So I Moved Into a Cabin

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dainbramage

dainbramage

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..No, like really, I did move into a cabin in the fringes of my home valley to see if I could come up with some musical ideas in guaranteed isolation. Weekend had finally arrived with its glorious opportunities for creation or rather reproduction of music running through my mind during the workweek. I brought the exact amount of 5 locally brewed beers, 1 liter of the best coffee around and two grams of my favourite plant material along with some tobacco and a bunch of king size Rizlas. The cabin is my older brothers house, which he hardly ever reside at these days, with the nearest neighboor almost a kilometer away. Anyway he has these old Cerwin Vega speakers which I connected to my interface and mixed this sample through. I am sure the mix sounds wrong on balanced monitors. Or does it?

The drums are MIDI. And this is work in progress. It is more like an idea than an actual song as of yet. Despite the title in the URL, the song is currently called "Logophobia" and it is about contemporary anti-intellectualism. The mix does not sound very good to me but I can't for the life of it figure out what I'm doing wrong. Instruments sound like feeding of each others frequency ranges.

This is my first upload and I am sure you have lots of good constructive criticism.



Cheers.
 
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Is that the whole song? It cuts off kind of abruptly...

What's there seems decent for what you're going for, maybe a little on the reverby side, but that could be my crappy laptop speakers.
 
It is not the whole song. I am stuck to just working on it during weekends as I left my gear in the cabin. Would that be the reverb on the vocals?

Thank you for taking the time to listen.
 
I think it's on the guitars... I hear it in the sharp breaks. And maybe a little lack of definition with the gits too.
Of course take anything I have to say with a grain of salt.
 
Thanks Blisson820. Yeah, I guess muddy is the word. I have tweaked around with EQ settings and I never seem to get it right. Not with this song or any other recording. It is honestly starting to annoy the hell out of me. When I listen to other peoples work in here, the instruments sound so separated, like they have their own space, whilst on mine it sounds so messy in comparison.
 
I think the guitars have too much reverb and they all just blend together.

In fact everything sounds like a little too much (or a lot too much reverb).

The bass is undefined either and sounds like the guitars and bass are battling it out for the space in the low mids...give it to the bass!

Drums are hard to comment on and can throw off the whole mix when they're not right. What are you using for drums?

I don't know if you do this or not or whatever, so take it for what it's worth...High pass the guitars around 200-300 or wherever it sounds good. Boost the bass a little in the same range. If two guitars are in the same frequency range, cut one in one spot and the other in another spot (i.e. make one a lower rhythm and the other a higher rhythm), or change the arrangement, and definitely change the guitar tone to separate them. The panning works pretty well for me. Cut the guitars (maybe on a guitar buss) somewhere in the 1500-2500 range so the vocals can sit there a little better. CUT CUT CUT with the EQ to make space for things.
 
I think it has potential if the tempo is slowed down a bit with the bass and drums becoming the driving force and let everything else fall into place and go along for the ride.
 
dainbramage said:
Thanks Blisson820. Yeah, I guess muddy is the word. I have tweaked around with EQ settings and I never seem to get it right. Not with this song or any other recording. It is honestly starting to annoy the hell out of me. When I listen to other peoples work in here, the instruments sound so separated, like they have their own space, whilst on mine it sounds so messy in comparison.
Click to expand...

there's a lot of sacrafice and discipline when it comes to EQ. you cant really EQ to make everything sound optimal when its solo'd and use the cut EQ method. i sometimes will use a couple of EQ's on some tracks.. like the kick and bass for instance, to make them balance well... i EQ them respectively to make them sound the way i'd like them to sound and then use the 2nd eq to differentiate them and give them their own space, if that makes sense.

If you're boosting frequencies you can get artifacts and using a poor amplifier to boost those frequencies normally, im not saying DONT boost, im saying use it sparingly and try to cut bad frequencies more than boosting good ones.

Also... with EQ... less is often more, especially when you have quality trackings.
 
That cabin sounds like a blast. My impression that that it's too boomy and the bass seems to be too prominent. Check your mixing position, and that you're not in a node and overcompensating for a perceived lack of bass
 
aaronmcoleman said:
I think the guitars have too much reverb and they all just blend together.

In fact everything sounds like a little too much (or a lot too much reverb).

The bass is undefined either and sounds like the guitars and bass are battling it out for the space in the low mids...give it to the bass!

Drums are hard to comment on and can throw off the whole mix when they're not right. What are you using for drums?

I don't know if you do this or not or whatever, so take it for what it's worth...High pass the guitars around 200-300 or wherever it sounds good. Boost the bass a little in the same range. If two guitars are in the same frequency range, cut one in one spot and the other in another spot (i.e. make one a lower rhythm and the other a higher rhythm), or change the arrangement, and definitely change the guitar tone to separate them. The panning works pretty well for me. Cut the guitars (maybe on a guitar buss) somewhere in the 1500-2500 range so the vocals can sit there a little better. CUT CUT CUT with the EQ to make space for things.
Click to expand...

I tried doing what you said and it helped somewhat, especially the highpass on the guitars. Once you and fat_fleet mentioned the reverb I was shocked to have a listen for it myself. It was all over the guitar tracks! I think I listened to the mix so many times that I, ironically enough maybe, did not notice it. Once I turned it down the difference was huge. I am however beginning to think I should retrack the guitars with less bass from to begin with, as it was turned pretty high on the preamp. I continued trying to cut more stuff and change guitar tones but I definately overdid it; it now sounded very thin. There was more space between instruments, but the thickness was gone. It was good practice though and I will definately use your advice when I move back into the cabin tomorrow.

I am using Addictive Drums plugin for drums (MIDI) and they are programmed, not physically played.

Thanks a lot for great advice. It is very, very helpful as I was stuck.
 
Bisson820 said:
there's a lot of sacrafice and discipline when it comes to EQ. you cant really EQ to make everything sound optimal when its solo'd and use the cut EQ method. i sometimes will use a couple of EQ's on some tracks.. like the kick and bass for instance, to make them balance well... i EQ them respectively to make them sound the way i'd like them to sound and then use the 2nd eq to differentiate them and give them their own space, if that makes sense.

If you're boosting frequencies you can get artifacts and using a poor amplifier to boost those frequencies normally, im not saying DONT boost, im saying use it sparingly and try to cut bad frequencies more than boosting good ones.

Also... with EQ... less is often more, especially when you have quality trackings.
Click to expand...

I will take your great advice into account once I've retracked the instruments with less bass. Thanks man!
 
60's guy said:
I think it has potential if the tempo is slowed down a bit with the bass and drums becoming the driving force and let everything else fall into place and go along for the ride.
Click to expand...

By letting the bass and drums become the driving force, do you mean I should have less guitar? Thanks for listening man!
 
Bulls Hit said:
That cabin sounds like a blast. My impression that that it's too boomy and the bass seems to be too prominent. Check your mixing position, and that you're not in a node and overcompensating for a perceived lack of bass
Click to expand...

Yeah that cabin is my favourite place in the world these days. When you say the bass, do you mean the bass guitar in particular or are you referring to the mix as a whole? As mentioned in recent posts, I think I'll retrack the whole thing with less bass on the preamp. Thanks a lot!

I will be uploading the new mix probably on Sunday.
 
dainbramage said:
By letting the bass and drums become the driving force, do you mean I should have less guitar? Thanks for listening man!
Click to expand...

I don't know what he was going for, but volume isn't the only thing. Make sure the bass stands out pretty well (some EQ and good compression will help it pop), and same with kick. Their volumes need to be right but not super high to drive the song. Also, they can drive the song even if the guitars are pretty prominent. It's all about making space and compressing the right way.
 
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