need help on the mix

[jimistone]

I can't get the bass guitar right on my recordings
(among other things)

I know this mix can be alot better. There is too much amp hum on the slide guitar track, but, besides that, what can I do to make this mix better?

copyright 2003 words and music by mike hibner/donnie peeples


sons of sons of rebel sons

 

[The Ghost of FM]

jimistone

First of all, Welcome to the clinic!

I liked the track you put up for us to listen to and hopefully help you with.

A couple of weird things stood out for me on this mp3;

1 - There seems to be gaps in the song. Almost as if parts were literally sliced out of it, almost like a record skipping but with out the traditional skipping sound. Was this intensional to prevent copy-write infringement?

2 - There does seem to be some over-all eq weirdities to the sound of the mix beyond just the bass guitar sounding as if it is horribly out of phase and drifting in and out of the mix as it hits certain notes that just disappear. This might be due to a stereo tracking issue of the bass and a conversion somewhere along the way that turned it into a mono track and thus the phase issues with many notes dipping in and out of audibility.

As for the entire mix, there does seem to be the beginnings of a good balance of all the instruments but a couple of them are standing out in the mix. The vocals seem very mid range heavy and lacking in bass. This could be fixed with a corresponding cut and boost of the frequencies in question. The lead guitar seems to be suffering from the same problem too.

Perhaps some of these issues might be solved or at least improved by re-calibrating your speakers that you are mixing with by setting them up in a good position for the room's acoustics and mixing with a health but not crazy volume level and always with fresh ears that are not burnt out from a tracking session you may have just completed. Also, try to eq the speakers with some similar genre professional recording from CD's you are familiar with to get the speakers to be a more accurate mixing tool for you.

I use Asleep At The Wheel's Riding With Bob, CD to help adjust my speakers and a few other favs and when the set up is sounding good with those, I know my stuff will come a little closer to sounding right also.

Cheers!

 

[jimistone]

I don't know why you got skips....I played it and it didn't skip. But nevertheless its not intentional.

My mixing environment isn't right...the midrangy sound still stands out even when i try to mix it really thin and trebly.....and the bass responce I get in that room is real low. If I mix a good sounding mix its bassy and muddy as hell on a car stereo. So I don't know.

 

[Middleman]

Ok, here's a couple of suggestions.

The bottom I agree is pretty lacking. Work on running multiple channels of the bass, kick and snare and compress one of these channels and bring the compressed versions up underneath the clean versions. That will fatten up the low end.

The slide needs to be redone. It sounds like you are just going through the motions of playing slide licks but not really keying in around the vocal spaces. It's also too hot in the mix and too trebly. Fatten it up slightly, less notes more wavering sustains.

A little too much verb on the voice but I liked the sound of the vocal. The vocal performance was fine for this vein of music and I bought the sincerity and was drawn into the words. Sorry, getting producer here on ya.

You also need to tighten up your guitars and bass to stay in synch with the drums. A little too loose for my ears, not terribly so but that would add some polish.

Overall I liked it alot and the performance was close. Push the whole mix down from the high end to the low end and it would have a richer quality.

I'm done, good effort by the way.

 

[jimistone]

I have noticed that there was too much verb on the vocal the more I listened to it(especially when the music stops and its just vocal).
Thanks for the tip on running a clean channel and a compressed channel on the bass and kick! Im going to try that

Im gonna work on the mix some more and as you suggested do another slide gutar part .(besides overplaying there was alot of amp hum and i think it takes away clarity from the mix.)

also, i have not been playing professional recordings thru my system as a referance....I think i will listen to some CD's for a couple of days and then try to mix again.

thanks guys...I really appreciate your input cause I know it isn't right im just not sure what to do about it

but im learning.

 

[David]

Wished I could listen to the real mix mike, but i've moved all my stuff out to Ronnies place again...trying to get some acoustic drums recorded. Glad you've started posting your work in here..it's about fuckin' time . Your in good company man, these guy's are great in the clinic, you'll get plenty of help here...just remember to give back what you take you already know that i'm sure though. Welcome bro! and take/5*****

 

[jimistone]

hey david, if you want to bring your adat you can get donnie to do a drum track...he has an electronic set.

maybe we can cut a song of yours...like "rebel yell" too.

 

[Pedullist]

Agree with Middleman.

Enjoyable listen.

 

[boydrj]

I really like this track and you have some fine vocals on there. The mix is lacking a bit, but you've got advice on that already. One thing I noticed was the drums sound like they could use a little more beef to them, and some eq...

Otherwise, a very enjoyable song!

 

[chrisharris]

You're a talented mother fucker, no offense, lol.

Okay, mixwise...on monitors, it's not big deal, but on headphones there's a pretty big hiss over on the right...it's really only noticeable at the beginning, but it's really noticeable, lol.

I'm really not getting any midrange annoyingness at all, but it needs some ass. This should be thumping, b/c it kinda' reminds me of Bocephus' earlier stuff...like a country boy can survive, and that stuff was mixed like a rock record.

You're a player, I respect that. Damn fine vocal too. Maybe cut the verb on the vocal some when the bed drops out, otherwise, I think the verb fits.

Yeah, just needs some low low low lows. Don't mess with anything between 150Hz-400Hz...I think you're good there. It's lower. Hell, maybe it's fine, lol...this is hard.

Take care and post more,
Chris

 

[jimistone]

thanks chris and boydrj,

I erased my automix last night and im mixing from scratch for the next mix. Im after that hank jr/waylon outta the late 70's sounding mix (whiskey bent and hell bound by god!) lol

to get that sound the bass guitar has to be right and im not having any luck getting what i want on the bass tracking. I retracked the bass last night and the performance was alot tighter....but the tone just ain't right.

I had to basically learn to play slide for this song........im a guitar player but slide isn't my fortay by a long shot. I have some fingerpickion' acoustic work on this song that i left out of the mix because I though there was too much going on with it. Now that I have messed with remixing the song I think the finger picked acoustic sounds really good so on the next mix im going to add it and tone down the electrics.

I have a vision for this song but it ain't there yet...performance wise or mix wise.

I really appreciate y'all taking the time to listen and help me out

I spent about 30 minutes mixing this....the next mix is gonna be "as long as it takes to get it right!"

 

[chrisharris]

Do me a favor and post back in this thread when you get a remix up...I'd like to hear it, and I'll get an email that way.

Then start a new thread, lol.

Lookin' forward to it,
Chris

 

[joro]

Good song man....
Excellent writing....reminds me of sweet home alabama as far as the content...cool..

The other fellas have given you good advice so I'll just wait for the re-mix man.

Joe

 

[jimistone]

thanks joro
I worked on a new mix of this song today and I got a 100% better mix (applying all of y'alls suggestions)

I layed a new bass track down and it was solid
( thanks to suggestions from everyone)

Thanks to everyone for helping me...
im not gonna go any further with these tracks. There are some timing issues that would be hard to fix, so, im gonna just recut the song again from scratch

thanks again for all your help!

 

[Lt. Bob]

Well......I must be hearing the remix 'cause it sounds fine. I like the slide playing......not bad at all for just learning to do it........oops......don't like the ending too much....but the rest of it's good.......nice song and nice solid perdormance.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Well......I must be hearing the remix 'cause it sounds fine. I like the slide playing......not bad at all for just learning to do it........oops......don't like the ending too much....but the rest of it's good.......nice song and nice solid perdormance.

 

[jimistone]

I had said that I wasn't going to remix this song...(timing issues...shitty bass guitar sound ect..ect..), but SOUNDDIAGNOSIS (Lee) took the liberty of enhancing the mix that i posted. Its truely amazing that he took suck a sorry mix and made it sound this good. Just makes me wonder what he can do with a GOOD mix.

here the version enhanced by Lee

enhanced rebels

 

[SOUND DIAGNOSIS]

Awwwwww man, Jimi. We lost some depth in the low end on that new NowhereRadio post. Where did it go?? ROFL! Digital weirdness. ---Lee

 

[jimistone]

Well, when I recut this song again and spend enough time mixing to get a mix worty of your work....we may win a grammy

hehehehe

 

[SOUND DIAGNOSIS]

Well, when I recut this song again and spend enough time mixing to get a mix worty of your work....we may win a grammy

hehehehe

Yeah, a Grammy in "Alabammy"!