I need some ears

[WhiteStrat]

I suffer great from "to close to the forest to see the trees." So before I go any further on this project with the current settings, I thought I'd stop and get some opinions. Here's about a minute and a half from a tune, and I have a couple questions.

So crank it up and lend me your ears.

1) Drums. Are they big and punchy enough?

2) Guitars. Are they too bright and sizzly?

I haven't touched the bass yet, or added leads or any potential synth flourishes, etc. But based on the last thing I posted here, I'm just curious about the sound of the foundational part of the mix.

Thanks all!

 

[RAMI]

I suffer great from "to close to the forest to see the trees."

Ha! I'm going through the same problem with my tune...in fact, I always do.

I love the guitar sound on this. They sound great to me. The bass seems too loud, though. The drums "sound" good, but I find them very dry and not deep enough, or in other words, they sound really close to me. Maybe a little reverb?

Keep in mind that Ijust spent the last 6 hours listening to a tune I've been mixing over and over, so my opinion might not mean much at this point.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Thanks Rami!

Excellent points. The drums were certainly too dry as recorded, and after comp and eq, I added some room reverb. But I kept "noticing" the reverb. So I dialed it back to where I didn't notice it, but I thought it was still there--it's entirely possible that I went too far.

As a drummer, let me ask you--does the kit sound balanced? In other words, does it need more brass, less snare--anything like that?

And the bass? Yeah, I'm listening to it now, and you're right--a bit too much. I'm gonna retrack it with more midrange so it still has the punch I want, but with doesn't overwhelm the mix so much.

 

[RAMI]

Yeah, I'm not sure if the bass sounded too loud or just too boomy.

The drums sound really good. Balanced, nice sounding. Just a little too dry for my ears. But, I'm saying that based on listening to an un-finished song. They might be perfect the way they are for the finished product. I just noticed that they seemed to be sitting right on my keyboard, if you know what I mean.

 

[cobaltaudio]

I like the guitar sound!! Sweet crunch you got on them.
It's kinda hard to tell with the drums, i think the kick is being masked by the bass a bit. The transient sounds ok though, and I like the toms.
I think I would have just a touch more low-mid in the snare just to beef it out a shade, but that is literally just personal taste. They all balance ok to me.
I could quite easily listen to it 'as is' if you're going for that kinda sound.
On the reverb front, I'd say it was really nearly there. I quite like it relatively dry, definitely better than too wet, and they do sound nice and "present". If you feel like you need a tiny bit more verb then I wouldn't disagree with you, but you're call.

 

[PoeticIntensity]

Guitars sound fine. Hope this isn't offensive, but the guitars remind me a lot of the 80's marshall sound. I *love* that sound. Specifically, I'm hearing Ratt's "Round and Round" on those guitars. Love it.

Your drummer is great. Keep him around. Performance is top-notch, and the sound of the recording seems well done, too. The drums themselves seem very dampened - almost too much. Not much snap or spark - especially in the toms. Sounds like you have too much tape on the heads (but then again, I like a really "live" drum sound). Also, the drums sound very, very dry in comparison to the guitars. Something seems off. The two sound like they're in different recording spaces.

Anyway. It's late. My ears are full of wax, and I need some sleep. I love listening to your stuff, Whitestrat. Thanks for sharing!