I see where you are trying to go with this one, but to me the drumbeat sounds very disjointed from the song. It just doesn't feel like its coherent with everything else.

When the instruments come in they sound lower than the intro voice, like they need to come up or the creepy effect voice needs to come down to match the levels of the song.

IMHO of course.

To my ears, the drums sound like a drum machine. You've got pretty much the same velocities on all the notes, and it sounds "canned" ... to me, it sounds a lot like copy-paste patterns; if it isn't, then I stand corrected... but whether it is - or isn't - is not really the point - it's that it sounds like it.

Now, I don't know if this is the sound you are after or not - it may be, and if that's the case, then you've accomplished it, and far be it for me to criticize anyone's production style.
Everyone has their own vision as to how they want a song to sound; and it's not always a vision shared by others - but, if you are happy with it, none of that matters.

But, if you are after something that sounds more "authentic", then you should be opening those drums up - samples or real - to grab the vibe and texture of a real kit in a room. And, much of a real kit's sound comes from the overhead array, and that's something I'm not hearing any of in your mix. The crash cymbals are buried - but even just bringing those up isn't enough, because crash cymbals aren't the only things that an OH array will pick up. They'll pick up the ambience of the entire kit, as well as the room, to some degree - depending on the distance from the mics to the kit...

It also has a lot to do with the programming, too. A real drummer would add certain grace notes, and pull and push to some degree; and the sticking wouldn't be the exact same for every fill, or for that matter, every back-beat either.

I'm not saying it's easy to program drums that sound like a real kit - but, you can get close, or at least closer than you have, by spending time listening to how drummers sound, and how they play, and then take the time during your programming to try to capture the playing vibe and the sound of the kit, too.

Disregard this if I'm off-base with my critique, or if you think I'm wrong. After all, it's your project. ;)

IMHO of course.
-d.

Turn down the drums and the spooky voice a bit or turn up everything else.. Actually a fair amount..

I quite like the bass sound. The drums are definitely a little hot during the less busy moments, and sound quantized. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, they just sound like they were assembled on a computer, whereas a more 'live drummer' sound would probably suit this song well, or else a totally robotic industrial drum machine sound - but this splits the difference a little too close, making it sound more like a sequencer imitating a real kit. I'd go one way or the other. Outside of that, i do like the placement of the various elements, especially re: panning and effect treatments.

Thanks guys for your input, and yes, I agree that I need to "humanize" the drums, and get more out of the overheads, and change up the velocities. I will be working on using 2 or 3 different snare samples coming in at different beats on various measures, as well as experimenting with having the snare on 2 and 4 in some spots (not just on all 4). as well as using the floor tom as the backbeat in some spots. All of the above will, I hope, bring more dynamics, and a more human feel the drum part. In the meantime, please check out this latest version where I brought up the "gallop" guitars, the solo, and improved the vocal "ride" over the music.
p.s. I turned down the intro vox a bit

[MEDIA=audio]http://recording.or…

Attached files No Quarter Mix 3.mp3 (7.8 MB)