Mixing / Mastering Advice Request

[chhogg]

After doing very little musically for several years, I have spent my free time this summer recording a cover version of Dream Theater's song "The Spirit Carries On" with alternate lyrics. I have all of the various parts recorded now, and aside from the fact that I cannot play in time or in tune and dislike the sound of my own voice, I am pleased enough with how all of the individual parts sound. But I have no idea what, if anything, I should be doing as post-production. I compressed some of the individual tracks to compensate for my uneven playing and panned different parts to the left or right to help separate them, because both of these steps were often-suggested and seemed like something I could actually do and not screw up. But I have also read lots (on this site and elsewhere) suggesting that each track should be individually equalized. I have not done so because half of what I read contradicts the other half, and when I have tried to do something it has either made no noticeable change to my ears or has definitely made things worse. (I am using Audacity, by the way.) In particular, I am somewhat concerned about the bass part -- I do not have proper monitors, and if I mix it loud enough to be audible in my headphones it can be overpowering in my computer speakers.

I have no expectations of making something that sounds professional, and I am only willing to put a moderate amount of effort and no money into improving it. But if there are simple, straightforward things I could do that would make a significant difference in the quality, I would be delighted to know about them. I have attached a low-quality mp3 file of my current result (to fit in the limit on attachment sizes) and have uploaded a flac version at http://chadhogg.name/~chad/files/TSCO.flac Thanks in advance for reading / listening, and for any suggestions you may have.

 

[ecktronic]

I'd suggest re-tracking the vocals and a lot of the rythym sections. The vocals are out of tune a lot of the time, and the timing of the instrumentation is out pretty big.

G

 

[chhogg]

Thanks for the advice, but I'm not sure that I can actually do a better job of it.

 

[Pahtcub]

Back up from the microphone to give the vocals a little more airiness, also vocals need a pinch of reverb. And as stated before huge timing issues.