Opinions on nearly complete (hard)rock mix

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kubeek

kubeek

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Hi, here´s what I did.
If you have any comments, then please post!

The refrain is a bit muddy, what can I do with that?

The song, 5.7MB
 
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Do the lyrics have to be so busy? It just might be the dialect, but I think the song could benefit from a little more simplicity from a vocal standpoint. Not a bad mix I must say...some suggestions from my standpoint:

I'd probably add a little more verb (if there even is any on now) to the drums to give a little more depth.

Kick could be a little more punchy IMO

Guitars could have a little more high-mid/high to give more presence. They sit pretty dark right now

The guitar solo stuff could be about .25/.5db higher
 
The lyrics.. they are like this since the song was written, and it was pain in the ... to track them right, the song is too old to be completly rewriten.
There is no reverb on the drums it´s just the room, it is recorded by 2xOH and kick mike.

Kick is the best I could obtain by compression and huge eq tweaking, the punch just isnt there from the beginning, the kick itself was quite bad.

I' ll take a look at the rest and post new version :)
 
You could always re-mic your kick with one of the overhead mics, record one good kick...and then trigger it. Just a thought
 
The bass is too loud during the intro.

I think what is lacking overall is RESONANCE! There is no real "kick you in the ass" low end to give the music size and another dimension.

It would start with getting the drums to not sound so much like they were hitting a cardboard box. After that, you do need some reverb to add some kind of size to things.

The bass just has too much around the 200-400 range. Sort of muddies up everything.

The guitars sound too "hard" and kind of scratchy for my tastes. Because the drums sound so bad, I think that is why you have this kind of guitar sound. They are trying to fit in with those over saturated sounding drums, and those the tone was compromised.

It kind of sounds like you have either a noisy soundcard with sub-par converters, or really lame preamps, and not a very good mic selection. It is hard to blame any one thing for this sort of weird sonic mess.

For a demo, this would be okay. You could get gigs with this and maybe give it to prospective producers to let them hear what you are about. But this is far from rivaling professionally done CD's.

Interesting song.
 
I think what is lacking overall is RESONANCE! There is no real "kick you in the ass" low end to give the music size and another dimension.
What kind of resonance you mean?

It would start with getting the drums to not sound so much like they were hitting a cardboard box.
How should I do that? It was recorded in a quite bad little treated room (cca 12'x12').

It kind of sounds like you have either a noisy soundcard with sub-par converters, or really lame preamps, and not a very good mic selection. It is hard to blame any one thing for this sort of weird sonic mess.
Audiotrak 20bit 8x8 soundcard, behringer mixer's preamps, china mics for OH and PG52 for kick. I think the sound could have been worse :)

Interesting song.
Thanks, we have recorded more, but this is the first one I had time for mixing.
They will come soon too :)
 
Audiotrak 20bit 8x8 soundcard, behringer mixer's preamps, china mics for OH and PG52 for kick. I think the sound could have been worse :)

No, I don't really think it could have been really. There is no depth or dimension at all to the drums. You probably would have been better off with a single boundary mic in the room!

You can fake it on most other instruments with cheapo mics and bad preamps, but drums, you gotta have the good stuff.
 
So any parametric eq will do the trick?;)

Well, a parametric eq could help, but I think you guys just approached everything a bit off when it came to the drum recording, and thus, it had an effect on EVERYTHING you did after that.
 
I think I didn't touch the OHs at all with eq, but the kick is really "artificial".. The OHs were like described in the drums section, The great way to get drums with three mics.
And what you mean with the resonance? resonance of what, the room, or mood or??
 
Do the lyrics have to be so busy? It just might be the dialect, but I think the song could benefit from a little more simplicity from a vocal standpoint.

I have no idea what language that was sung in but I assume he's singing about the price of borscht and is quite adamant about paying too many rubbles or something, in which case all is forgiven. :p Otherwise, yeah...too many syllables, not enough space.

The mix and general production values seem very reminiscent of mid 1970's standards..kind of flat, bland and dry. If that was the intension then I'd say; perfecto.

Cheers! :)
 
we don't have borscht nor rubbles here, russia is three countries far :)
 
we don't have borscht nor rubbles here, russia is three countries far :)

Ah yes!

I see you are from Czechoslovakia! :)

What are those lyrics about, anyway? Is this a love song, protest song, mean old mom and dad...what?

Cheers! :)
 
Do you have an English version? :D


I pretty much agree with everything Ford Van said. Bass is too prominent in the intro and other quieter babbling vocal parts. Drums sound flat and lifeless. Not a bad song though. Lol. My kids just walked in wondering what the hell I'm listening to. :D
 
Czech and Slovak are independent for 15 years :)

Anyway, the song is quite hard to explain, its called Sand and is something like about futility of life, how money, girls and time goes through your hands like sand.
 
I hear what you mean by the muddiness. It's like a blanket over the mix. Ford Van always has some good, sound advice, so give his suggestions a try.
I agree that the vocals are a little busy, could use some spacing. The performance is great - just work on brightening up the mix.

:D:):D:)
 
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