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Heya guys,

I'm kind of new to mixing and mastering. Here is the mix I did. I'm the vocalist/producer/recording engineer/mixer.
Would you fine people be so kind as to critique my mix? Anything that comes to mind is much appreciated.

I have put most of my money in mic's. The plugins that are really limiting(no pun intended) me right now are the following:
My bus compressor
- DCAMFreeComp

The mastering plugins, I use:
- DCAMFreeComp
- ReaEQ
- JS Stereo Enhancer
- TB_Reelbus
- W1 Limiter

Sidenote: The backing vocals are recently added and made with pitch-shifting software. I'm still too mic-shy to record them for real. (have to practice the bastards first)

http://recording.or…

Attached files Amikdla - Unfold (96%).mp3 (11.2 MB) 

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Sean G Mon, 03/14/2016 - 17:35

Welcome to RO.

If you upload your mix using the upload a file button on the bottom right corner more members will be inclined to listen to it and give you a critique of your work.

You can upload in Mp3 format at 320 kbps. There will be less artifacts using the player here on RO due to soundclouds' file compression when uploading.

Joël van Dam Tue, 03/15/2016 - 00:37

Sean G, post: 437130, member: 49362 wrote: Welcome to RO.

If you upload your mix using the upload a file button on the bottom right corner more members will be inclined to listen to it and give you a critique of your work.

You can upload in Mp3 format at 320 kbps. There will be less artifacts using the player here on RO due to soundclouds' file compression when uploading.

Thank you Sean, for pointing that out. I was under the illusion that soundcloud had a decent decoder, now I don't understand why they exist :D

Joël van Dam Tue, 03/15/2016 - 06:58

John Santos, post: 437143, member: 49762 wrote: This is beautiful. Just the right amount of presence and treble to offset the bass to my taste. :)

Loved what you did with the shell sounds of the percussion kits!

ah! you're to kind.

I struggle with the bass guitar. I can't seem to tone down that bumb around 100hz without losing my lowend. I tried ReaXcomp but I'm really not that good with multiband compressors.
Any parameters you would try? see picture:

Also my vocals seem very far away. I don't really like my own voice so I don't want to just make them louder. The problem is maybe that the vocals are to much spread out in the stereofield. Would you suggest just turning down the width on my vocalbus?

Sean G Fri, 03/18/2016 - 06:34

I am hearing some sort of artifact at starting at 4:20 sec, its kind of hard to describe but it seems to come in and out like a squeaky pumping sound of some sort until the end of the song, I don't know if its some sort of effect that you have on one of your tracks or if it is something you have done on purpose.

The more I listen to the track the more I find it a little distracting from this point, as it tends to draw your focus a little.

Apart from that, the track sounds good IMO.

Joël van Dam Fri, 03/18/2016 - 10:59

Sean G, post: 437184, member: 49362 wrote: I am hearing some sort of artifact at starting at 4:20 sec, its kind of hard to describe but it seems to come in and out like a squeaky pumping sound of some sort until the end of the song, I don't know if its some sort of effect that you have on one of your tracks or if it is something you have done on purpose.

The more I listen to the track the more I find it a little distracting from this point, as it tends to draw your focus a little.

Apart from that, the track sounds good IMO.

Sounds like that heavy synth in the end. I took that synth apart. There is a below 500hz-ish part that is in the middle and sounds fairly clean. An the top part is stereo with a guitar amp plugin on it to make it space-out. I compressed the high-version of the synth using the guitar as a trigger, so the guitar is always on top.

Joël van Dam Fri, 03/18/2016 - 15:04

Sean G, post: 437201, member: 49362 wrote: It could be that.

Wasn't sure what I was hearing at first.

Overall, I do like the song and the mix does sound good.

Thank you, I've asked so may people. I have a "changes list" that so long, it's scary.
At least I recorded the backing vocals yesterday. We are getting there.
I'll update this thread with the finished product when it's done. To bad we have to also wait for the videoguys =S

pcrecord Sun, 03/20/2016 - 06:54

In fix this mix, I'd recommand to drop every mastering plugins... and if you use a master bus compressor, adjust it that it doesn't GR more than a few db (2-3)
Mixing is all about balancing so we hear everything. After the volumes and pans, some EQ can be use to help dissern the instruments more and compression to dissipline some instruments that may jump at you in some part of the song..
Mixing is not at all about making it loud. If you ever get a mix comment saying it's not loud enough it's because the person doesn't know about mixing at all ;)
Anyway, just my opinion here !

Joël van Dam Sun, 03/20/2016 - 13:43

DonnyThompson, post: 437236, member: 46114 wrote: Your using a stereo widener?

nah, a smudge on the masterbus.
In reaper there is a wideness fader on each track. You can ajust your overall wideness from 0 to 100%.
On the vocalbus there is loads of reverb/delay/backingvocals that make the vocalbus stereo. I'm playing with the idea to make that a little more mono by turning down the width.