Mix feedback: Slime Girl

[JG96]

Mixing a song for my bands next album, let me know what you think of the mix.

 

[ido1957]

Cool tune, but the lead guitar seems to dominate the mix a bit. The vocals - hard to distinguish the words. Has a cool pop groove provided by the drums and bass which sound great!

 

[trimonious]

Yeah, I agree. This is a good, fun song with a rocking rhythm section. I would take off everything but the bass and drums for the verses. I'd also re-record the double tracked vocals so they are closer together in rhythm and pitch.

 

[JG96]

Thanks for the feedback. As the bassist I especially appreciate the feedback The singer for this song generally only plays lead guitar. He seems to always be uncomfortable in the studio so I'm trying to get this take sounding as best as it can. I tried aligning the vocals with flex time in some spots and flipping the phase on the amp sim the vocals are fed into. I think it sounds a bit better. View attachment Slime Girl Mix 3.mp3

 

[ashcat_lt]

That's pretty clean! I mean, I don't hear anything that absolutely must be fixed. You'd want to double check mono compatibility if you're flipping phase, but it seems to work on my speakers at least. At this point it's pretty much down to personal taste. If it was me I'd want the lead guitar to sit a bit further back when the vocals are present, but I think it's a perfectly valid statement as is.

 

[JG96]

Thanks for the feedback. I brought the lead guitar part down about a decibel when the singing is present.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

I feel like the panning on this song is probably a bit too wide. The drums are a bit farther out than they should be. The vocals are clearly two parts panned out instead of sounding like one large, full voice.

The vocals are pretty pitchy too, but I suspect that's at least partially intentional?

The drums all sound pretty dark and lo-fi.

There's some potential here, but I think this song could use a lot more polish.

 

[heatmiser]

This is a fun tune. The bass is my favorite part and sounds very nice. I like the drums as well, but while I think the cymbals sound pretty good, the kick and snare have kind of a muffled quality to them.

I kinda like the vocals, even though the processing applied to them is a bit strange and the singer sounds maybe a little timid.

Personally, I would clean up the vocal track(s?) a bit and bring down the lead guitar in relation to the vocal, but I guess those would be conventional moves and maybe not what you're going for...

 

[JG96]

After an hour of slaving over a hot DAW I think I have worked out the pitch issues without sounding over produced. Working with a singer on lead guitar and a lead guitarist on vocals aint easy. The set is def kinda dark. Its a mahogany kit and at the time it had ancient heads Tried running the Toms and snare through a plate. And using A CLA 76 on the kick. Getting these drums to pop has been an uphill struggle. I think the vocals may need some time alignment but this is definitely a start. View attachment Slime Girl Mix 4.mp3

 

[VomitHatSteve]

I dunno about trying to fix the vox in post. It's gotta be easier to get a better (or at least more consistent) performance out of the vocalist than to fix it with FX. You'll get better results too.

 

[JG96]

That's true, with the other singer in my band we work it out till the part sounds great however this fellow is very lazy when it comes to recording. Did you take a listen to the mix with the vox cleaned up?

 

[Tobe]

I really like the instrumental sections... has a kind of restrained sheek geek thing going. I don't dislike the vocal... but somehow the interesting cute of the sound disappears with the singing. I would experiment with how the vocal sits on the mix, and also experiment with how the vocal is sung... starting with a very direct and punchy approach.

 

[chuckduffy]

I like it - it sounds like dry early pixies with your own mojo on top. You could do nothing and it would be fine if you like it. Personal opinion wise - I would think about planting the lead vocal down the middle instead of panned out like that. I have no problem with the lead volume, (reminds me a lot of Joey) but I would wet the thing up a little. I love the walking/ascending/desending bass parts. I would like to hear the kick and bass a little closer together in level and with some more whomp in the kik. But WTF do I know

 

[JG96]

Were all big fans of The Pixies so I really appreciate that . I'll try adding some spring reverb on the guitar. Getting the kick to sound powerful has been difficult for me, but I suppose I could give it a boost in volume. I might play around with the panning on the vocals a bit.

 

[chuckduffy]

Were all big fans of The Pixies so I really appreciate that . I'll try adding some spring reverb on the guitar. Getting the kick to sound powerful has been difficult for me, but I suppose I could give it a boost in volume. I might play around with the panning on the vocals a bit.

It may be something as simple as eqing a little more bite on the kick with saturation or eq, or altering the attack if you are using a compressor. I always listen for something where the 'bass' sound is actually a combination of kick and bass...