Heavy Critique On My Mix

[andersmv]

Hey guys, just a little background on me before I post this song. I just graduated from a small liberal arts college with a degree in communications. One of the professors taught an intro to recording class there and I took it sophomore year because I played guitar and figured it would be a fun class. I ended up getting hooked on recording and have been doing stuff in there since then (Around 2005 I think). I was given a key to the place and have been pretty much spending every free moment in there figuring out ProTools and just experimenting and trying to be a better "engineer".

So, long story short, I don't come from a recording school or anything like that, I'm completely self taught and have not had any help. I know I'm decent at this and I have pulled in a lot of bands over the past 3 years and done some great sessions, but now I'm back at home, living with the parents and trying to pull some money together to start a little studio in my house. I want to try and spend a lot more time if I can getting better at recording and mixing, so I want to start by posting one of my last projects in there and get some feedback on it.

This is a song I wrote and I wanted it for the purpose of having a demo of some of my songs I have not only written, but recorded too. As I am self taught, I'm sure there are things in this recording that are not "kosher" at all, and it's stuff I need to work on. Don't feel bad about telling me it totally sucks, I will not be offended at all, just please make sure it's constructive and give me some specific reasons. Also, keep in mind even though I had some amazing mics and gear, this was ultimately being sent to an 002 PT LE system mixed ITB, no HD or anything. Let me know what you think, thanks!

Also, another note, I'm doing everything on here. That being said, I do not consider myself a drummer at all, so one challenge I had was getting a decent drum sound with my crappy drumming skills.... If I learned anything from this session, the drummer really does account for at least half of a good drum sound!

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[tribeofenki]

me likes, apart from the feeling at first, the quality of the file itself, it is a good start. It leaks basses...
It has a fine panorama to me, maybe it's too thin. It needs a spring reverb to slap on that vocals.
By the way I'm into 'stronger' music, but I like it. And this is a point for you. Happy Nu Year !!

[andersmv]

Ya, I'm starting to realize it's leaking bass. The rut I've been stuck in recently is trying to figure out how I want to mix tom mics. I fed a lot of low end to the floor tom and I think that was my problem.

Anyone else care to comment on how I can polish this turd ?

[andersmv]

Any other comments. Like I said, the biggest problem is with the toms. I should not of fed all that bass to them....

[Pat]

The guitars are panned too hard

[Beyersound]

Originally Posted by Pat

The guitars are panned too hard

WTF????

[andersmv]

Originally Posted by Beyersound

WTF????

Haha. Ya, I've had plenty of people say that the guitars are panned too hard and others say that they like it that way. I think I can move them in a little bit, but I like the idea of them being larger then the rest of the mix.

[Beyersound]

Originally Posted by andersmv

Haha. Ya, I've had plenty of people say that the guitars are panned too hard and others say that they like it that way. I think I can move them in a little bit, but I like the idea of them being larger then the rest of the mix.

There's nothing wrong with wide guitars! You just have to make the rest of mix jive with them. If the guitars are huge and there's a big gap to the rest of the panorama of the mix, it will sound funky. I feel that your mix is basically pretty good, it sounds like you might have monitoring issues in the low end. You can't fix what you can't hear!

[andersmv]

Originally Posted by Beyersound

There's nothing wrong with wide guitars! You just have to make the rest of mix jive with them. If the guitars are huge and there's a big gap to the rest of the panorama of the mix, it will sound funky. I feel that your mix is basically pretty good, it sounds like you might have monitoring issues in the low end. You can't fix what you can't hear!

That's probably a really accurate statement, the control room was not the best sonically.