Help! New to mixing...!

[jameskuht]

Hi there,

Please check out the song 'Burnham on Sea' on www.myspace.com/jameskuht

This is probably the 10th song I've written and recorded so I'm kinda new to this whole mixing and mastering scene, if anyone could offer me any advice on the mixing and mastering (not quite sure what mastering is really! All I do is mix the track down to wav, and put another compressor on??) of the track that would be great.

Basically I'm running on a tight budget (being an 18 year old student) using only free plugins, a free drum kit and using only advice really from 'home recording' (which has been superb but sadly I only just discovered it so have only benefited from it in this recording and none of my others) and learning from trial and error.

Also, you may notice the song is missing something in the bass department? I can't afford a bass so does anyone have any good links to any free VST Bass's?

Thanks a lot. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

James

 

[Mart[1001]]

Hi James.
Looks like you're just down the road from me...small world eh?

Late here so I can only listen through headphones atm. You ain't got a bad sound mate(listening to the track you mentioned). It's a little bit muddy/boomy, you should try cutting some EQ at around 150 to 300hz to help remove this which will also make your mid range sounds come to life a little. Your drums sound a little loud, though I understand they're supposed to be with this genre but even so, I'd lower them abit.

Your vocal is great dude with the exception that it's a little bit clicky when you sing 'g' and 'c's. I'm no singer and so I never record vocal so I can't really advise you on how to rid this in the tracking(recording) stage as this is where you're picking this click up. I've had this before though and have never been able to get rid of it with EQ or De-essing...I've always had to actually snip it from the vocal track to eliminate it entirely and so you may have to do the same but as I say...someone else might be able to advise you on this, especially how to avoid it in the first place whilst recording.

You've got a lot of talent though mate IMO and you'll only get better once you understand music production abit more.

As for mastering...the clue's in the word itself. Lots of people claim to be able to master and most of us do it cause we can't afford to pay the pro's to do it or cause we wanna learn to do it ourselves but IMO, a really good mastering engineer(aka M.E) is someone that has spent years in the business...a guy who's been mixing music for years and knows every trick in the book, who has got years worth of ear training and can spot a sore frequency at the drop of a pin. The guy who is a true master with audio.

Back in the day when we recorded our music to vinyl and the lower the bass, the deeper the scratch in the record, meant that unless a track was carefully mastered...the needle would jump out of the scratch and the record would skip. This was the main job of the M.E aswell as ensuring that all the songs on an album had the same sort of bass/treble and were at the same volume...so that you could play this late at night without worrying that the next track would come on too loud and have your dad banging the wall at ya.

CD's are different but we still want our bass to be reasonable aswell as the volume and a good M.E will also attempt to bring out the very best sounds in your songs, whilst suppressing the harsh frequencies that the average ear might miss. Blah blah and so on...I'd better end here, this is getting longer than a South-side post.

Hope this helps mate...remember, you'll get more response in this thread if you in turn, take time to comment on other peoples mixes too.

Mart.

 

[zero00]

I think that what you need here is get into your mix screen, put every level to -inf and start to check the sound of each instrument individually. Start with the kick, bass, cymbals, drum kit, guitars and finally vocals. Why i say this? because clearly you have a good idea about the levels, they are well balanced and i think that you are need to improve the individual instrument sound.

Cool song by the way!!

 

[LouieV702]

I think that what you need here is get into your mix screen, put every level to -inf and start to check the sound of each instrument individually. Start with the kick, bass, cymbals, drum kit, guitars and finally vocals. Why i say this? because clearly you have a good idea about the levels, they are well balanced and i think that you are need to improve the individual instrument sound.
Cool song by the way!!

+1 the individual instrument tracks need more perception, more depth, a color that gives a natural sound to them. Now achieving this is totally up to you, maybe microphone distance when tracking, performance moderation, or even effect processing. I would diffidently do what zero said and start with each track and see what you could do to improve the sound and make sure it's fits(due to altering, frequencies do change) in the overall mix. Your volume of the tracks overall do match and makes for good listening!

I've had this before though and have never been able to get rid of it with EQ or De-essing

Will it's the combination of both and some compression! The high mid's need to be lowered and de-ess 3.4 to 4.5 khz with a threshold of -31 db (actually you need to adjust the threshold according to the track volume). Throw in some compression with 3:1 ratio, a fast attack, slow release time and those clicks are long gone!

All that said, all our opinions are truly just are opinions! So whatever sounds great to you is what counts! Great tunes, keep up the good music and good luck-LV

 

[jameskuht]

Thanks very much for all your help guys - its very encouraging to hear good feedback and constructive criticism on things that I can change with a bit of work. I'm gonna try out all of the things you said this afternoon and post an improved version of the song later on.

Regarding the de-esser, I had looked on the home recording website for free de-essers, but the link to the spitfish (the one recommended) didn't function. Are there any other free ones knocking about that are worth trying?

Also, other than the stock EQs in cubase SX, I only have a free 5 band parametric EQ and this looks mighty complicated to use!! Any other easy to use, accurate EQ's that are good out there?

Finally, is it worth investing some of my money in a set of proper monitors ( i currently use a set of denon speakers (about 50w) from a normal stereo system.) ? Any recommendations?

Thanks for all your help.
James

 

[Mart[1001]]

Here's a link to 'spitfish'...click on the little floppy disk icon just above the pic.
http://www.freevstfx.com/free_vst_fx.php?id=108

Reguarding EQ...if you check the link below and scroll down the page abit,
http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/index.php
...you'll find 'ReaEQ'. Now don't be put off by how cheap these plugs look...they just don't have a fancy GUI but they are incredible valuie as they are free aswell as using very little CPU power.
If you look at the picture, there are currently 5 bands open but, you can go on adding or deleting bands at will. You just grab a band with your mouse and move it around, cutting or boosting at your pleasure. I use this all the time and it's my favourie EQ for single track(instrument) EQing. I think you have to download these plugs as a bundle though...rather than the individual plug.

Also...if you're interested in the program that these plugs come from, click where it says 'Latest Reaper 3.04'. It's an awesome piece of kit and is free to try for as long as you like with only a 40 quid($60) registration fee if you decide to make it your choice DAW(which many of us do).

Other than that....google 'free eq vst'.

As for the monitors...the sooner you invest in a set mate...the sooner your music will take off. You'll spend a couple of months getting used to and learning them but once you do...you'll wonder how you ever did without them. Hifi speakers glorify the sound and make you think the bass/treble levels are spot on, when they're actually way off. Real monitors present sound exactly as it is without lying to you. You'll hear detail that you never knew was there before. But it's best to choose 'active' monitors...this means they have their own amp built into them which is balanced specifically for their sound...rather than using an external amp/hifi.
Here's the ones I use btw...
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...tor-1-Active-MKII-Powered-Monitors?sku=603203
I picked them up 2nd hand last november for £130...thats about $200usd/

Hope this helps mate...

Mart.