Hmmmm,.... I know I am not the "Master" but I will do my best to help lol.
Sounds pretty good for a first mix ever.
Now for the ugly stuff that regretably has to be said.
I agree with master about the EQing, and I think I figured out the problem when you said "smiley" It seems to me like you are using EQ because you think you have to "use EQ" Not the case, the number one rule is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" Number two rule being "never boost EQ, ONLY cut!" We always break that rule, but we always look over our shoulder to make sure no-one is looking first lol.
I tried to follow the EQ Table from "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, v.2". (LISTED BELOW) I tried to use it as a rule of thumb to help me avoid the muddiness and colliding freq's...Obviously, I got lost somewhere along the way
The best approach to EQ is to do your best NOT to use any EQ, but when you do ONLY try to notch out the frequencies on the tracks that are colliding with other tracks. Hence: if the guitar is muddying up the bass find out where they intersect and notch one of them out in that area. (usually around 250hz and 800hz respectively) When you do break the "never boost" EQ rule, seriously never boost more than 1 or 2 db, and only do it on certain tracks. I never EQ the master buss, only individual tracks. I record with EQ on each track during the tracking process, I try to make each track sound the way I think it should sound in the finished product, this takes away the chance that you can screw everything up in the mix because you do not have to do much in the mixing process.
I tried to record everything flat (thought I read that somewhere) so that it wasn't all jacked up to begin with - at least if it started flat, it could always go back to there to start over with. I tried to do what you mentioned above and failed with amazing skill!
As a rule of thumb notch about 2db out of each track at a Q of 2.5 at 315hz, for some reason notching this freq. on everything always cleans up a mix. Also if you are recording in higher quality digital, you may want to boost 1 or 2 db on every track with a Q of around 2 at 10khz (reason being that, most modern mic's and pre's excel in this freq. which causes alot of phase cancellation at 10khz in the mix) This will add back that lost presence in your mixdown and keep it from getting too muddy.
Awesome tip. thank you very much
Next thing, that pumping is probably because you used a compressor on the master buss. This is a bad idea because the compressor will always follow the loudest track, which means everything else will lose it's presence and start pumping in and out to follow the main focal point in the mix. I understand that your computer will not like this but the simple fact is that your mix will benefit greatly from using individual compressors on each instrument/vocal. I subgroup the drums, subgroup the bass, subgroup the guitars, vocals and backing vocals, keyboards, etc. all to their own subgroups then put a compressor on each subgroup. This gives each group it's own uniformity.
exactly what I did. Won't do it again
Last but not least "SPACE" every instrument should have it's own "space" in the mix. This is done by panning and using different amounts of reverb on each instrument/vocal. I found that panning things around and increasing/decreasing the reverb on each track while listening to the mix in mono helps greatly to achieve the desired outcome.
I did pan every instrument/vocal to a different spot between 9 and 3, but only used reverb on vocals and a few guitar tracks. I'll play more with this in the future
A few tid-bits: use a lower compression ratio on the vocals, they sound quite distorted (not sure if you were actually going for that effect or not) 2.1 ratio is plenty on your vocals, slow attack and fast release. As for the drums, your very next purchase should be better drum mics, those nadys make the drums sound like cardboard box's (no offense)
none taken. i'm broke. when I can, i'd like to try out some of MSH's omni mics he sells around here. I will also research more on the mics you mention below. thanks
Maybe an AKG D112 for the kick and some Sennheiser E604's on the toms ($199 for the D112 and $329 for 3 E604's) If you have money to burn get MD421's for the toms, but assuming you are as broke as the rest of us the E604's are as close as you can get to an MD421 and they are smaller and easier to mount! I have a bunch of them and love them! I actually found Samson CO-2's ($119 a pair) to be incredible budget mics for overheads, I was shocked at how good they sound for the money. I have not found MXL, Nady or Behringer mic's pleasing at all. I have tons of mics from Samson to Nuemann's, I think I have tried well over half the mic's in the world and would recommend staying away from MXL, Nady, and Behringer. Good cheap mics can be had from Samson, SE, Studio projects, Joe Meek, Cad, Rode, Octava, and others. Your firepod has pretty good pre's in it, so my advice to you would be concentrate on buying some really nice mics first and foremost. Of course with your computer issues the 2 most important things in your nearest future should be a faster computer built exculsively for recording, and a UAD-1 card for processing. Drum mic's coming in as a close third lol.
I had fried my P4 and was trying to finish up this project before heading to Nashville to meet with some record labels (a long story, but ended up withgreat feedback like you've provided here). I've since rebuilt my machine and am ready to rock.
Well I hope this helps, keep up the good work, and I admire that you are willing to open yourself up to critisism in an open-minded quest to better your ability. I never mind helping people out when I feel they actually are trying to better themselves, and will actually take advice for face value with an open mind. Good luck! Dan
