I suck at mixing...you don't...let's be friends!

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generalchaos316

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I have been all gung-ho about broadening my skills at recording and mixing recently so I recently decided to take all the songs that my old high school band recorded 8+ years ago on crappy gear, polish them up a bit, and rerecord them as best I can (since I can't seem to finish a song of my own to save my life...:mad:)

This particular mix is just the finished result of the tracking (just an instrumental song in itself)...no other effects have been applied yet...mostly because I do not fully know what I am doing yet. I would like to offer the chance for the community to rip my stuff apart first. :p

I tracked this in Reaper as a case study but I normally record in Pro Tools (though I am very, very impressed by the former...) so I have access to all the plugs that come in either. My main problems with the mix are the bass is pretty much inaudible and I am having trouble getting the drums to sit well in the mix...when I turn them down they seem to be too weak. However, something else doesn't feel quite 'right' about it either. For now it would be good not to focus much on the source tracking as I am also using this piece as practice for some live projects that I have coming up....where overdubbing won't really be an option.

Here is an MP3 of what I have so far, and if you are curious to know just how bad the original recordings were...there is a link to that too. :D I do not offend easily (and often offend others with some of my rather blunt critiques) so no need to sugarcoat anything.


 
It's really muddy. Seems that the guitar, bass, and base drums are sharing all the same freqs. Try to clean it up a little there.
 
Thanks for the prompt feedback. I know what you are gunning for, but what you mentioned is exactly what I don't really understand yet. When you say that these elements are sharing the same frequencies, I immediately think to EQ (based on what I have read) to solve this problem...to carve out a specific sonic range for each instrument.

Is this correct, and/or are there other aspects to the mixing that can also have an impact on this problem? Also, I am still trying to learn where each voice "belongs" in a mix. Again, if it is easier to show via example, I can post the stems of the parts (as soon as I figure out how in Reaper). :p

Thanks again for helping a nooblet-apprentice out :)
 
generalchaos316 said:
Is this correct, and/or are there other aspects to the mixing that can also have an impact on this problem? Also, I am still trying to learn where each voice "belongs" in a mix. Again, if it is easier to show via example, I can post the stems of the parts (as soon as I figure out how in Reaper). :p
Click to expand...

Cool riffs here, the tune rox... I agree about the muddy comment and something to try that might answer your question... for each instrument mess with the EQ while its playing to find which frequency that instrument sounds best at... try raising that frequency a bit and/or lowering the same frequency a bit on every other instrument for better seperation... just something to try... also muddy sounds sometimes come from the midrange, try reducing certain instruments somewhere in the 450-900hz range to see if that clears it up...
 
Hmm... to be honest, it's hard to give advice without seeing the mix visually. But, I can say a few things.

Performance is good!

Mix though, overall everything sounds kinda muddy.

The snare sounds to "snappy" like it doesn't have any lows or mids in it, the Hi-Hat and Ride sound too panned out, or maybe just too high pitched. The bass, I don't know I could not hear it really. But the kick, it is way too low eq wise.... it needs some higher frequencies I think. I don't know, I never realized how much seeing it makes a difference! It's not bad and I wouldn't say you suck, it's better than my first recordings by far.


One idea for the electric, try recording it twice and panning one left and one right, or duplicating the track and panning one left and one right.. with one offfset slightly like not even a mili-second.

Keep working at it though, you have potential and at least a good enough ear to tell this is a bad mix(but not bad performance)

Also... with drums it has a lot to do with how they are tuned, that may be the issue with the kick drum.

-James'
 
James, thanks for confirming my uneasiness with the snare...that was what I was referring to when I said that I couldn't get it to sit right in the mix. As for the bass...I guess I listen to way too much hard rock as of late (which isn't really the feel of this piece). I will have to go back and see how cutting some lows tightens things up.

As for the guitar...I actually did record 2 takes. One was done using the full chords and the other was power cords which gave some emphasis to the strumming (the full chords sounded too fluffy by themselves). I am having trouble figuring out how to send the mono track to a stereo submix in Reaper. I will try to pan the fluffy guitar wide and keep the punchy one toward the middle.

Can't wait to get home and try out all this good advice! :D
 
Only one link works for me. Cool riff. Lots of mud. Sounds to me like it's mostly in the low-mid range. I'd start by trying to get some kick/bass seperation.
 
Mix with your eyes????:confused: I guess the height of the wav might be what he's referring to (volume), but cetainly not the eq'ing...

Yeah - the mix is cloudy with a lot in the midrange. Contact Southside Glen and get his frequency chart. It's really helpful for defining instruments IMHO.
What are you using for eq and monitors? They may have something to do with the mix being muddy too.

Song is pretty cool too.....good playing....

:D:):D:)
 
ido1957 said:
What are you using for eq and monitors? They may have something to do with the mix being muddy too.
Click to expand...

For monitors I am using Event Studio Precision 8's. The first mix didn't actually have any signal processing done to it. I wanted to get some input before attempting to slaughter my recording since I would otherwise be just sliding settings around. :D I hope to be putting up another mix by this evening.
 
Okay, I spent some time tweaking some things...trying my hand at creating a place for each of the instruments in the mix. I feel like I may have overdone it somewhat...but hopefully it is not worse than when I started. :p Sometimes I listen to the two and don't hear much of a difference...and other times they sound way different. I think I am losing my objectivity. :rolleyes:

 
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