I Need HARSH Criticism - Please Help

The guitars used were some Schecter and an Ephiphone Les Paul.

We had one Mesa head and one Marshall head.

We had one Orange cab that was mainly paired with the Mesa head. And a Marshall cab to match head. But, we did some mixing and matching.
 
I'll agree with the snare and kick comments. Snare is a little... dead? I dont know a good word. Needs a nice crack in it. Possibly try re micing a snare from the bottom with one hit, duplicate the snare track and using you fav replacer, mix in a little of the new recording (even with a highpass at 1khz or so) under the other. I had to do this for a track a little while ago and it really helped.

Overall, its quite a good sounding mix indeed. Top end rolled a little off the cymbals might help, theyre just on the verge of being too much. With the vocals? Maybe some delay in the verse? about a beat behind without too much feedback i think could really do something there. It's the kind of music to suit it aswell. Sweet job but. Really sounds nice. Just a little tweaking here and there
 
ndycus1 said:
I'm a 21-year-old who is ALWAYS looking to improve my mixes and better myself overall in recording. This song is one that I produced, engineered, and mixed. But, I need some more ears to help me out before I release the final product. I would like for whoever critiques this to be as harsh as possible. And please don't worry about hurting my feelings. I'd like to know everything that is good and everything that sucks. I really appreciate anyone who takes time to critically listen to this.

If it will help, or if you're just interested, the gear used was:

Snare: SM57 through Great River ME1NV
Kick (Inside): D112 through Chandler TG2
Kick (Outside): AT4033 through Mindprint Envoice
Overheads: Rode NT5's through Summit TPA200A
HiHat: SM57 through M-Audio Tampa
HiTom: SM7B through M-Audio DMP3
LowTom: AT3035 through M-Audio DMP3
Room Mic: BLUE Cactus through Chandler TG2
Bass: Direct through Chandler TG2
Guitars: SM57's through either TG2 or ME1NV
Vocals: SM7B through ME1NV

All was recorded directly into Sonar 6 through an M-Audio Delta 1010. All effects were obtained via plugins (mainly the Waves SSL Series). And it was tracked and mixed on Fostex PM1 Monitors.

Thanks so much! I can't wait to get some feedback.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=6193
Click to expand...
It sounds great recording wise.You captured the sound.Problem is is that
this sort of music lacks dynamics.It is too predictable.If you want to be a good producer,you need to surprise the listener.There is nothing that sets
this apart from all the other shit just like it on the radio.
If you are going to be a producer,you need to step it up and get creative.quit following formulas.If you can capture sound this well at 21,then
you can damn sure do a better job of the production.
Anywho,you said be harsh,so I was.You have some great ears for recording,
now figure out how to make a tune that stands the test of time.A newage
Aqualung if you will.
 
Another Update!!!

Here is ANOTHER update:

I definitely think that this is the best mix yet (I better not be getting worse). I worked on giving the snare more balls. But, mainly, I did a lot of A/B-ing with various professional mixes...mainly some Brendan O'Brien Incubus mixes. Please let me know what you think...pros and cons.

You all have already been SUCH a big help...you don't even realize it. Thanks so much. Please let me know what else I can do to improve this mix and myself as a mixer and engineer.

Check out the newest version:
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=6248
 
Sounds a lot better all around. It still lacks some overall 'shine'. Maybe put the mix through an EQ to bring out some lows and highs. The cymbals can use some shine and get the bass and kick a little thumpier. Definitely better though. :)
 
I can definitely hear the difference in the high end (I'm listening on laptop speakers, so I'm not going to hear any changes to the lows). Did you also put some compression? I kept thinking that I heard some 'pumping and breathing' going on. Or maybe it was my imagination....it's late.

I'm wondering, though, Is that something that you think I should let the mastering engineer take care of. Or something that I should do myself with plugins? I would imagine that tonal changes affecting the entire mix would be better left to the mastering engineer.

I guess what I'm wanting to know with this song is whether or not you all think it's ready to send off to the ME, or if there are still changes that need to be made.
 
Yeah if you're sending it out to get mastered, I think its probably best to talk to the mastering engineer beforehand and see what they want you to do.
 
Here are my thoughts:
- Snare could use more high end in the attack (it comes through well enough in the mix as it is, but it's not in-your-face enough for the style of music IMO).
- It's all rather mild. The slapbass part owned. The rest, I dunno. Like others have mentioned, the music is fairly straight forward modern rock. To make it more unique, you'd need *something*. Without going into x-factor kind of bullshit talk, I do feel that neither musically, nor sound design wise, there is anything particularly interesting in there. The guitars sound good, but nothing I haven't heard before a million times. The clean guitars in the verses sound like...well...clean guitars. Awefully clean. I'm all for using what works, but not all the time on everything.

From a creative standpoint, I'd say go crazy with shit. Slap a near endless delay on the clean guitars, maybe some tight sawtooth synth during the pauses in the distorted verse parts. The bass sounds really powerfull, which I like, I wouldn't change that much. The drums overall sound pretty boring. There's a nice amount of verb in there, but nothing hits me in the face. The kick is boring. Just some ideas.
 
Sounds great.

Only weakness IMO is the snare sound but you've heard a lot about that already.
 
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Okay....I have heard time and time again that my snare sound isn't up to what it could/should be. And, I have a few things holding me back from getting a great snare sound. So, I need so me opinions. Here are my problems:

1) Hi-Hat Bleed - I have LOTS of hi-hat in the snare mic during the open hi-hat parts of the song. I have tried things like copying the snare track and using distortion on it to make it dirtier. But, of course, distortion automatically compresses the signal and brings out the hi-hat WAY too much. So, it seems like compression is virtually out of the picture.

2) Drumagog - I have drumagog. I love drumagog. However, I don't have the ability to use drumagog on this song because my computer is already bogged down too much with tracks and plugins and opening drumagog would cause it to drop out immediately. Plus, even before it was so bogged down, I couldn't open drumagog in this project for some reason. I have no clue why. But, it just hasn't opened with this project.

So, given those two major issues that I'm having with the snare, maybe you all can now offer advice on how to get the perfect snare sound for this song. Whether it be simple EQ ideas or crazy, off-the-wall advice, I'd love to hear it. Thank you all so much for your interest!
 
SHEPPARDB. said:
It sounds great recording wise.You captured the sound.Problem is is that
this sort of music lacks dynamics.It is too predictable.If you want to be a good producer,you need to surprise the listener.There is nothing that sets
this apart from all the other shit just like it on the radio.
If you are going to be a producer,you need to step it up and get creative.quit following formulas.If you can capture sound this well at 21,then
you can damn sure do a better job of the production.
Anywho,you said be harsh,so I was.You have some great ears for recording,
now figure out how to make a tune that stands the test of time.A newage
Aqualung if you will.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. The recording sounds great to me, but the content and style falls flat on my ears. But I know there are people that like this stuff.
 
pretty sweet all in i'd say...good track, well recorded. you're average jo wouldn't know the difference between that and a big(ger) studio's sound in my opinion. i reckon the levels are good too, and i like the way the guitars were edited at the start, cool, choppy effect. heard it done many times before but i like it. that wasnt very critical i know, but i'd say you've done a damn good job. well done mate.
 
I think each mix got better in the ways most people already spoke about. Overall, great job! I would still like to hear more of the vocals, not volume, but that is just me. Did you try different mics for the vocals?
 
Yes...we auditioned 3 mics before going with the SM7B. The other two were a Neumann TLM103 (which sounded much worse) and a B.L.U.E. Cactus which actually sounded very similar to the Shure SM7B.

Do you just mean that you think the volume should be increased on the vocals?
 
Yeah, I would say put it on somebody else's ears and ask them the same question. "What can you do with this?" and see what he/she has to say. Nice job overall.
 
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