mixing help

[sardineclub]

I'm having big problems with one particular song. I want a kind of rough,ready and pretty natural sound (within reason) but the chorus section is sounding a bit too messy and full.....i was wandering if their was anything in particular that jumps out as sounding 'bad'. Im using ableton 5 which doesnt allow bussing which is annoying (thinking of transferring the whole project to pro tools but im a little reluctant) and so my computer is already struggling with coping CPU wise.

Some compression (The Glue) on the drums, EQ across the board and very little reverb.

Also this was pretty much all recorded in my bedroom which is about 1.5 by 2 metres.....tiny by any standards.

Im jesus christ mam 21 1 by sardineclub on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Any thoughts would be most welcome.
Thanks

 

[singlespeak]

I like the song.
What microphone did you use? I think that might be a bigger problem than your room size - although at 1.5x2, I can see why you're called sardineclub. You want a natural sound, but when I listen to the first six seconds that doesn't sound natural at all. It sounds like natural recorded through a built-in computer microphone. So, yes, that sounds "bad", in the sense that your mic is not recording crucial parts of your audio spectrum, it's very narrowed down. Now if you put layers of bad sound on top of each other the badness accumulates which is the messy and full you're referring to. All your layers seem recorded with the same substandard mic so you get a buildup of useless frequencies and an absence of interesting ones - low to lower-mid in your case. Unless you recorded this with a 400$ mic, in which case please disregard my comment

 

[sardineclub]

I recorded pretty much all of it with a an SE2200a. The very 6 seconds is actually just a level check that i liked and used as a little intro, so its probably off mic and pretty tinny sounding because of that....but i did have some trouble (probably because of slightly off mic placement?) with boomy steel string acoustic so perhaps went overboard with crappy Ableton EQ.

I think the main things im having trouble with is finding the space for the vocals and the overall drum mix. Theres also some a fair amount of guitar recorded from cassette tape...perhaps overwhelming the sound?

Thanks for the reply. Any other suggestions would be great.

Olly