Heavy but too muddy

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greatrp

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Hi, I was hoping someone might tell me what they think of this. Maybe some suggestions on how to get rid of the muck. All the seperate tracks are good but as i mix I just can't get it to sound as clear as I want.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9481898
 
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this needs some work dude.


Those guitars are way to loud. to much gain. or just plain clipping to much i can't tell.

All i hear is hi hat for drums.

It could be a fun tune but it needs some work.

I can't make out anything but guitars.

start by brinng them down and mixing all the other stuff like your drums and bass maybe and then introduce the guitars.


As a guitar player myself and my narcissitc guitar player mentality i used to d othat all the time. Mix everything around the guits.

But i always put them in lats now just casue.


Maybe try that.


are those real drums or programmed?


Also its really long and repetitive. shorten it up or add something new to it.

or maybe well constructed lyrics?


Will this have lyrics eventually?
 
Atom Bomb said:
this needs some work dude.


Those guitars are way to loud. to much gain. or just plain clipping to much i can't tell.

All i hear is hi hat for drums.

It could be a fun tune but it needs some work.

I can't make out anything but guitars.

start by brinng them down and mixing all the other stuff like your drums and bass maybe and then introduce the guitars.


As a guitar player myself and my narcissitc guitar player mentality i used to d othat all the time. Mix everything around the guits.

But i always put them in lats now just casue.


Maybe try that.


are those real drums or programmed?


Also its really long and repetitive. shorten it up or add something new to it.

or maybe well constructed lyrics?


Will this have lyrics eventually?
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+1

and this thing is REALLY compressed. It's pumping. :(
 
WAY too pumpy. I'm also going to let you in on a secret that is essential for hard rock/metal music. Your drums are the single most important thing when it comes to determining the quality and the attitude of your mix. If your drums sound like shit, your song will suck, or it will lack the energy that it needs, or it will lack the attitude. So my suggestion to you?

Well I can't even really hear the drums to be honest, but but bring them WAY up. You can leave the cymbals where they are, but the kick, toms, and especially the snare all need to come way up.

I don't have a huge problem with the guitar tone. It's a little high-gain/snarly, but it's not terrible, especially for this kind of song.

Once you have your levels right, then you can worry about stylistic things like adding reverb and what not. But fix your levels first, and then we'll talk.
 
Yup. It's all guitars and crash. Bring those down a little, and brign everything else up.

The compression needs work too. When a new voice comes in, all the previous ones get noticibly softer. Subtlety is the key to getting compression to sound good.
 
thats way gooder then the first one bro. It is getting there. I can actually hear shit now.
 
There's way too much wrong with this to even begin to list it all out. go back to the drawing board. Start with the guitars, they're awful.
 
The guitars are .... uhhh.... hurting my ears.... and not in a good way. You want people to be able to listen to your song without turning it down so low they can't hear it. Seems like the EQ on the guitars is exactly opposite of what it should be. Reverse it and see how they sound. (not being rude, just calling it as I hear it)

Drums sound very flappy. Cymbals sound like they're about ready to break, they sound so brittle.

Bass is nonexistent.
 
Anyway, I'm not giving up. Just so you know, my guitar is a cheap piece of guitar that is all I can afford right now and still put bread on the table. That said, I used GR4 for my cab emulator. I used a preset for my tone, and no eq in the mix. In fact, the whole mix is as stripped down as I could get i in hopes someone might be able to help what i could do to it. The bass is there, but I'll try to turn it up a bit and I will work on the cymbals, I find them a bit tricky. I'm new to this business, and I just want help to get better, not negative, immature criticism. Oh, and I actually have always been a fan of raunchy and raw, which I am sure is reflected in the music I make.
 
greatrp said:
Thanks, you're a real help.
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Well wtf do you want me to say? Everything is bad. Real bad. Listen to something that you want your mixes to sound like. Whatever band you like or want to emulate, listen to their stuff. Try to figure out what you're hearing. Start with the drums. Good drums can make up for less than perfect other stuff. And with the drums, start with the kick and snare. Does the kick sound right? How about the snare? Build off of them. As you're working the mix, if you ever get to a point where you're losing your kick and snare, stop and see why.
 
greatrp said:
Anyway, I'm not giving up. Just so you know, my guitar is a cheap piece of guitar that is all I can afford right now and still put bread on the table. That said, I used GR4 for my cab emulator. I used a preset for my tone, and no eq in the mix. In fact, the whole mix is as stripped down as I could get i in hopes someone might be able to help what i could do to it. The bass is there, but I'll try to turn it up a bit and I will work on the cymbals, I find them a bit tricky. I'm new to this business, and I just want help to get better, not negative, immature criticism. Oh, and I actually have always been a fan of raunchy and raw, which I am sure is reflected in the music I make.
Click to expand...

GR4 should be fine...Im no guitarist but I get great tones by avoiding presets then just making it as much like a plain mic'd amp as possible...I use Amplitude but can get a pretty good jcm800 sound pretty easily...just treat it as you would a normal amp....my guitars are all fairly cheap, my guitars also sound awesome to me (my fave is my hotrod squire...ceeerrrunch lol)

you can still use even the cheapest guitar if its set up right


Gregs right with the drums...get a good kick and build around it...what samples are you using for the cymbals...what effects if any are you using on the drums?

also remember 128kbps hosting sites like soundclick do your cymbals no favours but I think its worse than just the standard mp3 compression


when mixing first put the kick in at around -12db then bring the bass in with it...these are the two most important factors in anchoring and driving your song along...mix everything else in with their volume and see how it sounds...then pan the instruments (your drum panning must match how they are placed in the overhead mics track), then EQ where necessary and add reverb/delay for depth

its not rocket science but its bloody difficult at first
 
Greg_L said:
Well wtf do you want me to say? Everything is bad. Real bad. Listen to something that you want your mixes to sound like. Whatever band you like or want to emulate, listen to their stuff. Try to figure out what you're hearing. Start with the drums. Good drums can make up for less than perfect other stuff. And with the drums, start with the kick and snare. Does the kick sound right? How about the snare? Build off of them. As you're working the mix, if you ever get to a point where you're losing your kick and snare, stop and see why.
Click to expand...


Thanks, that is much better. There's some advice I can use
 
Gerg is actually pretty helpful; he just always leads off with "Your music is bad, and you should feel bad for making it. Die in a fire." sort of comments.

The bass does not sound good. Half of the notes are bassy and OK, and the other half are nothing but snap. Do you have a good bass tone coming out of the speaker when you play? Does it sound like something that would sound good with a band? (i.e. deep and rumbly, but still with some definition.) If not, you should fix that. If your bass does sound good before you track it, you'll need to experiment with your micing technique to find something that more accurately reflects the tone of the instrument.
 
I didn't get to the first version. But since I'm not hearing a lot of the things mentioned, I'll assume you took care of those things in mix #2.

I do agree with the drums. They're just too "programmy" - they're immediately noticeable.

The guitar's have that trademark fizzy, tinny, solid state-y sound. I don't think any amount of compression/EQ is going to change that. I'd working on getting a better tone on them before hitting the record button. THEN record-test-record-test-record etc.
 
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