General Rock Piece, needs mixing crit

[eviljoker7075]

Hey folks. I've agreed to do the mixing on my bands latest project. I've just finished, well think I've finished, the first tune and I was wondering if it'd be possible to get some of you to have a quick listen and give me your opinions on my mixing - not the quality of the music lol

I'd really appreciate any criticisms (constructive of course) that you have. Thanks

MP3 link
(song name: Show me the Way, by: Still Existing)

 

[eeb]

The first thing that struck me was the vocals stood out way too much. The song sounds like it should be really driving but the vocals over power everything else.

The tone on the vocals are ok but it's a little bit pitchy at some parts so look out for that.


The overall music sounds very muddy. Almost like you took out all the high's (well not all of them but it sounds very mid rangy to me) The guitars sound dull and lifeless... You either eq'd the tracks to much (i'm guilty of doing that sometimes) or not enough.

Still needs some work but the base is there it seems

 

[eviljoker7075]

Do you think that could be a fault of my compressors. I haven't really had much experience with them and kinda stuck to some presets that came with them. I read somewhere that you should use them quite often (obviously in moderation) but this is really the first time I've used compression...

 

[eeb]

it could be.. it all depends.. I usually use the presets only as a base to build off of. It's very rare (if ever) that a preset will suit your needs right away.

Did you use any equalisation?

usually what i do to start any mix is start off with all faders at zero and work with volumes first.. then panning.. then eq'ing... then whatever needs it compression and effects (continuing to tweak volume and eq where needed..

the most common problem is usually the kick drum and bass create alot of mud because they're usually in the same frequency range so you have to cut some of the lows out (individually you might think it sounds bad but the mix will thank you) The same sort of thing happens with vocals and guitar sometimes.. you have to sometimes cut some of the mids on the guitar to leave room for the vocals.. that way you don't have to turn the volume on the vocals way up creating what you have here (vocals sounding like they're seperate from the music)

these are just a couple general tips.. every situation is completely different... there are way to many variables to give concrete advice (and i generally suck at teaching anything and am not really a good person to give more than general advice... there are people on this board with more skills than i could ever dream of having hehe)