Could use a bit of help

[rweiss]

Heya, we're trying to bust this cd out within a week, and I'm having trouble getting the songs to sound good. I've put together our first track, but am not really satisfied with it. Would anyone mind critiquing it, and letting me know what it could use?

Here it is:

Any help is appreciated, as I'm going to apply the same mixing style to the rest of the tracks.

 

[Johnny Mac]

First Listen: On the whole I thought it sounded good, Will there be any vocals? In places the guitars sounded as though they we're distorting maybe they could come down a bit.

Second Listen: I thought the snare could use more bite, maybe some compression. Loved the rumbling guitars effect about three quarters of the way through, just after the quiet bit.

 

[xfinsterx]

the hi hat is kinda glaring.
and the BD needs to go up.
did you do this recording in a digital editor..?

 

[rweiss]

Alright, added vocals and touched up some small stuff. I've been playing around with this mix for about 3 days straight, nonstop. I dunno if there's much more I can do.

The vocals need a lot of work, mix-wise, sigh.

 

[rweiss]

the hi hat is kinda glaring.
and the BD needs to go up.
did you do this recording in a digital editor..?

The hihat was all from the snare pickup, unfortunately.. can't really tame it any better without sacrificing the snare's goods. Yeah, it was done on a VF-16, then transferred to the computer.

Any suggestions for this version?
(Could really use some critiquing on the vocal mix AND performance)

 

[xfinsterx]

The hihat was all from the snare pickup, unfortunately.. can't really tame it any better without sacrificing the snare's goods. Yeah, it was done on a VF-16, then transferred to the computer.

Any suggestions for this version?
(Could really use some critiquing on the vocal mix AND performance)

try this..
take and duplicate that snare track.
Then solo out the duplicate and put a gate on it.
Adjust the gate so that the snare is just barely popping out.
then add a gated reverb to the gated snare(quick decay, just a little wet)
then bring down your main snare track and bring the gated one up a bit.
that might help the hi hat issue a little.
As for the vocal...it dosent sound like you gave yourself much to work with so i cant lend any help there.
the guitars sound a little distant now too.

 

[rweiss]

This one still suck?

(Ignore the vocals, I think we're going to redo them)

 

[xfinsterx]

dude im tellin ya!
Redo those drums.
That hi hat bleed is so hainous that it ruins the song for me.
if you cant figure out a way to chill that hi hat out id say retrack the drums with no hi hat,In the hi hats place (so he has something to hit)stick two wheels of card board on his hi hat stand and record the hats afterwards.