Need help with this mix........

Jpwikid

Jpwikid

New member
I posted this yesterday and the thread was closed so not sure what i did wrong so here goes again....Ok, here's what we got. 2 of us play all the instruments, he uses a Roland VS2480 and I use a Roland VS2000 to do all of our recording. If anyone would like to know the gear or recording techniques just ask and we'll gladly fill in the details if it will help our sound. We did a cover version of the Beatles "Come Together" which we believe to be our best "mixing" project to date. The problem is we're unhappy with the overall sound of the song. What we're looking for is some input on what we need to do to give this song that "polished professional" sound. We're not that concerned with what anyone thinks of the arrangement or our musicianship. What has been an ongoing issue is the overall production. What's missing? What needs to be added? Why aren't the guitars big enough? Are the drums too thin? Vocals? Questions like that. We're open to any suggestions and any ideas. If anyone would like to take a shot at mixing it for us, that would be great also.We could send any or all tracks in .wav form. We're willing to try anything to improve our sound. Here's the song in mp3 format.... http://pykor.com/ Press the play button under "Come Together" ....Thanx to anyone and all for your input
 
Jpwikid said:
We're not that concerned with what anyone thinks of the arrangement or our musicianship. What has been an ongoing issue is the overall production.
Click to expand...

Your underestimating the importance of a good performance. Put a bad drummer in front of a $5000 custom-made Ludwig kit and you'll get shit. Put Jo Jo Mayer in front of a cheap Laser kit and he'll do magic with it.
Equation (for me) goes like this:
Musicians: 50%
Tracking: 30%
Mixing: 20%

Jpwikid said:
The problem is we're unhappy with the overall sound of the song. What we're looking for is some input on what we need to do to give this song that "polished professional" sound.
Click to expand...

I don't think is possible to achieve that slick professional sound with bad tracks. Sorry to be that honest but you're gonna try to do your best with what you have. Rule#1: You cannot polish a turd.


Jpwikid said:
If anyone would like to take a shot at mixing it for us, that would be great also
Click to expand...

It's better for you to learn from your mistakes instead of having some guy to do the dirty work for you. Well, here are my advices:

1. Guitars:
Sound thin and muddy. They need less sparkle and more body. Hope you have a DI. If that's the case you can reamp using a better mic placement. Lead gutiar sounds great to me.

2. Drums
Kick lacks definition, too damped for my personal taste. I could stand more snare with more attack.

3. Bass
More definition, try applying some EQ, but just a little to make it stand on the mix.

Overall mix is too silent. I'm not asking for a 0db pump but try to raise the overall levels. Always remember to put a Master fader track so you can see how much gain you can afford before clipping occurs.

By the way, you song could be way shorter, too repetitive. If that's a cover you should add something to keep listeners hooked. Luck.
 
killthepixelnow said:
Your underestimating the importance of a good performance. Put a bad drummer in front of a $5000 custom-made Ludwig kit and you'll get shit. Put Jo Jo Mayer in front of a cheap Laser kit and he'll do magic with it.
Equation (for me) goes like this:
Musicians: 50%
Tracking: 30%
Mixing: 20%



I don't think is possible to achieve that slick professional sound with bad tracks. Sorry to be that honest but you're gonna try to do your best with what you have. Rule#1: You cannot polish a turd.




It's better for you to learn from your mistakes instead of having some guy to do the dirty work for you. Well, here are my advices:

1. Guitars:
Sound thin and muddy. They need less sparkle and more body. Hope you have a DI. If that's the case you can reamp using a better mic placement. Lead gutiar sounds great to me.

2. Drums
Kick lacks definition, too damped for my personal taste. I could stand more snare with more attack.

3. Bass
More definition, try applying some EQ, but just a little to make it stand on the mix.

Overall mix is too silent. I'm not asking for a 0db pump but try to raise the overall levels. Always remember to put a Master fader track so you can see how much gain you can afford before clipping occurs.

By the way, you song could be way shorter, too repetitive. If that's a cover you should add something to keep listeners hooked. Luck.
Click to expand...

Thanx for your input, but we're still looking for some comments on the production and how to help it. The only way to learn from our mistakes is if someone actually tells us what they are. If some one else does a mix of this song then we can see what they've improved and ask questions on how it was done. We're not looking for someone to "do our dirty work for us."
 
killthepixelnow said:
Your underestimating the importance of a good performance. Put a bad drummer in front of a $5000 custom-made Ludwig kit and you'll get shit. Put Jo Jo Mayer in front of a cheap Laser kit and he'll do magic with it.
Equation (for me) goes like this:
Musicians: 50%
Tracking: 30%
Mixing: 20%



I don't think is possible to achieve that slick professional sound with bad tracks. Sorry to be that honest but you're gonna try to do your best with what you have. Rule#1: You cannot polish a turd.




It's better for you to learn from your mistakes instead of having some guy to do the dirty work for you. Well, here are my advices:

1. Guitars:
Sound thin and muddy. They need less sparkle and more body. Hope you have a DI. If that's the case you can reamp using a better mic placement. Lead gutiar sounds great to me.

2. Drums
Kick lacks definition, too damped for my personal taste. I could stand more snare with more attack.

3. Bass
More definition, try applying some EQ, but just a little to make it stand on the mix.

Overall mix is too silent. I'm not asking for a 0db pump but try to raise the overall levels. Always remember to put a Master fader track so you can see how much gain you can afford before clipping occurs.

By the way, you song could be way shorter, too repetitive. If that's a cover you should add something to keep listeners hooked. Luck.
Click to expand...

Jpwikid said:
Thanx for your input, but we're still looking for some comments on the production and how to help it. The only way to learn from our mistakes is if someone actually tells us what they are.
Click to expand...
I believe that he was doing just that. I disagree with the performance being 50% of the mix, however. It's more like 90%...
 
I think it's pretty good version of Come Together.
Pretty well sung and played. I would use a snappier kick, it sounds a bit muffled. Overheads sound a bit splashy. But overall, I think it's pretty good.

Joe :):)
 
joeym said:
I think it's pretty good version of Come Together.
Pretty well sung and played. I would use a snappier kick, it sounds a bit muffled. Overheads sound a bit splashy. But overall, I think it's pretty good.

Joe :):)
Click to expand...



Thanx for the compliment joeym. I agree it could use a snappier kick. We just think the overall production doesn't have enough body to it and we're trying to figure out how to give it a slicker production and some better separation.....Thanx for your input......

http://www.pykor.com/pykor.php
 
Need better production..

Rokket said:
I believe that he was doing just that. I disagree with the performance being 50% of the mix, however. It's more like 90%...
Click to expand...

Correct, and I said thanx for the input....Now we're looking to correct all those issues and would appreciate more opinions, and we're not opposed to someone doing a mix or mastering for us so we can ask questions on what they have improved...Thank you very much.

http://www.pykor.com/pykor.php
 
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I gave it a listen. If you can PM me a link to your tracks, I'll give it a go and have something ready for you to listen to by Monday afternoon... I thought the mix you did was pretty decent, but what joeym mentioned stuck out for me too.

PM me a link to the tracks...
 
A 3 - 4 dB peak at 3khz for the bass guitar to give it definition.
Calm the splashy cymbals, the distorted guitar sounds really fizzy - like it's DI'd & from a pedal or a cheap VST plug in.
Vox are fine.
Stereo image is so so - the keyboard really being the only thing that gives a clear positional clue apart from the toms & cymbals.
 
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