My First MIX: RAP/ROCK crossover track. I need FEEDBACK!

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Dutch Dave

New member
I just mixed the first track of my band RFM, in which I rap.
Here's the LINK. The song is called It's About Time.

I uploaded the beta-version of the mix and I really need your guys feedback.
What do you think about the drums, vocals, guitars, bass, song, etc?

I mixed the song in Cubase SX 3. The intro is made with a midi-keyboard and an Edirol plug-in. I did a 'quick simple mastering' using Waves.
 
The snares sound strange to me. Are they compressed?
What is that instrument taking a lot energy at around 70 Hz? Is it supposed to be a kick drum, then it badly needs tweaking.
 
LogicDeLuxe said:
The snares sound strange to me. Are they compressed?
What is that instrument taking a lot energy at around 70 Hz? Is it supposed to be a kick drum, then it badly needs tweaking.
Click to expand...

The snare's compressed yes.
And can you eleborate a little more about the kick? What's wrong with it? (it peaks at 62HZ btw)

Please explain yourself a little further, I'm not really an experienced mixer yet.
 
The loud guitar (the louder track) seems out of phase, and is too loud and is distracting...The Bass guitar needs some definition...boost around 3k... the kick is also...boost the top.. VOX need to come up a tad...but may be buried cause the guitars..

Not bad for a 1st go man... :D


EDIT: the kick is all low end....give some high end to give it definition... like up 'round 5-7k...

the peak at 62 is all woomp....
 
Thanks for the feedback. I already tweaked the kick and bass a little bit.

But what excactly do you mean with 'the loud guitar'? The short chords?
 
Well, I'm a hip hop artist myself, and I like to do things differently, as you have chosen to do. I love the chorus line, with the "Its about time it's about time" and then you more or less speaking in an echo for the chorus, that was an ingenious idea that worked out perfectly for the beat. Did you make that beat? If so, great job, mad props. I've tried to use the guitar in my beats, I just can't get it to work out like you did there. Maybe it's the Layers I'm having issue's with, I'll try again. But back to the feedback.

Overall, it was a great first run in my opinion. The guys hit it on the head, the kick, the vocals, etc. They got it. There's something else to the vocals other than bringing them up, that needs to be done, I'm not quite sure what it is.. but I can hear there's something with the vocals that needs to be changed.

But, enough criticism I'm not one to talk, :). Great first run. :D

--Re-Lapse
 
Blimey, this is good stuff. Love the vocal, it just hits the spot! I think it could do with coming up about 2-3dB or similar and I agree the bass drum needs a bit more high end because it's lost in the mix for me and is literally just a 'rumble'.

Other than that, love the song, have listened to it twice already.

(This is all from a guy who is a self-proclaimed 'rap hater' too:))
 
Pretty catchy song you've got here. The first suggestion I have would be to add reverb in the string intro to make it sound epic. Next, it sounds to me like it was recorded and mixed in a small room and the bass EQ was overcompensated. The guitars have an air of "direct" in them; they also sound a bit boxy to me. The drums sound like samples or loops, but in a negative way. Since it's a rap song, perhaps go for samples or a loop that doesn't try to hide the fact that they're loops.

I tend to try to be as honest as possible when it comes to critiquing someone's mixes; bullshit doesn't make recordings better. While reading this, keep in mind that I battle some of the very issues I criticize.
 
First of all, thank all of you for your feedback, it's very useful.

I want to clear up some things about this track:

Drums:
It are actually real drums! Recorded with 6 mics on seperate tracks. I mixed them all track by track. The 'clean recorded' sound wasn't going to fit this track so I used a lot of compression, EQ, reverb and such to make the drums more 'hard'.
Now I realize I 'overmixed' some of it, mainly the kick. I already mixed it a little bit since I read the feedback here. I made the snare 'hit harder', slowed the attack down on the compression, so you actually 'feel' the snare a little bit more.
I gave the kick more 'high-end' to feel the 'punch' more instead of the low rumble.
But if you have any more advice for the drum-mixing I'm glad to hear ir :)

Guitars:
They are indeed 'direct'. We recorded the guitar through the V-Amp Pro Amp modeler and I mixed it a little bit more after that: (comperssion and EQ -> mainly low-cut).
I'm satisfied with the guitars in the sense that they hit 'reallly hard' which fits the track. But if you have any advice to make it sound more 'natural', I'd like to know.

Vocals
Recorded with a Rode-NT1000. Added compression and reverb after that to make it sound more in-your-face and natural.

I love the feedback peoples, keep it coming!
 
Dutch Dave said:
First of all, thank all of you for your feedback, it's very useful.

I want to clear up some things about this track:

Drums:
It are actually real drums! Recorded with 6 mics on seperate tracks. I mixed them all track by track. The 'clean recorded' sound wasn't going to fit this track so I used a lot of compression, EQ, reverb and such to make the drums more 'hard'.
Now I realize I 'overmixed' some of it, mainly the kick. I already mixed it a little bit since I read the feedback here. I made the snare 'hit harder', slowed the attack down on the compression, so you actually 'feel' the snare a little bit more.
I gave the kick more 'high-end' to feel the 'punch' more instead of the low rumble.
But if you have any more advice for the drum-mixing I'm glad to hear ir :)

Guitars:
They are indeed 'direct'. We recorded the guitar through the V-Amp Pro Amp modeler and I mixed it a little bit more after that: (comperssion and EQ -> mainly low-cut).
I'm satisfied with the guitars in the sense that they hit 'reallly hard' which fits the track. But if you have any advice to make it sound more 'natural', I'd like to know.

Vocals
Recorded with a Rode-NT1000. Added compression and reverb after that to make it sound more in-your-face and natural.

I love the feedback peoples, keep it coming!
Click to expand...

No more advice here, looks like you have things under control. Keep on keepin' on! :D

--Re-Lapse
 
Very Cool :cool:

This is a great mix of rock and rap. The drums and guitars definitely give this a fresh new feel to the rap style.

The snare is fine by me - lots of snap... Vocals nice and crisp....

I'd buy the CD.....

:) :D :) :D
 
Thanks you guys!

Btw, I added an mp3 of the new mix on the soundclick, please check it out and critisize it ;)

I EQ-ed a lot, hoping the mudiness would dissapear, but I'm still not satisfied. The sound still seems kinda flat. Any advice?
 
I just found out a lot of the mudiness was due to the bad MP3-coversion codec from Cubase. :mad:

I uploaded a new version on my Soundclick with the right codec. What you guys think? More clarity this time?
 
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