i need mix advice- ITB - electro/rock/pop song

[asmonica]

hey everyone, i am working on an EP and I would love some advice on my mix(and my mastering at this point).All ITB. Let me know what you think of the mix/ give advice.. thanks!

http://www.thebeathouseproject.com/paperdolls.mp3

[Indigital]

Sounds pretty good, great song too. Overall, id say (especially during the chorus) everything needs its place, a lot of elements are on top of each other. I can hear your panorama, but volume, eq, timbre theres a bit of clashing. Another thing it needs is some volume automation to breath some life and dynamic energy into the different segments. Also Id probably hit some elements up with some saturation/smoothing i think u said your ITB?? dunno if you got some tape emulators, hardware or soft. Lastly the cymbals seem a little harsh. Hope this gives you some different perspectives.
Overall It sounds like you did a Great job.

Peace

[asmonica]

Thanks for the advice! I continually run into the "harshness" problem. For some reason I just love that high end. I drop it back and it seems too muddy, then I Jack it back up and I know it's wrong, but it feels SO good! Getting silky smooth highs and clarity without sounding brittle and trashy still eludes me.. ThAnks again

[asmonica]

ok, so i redid the drums(they were bounced before, so i had to pretty much remix them) and turns out i had boosted the oh's at like 12k with a super wide q like 8 db! so i kinda reworked the sound, and there were some sequenced drums from reason that were doubled with the real ones, so i totally nixed those. i also shelved off the super high frequencies a bit on the synths, cause they were a little buzzy. i think it sounds a lot less harsh. i also tried to sort out the things that were fighting in the chorus, but im not sure i succeeded cause i dont know if its the mix as much as the arrangment. one more thing i did was ease off the drum reverb to try and free up some some and gain some clarity. its seems a little more naked, but i think a good mastering job hopefully with give that back. i know in thiis mix the guitar in the right monitor is a little louder, i have to fix that. also i may have gotten a little carried away with editing- i edited some total silence in the guitar tracks where they are supposed to have musical stops and starts, but im finding now that i miss the string and amp noise between the playing so ill add that back in in the next mix.
also this one has NO MASTERING plugs at all, nothing on the buss..
let me know if you think its better than the previous one. thanks!!

http://www.thebeathouseproject.com/paperdollsmix2.mp3

[Pat]

Some parts of the song are very good. Everything is overcompressed.

[sodium glow]

Originally Posted by asmonica

Thanks for the advice! I continually run into the "harshness" problem. For some reason I just love that high end. I drop it back and it seems too muddy, then I Jack it back up and I know it's wrong, but it feels SO good! Getting silky smooth highs and clarity without sounding brittle and trashy still eludes me.. ThAnks again

When mixing in to box I find that the best sounding high end comes from cutting freqs in the mids/lo mids rather than boosting the top end.

[asmonica]

Originally Posted by sodium glow

When mixing in to box I find that the best sounding high end comes from cutting freqs in the mids/lo mids rather than boosting the top end.

but i would tend to want to do it on most things, and then would the song just sound totally scooped out?

[sodium glow]

Originally Posted by asmonica

but i would tend to want to do it on most things, and then would the song just sound totally scooped out?

Not necessarily...it depends on how much and where you cut. You might try to think of your mix in a more north and south approach. By that i mean take a look/listen to all the elements you have and decide where you want them to be in the freq spectrum (north to south-20k-20hz). Then get the stuff out of the way that doesn't need to be taking up the space in the hi freq and let the elements you want up there be up there without other things getting in the way.

I use hi and low shelf eq on almost everything for just such a purpose. I also flip the mix in mono while I'm deciding the north-south thing. It helps you to hear what is competing in the same frequency ranges.