Lend me your ears... How is this mix?

  • Thread starter Thread starter monkeymanx
  • Start date Start date
M

monkeymanx

New member
Lend me your ears... How is this mix? Remix Updated

New Song mp3 192Kbps

Alrighty... Here goes, I've been back and forth on whether the drums are loud enough. I've been back and forth on whether the guitar is too loud or just right. Are the keyboard parts a bit too loud or just right? The past couple weeks I've been really working on my sound. I almost switched kick drum sounds, but I came back to the one I regularly use because I just like it I guess. Anywho, I suppose I have tired ears right now, can you lend me some help?
 
Last edited:
The only things that stand up & says deal with me are the 2 crash (?) cymbals - the Centre & right ones anyway. They seem a little brittle & loud.
Everything else, & I mean everything, sounds SPOT ON.
Oh, & the BASS guitar (or facsimilie thereof) has nice definition.
A vocal would really send this into orbit BUT, I have to wear my prejudices on my sleeve, a DM vocal would kill off all the great work.
 
Interesting start.....nice vibe. Reminds me of Disturbed...I like it. Seems pretty evenly balanced right now...nice mixture of all the sounds. I got nothing to pick at...and like the song...Nice one man.... :cool:
 
The drums seem a fine level but they dont seem to stick out much. I dont like the snare or cymbals. I would hi pass the cymbals and hats to take away any hi mids.
The mix as a whole sounds pretty lo mid heavy.
Could be the guitars or the bass. I cant tell.
The guitar tone is meaty however. Processed? ;)

Sorry to be a pain but the whole mix doesnt sound very natural to me. I just like a mix to sound more natural.
But nice work overall and cool tune.

Eck
 
overall the mix is pretty damn good my man...that being said here are a few things I noticed...you didn't think you'd get away without comments did you? :D


I think you should use some parallel compression on the drums to bring them out in the mix a bit...the room they are in sounds a bit unnatural, I don't know if you have a verb on them or not, but it's a little "off". also everything said about the highs in the cymbals is correct...they are harsh.

guitars, bass sound pretty darn spot on for this genre.

overall, I give it a B+....good job
 
Alrighty... Things I'm going to go back and look at...

Cymbals, The splash and china are the ones that are really standing out, I'll take them down 1db.

Rayc, don't worry, I'm working on a album as a whole as a solo album and there will be no death metal vocals anywhere to be found on it. This will be the first complete album without working with other musicians.

Dogman, thanks, glad you dig it... I have 4 other tunes finished, just mixing. I'm pretty much writing all the music and then going back and finishing them off with vocals. I like to listen through the instrumentals a couple times to get a better feeling about the songs vibe before I plan vocals.

Ecktronic, what about the snare don't you like? Not enough twang? To dry? Generally, where is a good place to hi pass the cymbals, something like 12khz? It is probably the boost I give on the overheads, and I also boost the highs on the final mix to give it more air... The low mids is all the bass, I boost around 400hz. The drums I cut around 400hz. The guitar tone actually just runs through an EQ... I am looking at getting a full somewhat natural sound, it can really only sound so natural once compression and limiting is added, well it seems that way anyway.

Blueroommusic, I love comments, that is what helps us out getting better. By parallel compression, you mean 2 compression channels. Example, send to two seperate busses with different compression levels? I compress the drums slightly. The room is just the AMB(room) channel with DFHS so it should sound natural, maybe something with the compression.

Thanks for the comments folks. Hope you come back to respond to my questions here. I'm really looking to take this album to the next level. Over the past year I released 2 albums, 1 with Chaosphate and another with Three After. Both albums sound decent and get complimented on the sound quality but I am still striving for better sound. It's frustrating to never settle but the end results are awsome.
 
By parallel compression, you mean 2 compression channels. Example, send to two seperate busses with different compression levels?
Click to expand...

bus all your drum tracks to a seperate stereo bus, put compressor on that bus...bring up underneath your existing drums to add punch.
 
The snap is ok, It just doesnt have much body.By that I mean resonance. Maybe add a long reverb to it and use more. Try boosting the snare at 3K to se what that does and also around 100Hz. I always use wide Qs to ry and kep natural(ish)
ON sencond listen im likeing the guitars more and more. Very smooth tone which is what I long for in a dist gtr.

I usually hi pass all cymbals, hats and OHs (for heavy rock) so all I hear is the hi end sizzle of them. around 3K might be a good starting point.
I dont cut them heavy either, I usually have a bit of a slant on the cut to make it sounds more natural.

Heres a piccy of my OH EQ
https://img57.imageshack.us/img57/8939/eqct0.png
 
Blueroommusic, I already do that. The compressed send bus is louder I believe than the seperate drum channels. I'll have to go back and take a listen to it. Maybe I just need to bring up the gain 1 or 2 db on the compressor itself and it will do the trick.
 
Ecktronic, I'll have to try that with the Overheads channel. I've never tried a high pass on the cymbals. I was thinking you were talking about a lo pass at first, get them backwards sometimes... The cymbals also come through the room mic channel, but I would think that shouldn't be a problem. I'll also give this a try on the high hat mic.

I'll give a reverb a shot on the snare. I stayed away from adding low end to the snare but I'll give it a shot. I boost guitars a bit at 200hz and my bass guitar at 125hz, my kick and toms at 75hz... I could probably boost the snare around 200hz, without taking away from everything else too much. I'll give it a try at 3khz, the only thing is that is a strong area for the guitars, so I'm not sure how much I want it to interfere with the guitar sound. Thanks for the input.
 
When mixing, dont think that boosting at a certain frquency will take away something from another instrument that is mainly around that area. Just listen rather than think about it too much. :)
Whe I boosted the snare at 90Hz by 9dB and 3.4K by 17dB! I didnt notice anything try to fight with it.

Eck
 
It kinda did the oposinte as it made the snare stand out more and give it its own space.

Eck
 
Alrighty... I did the high pass on the overheads and the hats... When you just monitor them alone, it sounds kind of odd, but in the complete mix, it sits fine and you can't tell the lower of the spectrum is missing for the cymbals.

I retooled the EQ on the snare just a bit... Gave it some more low end, and a bit more high end to it. Added a plate type reverb to it too.

I adjusted the drum mic volumes and adjusted the compression on the drum compression bus.

Let me know what you think of this new mix...
 
It's the link up top... I've been working on mixing down 5 songs for Chaosphate because the singer is taking them out to some peoples he knows for radio play and I think I've got it sounding pretty good. Just some knitpicks here and there... I basically used the same sound as this song...
 
I went back and did some comparisons between some older tunes I did and this new stuff. I've done yet another mix... One thing I was missing was the punchiness of my old mixes, which has been put back into it. Here is the link, let me know what you think:

New Song

So, how does this one sound?

Also, I've found I prefer the old limiter I was using to the new one. I have the L3 but I just went back to Voxengo Elephant. It just sounds better to me. I also started using CurveEQ again, I just miss the sound it puts on the overall track.
 
You're right MUCH punchier.
Is the stuff you used soft or hard ware?
If soft is it readily available?
That crash still seems to sizzle a bit too much.
Other than that this is leaps & bounds ahead. nothing like a little old technology to make changes.
 
Drums sound clearer.
I still amnt liking the snare, Could be personal preference.
Sounds a bit boxy to me.
I would try cutting some lo mids and boosting that 3-5K alot more for more snap.

Good stuff for sure.
Eck
 
It's pretty much the limiter... I used the Voxengo one instead of the Waves one... Yes, it's readily available, www.voxengo.com and they have a bunch of other awsome plugs.
 
First time I hear this so I can't compare with earlier mixes. I'm with Eck on the snare. It's certainly not bad, I think it's more of a personal preference as opposed to something wrong with it, but I find it a little boxy . Maybe it just doesn't suit the song for me and it would sound great in another tune.
The mix is very good, but I find maybe there's too much reverb on everything because, it's hard to explain, but everything sounds distant as if I'm hearing this from another room, if that makes sense.
Good low end and I find the bass drum is the right sound for this style...Just enough click. Besdies the snare, the sound of everything is fine. Maybe dry some things up to get more 3-D going. Can't wait to hear it with vocals, it sounds heavy as hell.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top