i know my mixes are bad but...

  • Thread starter Thread starter kidkage
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kidkage

kidkage

Bored of Canada
that's why im posting this in here and not the mixing clinic (EDIT: Ive obviously ended up reposting in the mixing clinic now) ;):o

I was hoping to get some feedback on some of my songs.
monolith.
There's a music player on there to the right of the page in a big box.
I would love and appreciate feedback.
(They are rough demos, so i would like to ask you to consider song quality and not sound quality. If you want you can imagine that the quality is great )
Any questions like : What guitar did you use? Why do your drums sound like bitter ass? or Can I get some lyrics? are welcomed and invited

P.S.- If you dont want to deal with the website, in my signature there are links you can follow to listen on other sites, but I know how our community feels about YouTube :p:D
 
Hey man. I've just started recording recently. I really give you props for using real drums. That, I can't do. I'm no expert at this, but from what I hear, I'd say that the drums and bass (if there is a bass) are kind of low. I would knock the volume up on those if I were you. Also, I realized the guitars lacked some low end. But this could have some potential. Keep at it bro.
 
WafflePong said:
Hey man. I've just started recording recently. I really give you props for using real drums. That, I can't do. I'm no expert at this, but from what I hear, I'd say that the drums and bass (if there is a bass) are kind of low. I would knock the volume up on those if I were you. Also, I realized the guitars lacked some low end. But this could have some potential. Keep at it bro.
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Hey, thanks for the reply. I just saw your thread, and man, I wish I would've been recording when I was 13 so bad :(
Yeah, the drums and singing were so hard for me to convince myself to invest in. And I still feel like my drumming and voice are horrible. But, some tell me theyre great, some tell me theyre not... and it's just so frustrating feeling helpless, lost, and just not knowing.

I appreciate you listening and throwing your help in there.
 
Anytime man. I listened to it again, and I think some reverb could bring up those vocals, help them some. Good luck bro!
 
WafflePong said:
Anytime man. I listened to it again, and I think some reverb could bring up those vocals, help them some. Good luck bro!
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I thought maybe a touch of flanging would do a little magic
 
Audacity doesn't have a flange effect in it? Can't you drop in VST effects in Audacity? You can download free ones on KRV
 
I honestly wouldn't know where to start here.....
My first advice is to learn about panning and gain staging first, plenty of info here on the site.
The drums are a catastrophe, the guitars are just fizz, bass lacks low end, voice sounds like it's in a shoe-box and pitchy. I mean we all had to start somewhere, but this sounds like you're still at the starting line. Take it slow, learn and practice, practice, practice....
 
Jeez kidkage... I was reading this and thinking, I'm sure I replied to this guy in depth, but where's my words? Then I realised your reposted...!
 
joeym said:
I honestly wouldn't know where to start here.....
My first advice is to learn about panning and gain staging first, plenty of info here on the site.
The drums are a catastrophe, the guitars are just fizz, bass lacks low end, voice sounds like it's in a shoe-box and pitchy. I mean we all had to start somewhere, but this sounds like you're still at the starting line. Take it slow, learn and practice, practice, practice....
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Like I said, I know the mix is bad. I wasn't really looking for thoughts on the mix I know it's shit. They're the songs as i was writing. I was hoping to get thoughts on the songs, and hoping the mix would be overlooked.
I guess they're just that bad.
 
Also, I dont know wtf is happening on "The Cleansing" on the website. The levels keeps shifting and stuff. That is not how the file on my computer or youtube or anywhere else sounds.

And sorry for confusing you Armistice :P
 
kidkage said:
Like I said, I know the mix is bad. I wasn't really looking for thoughts on the mix I know it's shit. They're the songs as i was writing. I was hoping to get thoughts on the songs, and hoping the mix would be overlooked.
I guess they're just that bad.
Click to expand...

I like the style, reminds me of early Creed which is on of my favourite bands. But the recording just doesn't do the songs justice. Songwriting-wise, try to write hooklines for the choruses that really stand out.
 
Lower the distortion on the guitar a lot... Drums up and Bass up... Verb up the voice a little...
 
Put up a reference track with a similar commercial song while you mix and toggle between them. It's the best way imo. You should be able to easily hear where you're falling short when you switch back and forth.

Pick a similar commercial song and try to make your song sound close to it. If you don't know how to correctly use effects like EQ and compression (or you aren't sure) just skip them in the short term and get a really good balance without them. The worst thing (imo) you can do is use a lot of effects just because people tell you to.

Anyway, there are some performance issues there also. Like in the second song the vocals need tuning pretty badly.
 
The best way to improve your mix is to improve your tracking.

The clean guitar tone sounds pretty good.

The distorted guitar is fizzy. Step one is to simply turn down the gain and retrack.

The drums have problems. There is a general boxiness to them. This could be due to a number of things: the room you record in, the mics you use, the mic placement. Maybe elaborate on how they were tracked?

The vocals are quite pitchy. It might be that you're just not a singer. Not sure. Maybe you could find a partner to handle the vocals?
 
Drums- the drums were recorded with the recorderman method with B1's. It's got to be with my recording technique because I love the way they sound in the room, but recording them was ridiculous. It was my first time at micing a kit. I also had to run the two mics through a mixer then into my tascam so i didn't have much control over them.

Vocals- I spent 2 years (08-09) looking for members. And no one cared. So I ended up here, and I want to sing. I'm ashamed to say that I've never done any exercises or even simple warm ups. All I did was drink a bottle of room temperature water.
And while tracking I had the levels on the headphones cranked and was literally yelling into the mic... and it actually sounds really weak.
I'm going to not yell anymore, track vox at a comfortable level, and listen to my singing
so I can know what to do.

I'm going to apply myself to singing the way I have to the instruments. I'm not the best guitarist, bassist, or drummer, and even if people think I suck at those, I'm confident and comfortable in my abilities on those instruments because of the time I put in to those.

I'd like to thank everyone for the help.

Now, It's time to go practice :).
 
Some good advice/comments in here

All Id say that at this stage the important thing is to get projects finished...even if the mixes are shite

Your songs just now dont reflect how your songs will be further down the line but without experience in finishing projects you wont learn

so well done, there are positives you can take form this and move to your next project..just try to improve each time

I have a couple of pointers on listening to this

The drums need a lot more work..you need to separate the sounds more, this will be the focus of the song, bring up you other instruments around them..dont allow them to be buried or sound dull..use compression sparingly, EQ carefully..and remember saturation and reverb can have a big effect on drums

the distorted guitar needs it gain turned down around a third..thats the rule, if it sounds good to you before recording..turn it down another third ;)

we can always improve with instruments but vocals, for us non vocalists, needn't stop us..I have a had a couple of vocal tracks that worked, and a couple that completely went to pieces...just remember that using strong effects, and even the spoken word, can add to a tracks value..we're not all Chris Cornell, so experiment with distortion, delay, and EQ..telephone effects, megaphone effects..samples etc

some of the great performers were pretty poor singers...but they sing in their range and carve out a style


I look forward to your next tune..keep at it :D
 
Another thing you might want to do is take notes of what you did. Write down guitar/amp settings and mic positions for instance. That way if someone says "turn down the gain" you'll know from where it needs to be turned down.
 
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