My First MIX.. Looking for serious critique

[Jako Bee]

Hey All. This is my very first mix ever on a whole band, so im looking for some critique, cause im a little stuck, as to what im gonna do from here. Hope to lend your ears.

thx alot guys!

[dim light]

II think this song would sound much better if you use midi drums. I don’t like the human feel on the drums. Maybe you could use TR808 kick and snare and tambourine.

One cool thing I like to do when it comes to mixing vocals is to use Auto tune on a send, just a tiny bit of auto tune to give the vocals some excitement.

Have you tried Virtual guitarist from Steinberg? Maybe you could remove your guitar and let VG play the guitar parts.

I miss strings and glockenspiel; there are tons of great samples CD out there if you want to spice up your mix.

On the last chorus I would like to have a big children choir and sounds from the subway, like people walking and talking and stuff.

Hey I really like this mix/song. The sound is warm and friendly. I would pan the backing more to the side(s) and cut some of the low end.

Great work, awesome mix – Tell me more about the mixing/gear/what you had for dinner etc.

[Lawrence]

Nice song. I'm listening on my Klipsch desktop speakers. I like it. I'll offer some subjective tips.

With just the lightly played drums, guitar and vocals there really should be a lot more clarity. Maybe the guitar needs some delay to seperate it more into it's own space? Kick is there but it lacks a little definition. Really that guitar should sparkle.

Try some stereo delay on the backing vox, 25ms left and 35-45ms right and pan them hard. Don't insert, use a send and return with the return being stereo and 100% delay. Mix to taste with the dry bg vox. Use the stereo delay tracks to send to your bg vox berb. High pass the bg vox at about 125hz and maybe a little dip at 300hz.

The lead vocalist sounds good. It's hard to tell but I might take a TINY dip around 500hz or so. Or maybe not, it's hard to say from this mp3. I'd also add an almost imperceptible mono slapback delay to that lead vocal, again to help define it's space on the stage.

Production wise I really expected to hear the full drums with a more powerful snare come in at the second chorus to add more drama. It's a personal choice but I think rock ballads like this do tend to follow a formula and the listener comes to expect a rise and fall emotionally. The way it starts off suggests that at some point it's going to build but it never really does.

All in all I like it a lot. I sure would like a shot at mixing that song. Good work.

Lawrence

[Jako Bee]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

Nice song. I'm listening on my Klipsch desktop speakers. I like it. I'll offer some subjective tips.

With just the lightly played drums, guitar and vocals there really should be a lot more clarity. Maybe the guitar needs some delay to seperate it more into it's own space? Kick is there but it lacks a little definition. Really that guitar should sparkle.

Try some stereo delay on the backing vox, 25ms left and 35-45ms right and pan them hard. Don't insert, use a send and return with the return being stereo and 100% delay. Mix to taste with the dry bg vox. Use the stereo delay tracks to send to your bg vox berb. High pass the bg vox at about 125hz and maybe a little dip at 300hz.

The lead vocalist sounds good. It's hard to tell but I might take a TINY dip around 500hz or so. Or maybe not, it's hard to say from this mp3. I'd also add an almost imperceptible mono slapback delay to that lead vocal, again to help define it's space on the stage.

Production wise I really expected to hear the full drums with a more powerful snare come in at the second chorus to add more drama. It's a personal choice but I think rock ballads like this do tend to follow a formula and the listener comes to expect a rise and fall emotionally. The way it starts off suggests that at some point it's going to build but it never really does.

All in all I like it a lot. I sure would like a shot at mixing that song. Good work.

Lawrence

Cool, thx alot, im atm working on some of your ideas, so hopefully ill have a new mix later today. Hoping for more ppl to comment. If your listening, please add a comment, thx

[Harley-OIART]

What Lawrence Said



Infact exactly what he said =)

Cheers

[George Necola]

GREAT WORK!!

are you serious?? this is your first mix??

i will stop now mixing and become a woodworker

great.. did you track this on your own??

cheers George

[Jako Bee]

Thanks a lot guys. OK ive been playing a little with the delay on the guitars, and I think it was a great idea. Further more ive tried to pan out the backing vocal BUT hers my prob i didnt know how to do that, on a monotrack, so i tried to copy/paste a new one and pan them out, but i guess that will equal it self out or what? (guess thats a newb question, but hey, gotta learn sometime)

Anyways i have also added a little touch to the snarepart in 2. and 3. chorus.
Im loving it, but maybe it does confuse everything, because theres a LOT of verb on it, but let me hear your opinion on that :-)

Thanks for complimenting the song. Its a tune I wrote with the singer (Eilsø/Vedersøe) Were playing all the instruments ourselves, except for the bass. were making some demos of our songs these days and i thought what the hell ill do it myself :-)

BTW. I take it as a compliment, yes it is my first mix of a whole band, that is. Ive mixed guitar and vocals ealier. Ive done it all in my appartment using these tools - Dell portable 2.13 centrino (2 gigs of ram)
An Edirol fa 101 sounddevice and my SE Electronics Z - 5600 and Cubase SX
Thats the ingredients ive used.

[kats]

I really think it's a great song and recording BUT.....

Honestly, the snare brushes (at the beginning) sound like there's somthing burning on the grill - it's throwing me off. I think a more deliberate technique work work better for me. YMMV

[Jako Bee]

Originally Posted by kats

I really think it's a great song and recording BUT.....

Honestly, the snare brushes (at the beginning) sound like there's somthing burning on the grill - it's throwing me off. I think a more deliberate technique work work better for me. YMMV

thx man. Deliberate technique? Please explain that what you mean by that

:-)

[dim light]

You should use LA2A on the vocals and rim shots! The bass needs a moog filter or something that makes the low end tighter.

Maybe some space echo would fit the snare brush. You can make the snare sound like gun shots and delay that signal to one of the sides.

Hope this help!

[kats]

By deliberate I meant that the "brush sizzle" seemed to go on quite long at the begining with no tempo break kind of like shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Since it was so soft in the background, your not sure exactly what it is. So what I meant to say is that IMO a little more attack with the brushes and/or beats will say "I am snare, hear me roar" but in a soft way of course as you intended.

Wait, better put, it'll get rid of the whoite noise effect.

[dim light]

I woke up this morning with a great idea why not use 4 different kits and pan the differently. Put different moog filters and stuff on all the close mics.

Maybe you can have like a president or dictator speaking on the intro and you can make the brush like gunshots? Bang, bang!

I think the singer is out of tune – why not put a weird filter on his voice, might be fun?

This song screams for new ideas, wish I could produce you guys!

[i51423]

Originally Posted by dim light

I woke up this morning with a great idea why not use 4 different kits and pan the differently. Put different moog filters and stuff on all the close mics.

Maybe you can have like a president or dictator speaking on the intro and you can make the brush like gunshots? Bang, bang!

I think the singer is out of tune – why not put a weird filter on his voice, might be fun?

This song screams for new ideas, wish I could produce you guys!

I'm sorry.. but are you joking? I sincerely hope you are.

It sounds great, man. It reminds me of Owen, quite a bit.

[dim light]

Originally Posted by i51423

I'm sorry.. but are you joking? I sincerely hope you are.

It sounds great, man. It reminds me of Owen, quite a bit.

No I never joke about music. what's wrong?

[Jako Bee]

LOL thx for yout great ideas, some of them serious and great and thx for those :-)
I finished the mix and send it on for mastering, I promise to upload the finished result to you guys asap. ;-)

[dim light]

Did you just LOL me?

[Jako Bee]

Originally Posted by dim light

Did you just LOL me?

Dude NO i did not. I wouldnt do that, just laughing at the situation where someone asks another - are you serious?
Despite the fact that im very glad of ALL the ideas that came up here I was mostly looking for critique on the mixing part.

btw hes is NOT out of tune :-) thats a promise

[dim light]

All humans are out of tune. Bono is in tune because he uses SM57.

Music is small cubes aligned to a grid. I want everything perfect and in tune.

Thanks for not lolling me!

[mmyohane]

A very nice song. The sounds you mixed work great but if (and only if) you want more width and separation you could try something like chorus on bass (just a tiny bit to make it wider). Maybe some delay / chorus stuff on the guitars as well.
I like the drum sounds and the overall feel of the song. Good work!

[Jako Bee]

Hey everyone. Ok this is it. Its been mastered and its all done now.
Thanks alot yall. You are still welcome to comment offcourse!