How far I've come in a couple years...

[sirslurpee]

So it's been a few years since I've post.. or even poked my head around here.
I've done some work and put it up on myspace. Some of the drums are EZDrummer but a couple of the songs are live.
Take a listen and let me know what you guys think.. mix wise, and music wise.
http://www.myspace.com/jconquest
(any criticism is constructive criticism)

 

[pkdasilva]

Hi! I liked whispers! Maybe the drums could be louder... I wish I was skating/boarding right now and had your music on the ipod. If you ever need a arpeggio keyboard solo / pads let me know .

Respect,
PK

 

[mrhotapples]

I'm not going to comment on the songs with programmed drums because I don't know how much there is to really comment on.

Overall, it sounds like you're using a bit too much compression. Try and back off, use two compressors on the snare, one to do some light limiting and squash peaks (use really fast attack and medium release) and use a compressor after that with a lower ratio and a long attack (maybe 50-100ms) and decay. You can pan everything wider too.

Your guitars sound good and they're appropriate for this style of music. Give us some insight into your tracking environment and equipment and mixing tactics!

 

[sirslurpee]

Well... This is the basic dimensions of the room I'm working with:

The shaded walls are carpeted. The floor is hardwood and the wall nearest is plywood. There's windows on the end walls too. It's not a bad room I guess, but maybe it could have been treated more appropriately.
This is where I do all my work. I mix on headphones (I know...) they are Bose Triports.
I track into a Firepod/Cubase DAW(Windows)..
and for mics I have
2 mxl 603s, 2 mxl 990, 1 sm57, 1 audix i5, 1 beta 52a, and some CAD mics (the pro-7 kit) for fillers. Mainly tom mics..

For the guitars.. I just ran a hot-rod MIM strat into a Marshall TSL 100, and the recording out from that into the firepod. Easy enough!

The drums.. I've got the 603s set up with one above the kit, pointed down at the snare, and one out in front about level with the toms, pointed toward the snare. The i5 on the snare top, 52a on the kick, two cad TM211 for the mount toms, and the sm57 on the floor tom. I didn't use a room mic or hi-hat mic. My kit is a peavey radial pro 1000 w/ evans coated g1/hazy 300 snare, coated g2/clear g1 toms, and emad/eq3 kick with a towel in the bottom..

I'm still trying to figure out how to appropriately use compression.. but I just figured gating out not too long ago and it definitely makes things a LOT easier. Also I know I shouldn't have but I used compression to sort of makeshift "master" some of the tracks to get the volume up. Granite and Gold was the last mix I did. I think Nameless has real drums on it, but they might not be gated. The rest I believe are programmed drums..

Thanks for the input!

 

[mrhotapples]

You're not doing anything wrong using compression to boost the overall volume of tracks, but you've gotta always have a very clear reason for using it or you'll just be running around boosting noise. Tell yourself, "I want ___ out of this and it isn't giving it to me" and make that happen in the most transparent way possible unless you want some kind of dramatic effect. Once you can figure out exactly how much you really need to make a snare pop or to control it's peaks without manual editing, you'll get cleaner stuff in the end. Try starting your mixes from the quietest track you've got (sometimes bass, sometimes vocals) and build around that too. You won't believe how much louder you can get shit in the end once you kick out the master.

 

[Robertt8]

this tune rocks ballz. very nice guitar playing.

is there bass in this? is so, turn that puppy up. if not, put it in there and crank it up!

 

[sirslurpee]

this tune rocks ballz. very nice guitar playing.

is there bass in this? is so, turn that puppy up. if not, put it in there and crank it up!

No bass yet.. I think I might throw some in there and re-mix it though. I'm not really sure yet..