Stuck on this mix. Melodic hard rock ep

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Spazhands

'ere mate
I posted another track from this ep a long while ago and ever since they have been burning a hole in my hard drive ��
. I feel this track is at the point of needing a few tweaks, maybe to tame a few shouty frequencies. I feel I am getting lost in my monitoring situation as I had the luxury of taking this track to a studio last week and referencing through their rig... Main difference is that they had subs... Instantly I noticed the low end was sloppy and kind of bogged down.
Since that I have cut it back a little but it seems to lose its punch if I do any more!
I also notched out a load of 2kish from most the guitar tracks (6 rhythm in total) as it was a bit angry in that area.
The whole point of this recording was to keep it sounding real, me and the band also are not fans of clinically clean recordings with everything gated out etc... Not messy, but lively. It was recorded very live in a large colourful space and I feel like I am forcing it making too big cuts in places!?

Unfortunately the toms have a small case of nasty cheap preamp syndrome, but hey this is out of my reach! Thebintro does sound a little busy but that is just the arrangement I guess.
What are your general feelings on this?! And also any tips for making that guitar solo really speacial would be appreciated! Cheers SoundClick artist: One axe one room one outcome - page with MP3 music downloads
 
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Really cool track, great performance! I think the mix might benefit from being a little more up-front, a little less reverb. There's a lot of detail on the guitars I'd like to be able to hear better. The toms sound great to me actually, it's the rest of the kit that maybe seems a little more lo-fi. Everything sounds well balanced in my headphones but I think I can hear the low-end challenge you're having, it seemed a little muddy at points. Is there any reverb/delay on the kit or master?
 
Those toms are super wide. It's cool in the intro as an effect, but I would probably bring them back in a little when everything else kicks in. It's a little distracting as is.

Is the right guitar closer to center than the left one? I think that might emphasize the slight timing differences.
 
Cool, thank for your input. There is no reverb on the drums or master as such, only a distant room mic... But dialling this back looses the feel we like in the recordings.. Maybe I could do something to treat that track. I have already nudged it back a little as it was VERY spacey. I will try bringing the toms in to the centre a little as suggested.
Unfortunately the preamps let the kit recording down as I was kind of forced to use someone else's pres and interface, convinced them to use mine for guitars though ��
What was said about guitar panning... Do you mean the intro or main section? Also opinions on the solo would be ace, its currently been put through a Watkins copicat with echo on low levels. Cheers
 
But yea, that low end rumbling is frustrating... There is a high pass at around 75hz on all guitar tracks and 50 on all drums minus the kick, which is cut at 30hz the same as the bass. It seems like I may need some multi band compressing on the bass? It is already side chained with the kick being the input source.
. I think I may sort out a sub for checking things like this. Was thinking 10" on the floor maybe.
 
In the first section the drums seem more out in front than the guitars. The guitars are in heavy reverb and the drums are comparatively dry. The gutiars are kind of undefined and mushy. This is especially true up to the change at :52 or thereabouts. The guitars sound much better in the other section - much more definition.

Snare and kick sound OK. Cymbals get swirly in spots - the same spots where the gutiars are mushy.
 
Ok, I see what you are saying. There is no reverb at all on the guitars during the intro.. Only tap delay on the melody part. So maybe there is too much frequency conflict between cymbals and guitars? Problem is i think is to do with the down tuning of the rhythm.. Seems to sound muddy by default and picking up the highs seems to make it sound buzzy. I may strip back the intro and take a different approach.
With no vocals it it hard to decide what will be up front and the focus of the track.
. This is proving to be a very good technical exercise for me as Until now I haven't worked on any thing worth all the effort! Cheers all
 
I think the snare is too compressed, it feels like it's being turned down too much in parts, I'm guessing from a limiter on the master bus, the cymbals are a bit over processed as well, try turning down the ratio on the compressor a bit or using parallel compression instead.
 
Ok, thanks for your input. I may have been a little lazy.. Compressing instead of automating the snare in parts. There is not much compression on the individual tracks, I used parallel compression ny style instead on drums. Cheers
 
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