Need critique on my mix...

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:42 pm

Hey guys,
I've recently been recording/mixing a local band's new demo CD.
Here is a rough mix of the first track:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/5/datur ... _music.htm

The track is called 'TFC - Last Line (Rough Mix 1)'

Please be as nit-picky as you like, I really want to make it sound the best I possibley can.
Cheers.

P.s. I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC (I know you'll hate the music.. Emo faggotory and all that)

... I know this board is full of dicks, but a few people here have a worthy opinion, and that is what i'm looking for.
Therefore, this post excludes cunts like 'hippy' & 'hektik' unless they have something useful to say.

Thanks in advance.

Esteban · Post by **Esteban** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:50 pm

Needs more overdrive. Have the guitarist search the back of his amplifier for the button labeled overdrive. Tell him to push it.

~E

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:56 pm

stfu, esteban strikes

Dimebucker · Post by **Dimebucker** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 9:20 pm

scrotal_tug wrote:Hey guys,
I've recently been recording/mixing a local band's new demo CD.
Here is a rough mix of the first track:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/5/datur ... _music.htm

The track is called 'TFC - Last Line (Rough Mix 1)'

Please be as nit-picky as you like, I really want to make it sound the best I possibley can.
Cheers.

P.s. I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC (I know you'll hate the music.. Emo faggotory and all that)

... I know this board is full of dicks, but a few people here have a worthy opinion, and that is what i'm looking for.
Therefore, this post excludes cunts like 'hippy' & 'hektik' unless they have something useful to say.

Thanks in advance.

Hey man, I really liked the track, who gives a fuck whether it's emo or not, atleast you can actually play unlike some of the green eyed thumb suckers in here *cough* hippy *cough*

Ok, on to the mix (not the song)

For a rough mix it's not bad. The rhythm guitar needs bringing up just a little, it's giving the lead's melody too much head room during the verses and a tiny helping of reverb on the breaks would really make everything sound bigger and more fluid.

If I had this in my studio I'd use a limiter, limiters can actually make songs sound louder if used correctly. The guitars are nice and rich, I really like the tone there but you may wanna consider cutting the meat from the lead guitarist and letting the rhythm and bass cater for that area (otherwise it sounds muddy and confusing), cut 3db's of bass from the lead and bring up the treble carefully.

When I engineer a track, I always keep the bass dead centre with the guitars panned slightly left and right but not all the way (like Metallica have done from Load onwards) this lets the drums breathe more.

I liked this song so I can't find any probs there, yeah, I'd just tweak a few things that I mentioned above to add more dimension to the song, there's a lot of feeling in this track, I really liked it.

Thanks for sharing that bro.

hippy · Post by **hippy** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:23 am

Esteban wrote:Needs more overdrive. Have the guitarist search the back of his amplifier for the button labeled overdrive. Tell him to push it.

~E

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:01 am

hippy wrote:
Esteban wrote:Needs more overdrive. Have the guitarist search the back of his amplifier for the button labeled overdrive. Tell him to push it.

~E

hippy · Post by **hippy** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:03 am

oh yeah that song fucking sucks.

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:48 am

scrotal_tug wrote:Therefore, this post excludes cunts like 'hippy' & 'hektik' unless they have something useful to say.

hippy wrote:oh yeah that song fucking sucks.

Ball bag

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:52 am

Dimebucker wrote:
scrotal_tug wrote:Hey guys,
I've recently been recording/mixing a local band's new demo CD.
Here is a rough mix of the first track:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/5/datur ... _music.htm

The track is called 'TFC - Last Line (Rough Mix 1)'

Please be as nit-picky as you like, I really want to make it sound the best I possibley can.
Cheers.

P.s. I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC (I know you'll hate the music.. Emo faggotory and all that)

... I know this board is full of dicks, but a few people here have a worthy opinion, and that is what i'm looking for.
Therefore, this post excludes cunts like 'hippy' & 'hektik' unless they have something useful to say.

Thanks in advance.
Hey man, I really liked the track, who gives a fuck whether it's emo or not, atleast you can actually play unlike some of the green eyed thumb suckers in here *cough* hippy *cough*

Ok, on to the mix (not the song)

For a rough mix it's not bad. The rhythm guitar needs bringing up just a little, it's giving the lead's melody too much head room during the verses and a tiny helping of reverb on the breaks would really make everything sound bigger and more fluid.

If I had this in my studio I'd use a limiter, limiters can actually make songs sound louder if used correctly. The guitars are nice and rich, I really like the tone there but you may wanna consider cutting the meat from the lead guitarist and letting the rhythm and bass cater for that area (otherwise it sounds muddy and confusing), cut 3db's of bass from the lead and bring up the treble carefully.

When I engineer a track, I always keep the bass dead centre with the guitars panned slightly left and right but not all the way (like Metallica have done from Load onwards) this lets the drums breathe more.

I liked this song so I can't find any probs there, yeah, I'd just tweak a few things that I mentioned above to add more dimension to the song, there's a lot of feeling in this track, I really liked it.

Thanks for sharing that bro.

Excellant, thanks for the advice bud

I'll take all those points into account.

Regarding the limiter - Would you use this as a mastering effect on the whole mix, or seperatley on certain individual instruments?

croninburg · Post by **croninburg** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 7:56 am

It sounds a pretty decent recording to me.

Dimebucker · Post by **Dimebucker** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 10:02 am

scrotal_tug wrote:
Dimebucker wrote:
scrotal_tug wrote:Hey guys,
I've recently been recording/mixing a local band's new demo CD.
Here is a rough mix of the first track:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/5/datur ... _music.htm

The track is called 'TFC - Last Line (Rough Mix 1)'

Please be as nit-picky as you like, I really want to make it sound the best I possibley can.
Cheers.

P.s. I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC (I know you'll hate the music.. Emo faggotory and all that)

... I know this board is full of dicks, but a few people here have a worthy opinion, and that is what i'm looking for.
Therefore, this post excludes cunts like 'hippy' & 'hektik' unless they have something useful to say.

Thanks in advance.
Hey man, I really liked the track, who gives a fuck whether it's emo or not, atleast you can actually play unlike some of the green eyed thumb suckers in here *cough* hippy *cough*

Ok, on to the mix (not the song)

For a rough mix it's not bad. The rhythm guitar needs bringing up just a little, it's giving the lead's melody too much head room during the verses and a tiny helping of reverb on the breaks would really make everything sound bigger and more fluid.

If I had this in my studio I'd use a limiter, limiters can actually make songs sound louder if used correctly. The guitars are nice and rich, I really like the tone there but you may wanna consider cutting the meat from the lead guitarist and letting the rhythm and bass cater for that area (otherwise it sounds muddy and confusing), cut 3db's of bass from the lead and bring up the treble carefully.

When I engineer a track, I always keep the bass dead centre with the guitars panned slightly left and right but not all the way (like Metallica have done from Load onwards) this lets the drums breathe more.

I liked this song so I can't find any probs there, yeah, I'd just tweak a few things that I mentioned above to add more dimension to the song, there's a lot of feeling in this track, I really liked it.

Thanks for sharing that bro.
Excellant, thanks for the advice bud I'll take all those points into account.

Regarding the limiter - Would you use this as a mastering effect on the whole mix, or seperatley on certain individual instruments?

I usually always end up using a multiband limiter/compressor on an entire mix, I do this because it really brings out nuances and dynamics that can get missed and shit man, it makes songs sound so much louder at mix down.

It's a pain in the ass going over each thing individually, you know how it is man, you touch one thing in a mix and everything else suffers. I do what I can to get a well balanced mix first, with everything panned and EQ'd and then I fuck with the entire track later.

I cut rather than boost with EQ and only use EQ to correct frequencies that fuck with the overall mix. I used to boost everything to make things sound louder but you can do that with a compressor/limiter. Mixing shit is like playing with domino's.

I use reverb as a room simulator, it sure makes drums sound bigger.

You've got a fucking good mix there man, you know your shit. I'd use a really mild layering of reverb on the breaks and make it as transparent as possible with a really short tail.

Have you got any other tracks? Whats your set up man?

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:02 am

Cool ok, thanks - I've got some decent Limiter/Compressor plugins that i'll tamper with later.

I'll try what you said with the reverb... But I really like the ultra-sharp stops and starts with total silence in-between. That's definatley what I was trying to achieve, but again, I'll give your suggestion a shot.

The other two tracks are at slightly earlier stages of production at the moment. I just mixed & mastered one to put up on various forums to get some feedback & generally see if I am heading in the right direction.

Setup:

Drums

SM57's on Snare/Toms
AKG D112 on Kick Drum (Triggered post-recording)
AKG C1000s as Overheads

All into a Yamaha mixer -> M-Audio Delta 10/10 -> Sonar (on my friends PC).

From there I took the raw drum tracks on CD to my PC at home to mix them & record everything else:

Guitars

Ibanez RGT42DX into a mixture of Peavey 5150 w/ Laney 2x12 cab mic'd with a Studio Projects B1 & Amplitube amp simulator software.

Bass

Straight through M-Audio Audiobuddy -> M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 -> N-track Studio w/ Amplitube.

Vocals

Studio projects B1 -> Audiobuddy -> Audiophile 24/96 -> N-track w/ a number of plugins. (BBE Sonic Maximizer, Waves Compressor/EQ/Rvox to name a few).

Then finally on the whole mix I used Timeworks mastering E.Q & Compressor & BBE Sonic Maximizer.

I'm monitoring w/ Mission 71i's.

Regarding other music - I'll hook you up with the 3 tracks when they're totally done.

I've got another project going that you can check out if you want. This one is with sampled drums, though.
www.myspace.com/datura
www.daturamusic.co.uk

Cheers.

Metallash · Post by **Metallash** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:28 pm

the drums sound fine, you ever tried using the sonic maximizer on the kick? gives it a nice punch, the snare could do with being compressed a bit better to give it a better pop, one thing i do when compressing a snare is set the ratio to its highest then mess around with the attack till i find the nice pop sound then back the ratio back down to usually about 2.5:1.

as for the guitars, bass sounds fine as it is, theres just no escaping the amplitube sound is there? haha, if i were you i would just stick with the 5150 and try using an SM57 on it if you can get your hands on one, thats if you want to go back and record it that is, one piece of advice i will give you about the guitars is to use a multi-band processor (C4 if you have it) and compress around 200-250Hz it will tighten the guitars up alot and wont sound as muddy, they seem to be taking up a tiny bit too much in the low-end part of the mix too, with the EQ try rolling off from about 80Hz downwards, the thing with amplitube is it sounds too smooth and round, doesnt have that edge ya know? have you ever tried using the JCM900 plug-in? sounds alot better than amplitube IMO

AlphaOmegaCFH · Post by **AlphaOmegaCFH** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:53 pm

You need a scuzzy.

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 7:03 pm

Metallash - Yeah I've used plenty of BBE all over the mix (as I've told you on MSN, fuck it - I can't be bothered writing it out on here too!).

I'll Definatley hook up those EQ settings & give it a shot! Cheers.

AlphaOmegaCFH - What?

DBS · Post by **DBS** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:46 am

hippy wrote:that song fucking sucks.

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:14 pm

You fucking suck at reading.

scrotal_tug wrote:I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC

hippy · Post by **hippy** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:19 pm

ok then, that mix fucking sucked.

Cheyenne fucking Buffet · Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:20 pm

Razor Rob thinks it sucked. Prepare to be owned.

Wait, I'm not positive he's going to own this thread. Give me a few seconds to think it over.

Cheyenne fucking Buffet · Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:21 pm

I've made my decision.

Owned.

Cheyenne fucking Buffet · Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:21 pm

Cheyenne fucking Buffet wrote:Owned.

Browns Town · Post by **Browns Town** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:44 pm

The hand of god has spoken.

Forget all the terms of which I understand half of. It has too much treble.

I'm serious.

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:47 pm

hippy wrote:ok then, that mix fucking sucked.

I could see that coming a mile off.

Find the faults with the mix, give me a run-down of the problems & finally, how I might go about fixing them.

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:48 pm

Browns Town wrote:It has too much treble.

That's fair enough, I'll take it into account

Cheers.

hippy · Post by **hippy** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:45 pm

danny milk?

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 4:29 am

Sense?

S · Post by S » Wed Jun 29, 2005 4:59 am

i'm not signing up just to listen to that shit.. but it could definitely use more reverb. also make sure you don't clip the drums on the downbeats.

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 5:20 am

DBS · Post by **DBS** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:48 am

scrotal_tug wrote:You fucking suck at reading.

scrotal_tug wrote:I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC

No i read what you said, but i wanted to inform other members of the Pantera Bulletin Board that i believe this song is absolutely fucking awful. One of the worst songs i've ever heard in fact. It's truly laughable in its patheticness and unoriginality. This song is absolute shite.

croninburg · Post by **croninburg** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:02 am

DBS wrote:
scrotal_tug wrote:You fucking suck at reading.

scrotal_tug wrote:I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC
No i read what you said, but i wanted to inform other members of the Pantera Bulletin Board that i believe this song is absolutely fucking awful. One of the worst songs i've ever heard in fact. It's truly laughable in its patheticness and unoriginality. This song is absolute shite.

Aren't you the guy whose band rips off metallica?

Metallash · Post by **Metallash** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:31 am

croninburg wrote:
DBS wrote:
scrotal_tug wrote:You fucking suck at reading.

scrotal_tug wrote:I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC
No i read what you said, but i wanted to inform other members of the Pantera Bulletin Board that i believe this song is absolutely fucking awful. One of the worst songs i've ever heard in fact. It's truly laughable in its patheticness and unoriginality. This song is absolute shite.
Aren't you the guy whose band rips off metallica?

scrotal_tug · Post by **scrotal_tug** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:49 am

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:16 am

That song needs more COWBELL

DBS · Post by **DBS** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:11 pm

croninburg wrote:
DBS wrote:
scrotal_tug wrote:You fucking suck at reading.

scrotal_tug wrote:I want critique on the MIX, not the MUSIC
No i read what you said, but i wanted to inform other members of the Pantera Bulletin Board that i believe this song is absolutely fucking awful. One of the worst songs i've ever heard in fact. It's truly laughable in its patheticness and unoriginality. This song is absolute shite.
Aren't you the guy whose band rips off metallica?

Owned

Panterachat

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