Please Critique my mix

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 7:10 pm

It's my new indie pop band Silhouettes Of Something Strange.

My problem is still "sticking notes" on certain playback system certain notes (or anytime the vocalist hits a "e" vowel) it is louder and more painful, and I actually had this problem on the bass, the third note on the bridge, D, is much louder, and yet after notch eq'ing the note down a few dB it is still loud though the waveform shows its quieter!

But the mix is decent, feel free to give suggestions!
http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=audio&file=ST_mp3.mp3

No the keys aren't real, they're temp tracks on a Casio (woohooo!).
The guitars were done through a POD XT Live
Bass was D/I and mod'd using the IK Multimedia gem Ampeg SVX plugin.

Drums however, and I pride myself in, are 100% live!

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:17 pm

drum tracks are excellent... harms are mixed well also... everything else is good, i just wanted to point out your drums

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 1:44 am

thanks!

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:14 am

hi, i don´t see any fatal mix problems, but, sorry, i hear a little bit inaccurate played bass and other instruments.
Song, sound and vocal is GOOD, but general impression is that the rhythm is "uncertain" and "floating". Wink

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:19 am

Drums sound good Smile

!
The mix sounds sweet Smile

Really nice kick drum!

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:35 pm

Yeah the guitars were done pretty quick, and the guitarist isn't quite confident enough for my taste, to the point that I may wind up rerecording the bass and guitar on my own for the sake of the song...I find there are not many confident guitar players, and the confident ones are really good and there isn't much of an in between.

But thanks for the advice here, my only problem is still the "sticking notes" which i wish i could fix but i guess ill just be left to deal with them until I get a better vocal microphone...for now I'm using the AT 3035, though considering how thin the vocals turned out I may try using a 57 just for kicks. But then again I did use the Antares Mic modeler (which yes I did buy) on the vocals, changing it to a Neumann U47, but I haven't checked this particular mix in my car (which is where I find if my mixes are truly good or not, my car is brutally honest ha)

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:49 pm

I played the mix to my girlfriend who said she really liked the vocal mix and the harmonies were really good Smile

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:08 am

Nice mix, Multoc. I appreciated your drumming, and your vocalist's performance was brilliant -- I've probably listened to the second verse 10-12 times now. He reminds me of a mix between Brandon Boyd of Incubus and that cat from Alien Ant Farm.

Critiques: the bass tone seems tubbier than the stuff you've shown in the past. I actually really dig the piano sound, but the separation between it and the guitars could be a little more distinct for my tastes. Everything seems a little awash in reverb, too, but I admittedly like drier mixes than most. From a musical stance, I could really do without the Michelle Branch guitar solo at the end, or if nothing else, to hear it sound juicer and more separated.

Criticisms aside, you definitely hit your mark with this one. It was fun to listen to and makes me want to see your band.

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:10 am

This is more my direct response to Patrick:

The piano for right now is just a temp track from a Casio keyboard, so all I did was start cutting off the low end at around 150Hz to try and get a little more seperation, but there's not much to be done there ha!

The bass was played by the vocalist who enjoys smashing into the strings with his pick at around the 15th fret which could have a little something to do with the "tubby" sound you described, basically I plan on redoing the bass for that reason, I can't really appreciate a smashed string'd bass.

And for that solo at the end...while it may sound decent at low volume, it's actually not played all that well and I am going to have the guitarist redo it and maybe bring it more forward in the mix (infact at one point i do a quick fade down -3dB!). I was almost considering getting rid of the solo but after getting used to it and your compliments I'll keep it.

And thanks for your compliments guys, the songwriting was about 3/4's the reason why I joined the band and gave up charging for recording time!

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:30 pm

Sounds great.

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:18 am

patrick_like_static wrote:

...I could really do without the Michelle Branch guitar solo at the end

Respectfully, I'm all for you rerecording, rearranging, or cutting the solo.

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:13 am

Oh man I misread that as a compliment patrick_like_static! haha woops, yeah that solo was ill placed and was not my idea, I'll most likely be cutting it or having someone else play it better, because the kid who played it was obviously not up to snuff

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