Thread: Song Critique (Indie Rock)

Songwriting seems solid. Every bit as good as some of what's making it onto Blaylock's playlist. I like the approach to samantha in particular.

The mixing isn't blending as well as you might like. The drum tracks sound great across the board. But, I think are a few things that are amiss. On dream machine and samantha, I feel like the guitars are too loud in the mix, and the excessive panning (on dream machine) pull them out of the mix and make them sound as if they've been layered in. There also seems to be too drastic a difference in reverb/processing between the guitars / voice tracks and drums. The drums sound so airy and great, and the voice and guitar don't achieve that same sense of being organic. It's not just that they're over compressed (though they sound pretty processed.) Just try to bring it all together -- everything in a little closer so they all sound like they're in the same room. Keep the drums and voice really hot in the mix, and back off the guitars a lot.

One thought-- I like to take a single reverb on a dedicated AUX channel, and use it as a send for all tracks, with varying levels of saturation. So, you can get a more blended sound and still apply more reverb to the tracks you want further back in the mix.

Good job, and good luck!

I listened to Dream Machine and Samantha's pet, out of the two, Dream Machine is the better mix. First of all, whats good. The vocals are great, they have a cool sound, and sit very well in the mix, and I like the guitar tones and panning. As for Bass guitar, I don't know if you had one in the mix, but I couldn't really hear it in either one. The drums in DM are very present and clear, and sit well in the mix, but in SP the drums sound distant, and the cymbals are a little washy. Also SP does not have the clarity of DM, in SP there seems to be some 300hz-400hz excess, that is making the mix a little muddy. But so far these mixes are sounding pretty good, and just need some tweaks, keep it up, and good luck.