critique my mix before mastering

[beerybobb]

sup guys, this is my band Ever Forthright. I'm sending it in for mastering tomorrow to be done by Alan D ouches at West West side studios. Let me know what you think and any advice you could give me to get these mixes to sound better

http://www.everforthright.com/everforthright.zip

thanks guys

[ninjaneer]

overall - more bass guitar? or low end - track 7 was the only time my sub woofer moved.

track 1, 2 and 3 the snare feels a little quiet

i like track 4 and 5 from the sense of space on the drums (panning an reverb)

track 6 i like the bottom mic sound on the snare gives it more definition

track 7 is a little strange but at the same time a welcome break.

the guitars, vocals and kick feel 'worked on' can't say the same for the bass on most
songs and the snare on some - however if that's where you want it leave it.

the octave effect on the voice could be a little wider or paned sometimes.

main thing is the bass - there's only so much a mastering engineer can bring out
without affecting the rest of the instruments.

if in doubt because of your monitoring enviroment etc. then print stereo stems of
drums. bass, guitars and vocals.

good luck, and make sure to do a lyric sheet

[tedpenn]

I would generally echo Ninja's thoughts about bass guitar. Could stand a bit more. Agreed on the snare as well, although I'd extend that to all of the songs (could stand a bit more snare punch).

Check out your mixes in different environments and on different systems (car is great usually) to help with these balance issues before sending to mastering (you may already have, it's a tough balancing act). There's always some tradeoff between systems but it should help. References are great as well.

Also, keep in mind that depending on how hard your ME hits this stuff with peak limiters you may lose a bit of impact/punch on those transients, so I would err on the side of punchy, especially with your snare. A decent way of doing a little "predictive" mixing is to throw an L2 on there (or similar) and note the effect.

Stems are a good idea, as Ninja mentioned, especially if you are at all unsure of your balances. Check with your ME about his preferences in working with stems etc.

Overall, nice work man. Are you playing guitar?

Best of luck with the project!

Ted

[beerybobb]

hey guys thanks a lot for the advice!

yes in this mix i lowered the snare a bit by accident. l2 is on there now to get an idea of what mastering out sound like with limiting.

the bass guitar is distorted, yes but very low. i only did this because i felt it might mud up the mix. think it would sound good a bit louder? if you want i'll give you a sample of it louder and get your opinion.

im not playing guitar on this record, but live i will be

oh yea and all the levels should be consistent from track to track. i used a sapled snare and kick

[beerybobb]

ok here i amped up the snare alot and upped the bass
i upped the bass 5db .

http://www.everforthright.com/1.mp3
http://www.everforthright.com/2.mp3


let me know your opinion

[ninjaneer]

maybe 1-2db too much but i can feel the bottom end now - drums feel clearer too?

solo the guitars and bass and see if they are masking each other in the low end.
you might be able to shave a little bottom end off the guitars, and give both a
little breathing space.

then check the mixes with your mastering engineer to see you're in his ball park.

good luck with the album

[beerybobb]

thanks a lot, will do.