first mix with "real" equipment

[keerus]

hey. allow me to introduce myself, since i'm new to the boards. my name is Justin, i'm 16 years old and i reside in Mesa, AZ. if you just want to get down to business and skip the extraneous crap, here is the link:

here is some background on the song: i recently purchased an oktava mk-319 and mc-012 and three sm57's, along with an audiotrak inca 88. my system is a p4 2.4ghz, 512mb ddr ram, 200gb ata100 hdd. i'm running cakewalk sonar xl 2.0.

in this mix, the drumset is a tama swingstar with only kick, snare, and floor tom. the cymbals are zildjian customs (two crashes, ride, and hats). i had some random mic that my friend had lying around that didn't look too cheesy, so i stuck that in the kick. i put sm57's on the snare and tom, but ended up taking the tom track out. for overheads, i (unfortunately) put the mk-319 on one side and the mc-012 on the other. i have compression and reverb on the drums.

the guitar is nothing special; i don't even know what brand it is. i tracked it twice--once with the mk-319, and once with the mc-012, and hard-panned them. the lead guitar was tracked only once with the mc-012, and it has some compression/reverb on it. the only effect i have on the other guitars is compression.

the violin is a really nice one, yet again i don't know what brand or anything. it was recorded with the mc-012. compression and (lots of) reverb were applied to it.

i used the mk-319 on the vox. effects used on the vox are autotune (yeah, i use it shamelessly too, lol), compression, multi-tap and reverb.

...


you got all that? i don't know why i included all that, but if any of that helps you to help me, then there it is. this is my first attempt at being a simultaneous drummer/guitarist/violinist/singer, as well as "engineer" if i can call it that, so there are lots of things this mix needs. some things are obvious, such as the violin solo cutting out early, and the vox are awful at points, but i still need all the criticism i can get. thank you so much in advance.

justin

 

[Toki987]

I`m already a fan of yours young skywalker. Very very nicely arranged tune. I like the rythyms you chose for the guitar and the uncluttered steady drums, reminds me of Bill Bruford( your probly too young to know who that is). There`s just not enough kick and snare. The cymbals panned so hard offcenter and at that level are distracting a bit, and crashes get grating. Sounds like hard compression on them. I`d just turn em down, move'em closer to the middle and use a softer compression. Turn the kick and snare up up, that sm57 will work for you well on the kick. The guitar gets a bit too strong in the chorus after the violin solo. Singing is good, could use a touch more presence in the upper mids and increase the level a bit. The verb on them is good to me. I especially like the violin. Theres a few areas where the clock starts skipping seconds and catches back up, but that`ll work out in time. Needs a strong clanking dangerous sounding bassline...
go forth and make music....

 

[groucho]

I hear some timing issues between the acoustic and the bass drum. The high end in general sounds very harsh and over-compressed.

I'm gonna bet this is one of those mixes that sounded a thousand times better before you added the effects to it. Just a thought. Ease off on the compression, bring the vocal forward a little, tighten up the rhythm section and this would kick ass.

You're off to a hellofa good start, man. Keep learning.

Chris

 

[Pinky]

This is unusual, I'm going to ask someone to turn down the crispness in their recording

It's well recorded, sounds like you captured the right tones, but their a little too high on the treble/crisp and each strum, hit, etc kinda steals the ear from the vocals and bass line, etc... hope that makes sense...

Your vocals need to come up a little in the mix. There's a few spots where you lose time with the dueling acoustics, but overall it's a nice recording. Do you synch all the instruments with metronome? If not, that could help... if you are, focus on keeping the drums as tight as possible, I think something was 'leading' your acoustic rhythms out of time and it might be the verse portion of the drum track... dunno, just a theory...

The snare is a bit dull, needs a little pop or crack (try EQ'ing 1khz up on that track, see if it helps).

I wish I was producing this well at 16, took me to 19-20 to even start playing with 4 tracking and took until 4 years ago to get something even this solid down. Consider everything a lesson to make the next one better from here on out. You have a good start, and you can definitely play well so you got a big plus on your side there too.