What did i miss in this mix?

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dumass

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hey, please check out these 2 songs and give me your opinion on it. i'm probably not going to change anything, being that this band's demo is already being sold and such, but please jus give me any opinions on what songs need.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=3168/singles

called No Fate No Future and Loosing Grip

ps. please base your opinions strictly on the mixing, not on the performance (eg timing or key or anything like that.) thanks
 
Listened to "No Fate No Future"..........

The mix is hot as hell man....clipping all the way through...

everything seems too loud man...

You paid for this mix?

what do you mean the demo has been sold?

Not sure what you are looking for comment wise man....

are you an engineer or a suit?

Joe
 
it was a band that i recorded...and they started selling copies of their cd, so i wouldnt want to change it now

i tried to make it as loud as other real production cd's

i mean, is there anything that i should try to make stand out more, anything too low, too loud, or jus doesnt sound good the way i eq'd..
 
Those are some nice, wide big guitars. I really like the treatment of the gits and the top end of the kit.

Kick's thumping appropriately. I can't understand a freaking word the man is singing, but it's not a mix issue - he's just a mealymmouthed singer.

I do think it's a little light on the actual bass guitar. (A/B'ing it with the Mighty Mighty BossTones, because that's what it reminded me of, lol)...My other nit would be that it's a kinda' noisy track....60 cycle hum at the beginning could be tamed, and there's a lot of floor noise (hiss) when stuff drops out.

But overall, I'd be happy if I paid for this.

Be well,
Chris
 
dumass said:
it was a band that i recorded...and they started selling copies of their cd, so i wouldnt want to change it now

i tried to make it as loud as other real production cd's

i mean, is there anything that i should try to make stand out more, anything too low, too loud, or jus doesnt sound good the way i eq'd..
Click to expand...

Dude.....

it's clipping all the way through...

that means it's too loud....
The vocals are actually worse than the others from what I can tell but jesus man.....it's too loud...I can't tell what's eq-ed and what isn't....

How many CDs did they press?

Joe
 
Yeah, I was gonna' say...I got a lot of digital overs, but my deaf ears couldn't hear it clipping...and it's not as loud as "Duck And Run," which is the loudest commercial song on my computer...it's close though, lol.

Oh...and on monitors, the lead vocal sounds a little too dry for me...but you know what they say about opinions, lol.
 
I listened to "No Fate..." -- I honestly don't hear the clipping, but it sounds overcompressed as hell and has absolutely zero punch. You managed to completely compress the life out of it....

You've also got some very obvious flangy phasiness on the cymbals poking thru in spots.

Sorry -- this is a pretty rough-sounding mix......
 
I brought it into CEP and it pegged red all the way through.....

looked like a solid wav form all the way across and beyond up and down.....off the meters.....
 
it didnt go to red at all on cakewalk...because i was using the the l2..o well. but for the cymbals in some spots, i think its because of the bass drum track has a lot of cymbal bleed. whats the easiest way to get rid of that or lessen it?

also please check out loosing grip, thats in my opinion a better sounding mix..
 
joro said:
I brought it into CEP and it pegged red all the way through.....

looked like a solid wav form all the way across and beyond up and down.....off the meters.....
Click to expand...
That doesn't necessary mean it clipped... it means it was severely limited and is hitting 0. With the overcompression he did, I would expect to see a squared-off waveform because he squashed it to 0.

But that's NOT clipping. If he didn't have the limiting on, then it could have been squared off due to digital clipping, but then you'd also hear a lot of hash/distortion, which this clip doesn't have....

You have to understand what meters are telling you... the red means it "hit zero", whether it clipped or not is another story altogether -- just hitting zero by itself doesn't mean it actually clipped.
 
dumass said:
also please check out loosing grip, thats in my opinion a better sounding mix..
Click to expand...
Slightly better definition, but very very muddy sounding, there's almost an AM-radio sound to the whole mix.

Again, those drums are simply very poorly recorded....

How was this tracked and mixed? (ie, signal chain, monitoring, etc...)

Sounds very much like a garage-band demo - if that's what you intended then you've succeeded but sorry - I wouldn't call it a professional-sounding mix.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
.

You have to understand what meters are telling you... the red means it "hit zero", whether it clipped or not is another story altogether -- just hitting zero by itself doesn't mean it actually clipped.
Click to expand...
Yeah...and Joro, CEP has a "idiot proof" meter system anyway...I think it's set about -.3db below actual zero...that's what I was talking about when I said "digital overs."

Anyway, while BlueBear usually has all the tact of a nuclear warhead, he's right about the lack of punch...I interpreted it as a lack of Bass Guitar. I could be talking out of my ass, but I'm discovering that if you KNOW you're gonna' squash a mix, it helps to turn up the bass some in the mix...the limiting flattens it out some, at least on my "rock" mixes, lol.

Here's an A/B of your mix and a commercial cut that was in the Top 10 for 6 weeks 2 years ago. Purists would go nuts....I don't really care how a mix looks anymore. :D

.
 

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chrisharris said:
Anyway, while BlueBear usually has all the tact of a nuclear warhead....
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Aw c'mon -- I didn't flat-out say "it sucked!!!"

I was straight-forward and to-the-point, but considering I'm a professional, I think people who charge others should observe a certain level of sound quality....

Certainly a band doesn't have to pay someone else to give them a garage-band demo - they could pop $200 for a 4-track and a few SM57's, record it themselves and get the same result!
 
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Blue Bear Sound said:
Aw c'mon -- I didn't flat-out say "it sucked!!!"
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lmao...thus, the use of the word usually in my post. Wasn't intended as a slam...I was letting him know that you're usually rude and abrasive. You gonna' argue with that? :D

Jesus, I agree with people and they get pissed...

Peace.
 
well yea bruce...we all know you're a professional here...but im jus on here because i'm young and trying to learn to get better, like most of us. and its not like i'm charging massive amounts of money for recordings like this...i think im charging pretty reasonably.

also...any suggestions on how to get rid of bleed from the cymbals on the bass drum track? i especially have a problem with it after i use compression with it..
 
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dumass said:
also...any suggestions on how to get rid of bleed from the cymbals on the bass drum track? i especially have a problem with it after i use compression with it..
Click to expand...

I don't know if this is wrong or not, but I had a similar problem, and I ended up just running a lowpass filter over the kick..I assumed there's not much over 3k that's really valuable or necessary to the kick, so I ditched everything above that on the kick track. I'm sure there's a better way (like eliminating it during mic'ing), but I never have that chance when I mix real drums.
 
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