Is this ready for mastering?

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 6:46 am

Can you please take a listen and tell me if there is any glaring issues on this mix if I take it to get it mastered?

http://www.box.net/shared/5w98kwscg8

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 7:57 am

Yup ... I'd have mixed it differently ... probably added more reverb to convey an overall "live" feel ... but that's a preference thing. The mix is solid.

It's ready to go. Good tune -- I like the guitar work here.

Kev-

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:12 am

I don't know what it is but at 3m:16s, snare roll. Something there isn't right. Sounds like Winamp tried to beat-match and mix two songs together.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:19 am

I'm not hearing it does anyone else?, Maybe a glitch in the playback?

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:23 am

Can you take a listen to this one as well?

http://www.box.net/shared/8bgrzvhoo4

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 11:34 am

1m:59s. Same thing as before.

/talking about the beat in both instances. somethings fishy.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:29 pm

So I'm sitting here with the Television on Discovery Science Channel As They're Talking about steppingonmars. How ironic! Iconic. High colonic!

I like your songs. Really didn't care much for your engineering, however. It's harsh. Lacks depth and space. Particularly on the drums. And that snare drum? Kinda reminded me of YES, Close To The Edge, which drove me equally nuts. That's not to say it isn't stylistically interesting, just annoying to me with that BOING BOING BOING. And your drums, honey, you need more overheads less tight Mics. Even if you think the acoustics are bad I'd rather hear bad acoustics than no acoustics. They really need some space. Try some short plate software stuff. That's why you have all those plug-ins. You create the acoustic space even if you don't own it. The bass drum lacks smack, punch, balls. Oh sure, I can hear it but I can't feel it. Try some 250 hertz removal, phase inversion, limiting, gating and you'll get there and not necessarily in that order. EQ before or after limiting as you get different results. You might want EQ before and after limiting? I never use samples, neither should you.

The vocal's on the other hand, are killer. You nailed that! But you have over optimized everything. It's brutal to listen to. A mastering engineer isn't going to make that much nicer or, better. You need to mix your music by letting it tell you how it should be mixed. Not by how loud you need or want to have it, in the end. The mix comes first. Then you or the mastering engineer can spice things up after you've captured the character. Loud is cool when everything comes together properly. But loud for the sake of loud provides one with an almost unlistenable mix.

Being gentler will give you more of that live raucous quality. That's where the mastering engineer comes in after-the-fact. After all, why would you want to go to a mastering engineer when you have already over-louded it? (Over-louded is a technical term meaning over-awful). So don't go there anymore. It's dangerous, dark, dingy. You want brighter lighter mixes for your dirty rock-and-roll laundry.

I unfortunately due Windows.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:33 am

Thanks Remy, I realize I've got a long way to go as far as mixing, I've only been doing this for 7 months now, my ears are pretty green at this.

- So now we're allowed to put efx on OH's? Everyone told me that was a definate no, no? Next time I'll try it.

- the snare, yes indeed, I think I'm going to show the 200 replies about that snare to the drummer instead of me telling him about it. That was his choice, not mine! I'm the singer/guitar player/songwriter/engineer/producer of this band so next time I'll have to be the drum tech as well

- the harshness and lacking space, yeah it's a little harsh, not defending my mixing skills but could some of it have to have to do with a digital recording, using $100 mics in a room with a 7ft ceiling with walls covered with acoustic ceiling tiles in a 11 by 14' room? ( I have to do that to keep the neighbors happy) I guess that's something that could only be answered by someone else mixing it, which I tried once to no avail, but I'd like to know my limitiations of what I have before I start searching for this holy grail known as an incredible mix

Anyways, these are great tips Remy I'll try to use them as inspiriation to get better and not give up! Which brings me back to question 1

Are there any issues with getting this mastered?

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:06 am

"So now we're allowed to put efx on OH's? Everyone told me that was a definate no, no?"
How dare they! Plugins are there to be used.
Fair enough, keep it subtle, but don't keep it in a dusty cupboard!

Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 7:48 pm

Ok started working on the drums first so here's what I did

- higher ratio on the kick shorter attack and longer release, slightly different eq,

- more Oh's , small plate reverb, trying to use more Oh's as part of the mix for the other drums

- a gentler snare, less compression, different reverb, can't try to make it what it isn't though, it's a boingy snare.

There was some other stuff done as well, but I can't remember everything, just tried to tone it down slightly.

Please take a listen, to both if you have time and let me know if I am going in the right direction particularly with the drums and what else could be done to improve them. I'm just gonna focus on one part of the mix for now and gradually work on the rest as I go along.

Thanks for the input!!!

http://www.box.net/shared/3kd0xjgo48

Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 11:38 pm

sounds kind of like the ramones meets yes
i find the line "never understand the power of a bitch?" does not fit the song.

there is no hook here. i'd say go back and work out a hook.

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 7:43 am

Second one is much better.

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