Thank you all for taking the time to listen and give me feedback - much appreciated. Like I said, this is a learning process as much as an "output."
Sorry I wasn't clear, but the only thing recorded in the untreated room with a microphone was the vocals. The untreated part was more relevant to the mixing, as I would learn.
The guitars and bass were various amp plugins, and the drums were performed on an old Roland TDK-15 eKit driving SSD5.5, so yes, drum samples. I learned how to route the drums from SSD5.5 to separate tracks and have more control over each element.
In starting the mix, I was quickly overtaken with option overwhelm from all the plugins I could use so kept it simple and used the UAD Pultec EQ collection, 1176 compressor and plate reverb plugins and did my best with those limits. I've watched a few Sara Carter YouTube videos since and am ready to try again - I will probably start from scratch and instead throw an SSL 4000e channel strip on every channel and go from there. So much to learn. Since the guitars/bass/drums were all recorded in the box, I can switch things up and try more metal sounding guitars and processed drums (I got Addictive Drums and haven't really played with it). I feel like I could literally sit here and twiddle knobs for years without playing another note.
I built out a room early in the pandemic but have been having so much fun playing that I haven't bothered to treat it beyond bass traps in the corners. This was my first attempt at critical listening/mixing in here and I quickly learned I have a low end problem, like so many others with smaller rooms. When played on other systems, I had a pretty loud and muffled mess in the low end. I am debating whether to go down the rabbit hole of measuring room response and such, but that's a subject for a different thread. I will post pics in the "show me your studio" thread later if you're interested.
@Papanate - Thanks for the comment on the brittle bits. I heard that edge as well, bit it's not from guitars and drums bouncing around an untreated room. I suspect it's from a mastering plugin. I can hear it in my monitors (Adam T8V) but not through headphones (Senn HD280). Once I got done with the mix I tried to eke out some loudness using the Brainworx Masterdesk plugin but it seems to add a harshness no matter what settings I tried (I wasn't trying to squash the life out of it for max volume), and I found myself dramatically attenuating the treble and presence controls. I will figure it out.
@Flyguitarfish - appreciated the comment about the brass not being too bright. In years past I found myself loving bright sounds sources - cymbals, acoustic guitars, etc. - everything sounds better when it's shiny, right? When all put together, all these "great shiny tracks" created a quivering mass of shimmer that was quite painful. I am trying to grow up in that regard and realize that the hi hat is not the most important thing in the world to shine through.
