How's my mixing?

M

MetalGarret

Inspired
Need a second pair of ears here:
https://soundcloud.com/soleparadigm/manifesto-eq-test

This is a small clip of a track i'm working on.Any comments regarding mixing are welcome.

MY personal opinion (how ever critical) is that the guitar can feel a bit thin on attack. There's a certain warmth (I think) missing from it. I've tried a lot to get what I'm looking for. I tried a TON of Red Impulse MesaRectifier IR's and they seemed to all have a certain buzz way up on the high end that I couldn't get rid of. So I went back to using Fractal's. This is as far as I got.

Questions I have are:

Is there anything I can do to fill the spectrum any further?

Is there any clipping?

Is there too much high end on the guitar? (I feel like there is but when i try to drop even a little bit I seem to lose too much)

Is the overall track on par with professional mixers? If not, what can I do with what I have to get there OR what are the must haves (gear, plugins, recording techniques, etc) for mixing this genre on that level?

Thank you for your time.

PS: I made some mistakes at some parts. Ignore them for now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLM
First of all: I am not an engineer, but i give you my honest opinion. You decide what to do with it!
The guitars are certainly not as full as some professional mixes, but i think the biggest problem is the very overpowering synthsound in the first part. (also, that synth sounds a bit "cheap", for a lack of better word).
What you could try to do (at least, that is what I also hear for recording guitars) is lower drive, and record more takes, this is double tracked, right?

And the drums could use some work, but i'm not able to help here.

Did you try comparing frequency responses to a commercial recording?

I like the composition, btw!

Regards,
Marco
 
Thanks! Yeah the full song is over 11 minutes long actually. Part of a rock opera im writing. It's all written music-wise but I gotta get the tone to sound right.

That synth (i think you're refering to the supersaw synth that comes in around 1:44) Is actually a place holder I left in. I already plan on changing that. Unless you're talking about the strings in the VERY beginning then I'm a little disapointed cause thats EWQLSO Gold at work. If so, I gotta learn to mix the string samples better.

The girth of the guitar is troubling. Drive is at 4 so maybe I can knock it down a bit. I've been having this problem since I got the axe 2 and I've posted a few threads about it. Everytime I think I've got it down it turns out to be not enough. Or there's too much mid frequencies and I get what sounds like a muffling wind in distortion. But then I'll try and notch those frequencies down and the guitars end up losing life. Seems I cannot win with this. :(

Another thing I've had a problem with is the bass. It also is not very smooth and doesn't really fill out the low end enough. I'm not using the Axe 2 for bass. I've got a Fender Rumble 150 going through a DI into my Mackie 820i mixer then I add a Sanz Amp plugin in Pro Tools. I do this cause I feel the bass gets better attack from it instead of the clicky presence that comes with running through a DI. The bass I have is a Peavey Fury IV with stock pickups I think. It has active pickups and the battery is lively. I'm hoping to achieve a tone Like this: Dream Theater .

Honestly I don't understand how people achieve such sweetness in their sound. It makes me feel that I'm not equipped well enough when people have achieved their sound with just about the same amount of gear as I have. I'm obviously missing something.
 
MetalGarret said:
That synth (i think you're refering to the supersaw synth that comes in around 1:44) Is actually a place holder I left in. I already plan on changing that. Unless you're talking about the strings in the VERY beginning then I'm a little disapointed cause thats EWQLSO Gold at work. If so, I gotta learn to mix the string samples better.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid that's exactly what I mean. As i said i'm not an engineer (neither did i ever try to record a full ensemble). what strikes me with this part is that (it seems) that every note is the same velocity, and length.

For (useful) help did you try to go to soundonsound.com? It's a magazine where in the series "Mix Rescue" every month they take a mix from someone, and go through the process of refining that. Including sound samples. I believe that after 6 months the articles are available to the public. IN the last year (you have to dig) they did one for a metal band.

Of course, I don't know what your experience is, but mixing is an art/craftmanship in itself, and something you need experience in to get good at. Don't give up!
 
It takes years of practice and years of listening to songs for the purpose of learning about mix, and ofcoarse amazing equipment. You can easily get good if you are shown a few things from someone else. I used to be aweful at mixing, didnt have a clue when it was wrong or right. You made the right choice by asking for another pair of ears opinion. Even the pros have assistance in that area.
I cant hear much wrong with your mix though it could do with cleaning up the kick drums lower end. increasing the bass guitar level and filling out the sound with more instruments as it sounds quite naked, but THAT can be fixed in mastering.
 
https://soundcloud.com/soleparadigm/manifesto-eq-test-2

This tone sounds better.

I took out low end on the kick cause i thought it was overbearing before. Next time I'll see about adding it back along with some attack cause it does seem to drown out a tad. But not too bad.

I took out the orchestra part in the beginning cause it was mudding the shit out of the mix. It sounds cleaner without it. I'll fix the orchestra later.

The BIG thing I fixed was the guitars attack. I forgot about the compression knob. That made a shit load of difference. It may need some adjustment but it sounds like it has a fucking backbone now. I dropped the drive a tad to make it sound tighter.

the bass seems a bit flubby to me. Anyone else think that?
 
Dude, I think yer trippin. Sounds friggin fine to me. I hear plenty of tone and definition, with almost no attack. (Sound very late Fates Warning-ish.) I like it. The whole thing sounds great.
 
The first one or the second one? Cause I woke up just now and I still like the sound of the second one. That's a good sign when that happens.
 
I'm not an engineer (I don't even play one on TV).

The guitar sound is great, but (to my ears) it seems to be a little buried. You obviously have the chops. :)

Might try going wider with the mix. Maybe panning the drums or synths a bit.

You've got some kick-ass rhythm going on. I like it.
 
zander said:
I'm not an engineer (I don't even play one on TV).

The guitar sound is great, but (to my ears) it seems to be a little buried. You obviously have the chops. :)

Might try going wider with the mix. Maybe panning the drums or synths a bit.

You've got some kick-ass rhythm going on. I like it.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

What do you mean by buried though? Cause to me the guitars sit nicely on top of the drums maybe minus the kicks. And the drums seemed to be panned ok as they are although maybe the cymbals could use some work in that area. But the toms seem to flow across the spectrum fairly well to me. How would you pan them?

The synths I agree could use some panning. No question. I gotta fix the strings in the beginning at least then maybe see if I can EQ them or something to make them fit together better and make them a lil less blurry. Might need to use different samples.

I may go with a slightly darker guitar tone too cause it feels a but spiney to me. (If that term even properly refers to it) Also, I feel something odd with whatever tones I make cause they all feel like they got some kind of high end spiking just a little bit too much. Like 16k or something around there that gives it a texture that kinda pierces my ear drum a bit. I'll post a sample later for you all to hear.

Thanks for the comments guys. This is how I learn.
 
I personally think the guitars are a little too loud myself. I also agree with your comment on them being a little on the bright side and lacking some good lower mid (not too low though). I'm not sure how many guitar tracks you have but it sounds like just one is mainly in the fore-front. I would blend at least two tracks with different tones together at about the same level. This will thicken up the guitars while allowing you to pull them back in the mix a bit.

I feel the kick got better on version 2. The bass guitar actually seems a little anemic to me and could use a slight level boost and possible eq to bring in the lower frequencies in the 100 hz and below area to match up well with your beefier kick. This will thicken up everything a bit too.

All in all it is not bad sounding though and your playing is very good.

Good luck!
 
Thanks Johnny! I took your advice and made some changes

https://soundcloud.com/soleparadigm/manifesto-eq-test-5

I accidently left a C6 multiband comp on the drums sub track and it was scooping the shit out of the mids. Took it off and gave the drums more consistency. Changed the reverb too a bit. Also band the toms track a but so that the high tom starts closer the the left ear and the toms spread feels more center. I finally saw what you were talking about, Zander. It feels better now.

Bass tone is changed to better match the guitars. I might lower the level a tad but i feel its better than before. Gave it some bottom at around 100k and adjusted the attack.

I reset my Axe 2's system paramters back to default and made a new tone from scratch. Now theyre not overly bright anymore but I still had this high end piercing through my sound. I Eqed some of it out though and I'm not bleeding from the ears anymore. It's got enough brightness to satisfy I think.

Whaddya think?
 
I don't listen to this kind of music.

But I am missing a crisp, raw, deep, airy feeling among other things. Feels to much like a blanket over a box.

Sorry, but I think the mix needs to be much improved. But I don't know how you should go about it.

---

The above was for the first mix.

Test 5 is a lot better but maybe a little to dense and still lacking some depth. The dense feeling
might be the arrangent and not just the mix?
 
Last edited:
I'll check #5 out after work, when I can crank it. ;)

Curious how the sound from Soundcloud compares to the original mix. I don't have much experience with it, but I imagine there is some compression going on.
 
Actually, I just realized that the soundcloud version has a smaller bit rate so some warmth is missing. That sucks cause you guys wouldnt be able to tell accurately what's wrong with it. I'll see what I can do about that.
 
I've never been fortunate enough to hear a mix in a real sound studio. All I've ever heard is MP3 which I guess compresses the heck out of stuff. I can't imagine what I'm missing.

There are alot of people that more about these things than I do. When I hear depth, clarity and width, that's when I get excited.
 
That last one is the worst mix of the lot, sorry! That is, to my ears, anyway. Guitar tone was much better in the previous ones, too. :(

The best way to get a greater understanding of what you're mixing would be for you to listen in on what exactly it sounds like on other earphones/headphones/car speakers/etc...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom