[systematika]

Originally Posted by awagner08

Hey friends!

I've just finished tracking and preliminary mixing on the backing tracks of my band's new demo. I am very eager to read your criticisms of the production, hobbyists, semi-professionals, and true pros alike!

First, some background. The band plays Folk-Punk with an aggressive/vintage vibe. I recently heard of the band White Denim and love their sound. Here's a perfect example of the production quality I am aiming for: White Denim - Shake Shake Shake. I also dig that 60s garage sound found on the Nuggets compilations. Something like this: Syndicate of Sound: Hey Little Girl. So, luckily, I think I'm aiming for an attainable sound given my equipment.

Second, I'm open to your harshest critiques. I know I am an amateur using cheap gear, applying shallow skill, and appealing to almost no experience. I am young & ready to learn. I do, however, prefer specific advice. I have been around the gearslutz forums enough to have read most of the blanket advice given to newbs.

Third, I'll give you whatever you want. Want the busses printed & zipped? You got it! Want screen captures of each tracks's EQ curve? It's yours. Want pics of the recording space? You get the idea.

Finally, let's have some fun and help a guy out at the same time.

Okay, on the to meat.

• 8 tracks recorded in 24bit.

Drums

• Overheads: Oktava MK-012 in XY
  Overhead Treatment: EQ only.
• Snare (top): SM57
  Snare Treatment: EQ, gate, transient design, compression.
• Kick (port): Beta52
  Kick treatment: EQ, Transient design, low-level sine wave augmentation, saturation.
  Paralell compression on whole kit.

Bass

• Miked with generic dynamic, center speaker.
  Bass Treatment: Radical EQ, Sidechain compression w/ kick, transient design.

Guitar

• Direct Out of a Marshall JCM900 combo
  Guitar Treatment: Amplitube (cab only convolution), EQ, Send to filtered delay/verb panned hard left.

Here are some pix of my EQ settings:
Attachment 145522

Attachment 145523

Attachment 145524

Attachment 145525

Now here's the good stuff. The before & after Samples!

Raw tracks, leveled & panned only.
Attachment 145526

Mixed tracks
Attachment 145527

And finally, a peek into my mixer board in Reaper:
Attachment 145528

Alright. This mix shows up on your doorstep in need of some TLC. What would you YOU do first? And then?

Really guys - I'm dying to learn from your skill. I'll be forever grateful to your generosity. Keep up the great work around here.

-Adam

If it was me... I'd turn the bass down just a few decibels, guitar down a few more beyond that. Lower the compression threshold on the kick drum, while not eating away at the sound of it with eq to give it room to breath. Snare sounds really boxy, could use a boost around 15k and get rid of that awful dip in the snare's freq range to give it some snap. Lower threshold on master compression as well. Use a spectrograph to help see frequencies that is normally not heard and hard to pinpoint to get rid of some of the mud and other flaws that you're looking for. Spectrographs really do make eqing easier and more accurate if you place judgement on it and your ears, and there are tons of free good spectrograph plugins out there so it's just something to have on hand along with a good 30 band accurate graphic equalizer. Don't be afraid to keep the 15k+ on the overall mix (also take note of other eq settings) to give it some polish, just don't throw it way up there. It just sounds kind of blanket-y, muddy, and boxy when everything is set like that. From the looks of it you're cutting the wanted stuff and boosting the unwanted stuff for sure. I'm not the type to go in and fix something with a bunch of eq, there's also not much going on to really validate the crazy eq settings. To be honest, I thought the raw track sounded better and more natural, it's just the levels were all off. Some things could've been cut here and there, drums really really need some punch, not squash but get them out there about 3-4 db over the instrumentation then go in with the comp to mess about with the dynamics. Pay more attention to your levels and get everything to good amplitude before going in with compression, and last eq to work out the bugs. Should make things sound a lot better.