Help on first "real" mix.

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RideTheCrash

RideTheCrash

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The very, very rough mix: http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=4457

The situation:

The only recordings I normally do are by myself and it's just me spending a lot of time trying to get the sound as best as I can with what I have. Some friends I played with in different bands at my church now play together and have been working on some original material. Normally, I cop out of people wanting me to record, because I don't have much space or time to do it available, but I decided to give it a shot. They came over one day and laid down the drums, and came over a week later and did the guitars and vocals.

It was pretty quick and dirty. Unfortunately for the drums I pulled out a couch that is normally nearby to make room and later discovered my ECM8000s picked up on a nice slapback echo created in (untreated) room. Go figure. But it's pretty unnoticeable in the mix. I need some serious advice on levelling out this mix - compression, rolling off, etc.

The track is fairly basic - 4 drum tracks (2 OHs, snare, kick), one bass, 2 rhythm guitars panned left and right (the left guitar has a clean guitar lead included) and vocals (though they still are going to lay down some harmonies later). I know the band is still a little sloppy, but this was quick and dirty, and I'm more concerned about getting a better mix.

This mix has some EQ'ing to the drum tracks, the guitars have been rolled off at 130Hz and the bass is normal. The vocals are sort of loud, I know, I can't get them to sit in the mix very well. That's pretty much it in this mix. The vocal track is also still dry. Everything was recorded around roughly -18dBFS, except the drums, because I'm having some issues with padding down my signals. The track was mixed down and normalized to be louder, so you wouldn't have to crank the speakers as much.

Any tips are appreciated
 
sounds pretty good. The vocals sound a little bassy to me could use a little more mid-high and the bass sounds a little weak and little distorted, but overall not that bad
 
Honestly, I haven't really done vocals enough to know how to work with them. The vocals are probably bassy because they were done with a Shure Beta58, instead of a condensor mic (I don't own any LCDs). I'm not sure about the bass, I can sort of hear what you mean, but I didn't clip anything, so I'm not sure. There are a couple notes where he plays a really loud note and it peaks high.

Overall, the vocals bug me the most.
 
yea getting a better mic will help a lot and also just playing with an equalizer on your computer if that's what you're using to get a nice sound.
 
I've found rolling off everything under 100Hz seems to "define" the vocal a bit better.
 
the placements sound good. volume of each sounds good.
some of the bass and vocals seem to be masking in the lower freq...
vocals could use some shine on the high end. seems overall volume is quiet, maybe crank it up.....when I cranked it up it cleared up alot....but I had my volume at full blast instead of about 1 oclock...and at full blast it still wasn't loud to my ears.

for a first mix....amazing, great job.
 
Yes a condensor mic on vocals would be cleaner and brighter - maybe try that when you can.

Guitars are pretty nice - no problems on the tone. Nice and raunchy. I might pull them more towards center to get the mix a bit tighter, or maybe do another track of each and balance that accordingly...

In your everlasting love I am free - good lyrics.....

The drums are clear and punchy - you can hear a bit of room for dimension.

The playing is tight but I would retrack the vocals on a condensor and remix.

The overall volume is just right - ready for that mastering touch.

Over 600 posts and this is your first mix - well better late than never!
:D :D :D :D
 
Thanks for the positive comments guys. I wouldn't hesitate to re-track the vocals with a condensor, but I don't have one yet. All I have are a pair of ECM8000s. I've been able to get the vocals sitting a bit better since I posted that first mix too...seriously, the reason why it's taken so long is kind of funny. I started off small, and kept amassing stuff and I frequent this forum everyday constantly, just reading and reading. Since I'm a drummer, I just focus on recording drums a lot and trying to get a good sound, and figuring out my levels and just putting my ideas "to tape". The only mix I've done before was a cover of Magic Carpet Ride a couple of years ago on this forum...but it was pretty bad.

I'm always hesitant to record other people, because it's like "well, I'm lacking here, here and here". But these guys don't care, they just want...something, they don't care that they're singing into a dynamic for vocals, etc. I seriously have to thank Farview and Massive though, for that thread in the CEP forum, about odBVU and dBFS....this mix is my first real test of it, and it sounds better than anything I've done before.

But I digress!

Anyway, I'll try bringing the rhythm guitar stuff closer to the center and see how that sounds. Do you guys think it needs any sort of reverb, is anything too harsh? As for the vocal and bass thing -- is the vocal masking the bass? Is that what you meant? Do the drums cut through well enough? I'm undecided on that.

And lastly -- the volume. Each track is roughly around -18dBFS. That MP3 was normalized to be louder. At the moment I've just been using shitty speakers because I'm not set up yet with my better speakers, and I know I have to crank my speakers to hear it well too. Maybe compression? I know how compression works, but I never seem to be able to say to myself "yes, that's the sort of compression this track needs".

Thanks for the responses so far guys.
 
Everyone's comments are pretty spot on. Rertracking the vocals would give you a good chance to traet multiples problems in one fell swoop.
The cymbals are a bit splishy splashy.
The guitars are too low in the mix for me.
The vocals reach, unsuccessfully, for a few notes & his voice needs some EQing to flesh it out - some tops & mids maybe even some chorusing.
The bass starts off popping out & then gets a little thudish. Try scooping the mids but boost bottom & top.
Keep at it, the song is worth the effort.
 
Not sure about the cymbals...mind you, I do have three splash cymbals.

I'm workin' on the guitars.

The vocals - yeah, he doesn't quite hit some notes and you can hear him strain a bit, but he did better than I expected.

I'll fiddle with the bass some more, there are spots where it pops, yeah, that was just his own playing technique.

The vocals originally had a backing track but I accidently lost it, so he is going to redo it. The only thing is, his harmonizing isn't that great anyway. I'll probably post another mix later today and see how that goes.
 
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