First Mix Ever-Hardcore Type Band-Critique it to Hell!

[ALaz502]

Alright, this is my first mix ever. My buddy's band has had lots of stuff recorded for quite some time and haven't been able to get it mixed properly. Low $$$. So he brought his Alesis HD24 full of stuff to my place and we started to get down and dirty. Took us a few days to clean some of the tracks up and stuff, but here it goes.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

-The bass tracks are a bit inaudible at parts. Slight tracking problem, may retrack later.

-It's my first mix ever. I think my buddy has had some experience, but I mostly used tips that I learned here.

Right click, SAVE AS.

 

[systmovadown]

nice mix..

how did u record drums and guitars?
vocals?

 

[xfinsterx]

Sounds generic in terms of style.
I.E. Korn,Disturbed,Generic.
So/..your first mix of all time?

Well then.
Nice work.

 

[ALaz502]

nice mix..

how did u record drums and guitars?
vocals?

My buddy who's in the band did all the tracking. It was his first real tracking project too and I must say the tracks were very clean and easy to work with. I'll find out the specifics when I talk to him next.

This was my first complete mixing project, but I've played around with mixing before...so I'm not 100% new to this. I've been reading up on this board for a year now and used quite a few tricks from here.

I got a question for you guys though, does the mix sound dead at all? I rested my ears for about a day or so and listened to it and it seemed a little dead to me. I think an older version of it almost sounded better(we mixed this over many days so there are about 15 different mixes of it).

 

[Halion]

I think mastering it would help. It sounds pretty good as it is, but to my taste, it could use a bit of compression on the master and maybe some EQ aswell.

 

[ALaz502]

I think mastering it would help. It sounds pretty good as it is, but to my taste, it could use a bit of compression on the master and maybe some EQ aswell.

Really...that's it? Just EQ and compression. Man, I thought my first mix would've turned out completely shitty! Well then, this only encourages me to mix more!

This forum is awesome.

 

[Halion]

This is the kind of music that could really use compression or even a master limiter to really pump out the volume.

 

[ALaz502]

This is the kind of music that could really use compression or even a master limiter to really pump out the volume.

Well, I took your advice, threw down some EQ and Compression on the master. You're absolutely correct. Helped the mix LOT. I'll post a new version soon.

Even though overcompression can kill a mix, you're right, this style of music definitley benefits from it. I'm learning as I go here, so I appreciate the comments.

 

[rewt_]

Great sounds! Maybe try polishing the drums to get them a little less basement sounding, but then again, maybe not. For "pro" sound you'd want to do that but the grungier lo-fi sound does it for me musically much more than a polished copy might. That's some good stuff you posted. If you ever want to e-mail back and forth with tips, let me know.

Jim

 

[systmovadown]

Great sounds! Maybe try polishing the drums to get them a little less basement sounding, but then again, maybe not. For "pro" sound you'd want to do that but the grungier lo-fi sound does it for me musically much more than a polished copy might. That's some good stuff you posted. If you ever want to e-mail back and forth with tips, let me know.

Jim

AGreed

 

[ALaz502]

Alright guys, here is the final mix. This is the mix that the band and everyone else approved of:

Since the last mix we:
-polished up the drum sound a bit. Not too much though. We just beefed up the toms and snare and tweaked the cymbals a bit.
-modified some of the ending vocals
-modified some of the automation
-expanded the stereo field
-applied some EQ, and Compression to the master bus.

What do you guys think?

systmovadown: I'll find out how everything was tracked pretty soon. I just kept on forgetting it because when we get down to mixing we just get down to it hardcore. We forget everything else once we get in front of this damn computer

rewt: sounds badass, feel free to e-mail me at alaz502@cox.net anytime.