Rock type stuff...Advice please!

R

RobBelldandy

New member
Hey all. I think I need some new ears on my solo project I'm doing. These are unmastered tracks. I need some criticism before I send them off to be mastered and two weeks of mixing has made my ears tired (perhaps working too hard on them?) I appreciate anyone taking the time to give these a listen. (In The Shadow is without verse.. but that's being worked on today)





 
Sounds like the hard work is paying off.....I am not as technically affluent as some of the veterans of this site, but I think it sounds really tight and nothing major sticks out as being out of place. Good sounding stuff...great job!
 
I listened to "We Are the Ones." I thought it sounded OK overall. It took about a minute to get to the vocal - which is an eternity in pop music context. Liked the harmony vocal. Heck the lead vocal was pretty good too.

The power guitar is a little dark and muddy for my taste. The bass is pretty muddy too.

The drums were OK, except for the cymbals. They were really hot and sizzly. Crashes were spread really wide. On earbuds/headphones it will sound weird.

The lead vocal was slightly buried when the power guitars were doing their thing.

Liked the lead guitar. Both the part and the tone.
 
Yeah. I agree on the cymbals. I outsourced the drums with a hired hand.. and he sent me a stereo stem of the overheads. So... I can'd do much about the width. But.. I can definitely hear what you're saying about the sizzle.
 
RobBelldandy said:
Yeah. I agree on the cymbals. I outsourced the drums with a hired hand.. and he sent me a stereo stem of the overheads. So... I can'd do much about the width. But.. I can definitely hear what you're saying about the sizzle.
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There's more than one way to narrow a stereo file. Many DAWs have separate pan knobs for left and right. If yours doesn't you probably can split the channels and pan them separately.
 
Huh.. didn't know that about splitting. And I can't pan a completely stereo file or I'd lose balance between the two correct? Am I not thinking correctly there?
 
RobBelldandy said:
Huh.. didn't know that about splitting. And I can't pan a completely stereo file or I'd lose balance between the two correct? Am I not thinking correctly there?
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You certainly can narrow a stereo image if you want. You won't "lose the balance" but you will lose some separation between them. The main pitfall is going to be phase interaction. Depending on how they were recorded they may change tone substantially as you narrow the image.
 
You really wrote some good stuff and put a lot of effort into it. Congratulations.

Sounds really well mixed. The bass could be a bit brighter in Demon I Know.

At around 2:20-2:28 in In The Shadow, there is a really long sustained noise in the right speaker. It bugged me. It sounds like you were going for a held note but it just sounded like a long low end rumble.
 
Weird.. I'll have to look into that weird noise you're talkin about. And thank you for the kind words. As an aside... if anyone is looking to spend cash on a session drummer... I can highly recommend Chris Brush.. he did the drums on this stuff and considering the work.. VERY affordable.. (student kind of budget over here.. )
 
Hey man, thanks for sharing!

The Demon I Know
-Lead vocals can come up for sure. While I can hear them, and mostly make out the lyrics, they feel very distant. Try pushing the fader up 2db or so to start, and once they're a little more out front, you may need to deal with compression, but they sound very compressed as it is, so probably not. Right now the most powerful instrument in the song is the snare, and you definitely want to vocal more prominent than the snare.
-Kick is really powerful and punchy. I like it.
-Overheads are very wide, as another poster commented. Bring those in with some stereo narrowing or splitting and panning yourself (as suggested above).
-The pre-chorus breakdown around 2:00 sounds very empty and boring. It feels like there was supposed to be something else going on there and you forgot to un-mute it. Take another look.
-Bass is lacking. That's become standard in modern rock mixes, but I prefer a fuller low end.
-Chorus guitars are big and powerful, very nice.

In The Shadow
-Rhythm guitars are awesome, as are the chorus power guitars
-Ambiance of the entire song is really nice
-Same comment on voice as above, it feels distant.

We Are The Ones
-Same deal with lead vocals
 
Super nice words man. I appreciate it. It's always rough mixing your own stuff. Especially when you're a perfectionist like I am. It's a necessary evil though... because I'm also a bit of a control freak haha.
 
the main consistent thing I found with all three mixes is not liking the open hi-hat sound, it sounds 'stuck on' and is too loud in the mix, the vocals also need to be brought forward as brian said, I would use compression and automation.
 
If I can offer some production advice... In The Demon That I know, theres a line where you say "nowhere left to run". I really feel that there should be an echo after that. Maybe a lo-fi echo that sounds like it's off in the distance a bit. And I also feel that there should be some harmonizing with the vocals in the chorus along with the doubling. I'm really only mentioning these ideas because as I listened to the song, that's what my ears expected to hear. The mix sounds good. I like all of the sounds you've used. I can't wait to hear it mastered. Good work!
 
Listening to We Are the Ones
Vocals play nicely with each other in the chorus. Good work there.
Guitar tone's pretty good.
Not a huge fan of the bass tone in the second verse. It's kind of that generic "I'll just use whatever gear" kind of sound, which is usually fine except when it's as prominent as that.
 
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