mixing problems, advice welcome.

[pipK]

not too bad for demo
it is almost mono mix.
just for me sounds dirty.
bass sometimes out of beat (or bass drum))

I think you'll need more practice and learning

[steveyraff]

Yea, I definitely need more practice and learning - I'm still a bit lacking in experience.

Anyways, I realise it wasn't the best performance musically - I was just looking for tips on making it sound a little better. The thing that is mostly bugging me is the guitars. I miced up a 4x12 running a good Orange valve amp. SM57 off axis on one cone, an SM7B off axis on another cone. The heavy parts where then doubled. I think some of the problem is that when doubling the heavy parts, the guitarist was never tight enough. It makes the guitar parts loose and messy, and sounding like there is a chorus effect on at parts.

Hmm, I am not sure how to make it sound less like a mono mix. Almost every track is panned except the bass and vocals.

Thanks for listening,
Steve.

[basmartin]

Don´t worry about the guitars, there´re a little bit out of tune though. That might be the reason for the chorus effect. IMO, the drums need som work. The bass drum feels a bit light, not that much low end. Maybe a cut at 100 hz would do it? There is also some resonance to it that I don´t like, maybe from the reverb? I think it´s a bit too loud also.

The overheads are a bit loud also.

The bass could use some ambience. If you have Logic, try the Vintage Combo preset in Space Designer. It´s a spring reverb with fast decay, that I use almost all the time... I would also compress the bass a bit more, it´s a little uneven now.

Do you have a reference track?

But otherwise, good job and keep it up!

[Adlen]

I don't mean this reply to sound rude, I just thought a list was easier...

Kick: A bit too much beater, not enough POW
Bass: To me, for this style it doesn't sound meaty enough, too much high mid, not enough low mid
Overheads: Maybe a little too in your face

Not huge issues, it's a very nice track. I'd be happy with that, just those slight things above I'd change

[binarymilton]

bass struck me as sounding a bit woolly immediately. Some mud there. Guitars not really powerful enough.

I think the kick drum might actually be EQd about right, it just might be too loud.

Likewise, the snare drum sounds boxy and feeble in the verse, but sits in the chorus a lot better, so it's clearly nearly there.

The closest thing to sounding 'finished' is the vocals. Leave them untouched for now, maybe a few minor tweaks once you've got everything else finished. The vocals aren't problematic.

I'd say you could really benefit from sweeping an EQ bump across almost all the instruments. It's like everything is probably just a bit off where they should be in the frequency spectrum: you just haven't found quite the right sweet spots. Maybe it's time to save lots of different versions making lots of quick intuitive decisions.

Are you using a reference track? If not, shame on you: you need that information.

[steveyraff]

Thank you very much to everyone who responded. Really appreciate your time.

I was actually working on it all day today and I am much happier with all 4 songs they recorded now. Although I am only seeing your replies now, I am glad that most of them matched up with what I amended in the mix today. It must mean I am doing something right!

Originally Posted by binarymilton

Are you using a reference track? If not, shame on you: you need that information.

By this do you mean am I A/B'ing my mix with a song off an album of a similar genre or something? If so, yes I am, a lot. If this is not what you mean then sorry for not understanding!


Thanks again everyone, I appreciate you all going easy on me and giving me some great pointers. I really hope to improve my mixing skills over time.

Steve.

[binarymilton]

yeah, that's what I meant. It just sounded from your mix like everything was edging towards being in the right place but just not quite right, the way it might if you were flying blind.

[targa2]

Try to get the performance right first. It's a lot easier to work on a well performed tune than a loose one.