Please critique my mix...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rickson Gracie
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Rickson Gracie

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this is an unfinished song that i made so i can "learn" my new monitor setup (wharfadeles 8.1 and a new M Audio BSX)

please tell me what you think of the low end and whatever else.

THANKS

 
The bass guitar is MIA. I can tell it's in there somewhere but it needs some meat.I mean overall level too.
 
Rickson Gracie said:
please tell me what you think of the low end and whatever else.
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sounds pretty good over here.. it's hard for me to tell how good the bass sits without a bass drum..
 
Personnaly, I find the guitar to be too loud and too much in your face. That is caused by the fact that the guitar was recorded direct I suppose, sounds a little fake. The shakers could use more reverb to blend a bit better and try boosting somewhere around 1.5khz to get more attack from the bass and try cutting some lows on the guitar so you can make up some space for your bass.

Great riff !!!
 
Guitars sound nice. I could not even hear the bass on my setup. Nice lound volume.
PEace
 
thanks guys...here is an updated ix. i made some changes to my monitor setup. adjusted the distance, angles, sub level, crossover levels..etc.

please tell me how it is...



BTW Tenkas. The guitar is definitely not "direct." It's a gibson LP Jr DC with P90s going straight into a Fender Blues Jr miced up by a sennheiser e609 silver going into a Blue Robbie tube preamp and the only effects i have on the track is EQ. So besides the wav eq plugin you can get any more real than that setup (at least on a PC). OR maybe I should take is as a compliment....kinda like having a girlfriend with big fake looking boobs that are actually real:)

I definitely appreciate the input though. thanks!
 
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it is NOT direct? Oh my GOD! I really don't want to sound like a jack ass, but I was listenning to a clip of the POD and the Tonelab, and believe me, they would perfectly fit your stile for 1/80 of the price. Seriously consider a modeling amp.

This is still my personnal opinion, but I find the percusions (shakers, etc) are TOO present (more present then in the first clip). They sould be set in the back in the mix. Try maybe cutting a little bit of high mids or highs, and try addind more reverb to really but those things in the back. Or mabe just turn it down, it feels like a knife cutting through your ears. Indeed, the bass is much better and the guitar too (still a little too much bass for me, but I guess that's the style of tone you were looking for).

Well it's great to see people who learn on this forum, and continue posting stuff, I enjoy the grooves :P
 
tenkas said:
it is NOT direct? Oh my GOD! I really don't want to sound like a jack ass, but I was listenning to a clip of the POD and the Tonelab, and believe me, they would perfectly fit your stile for 1/80 of the price. Seriously consider a modeling amp.
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Blasphemy!
I must admit Im a tube amp snob. It gotsta be tubes or it doesnt sound correct to me. I dont even believe in pedals. To me it takes away from the "soul" of the guitar sound.

Thanks for your advice on the percussion but im more worried about the low end issues. Im getting a digi002 this week so i will start re micing my drumset to get that into the mix. for now ive been using an Mbox and can only do two channels at once.

I really just need to get my monitoring setup up to par. I believe thats why your not hearing what im hearing.

Back to the drawing board.
 
Well, I was a tube snob also, and I decided to sell my precious tube amp. I must say that I am not a professionnal, so that is why I do not NEED a tube amp. But there's so many variables in sound, and 2000$ for an amp is just too much money for only ONE of those variables. Still, modeling amps are getting pretty impressive for recording guitars that are going to sit in a mix. But when playing alone or jamming, there is really nothing like the infinite complexity of tube amp sounds.

By the way, what kind of acoustic treatment do you have in your studio? If you don't have any, that may be responsible of a lot of trouble.

Also consider buying the radio shack spl meter. You can then measure the weaknesses of your room.
 
Direct guitar like a POD is great for home studios. But in the context of a "real" recording studio they suck compared to having a great amp, great mics, great room and great preamps.

The detail on the shaker/tamborine is great. Overall this sounds really nice, although I'd like it to bust out with some real drumming.
 
tenkas said:
Well, I was a tube snob also, and I decided to sell my precious tube amp. I must say that I am not a professionnal, so that is why I do not NEED a tube amp. But there's so many variables in sound, and 2000$ for an amp is just too much money for only ONE of those variables. Still, modeling amps are getting pretty impressive for recording guitars that are going to sit in a mix. But when playing alone or jamming, there is really nothing like the infinite complexity of tube amp sounds.

By the way, what kind of acoustic treatment do you have in your studio? If you don't have any, that may be responsible of a lot of trouble.

Also consider buying the radio shack spl meter. You can then measure the weaknesses of your room.
Click to expand...

In the last 6 months to a year iI bought and returned the Pod XT, Tonelab, Vox Ad30 Modeling amp and I even have a copy of Guitar Rig NI Plugin (the most impressive out of all of them) and I think they sound thin compared to my Blues Jr. (that i paid $250 for) and not to mention my little 5 watt Goldtone Gibson amp that i paid $450 for new. Everyone has their own opinion though.

My studio is acousticely treated and I think that maybe its because my monitors and sub is up against a wall in the attic that i am having these problems. i am thinking about moving the desk the other direction as top have nothing behind the desk and speakers.

I just bought a radio shack SPL meter this weekend and im still trying to understand how to use it to improve my sound. Any suggestions?
 
Well I posted a URL in an other post,
here is a link where you can generate Tones.

http://www.nt-instruments.com/flash_view.asp?pLngPageId=465

1. Position your SPL meter at mixing position, towards one of the speaker.
2. Generate a 1khz tone.
3. Set the volume so you can read 80db
4. Go through all frequencies (from 60hz and up) but don't go below 50hz and on top of 10khz because the meter is not precise below or ontop of these values.
5. Take some notes (let say you put a 500hz tone, and you read 88db, that means that there is too much 500hz)
6. You can use excel and make a nice graph of your room response.
7. You can try using a little EQ to correct your room but I suggest room treatment, moving stuff around, etc.
8. At the end, still trust your ears :P
 
thanks tenkas!

im going to try that tomorrow. in the mean time i changed my whole room around so that no monitors are directly in front of a wall. its an attic space and im positioning everything long ways. hopefuly that will help a lot.
 
Could you post a picture of your room (top view), maybe I could suggest something...
 
i dont have any current pics at the moment.

i used the SPL meter. i used 90 db (as opposed to 80 db)as a reference because its just easier with the way this meter is setup.

i moved a lot of stuff around including the sub. most frequencies are at or pretty near 90 db. there are 4 or 5 cd tracks (from the Bink CD) that i could only get to about 85 db or sometimes over like 92-93 db. i think it would be near impossible to get them all to be exactly 90 db in my room. i do have this one cd track (freq range) that will only go to 75 db. its the only one. it seems to cancel out somewhere. but its the only one fortunately.

do they all have to be EXACTLY 90 db? i know that would be the most ideal thing but it seems almost impossible in the room im in.

heres the last mix i did after i used the spl meter. let me know if theres a big difference...thanks

 
Well it is pretty much impossible to get a PERFECT FLAT response, but if you get anything over or down 10db, that's EXTREMELY bad....

I pretty much the last mix, but I didn't spend much time listening, but I think the guitar seems better.
 
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