pop/punk mix. suggestions/advice?

[borderline3]

hey guys,
got this mix going. any advice? i feel as though something is lacking but i can't seem to put my finger on it. any problems that you hear that really stand out?
guitars- esp ltd>mesa single rectifier fx loop out> cabinet impulses
bass- direct>ampeg svx
drums> two large diaphragm condensers for overheads, 57s on the toms, audix i5 on the snare, audix d6 on the kick. snare and kick are sample replaced.
vocals- BLUE bluebird.

[tGauge]

You're on the right track, it's just going to take some time and development. We've all been where you are.

A couple of quick things I would take a look at...

-Everything sounds like it was recorded independently... they're not in the same "space" sonically. Try setting up a room reverb on an aux and sending tiny amounts of your drums and vocals to it.

-The kick and snare sound very digital. Try reamping or sending through some kind of colorful compressor, etc. Get rid of the sampled sound at whatever cost. Plus, look at beat detective for some of the kick work.

-The bass has no weight to it at all. I'm not sure if you were going for this sound but there's no low end. Because the kick is a very clicky sample and the bass is so low in the mix the whole mix sounds top heavy. In fact, it sounds like you have the bass panned wide(?) I would "mono it up."

-Watch your vocal edits. They're unnatural sounding. Play with logarithmic fades rather than equal gain typed cross fades and fade ins. Logarithmic is much more natural to the human ear. Again, put the vocalist in a space.

-This is the more important issue I've found... This style of music is supposed to be very in your face but the only thing in your mix in the listener's face is the vocals. I learned a very silly but can't live without kind of rule several years ago: you want your mix to be "in your face" keep the instruments "in your face." In other words, keep everything panned in between 10 & 2 besides your space/width/depth typed effects. Ofcourse you can move outside of the those boundaries if necessary but give it a try. This goes back to the bass being in mono, kick being mono, snare being mono (with a stereo verb), guitars panned at 10 & 2, then the lead vox up the center with background vox just outside the edes of the 10 & 2 mark. Hopefully this makes sense. Let me demonstrate my point to you... listen to your mix in mono right now. I think that sounds more like what you're going for. With everything panned so wide you are losing the weight of your mix.

Hope that didn't come off harsh at all. I had several great engineers tear me apart when I was younger which has made me the semi-capable minor leaguer that I am. If you've got any questions feel free to ask. If I can't answer them I'm sure someone else will step in.

- Taylor

[borderline3]

hey Taylor,
thanks for the insight man.
I was just playing with the mix a little more and I think a lot of the weight was killed with a stereo expander that i had on the 2bus. I proceeded to remove it.

[tGauge]

Hey, good to hear. I don't know what stereo widener you are using but look for a feature which most have which allows you to keep below a certain frequency unaffected. Some newer engineers don't understand the M/S width process is created by actually cutting the volume in the center channel. This process effectively creates a hole in the center of the stereo spectrum. This is cool on certain material/instrument tracks (mainly ambient typed pads and things), but not your entire mix unless it's used VERY sparingly. I use a widener on my tracks occasionally but it's around 5-10% so that the everything sounds natural but opens up just a bit.

I'd like to hear what you have once you fix it up...

-Taylor

[spitfire52mm]

It's great that you're posting up and have the guts to take advice! I actually found this post on accident while looking for bluebird reviews. How do you like yours for vocals? I'm thinking of picking one up.

I agree with everything that TGauge says and have a few things to add.

You might want to play around with a lightly applied stereo mix buss compressor to glue the track together. A lil reverb will go a long way to mesh things too.

I'm not sure what you're thought process is when adding eq or effects but try to think of it in terms of making everything work good together, not just by itself. Like, "I know this kick sounds great soloed but how does it fit within the context of the song."

Keep it up. I'm eager to hear a remix.

-Drew