the mix overall is dark. It needs some brighter elements to even out the tonal balance.

The vocal is not sitting well at all, IMO. It almost sounds like a karaoke, with the vocal in a different space from the backing track. I also thought that the vocal was muddy and boomy in places. You might want to get in their and clean out the low mids and lows on that vocal track, starting with a high pass. Come to think of it, you might want to high pass everything that isn't carrying bass content.
 
2nd try. I think I got basic EQ and compression with vocals, but I think the verses (rap) are still lacking something and no reverbs, delays, distortion or choruses seem to work... I want them to be 'in the face', so moving them deeper in the stereo field hardly works (?)..

And I decided to keep the guitars a bit muddy.
 

Attachments

  • Nevykelis MP3.mp3
    8.2 MB · Views: 6
I like the song, I wonder if re recording the vocals wouldn't improve the mix though. The second mix sounds better but it still sounds like the vocal isn't fitting into the mix. Kind of like the singer was too close to the mic maybe.
 
The pops are gone.

I still don't like the vocal - both where it's sitting and the tone. Still has that USB-mic cheap-ish tone.

Can't understand the lyrics. But I like the vocalist, especially in the chorus. Reminded of David Byrne in the Talking Heads era.
 
The singer is me :) Thanks, I rarely get compliments on my singing!

Does it sound cheap in the chorus (the heavy part) as well? The choruses were recorded with a shure sm57, because I wanted a duller, less toppy sound (although later on still used eq to bring top end back...). I though the biggest issue was the verses?..
 
Minism said:
Does it sound cheap in the chorus (the heavy part) as well?
Click to expand...

I like the vocal better in the chorus than in the verses. But I'm not sure if it's because of the mic or because all the other instruments bashing away cover up the cheap sounding tone. What vocal mic did you use in the verses?
 
Rode M3. It is inexpensive, but not a bad mic and should not sound cheap (I guess?).

It was probably a bad idea to 'eat' the mic - I thought muddier vocals would fit better in there. I ended up cutting a fair amount of low mids anyway...
 
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