Reward for those that help!

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cr4nk

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Hi, I am new to this forum.

Me and my band are in the process of mixing our album that we recorded about a month ago. I am not going to mention at this time as to where it was recorded and how much we spent on it, because I don't want to bias your opinions. We are collaborating with some people on mixing, and we are in great need of an outside knowledgeable opinions.

Please provide your opinions on how this mix sounds to you, what can be improved, and anything that you would like. I can provide other songs and info at your request.

THE REWARD:
For those of you that help us get the most of of our mixes and get them ready for mastering; YOU will receive a free copy of this full length 50minute CD mailed to YOU, once it is finished.

Quick info about the tracks. It is a wave file of 32mb. There are these tracks: Drums, Bass, Rhythm Right, Rhythm Left, Solo, Vocals, and sometimes Harmonies and Percussion such as tambourine. Drums were recorded into 1 track with multiple mics.

The song is called "HeadGranade" and is located here: http://www.mediafire.com/?qjdsj11y1nal7a4
 
i like it!

sounds pretty tight to me..

only thing that's really buggin me is the cymbals? are they squashed a bit much? and the hats are really strong

maybe just the overheads in general are standing out a bit...

but yeh, sounds cool apart from that :)
 
Thank you for your reply. The thing with the drums is that the whole drum set is recorded into one track. We can't really seem to do much with the loud cymbals we got, so we tried compression.

By squashed you mean too much compression?

Do you have any suggestions on how to edit the drum track so that the cymbals are quieter?
 
yeh,that's what i mean.
they sound like they're pumping to me.


if you agree with my opinion, maybe instead of compressing, you could (very lightly) use a shelf to lower the high end of the kit mix?

or even try movin a notch cut about to see if it helps at any particular point?



**edit, listening back, the kick and snare seem really light, but the cymbals are in your face.
hit that eq up and see how you go :)
 
Thank you for your suggestions. We have edited the drum track a little bit. Gave it a lot less compression, cut down around 3.5k and around 8k-10k, and also boosted a little 700 for the snare to come out.

The file is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?4e1qixlddmidti7

Thanks.
 
ok, so it turns out what i heard wasn't compression! it must just be the way the cymbals are recorded.

but none the less, i like it much better with the high end tamed like that.


it'd be awkward to get it just right..idk..is there a verb on the kit or is that just the room? the kick,snare and toms just sound distant and thin to me.

i think the only reason i'm noticing is cos the guitars and vox sound really good and for me the drums definitely let it down.

don't suppose you'd let me play with the raw drum mix for a bit of banter would ya??
 
Yeah, the kick and snare need to come way up. The cymbals and toms are the only percussion that really cut through.

The vocals are pretty buried. I'd bring those up a bit.

For future reference, you probably want to post threads like this in the MP3 Mixing Clinic sub-forum.
 
wow!

i took a look at that file thinking i could help out a bit, but man, IMO it's not even workable.

there's just no kick there to even try to boost, and it sounds like maybe the mics were too close to the cymbals? or hmm idk........well anyways..


if i was forced to guess, based on
"I am not going to mention at this time as to where it was recorded and how much we spent on it, because I don't want to bias your opinions"
i'd say you did the drums in your house with a pair of 58s or something, then went to a good local studio to add the rest.

am i close?

ps, don't mean to sound offensive. just being honest.
 
Good guess. The reality is that we recorded everything ourselves in our bass players house. Everything is recorded with 58s. Personally I think we got lucky with guitars, bass, and vocals as to how decently good they came out. Our drummer has a weird kit. He is at the moment in the process of replacing his drums with brand new good sounding parts. He just finished buying all the new cymbals, so the toms, snare, and kick are old and dull and a lot quieter than the cymbals. This I think contributes to the sound you are hearing.

With your response you have made me decide to rerecord the drums. It is going to be pain in the a$$ now. Do you have any tips as to rerecording the drum set to sound better?

Thank you for your help so far.
 
ha! no way. got it even down to the mics!! lol.

was it a stereo pair on the kit? or did actually put mics down for kick and snare too?

anyway, regardless, if you're going down the road of redoing the drums (which as you speculated,WILL be a bollocks,lol), i'd recommend reading up on kit tuning, asking some pros on here about it and ultimately just getting the kit to sound really really good before a microphone gets anywhere near it.

the learning curve (and i fell into it too) seems to be that people spend a few years recording anywhich way then mixing to fix it. cos that's what it's about right?

then you gradually learn that it's about recording something that sounds great to start with.

a prime example is gregs mix contest that's running at the moment.
those raw tracks are great. just really clean and crisp and well,,,,,great.
for that reason, i found it so easy to mix.

maybe i'm on to something there! you could download his raw tracks from the mp3 clinic and give them a listen so you know what you're aiming at?


*edit, i would definitely avoid mixing drums down to a stereo track if at all possible.
 
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