punk rock - 1st SERIOUS full mix, big thx for comments

R

ron82

New member
hey people! most of u wont know me but i'm always reading this board, rarely posting because i'm not (yet) smart enough to answer most questions or follow discussions, so i rather read and get smarter ;)

anyway, i've been into the recording for like a year or so, more reading than actually recording/mixing, but not a newbie anymore on every area.

being a one-man-band and sucking at all my instruments including voice, i'm having a rather hard time doing this, but i've made it to my first full mix after buying a squier p-bass and trying myself on programming drums.

i'm really trying hard and am serious with what i'm doing, thats why i'm posting this here and would be so glad to receive some specific input to make my next mix better.

this one sounds not bad on my monitors, but run it through a hifi and its really gross and without any balance.
i guess i'd need to EQ the instruments to not have mudd, but i must admit that i dont know what i'm doing when i play around with the EQ, if u know what i mean..

style is pop-punk i guess, although this song stands out a bit i think.

http://ron82.com/_temp/songs/beautifool_-_beta_vocals.zip

it's ~6.5 mb because the song is nearly 5 mins long. the tempo and feel of the song changes, so u should keep listening before u comment.. thanks.

any comments/advice r greatly appreciated!

note: the vocals arent recorded well (beside the voice being really gay), i know that, i also think that the reverb on them doesnt sound good..
 
Good

I like the song, not my type of music (metal for me) , now I am not a pro. mixing guy of any sorts but from the opinion of some guy who listens to music here is what i thought-


the vocals "took" over the sound. It didn;t sound well mixed , is there a bass? The only time i could hear it was at the very beggining. Bass drum also needs alittle more "umph", actually the drums got really boring it says more soft rock to me. Drums need to be more pronounced. They are just sorta along for the ride it seems. Alot more fills would prob. make them stand out a bit. I know that isnt a "sound" suggestion more of an artistic suggestion so take that however you want.

Overall, i dug the song, vocals were actually pretty cool, good job.
 
seryozha
the vocals "took" over the sound. It didn;t sound well mixed , is there a bass? The only time i could hear it was at the very beggining.
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yea actually there is a bassline throughout the song..

Bass drum also needs alittle more "umph", actually the drums got really boring it says more soft rock to me. Drums need to be more pronounced. They are just sorta along for the ride it seems.
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i thought that i got the sound of the snare ok, but u r right, they sound flat. since they're sampled i dont have that "overhead sound" either, i didnt add reverb except on the snare, i should probably try emulating overheads i guess.

Overall, i dug the song, vocals were actually pretty cool, good job.
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whow thanks! :)

mallcore pop
Cool tune!! (check your PM's)
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hey thanks, but i'm sorry i'm actually not accepting PMs! u either sent it to someone else or the board system is buggy.. could you go to ur sent items, copy the PM and send me via email? thanks alot!
 
i'm a punk fan and listened to this song. it had it's moments (i liked the recording on it) but i thought the song was too long for what it is.
 
thanks kylosius :)
you're not the first one to say that hehe.. i know it's long, which is actually unlike me, i rather dislkie most long songs because most of them tend to get boring.

however, i am in the process of making a shorter version, which i planned to do anyway, thanks for ur comment.
 
I liked It!
Reminds a bit of Greenday and Ben Kweller.
Regarding the recording (and I am no expert, just got promted to reg. user from newbie!) bring up the drums a bit, and the bass also. I hear the bass, but it gets lost a bit.
overall the tune is cool...well done!
What drum emulator do you use?
 
thanks! :D

after more listening i recognized that the bass is too low, and the drums sound really flat after all.

for drums i used just freeware sample sounds i got from various places, and the nifty small program leafDrums.

getting into midi tho to achieve more human sounding drums..
 
yea, eq the drums up a bit. also; as far as samples, www.nskit.com i think you wanna get the natural drum kit. throw it into fruity loops. you won't have samples that sound more real that you can actually program than these. i used to listen to punk a lot . . . i would turn the bass up . . . a lot. i'm not sure what it's doing but it should be doing root notes with a little bit of twist at the end. i'd put a little more top end on the vocals. the song honestly is too long. it drags itself a bit after like, 3:30. no punk song should be this long unless you actually change it dramatically. just cause . . . haha :)
 
Not a bad tune at all but the mix needs LOTS of help. The guitar first takes over the drums and bass and the vocal takes over everything else. The drums get completely lost. The tune deserves a re-mix.
 
The vocals came out well. Maybe add some "wooaah" harmonies. Guitars are clean and audible. Bass can be a little more punchy and needs more clarity. Maybe a frequency issue with space. The drums could be alot better. It sounds really cheap. This reminds me alot of the comcerial "punk rock" that is being issued.

Overall is a decent mix.
 
thanks for the comments!
Track Rat said:
The tune deserves a re-mix.
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yup i know and that is what it gets.. as i said i'm neither satisfied with the vocals, nor with the mix. as soon as i have proper vox i will try myself at this song again and be able to offer a better version (confident, aren't i? :cool: )
 
Actually, what I think is:

-vocals: off-tune, too loud, bad timing
-drums: terrible samples, bad programming, too far away in the mix.
-guitars: too much mid, played ´ok´, too much mud in the distortion
-bass: where?

-overall: this has nothing to do with punk, in the traditional meaning of the word.

Sorry if you hurt your feelings, don´t mean to be rude, really heard it worse, but needs a lot more work though. Did you mix it on headphones?
 
dont worry i can take honest critique ;)

first of all, i know it doesnt have much to do with "punk" and whatever ppl relate to this word, all i do is make music i like to listen to, and that is most often labelled as "pop-punk". i'm not a punk, i'm not interested in "being" anyone, but i have to put my music in a genre to get the potential listeners attention lol :)

no i didnt mix on headphones, i have a pair of ESI nEar 05..

ur the first one u to say u dont like the drum part as such (beside what it sound like in the mix) - same at the guitars.. too much mids?? uhm.. its a tom delonge strat into a 1/8 mesa boogie with the settings
- treble ~6
- mid 0
- bass 10

i actually love the sound of the rhythm guitar (thats like the only thing about the whole mix) - took me ages to get it right. it could sound way better i guess, because i can only turn it up so much because where i live there r other households in the same house :( (flat or whatever is the proper word)

i'm after a sound like "the starting line" has, or blink-182 on "enema of the state".. u just have a different taste for that i guess?

but thanks for ur critique, will make me work even harder next time :)
 
I love the production on Face To Face records, and NOFX- Punk in Drublic has the best punk production ever in my opinion.

If you want, I can record my drums and send them over to you so that you may have more "real' sounding drums.
 
thanks alot for ur offer, picostudios, but like i said this was my first time trying to program drums with just the best sounding samples i could find at that time. next time i will b able to punch in midi drums and eventually work on emulating an overhead "character".. this mix here is actually pretty old by now and i think i know how to fix most things :)

but thanks again
 
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