Please help!! Mixing and mastering my first complete song, need help!!

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xXbrick84Xx

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Hey guys, I'm a complete n00b here (and to recording in general). My band decided this summer that we would all invest in recording equipment and release an album recorded by ourselves and try to get a sound better than we got out of our studio album. They're leaving most of the work to me since I have most of the equipment and the most technical experience. I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 USB 2.0 Interface, and Reaper as my DAW (simply because it's cheap), however my singer ordered an Eleven Rack guitar interface bundled with Pro Tools 10. We all recorded just a "demo" two days ago at my house; it's an eleven track recording, vocals, guitar (split into two tracks), harmony guitar (split into two tracks, only plays for about a 10 second segment), guitar playing harmonix (one track, plays only a tiny bit), bass, my drums (4 tracks: snare, overhead, two in the kick). We mic'd the amp up for the guitar using a Rode NT1-A condenser mic and we got a decent sound, like I said this is just a demo. However, when I put everything together in Reaper, even after panning guitars and all and taking some low end out, I'm getting a SERIOUSLY muddy mix and it sounds like complete crap. Audio levels go up and down, it really just sounds terrible. I eq'd everything and added a small amount of FX, and for the master track I eq'd a bit and added some limiter and compression just like I heard I was supposed to.

http://www.2shared.com/audio/-48eAvtw/Short_of_Stable-Back_to_Freedo.html

Once again it is very rough, it gets off in a lot of parts, and the vocals aren't the best. We literally wrote the song like 20 minutes before recording it and I just improv'd the entire drum track as I was playing it. It sounds terrible, and since I'm a complete n00b at this I don't really know why it's doing that or what to do to fix it. So could anyone with any experience in this please help me out!! The levels are all so weird. I bring the drums up first and get them where I want them, then the bass guitar, then guitars, then vocals. But then everything just gets drowned out, especially the drums, the just go away and when I bring them up I have to bring everything else up and it just starts clipping and sounds terrible. Help me!! :confused:

Thanks in advance!!
Brick

http://www.2shared.com/audio/ExbXFwUN/Short_of_Stable-Back_to_Freedo.html

^^^^^there is the song with absolutely no mixing, mastering, panning, eq, or anything.
 
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Well isn't that special
 
Please put up an mp3 or better yet use soundcloud.
 
Hmmm... weird haha. I'll put it on soundcloud give me a minute.

Sorry!!
 
IMO the biggest problem is the guitars. Maybe it's just because I'm a guitar player it's the most noticable for me. What amp/modeler are you using? If it's solid state, I'd try to rent a tube amp for a day. You mentioned the 11 rack guitar interface. That's a modeling unit right? I've heard they are pretty good, but that sound was too harsh. If you're using that, record direct. Don't mic it. Whatever you're using I'd turn down the treble a little, turn up the mids and turn down the gain. The guitars are too thin and fizzy. Dial in the gain you think you want and then turn it down 2 or 3 notches.

I thought the bass and drums sounded alright. The vocal wasn't bad itself, but it didn't fit into the mix. To make the mix come together better try eqing things instead of just turning things up and down. I didn't mean to sound harsh, I actully thought the song was good. Look around the net for articles about eqing. I think that will help.
 
Hey thanks for the advice man!! We mic'd up a VOX amp (not a tube amp) with a Rode NT1-A condenser mic. The sound coming out of the amp was good, and my friend singer has a nice Peavey tube amp. I'm not a guitar player though so that may have been the problem. I kinda looked at it like this: the low end will be for the bass, so I'll get the guitars out of there and boost the highs and roll off some of the mid lows. Just the main problem for me is things getting drowned out in the mix. But I will definitely work on the guitars because I know they probably don't sound the best haha ;)

Thanks man
Brick

ALSO!! We don't yet have the Eleven Rack (which is a modeler), our singer just ordered it the other day. Currently we're recording through a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 USB 2.0 interface
 
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