Help me, this mix SUCKS

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Jahn
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Chris Jahn

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This is the same EVERYTHING from the first two mixes i posted fromm this band, same people playing, same room, same guitars and amps etc, etc.....

But i just cant get this mix to sound decent, im not saying that any of my other stuff sounds great by any means, but this, to me at least, is nothing like the other stuff from the same session.

I cant put my finger on what sucks so hard, but mabye you the listening public can, and i can go from there.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=7245
 
Everything is pretty quiet, mellow.. can you raise levels on guitars and vocals?
 
austinm08 said:
Everything is pretty quiet, mellow.. can you raise levels on guitars and vocals?
Click to expand...
:confused: :confused: :confused:
The guitar levels are good.

If he brings the vocals up a bit, he's good to go.

This isn't exactly my style or choice of music, but it's great fun to listen to. :cool:
 
I cant comment right now becuase its late and I have it on really low volume but it sounds like the drums mainly the snare and kick dont seem to fit well maybe need retracking. The snare seems to be tuned awfuly high but maybe thats just me.
 
The mix doesn't suck at all. It just needs some co-hesion. It sounds like everything was recorded in a different room. The guitars are a bit distant and the snare is pretty up front. It just needs to be glued together somehow so that it sounds like everone's playing in the same room.
The actuall sound of everything is good. I like that snare sound, just seems a little dry or up front.
Overall, nothing sounds bad. It might also need to come up in volume, too.
 
Ya, this don't suck. Mostly volume adjustments are needed.
The way I see is you have two ways to go about the guitars. You can bring up the volume on the guitar on the right and also possibly need to kill some hi end on it. Orrrrrrrr, you could try de panning the guitars some say down to 10 or 20 percent. I personally would try depanning some right of the bat and see if you sound gets fuller. Might have to add a little 250hz to them.

I can live with the snare being out front, but RAMI is the drum king and you should listen to him! :D

Toms to have the bottom end cutt out of them in my opinion. say from about 200hz down. somewhere around there. They need some boing. to muffled sounding right now.

Bass guitar could come up a little in the mix for my taste.

And as mentioned, the over all level is pretty far down there.


Just my two cents. Sounding good!

F.S.
 
Kinda reminds me of what I've heard of Refused.

What do you have to work with? How many drum mics/tracks, mixing setup (DAW, dedicated unit, tape, mixer, etc). What sort of tools do you have available at your disposal for EQ, compression, 'verb, delay, blah.

Ideally I'd start with the drums here, get kick and snare sounding good... which is gonna need some EQ work, then mix-in the rest of the kit. Preferably sub-mixed so you can control the whole kit as a unit once you get everything sitting well together. Get that far and you'll be well on your way.

I tweaked the snare to sound better to me with a reasonably wide 2dB boost at 250, a healthy, pretty narrow cut at ~2400-2500, and a healthy not too wide cut ~4k. Don't take that as gospel, I just fiddled for a moment with the full mix going... you can probably do better. If you're dealing with just a stereo drum mix, you might be SOL here... not sure those changes are gonna work for the kit as a whole.
 
I don't know how to describe this properly but it sounds flat, dull and lifeless.

No bottom end to speak of, no presence.
Not sure what to suggest.
 
Hmmm. As far as the drums go, to me, it sounds like the drummer is barely hitting the snare, which is why it sounds small. Being a drummer myself, when I track this kind of music, I make sure im playing as loud as possible and getting a solid kick snare definiton. Your crash cymbals are sounding good, toms are a little lost, but the kick needs to be played harder, or something. I would suggest maybe retracking the drums and telling the drummer to wail on it. Also, your tom panning is a little too wide, they dont blend well together with the kit as a whole. I need more background on what you used to produce this, and I can give feedback according.

Matt
 
Really this was one of the first recordings i did with the stuff i have, mabye number two or three And the BIGGEST problem is the tracking, and the performance, i was just excited to start recording and didnt really push anyone includeing myself to play the song, or any others ive posted from the same session really tight, it was more experimenting then trying to play our best, So i learned alot from it, mostly what not to do.

Everything was recorded into logic express through two daisy chained firepods, the drums had 8 mics, 3 toms, 2 overheads, kick, snare top and bottom. All from a audix drum mic pre pack, about $400, with an sm57 under the snare.

Guitars were also done with an sm57, one guitar is a Les Paul through a Marshall JCM 900, and the other is a telecaster through a twin verb with a fulltone something or other for distortion.

Bas was direct, no amp model just comp and eq.

The kick and snares are bussed together and share a common comp as well as there own individual comps.

And EVERYTHING is bussed to a common verb setting and wet up to varying degrees.

vocals were done through an MXL 9000 tube powered condensor, budget $200 style.then doubled for paralell comp.

And of course every instrument has its own comp and Eq to taste.

All that said, ive worked on it a bunch more from the time i put it up, so ill put up the "remix" when i get a chance. mabye soon, thanks for the comments!!!!
 
Mabye better?

See (or hear) if this is any better, i did this to the mix before i read anyones suggestions, so its not really a reflection of what people had to say, but mabye after yall hear this ill do a #3 with what was suggested.

I think its better but still lacking!!!

And thanks for the link, ive actually read almsot that whole thing, but havent had the oportunity to use any of it since then, hope to put it to use soon, its epic in scope and very funny!!

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=7260
 
I think a big part of the mix problem is in that snare. It sounds weak and distant to me. It doesn't punch through at all. The vocals could also be louder.

Basically, it sounds to me like everything was recorded live with room mics, and just the guitars were over-dubbed. They be louder and cleaner than everything else.
 
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