Critique my first sonar recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter powderfinger
  • Start date Start date
Congrats on your first Sonar mix.

This is my first review of somebody else's mix. Two firsts in one thread.

In that spirit, I'll limit myself to one comment to avoid displaying too much ignorance. (Not that it isn't there, but I just don't feel a desire to display it excessively.)

The bass is a bit strong in a few places. A couple of the more potent examples are at 0:07 and again from 2:58 through 3:02. It seems to fluctuate; I'd say try to be more consistent on bass attack. If that's not possible, try compressing the bass and then turning it down a bunch.

There's my comment. I like the song; good luck.
 
tried hi-fi stream... net congestion...

...downloading....

Cool. How are you enjoying Sonar? OK comments:

Just a few to keep the ball rolling... vocal sits pretty well, although 250 Hz & therabouts is quite heavy in the mix. Guitars, vox and bass all want a piece. Try sweeping the eq (cut) near 250 Hz on both bass and guitars, and look for the "sweet spot". Probably don't have to cut all that much, but use your ears. :)

Mix is tilted toward the low end (much like mine :)) Listening on crap multimedia speakers, so I'm guessing: have you rolled off the lows below about 150~200 Hz on guitars? Maybe even up to 300 Hz. That could give you the lows you need from the bass so you could lower the fader on bass and keep the low end. (Just a suggestion, and really just a starting point).

On the performance, vocals have good tone, but do go flat on a couple notes... you'll have to audition that too.

Nice song. Hopefully we can help you polish this up nice & spiffy :p :)


Chad
 
Thanks Chad, I agree that the instruments are "fighting" for room in my mix. This is a common problem of mine. So I should cut eq's? How do I go about doing this? With an eq plugin? Do this on both bass and both guitars? I've heard of this technique before but never used it.....do you cut both guitars and bass the same....any help would be great.
 
I can echo the other coments. The three things standing out are; the bass peaks, the vocal not always in tune and lastly the drums, - low in the mix.

What are you using for drums?

I do like the guitar tones ....and the lead tone and technique is very Neil Young, - raw quality allowing the harmonics to dominate the tone.

nice job.

dmm
 
What version of Sonar? If you right click in FX on a track window, choose an EQ and go. The other thing to do would be to right click the actual clip and edit from there, but this is pretty much a permanent adjustment, so best to wait til you have a better grasp of things. The manual is extremely helpful.....

not a bad recording for no EQ.... Good tune as well.

Good luck with Sonar.
 
powderfinger said:
I agree that the instruments are "fighting" for room in my mix. This is a common problem of mine. So I should cut eq's? How do I go about doing this? With an eq plugin? Do this on both bass and both guitars? I've heard of this technique before but never used it.....do you cut both guitars and bass the same....any help would be great.
Click to expand...

Well, after some basic knowledge... this would be like asking "how do I paint a picture?" :) Once you know how to hold the brush, and dip it in the paint, it's pretty much all up to you. Mixing is similar; once you know how to work the EQ, and what you're trying to accomplish, it's all up to you. You can cut the lows on the vocals and have them sit on top of the guitars; you can cut "slices" out of the guitar to give clarity to both the vox and guitars.

The main thing is to use your ears. You'll need a decent set of monitors, and ideally a good room to listen in. See the "what is the REAL difference" thread in "recording techniques" for more information on the room. chessrock and others have posted great threads about mixing and using EQ:

Here's a good starting point.

Just keep educating yourself, and sit at the feet of the greats like TexRoadkill, track rat, sonusman, littledog, Blue Bear Sound, chessrock, mixmkr, Harvey, and others on this BBS. You'll catch on :)


Chad
 
Not a bad tune!

I kind of agree with some of the other comments so far. My biggest feedback may be to lower the bass. It seems to kind of get in the way at times and is a bit distracting. Maybe lowering it a bit in the mix may give it more balance.

Also, the drums need a bit of a boost. What are you using for your drums?

Nice sound on the guitar solo.

Good job!
 
Wayyy too much bass, vocals are a lot weak. Tune is cool though.
 
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