Okay now a mixing/mastering question

D

dantell

New member
Since I had someone else mix and then another master my recordings I have noticed an extreme improvement on my recordings. I have played the tracks on everything imaginable and they sound pretty close to label quality. I absolutely hate being so damned picky, but I brought a freshly burned CD to my cousins over the holidays and we went to listen to it in his van. His van obviously had some kind of bass boost built in, but it sure did throw the bass out more than did the other systems I listened to it on. He thought the quality was great, but to me it was just too heavy on the low end. Then I popped in a couple of Commercial releases and it was still bassy but not as much as my CD. So should I climb the Masterer's ass or the Mixer's ass or am I just way to picky and need a chill pill for my analness? I have uploaded a few songs on my site and yes I know I'm not in the mp3 listening clinic, so don't tell me to go there. I get good advice in this section(not just "you suck"). Now the mp3s sound a little hissy on the cymbals and the snare is not as poppy as the wave file, but listen to the guitar and bass mix and tell me if it's too strong or am I just becoming so anal that you couldn't drive a stick pin in my ass with a sledgehammer?
thanks and I love this board!!
 
I listened to the Naked at Nite clip through headphones that have good bass response. I couldn't hear any bass frequencies. Non at all. It didn't even sound like a bass guitar was there. The guitar sounded like it was in a tunnel. A hollow sound with a slight phaser effect on it.
You should post full songs. The audio clip is a shitty thing to do to people. They could be rocking out to your song, then you pull the plug on them. Don't worry about them stealing your music. You should be happy they want to give it a second listen.
 
I like the music. It's not my style but I was entertained. It's a good mix on the song I listened to (#3) and I didn't really notice it being too low. I would go through with it and not worry. And if that doesn't put you to rest, you're so anal that you need to mix and master yourself! Hehe. It's good man, I wouldn't worry.
 
I wouldn't really worry about it. You can't control some wacko with a subwoofer fetish. Your stuff will always sound different on different systems. Even commercial CDs do, you just don't question it because you don't have any control over it. If it sounds good on a majority of systems you listened to it on, that is all you can ask for.
 
No Bass?

I can hear the bass loud and clear on the first one, but on headphones it's hard to hear it. I don't know why. I did cut up the songs because I have a MB limit that I'm close to.(I need to buy more space-and I will). My analness petrudes on............
thanks+
 
Oh and I can do mixing and mastering

Just not on my own music. I don't know why, but for some reason it seems you will overanalyze your own stuff and it will make you nuts and it's hard to blame yourself. If you pay someone, it's nice to have them to blame. I can mix other projects I'm not involved with, but as far as me playing any instrument I will always be too biased to what I'm playing. Crazee
 
Managing bass frequencies is a sumof-o-vich(tm), and requires more ear-training than anything else I have encountered. Since I mix live mostly, I have the benefit of only having to sound good on ONE system, in ONE room.

If it is the bass frequencies, and not the bass instrument which is the problem, then you should probably blame the mastering tech. It is part of his/her job to make sure that your mix will sound good on *every* system capable of making a mix sound good. Keep in mind, I have heard a wide variety of bass sounds on "commercially acceptable" recordings. If it's total crap, have him fix it. If it's only one system it sounds bad on, it could just be that system.
 
It's strange

but I listen on any other player, it's sounds great, but anything that is without a good sized woofer, the bass is hard to hear on some songs. Talking to my mixing tech, he points out that many commercial recordings the bass is actually cut out completely in places on some heavier songs because it muddies up the mix too much. I have since noticed that it is not audible in some areas heavy songs without some kind of bass boost. Here is my conclusion on my mixed and mastered songs.
1. Cheap computer desktop speakers 20 watt
Sounds good, but it's hard to distinguish the bass tones except the bass drum
2. pioneer 200 watt home stereo with 12" woofs and tweeter
Sounds real good, I can hear all the lows and it seems to have a good even mix except on the first song, I may have him pull up the bass guitar a smidge.
3. Car Stereo with a gigantic booming bass in the trunk and an insane amount of wattage(not mine) sounds a little bass heavy with the bass boost on, but fine with normal settings(I THINK PEOPLE ARE DISTROYING THEIR LOW FREQ HEARING WITH THIS SETUP!) My friend says it sounds "dope" with the boost on and it maxed-I think he's been smoking it
4. New Dodge van with stock "pure shit" stereo. I think this setup has a bass boost automatically built in. My CD sounds damned near horrible in this thing, but so do other commercial cds so I'm not really worried about this one. Mine though, does throw out a tiny bit more bass than the commercial releases(I'm a tad worried about this one.
5. Boom Box(cheapie)
Fine!
6. Walmart 400 watt system with sub-woofer
great!
7. Of course through the Mackies it sounds (oh shit I probably opened up a can of worms on this comment)
great!
Yeah I know I need to spend over 3k to get a "good" monitoring system.
There's a few other systems that is sounds fine on, like my parents old hi-fi tube driven system is sounds unbelievable!
So over-all I think it probably is worth the money to have someone mix and then master your music.

8.
 
okay I posted full songs

they are only 128 kb mp3s and I have eaten up all my bandwidth, but per request I obliged. What a guy I am.
Pretty soon I might be able to pass Jessie Garcia
and January first is goal time!
 
Vocals and guitars sound boxy. Sounds like the bass guitar is lacking in the mids maybe as i cant seem to hear it although im sure there is some lo end somewhere. Niceley peiced together song though. Digging the bicycle tooter horn at the end. Quite original, and a bit scary in a way.
 
that's actually a guitar harmonic

it will now be referred to as a "bicycle tooter horn sound"
thanks and I think the hollow sound may be a little verb in the guitars. According to the mixer, the guitars sound to tiny without the verb.
 
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