First Major Mix

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pjb5015

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I'm looking for some tips to help me improve my mixing. I feel as if my mixes have very little depth to them. For example, the bass guitar sounds to me as if I am hearing a bass plugged directly into the headphones I am listening to my mix on, as opposed to being miked up. When I listen to mixes from the 70s (the sound I am going for), I feel like it sounds very open, and when listened to on headphones it sounds as if I am in the room hearing the band playing, as opposed to having each band member's instrument "plugged" directly into my headphones (the way my mixes sound). I have attached a sample song to this post for you all to hear what I mean. Thank you so much in advance, I really appreciate any help you can give me. Maybe I will attach a couple of songs if I am able to.
 

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In general mixing on headphones is not a common practice. The bass has way to much bottom. (on this track) You can add depth by running the bass through a pre-amp of somekind or by adding alot of mids(1-2k) and gain. A good quality reverb on room settings will add to the mix as well. (or micing up amps).Do you have a decent set of monitors? The pros around here will tell you its most important to learn what your hearing through good monitors.
 
Thanks for the help. Yes, I was pretty sure there was too much Bass on this mix. Do you think there is too much low-end on the bass, or that the Bass is just too loud? I don't usually mix on headphones, however my "Monitors" are a set of computer speakers. The worst part about this is that the subwoofer has a seperate volume knob, so I have very little clue as to how much bass I am adding or taking away, because there is no neutral setting for the subwoofer. I should probably invest in some quality monitors though. Thanks again for your help.
 
Sounds like too much low on the bass. When I listen to computer subwoofer systems like that I put the sub on full for that reason (so you dont have too much bottom). Most guys will advising on getting expensive monitors but you can find something decent for a few hundred that at least will get you closer.
 
Nice song very calssic rock feel to it I like it (Birth Mix 1)

Things I noticed with my limited experience:
Without a sub there wasn't much low end action, especially in smaller speakers. I don't know if there was a bass guitar line as I couldn't really make one out, not much in the way of a kick drum either

Snare is pretty up front especially in the quieter parts of the song although it does sound good it could back off a little in the quiet passage toward the end.

Piano and accoustic guitar kind of cancel each other out at some points in the mix where it gets dense. maybe panning & EQ could sort that or even a re track so they are playing in different registers and voicings and are not fighting for the same sonic space

Vox sounded good but could use a little more presence maybe some EQ in the 3-4k range to bring out the clarity, maybe even some paralell compression to give them some oomph in the louder sections

Also, if you want to add depth and have things to sound further away, think about how sound acts in the real world. Things that are further away aren't just quieter, higher frequencies require more energy to move through the air and so decay faster. So if you wan't to simulate distance and depth you could try a roll off the very HFs on tracks that you want to sit further back in the mix

Nice song, well performed I enjoyed hearing it
 
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I listened to Birth.

The first thing that struck me was the unevenness of the bass. It's got a couple of frequencies that really jump out. You need to find those frequencies and notch them out. Some (more) compression would probably help too.

The snare sound is pretty to my ear. Guitars seemed OK.

I might shoot for a better vocal performance. It gets a bit "stilted" in spots. Doesn't flow as well as I think it could.
 
I'm listening through NS-10m's...

I think it sounds overall very good - you've got a big sound.

I like the bass and drums and I'd leave them but the vocal isn't sitting on the front dead center of the mix like I want to hear it. The voice is cool. I'm not one looking for a "perfect" voice - I'd much rather hear one like you've got going.

In the 70's you would have all the sounds mashing together - the whole tape saturation trip. You don't get that from digital and it was a key component in tape based pop music.

That's my call - great overall, vocal needs shine and the whole track needs to be mushed.

Maybe you can eq the mic. A U87 would do it. Maybe there's some "vintage tube compressor" that doesn't sound hokey that would mash the band together. Playing the whole track through a real pair of tube compressors is another way of doing it. Maybe an Art VLA Pro is good enough, I don't know. I'd try a vintage compressor type VST on it, most DAW's have one.
 
Myself I thought it had real great seperation of the tracks in headphones and in the monitors. If I had one thing to nit it would be to bring the bass down just a touch. Maybe that is me because I have had people tell me I didn't have enough bass. So play it by ear. Nice song though.

Trump
 
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