Where to go from here...?

[invoid]

Hi all,

I'm doing the whole autodidact-thing on recording and mixing. My challenge to myself is currently to go from something nice and soft to something of a wall-of-noise. I've written a short snippet of random gibberish to that end, and I hope you will take the time to give me some pointers on what it sounds like.

I'm unhappy with...

... the distorted guitar, and the root cause is the recorded material... I just can't seem to find a nice distorted sound.

... the snare. I'm having a hard time fitting it in "depth" because just right amount of reverb on soft bit is too little on wall-of-sound bit, and vice versa.

... the kick. I think I've robbed it of too much low-end to fill a space in the soft bit, but it does the job during wall-of-sound bit.

https://soundcloud.com/user-965551974/mix-critique-2-start

Thrash away!

(Yes. Vocals are random gibberish and bass guitar is basic because I suck at bass guitar.)

Cheers,
-invoid

 

[BroKen_H]

Automate the kick's eq so it's all things to both worlds.
The first bit of the vocal sounds pitchy, but then gets better...first impressions and all. You know.
There's a "New Tone Thread" that can be very helpful at getting good guitar tones. Yours are not horrible, but possibly layering a bit more without washing.
The song is only a shave over 2 minutes. You could easily go back to the soft part and do a synopsis of the crux of the message...whatever that might be. For random gibberish they are rhyming quite well.

 

[DM60]

I like the sound of the vocals, they are pitchy at the start. Could use some beef in the bottom end. Not a bad effort.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Yeah, pitch on those vocals needs to be fixed. I'd also layer them up a lot more for the wall of sound bit.

I think the guitar tone is pretty decent, actually. Maybe layer it a bunch more times too. (If you're going for wall of sound, the solution is usually "more layers" or "eq out that frequency that's building up")

+1 on automating the drum sounds so they don't have to be the same for both parts.

 

[Crazy Luke]

Nice Ethereal mix. You say it's a wall off sound, but it's a level wall, with instruments sitting well with each other. Kick needs work. Are you singing "gibberish" because it's just a placeholder for better lyrics?

 

[invoid]

Automate the kick's eq so it's all things to both worlds.
The first bit of the vocal sounds pitchy, but then gets better...first impressions and all. You know.
There's a "New Tone Thread" that can be very helpful at getting good guitar tones. Yours are not horrible, but possibly layering a bit more without washing.
The song is only a shave over 2 minutes. You could easily go back to the soft part and do a synopsis of the crux of the message...whatever that might be. For random gibberish they are rhyming quite well.

Good ideas, thanks! It's not a song really, just a couple of parts to hone my skills on. Maybe I'll transform it to a song later

I like the sound of the vocals, they are pitchy at the start. Could use some beef in the bottom end. Not a bad effort.

Yeah, you were right! I checked into that right now. A bit too agressive on my hipass in some areas.

Yeah, pitch on those vocals needs to be fixed. I'd also layer them up a lot more for the wall of sound bit.

I think the guitar tone is pretty decent, actually. Maybe layer it a bunch more times too. (If you're going for wall of sound, the solution is usually "more layers" or "eq out that frequency that's building up")

+1 on automating the drum sounds so they don't have to be the same for both parts.

Yeah, that might be just it. Maybe try layering some with less distortion too, heh.

Nice Ethereal mix. You say it's a wall off sound, but it's a level wall, with instruments sitting well with each other. Kick needs work. Are you singing "gibberish" because it's just a placeholder for better lyrics?

Thanks! Kick seems like something everyone notices, so yes. It's gibberish because this is just a 2min testbed to hone my mixing skills. A full song is up next, but I think I'm going to leave this one behind for now. I'm sick of it after living with it for a couple of months ;-)

 

[TripleM]

Agree on the pitchiness at the beginning. Vocal sounds pretty good. Could be notched out at around 2400hz - 2800hz.

I liked the kick sound. Nice and tight. I didn't think it was missing any low end.

Snare was a little tubby to me.

The distorted guitar had too much gain dialed in IMO. It was just kind of a mush of sound. The picking style wasn't particularly distinct either, which didn't help.

 

[invoid]

Agree on the pitchiness at the beginning. Vocal sounds pretty good. Could be notched out at around 2400hz - 2800hz.

I liked the kick sound. Nice and tight. I didn't think it was missing any low end.

Snare was a little tubby to me.

The distorted guitar had too much gain dialed in IMO. It was just kind of a mush of sound. The picking style wasn't particularly distinct either, which didn't help.

Good ears on that 24-2800hz. I didn't hear that until it was gone ;-) Thanks! I've shelved off some snare and fattened up the kick just a tad now. Next in line is reamping... man. I've been chasing guitar sounds for about a year now. I suck at it, hehe.