Need general advice/review of mix

[TonyMacaroni]

So first off, I'm sorry that the link is only about 40 seconds long, the purpose of the mix was to do a "test mix" for a project I'm working on. Thus, I only recorded 3 parts that I deemed 100% necessary for a review of the mix, A chorus with vocals, continued without vocals, and a guitar riff. I understand that the full song would be better to give you a better idea of the flow and dynamic range, but I wasn't really ready to commit to recording the whole track since it will only be used to demo the mixing process and later used as a reference.

I welcome any criticism and advice that anybody is willing to offer, but the things I am most concerned about at the moment are:

-Do the vocals sit well in the mix?
-is the lead guitar (final ~10 seconds) appropriately present?, I recorded the lead twice and panned them softly, trying to keep the track pretty well in the center.
-Do the kick and bass interfere too much with each other?
-Is there too much boom in the 200-500hz range?

My concerns with points one and two have mostly to do with my inexperience and uncertainty with how to properly position and anchor the leads within the mix. The uncertainty in points three and four have mostly to do with my monitors (or lack thereof).

Thank you.

Edit: forgot link: https://soundcloud.com/chris-beddome/torontotestmix

 

[4tracker]

I'm on crappy laptop speakers, but it sounds balanced to me on these. Good song.

 

[the kelvinator]

I'm using earbuds plugged to my laptop. To me, points one and two - they're OK. I think the lead could be a bit louder.

 

[ido1957]

-Do the vocals sit well in the mix?
-is the lead guitar (final ~10 seconds) appropriately present?, I recorded the lead twice and panned them softly, trying to keep the track pretty well in the center.
-Do the kick and bass interfere too much with each other?
-Is there too much boom in the 200-500hz range?

No the vocals are too low and muddy. Bring them up, they sound good.
Lead guitar is too low. Good performance so just bring up the focal points so they are accentuated.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

No the vocals are too low and muddy. Bring them up, they sound good.
Lead guitar is too low. Good performance so just bring up the focal points so they are accentuated.

Maybe just a tiny bit more vocals. They're at a pretty good place for the genre to. Lead guitar is plenty loud I think.

Not digging the kick sound. It's all click and sticks way out in the mix. I wouldn't say it "interferes" with the bass so much as "does not interact in any meaningful way" with the bass.

 

[Bruthish]

Are you running any effects on the main bus like a compressor? Sounds to me like the whenever the kick hits its causing a flutter in the guitar, but it may be just the way its being strummed.

 

[TonyMacaroni]

Maybe just a tiny bit more vocals. They're at a pretty good place for the genre to. Lead guitar is plenty loud I think.

Not digging the kick sound. It's all click and sticks way out in the mix. I wouldn't say it "interferes" with the bass so much as "does not interact in any meaningful way" with the bass.

Agreed, I'm having a really really hard time getting any clarity in the low end through my monitors so it might as well be a guessing game. I'm actually using a pair of stereo speakers for monitoring (proper monitors will be my next purchase). They have build in subs. Does anybody know if it would be a good idea to disengage the subs? or do speakers with built in subs depend 100% on the subs to get any bass response? ie - is there a generally a high pass filter on speakers with build in subs? or do they work together?

Are you running any effects on the main bus like a compressor? Sounds to me like the whenever the kick hits its causing a flutter in the guitar, but it may be just the way its being strummed.

Yes, I did a pseudo mastering job with a stock multi band compressor, I definitely pushed it a little too hard which is probably why you are hearing the ducking.