Rough mix of a song I'm working on

[Matt Grondin]

Hi folks, here's another rough from record I'm working on for the band Sensei here in Jacksonville, FL. I'm trying a bunch of roughs just to give the band an idea of what I'm hearing, so they can in turn tell me what they hear... I think it will faciliate the process come real mix time... there's still no vox, but I'd appreciate the input anyway. Here's a copy of an email I sent to my engineer friend explaining some of the issues I'm having trouble with and what's bothering me. Thanks.

" Ok, here's a rough I did in about an hour of a song we're working on... all in all I don't think it's bad... the snare might be a bit loud, but it's hard to tell without a vocal yet. Also, the snare just sounds so roomy... I can't figure out why... I have the room mic pretty low, so I think it must be from the OH's being a little far off the kit...plus my room was carpeted when we did this so it didn't sound as good as it does now. But, it does kind of work for this music... they want a bit of an old school sound, ala Abbey Road or something along those lines (that's alot to live up to you know).

I think the floor tom kind of sucks... it's a little metally sounding, but it wasn't a very good sounding floor tom to begin with so what are you going to do. I need some advice on how to get the rim job (that's what I call it) sounding good... the same EQ setting as the snare doesn't seem to work... do I need to put it on another track maybe? I'ml still dicking around with some reverb settings... can you give me some pointers on finding a good sound... pre-delay, time, plate, chamber, room, etc... all the crap. Ok, thanks again.... words cannot even describe how nice it will be to get an outside perspective on this... as much as I respect the musicians who are playing on this, they think everything sounds good so I can't trust their opinion sometimes. Later."

[djui5]

Put the side-stick on it's own track, and bring down the OH's at this point. There's a ton of room sound in that area..

The guitars on the right during the verses are hitting some bad notes too...it sounds like that guitar is a touch out of tune...

The kick needs to be a lot more punchy also.

The guitar on the left is "biting" in the upper mid range, 3-5K area.

That tom on the left is sticking out like a sore thumb..

I can hear a cool song with the right vox track :)


Also, the drums seem to be leaning to the right for some reason. Something's out of phase in there...

[Matt Grondin]

Thanks, I'll work on some of that stuff... I'm not going to spend TOO much time with it until the vox are done though... Yeah, I know that tom is too loud, but sometimes it sits just right... it's weird... I think he's a bit inconsistent I guess. As far as the guitar tuning goes, I'm not sure exactly which part you're referring... if something's not in tune, trust me, it's because that's what they're going for... I'm a guitarist, as well as the two guitar players, and I think they just like some stuff to have the crusty old school sound, even if it's a bit out of tune. Thanks again. Later.

Oh, yeah, and the vocals are pretty kickass on this song. That's definitely their strong point... think Brian Wilson with a modern twist :)