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Thanks a million for your tips on my mix problems. I wrote a new song, mixed it using tips from yourselves and here is the result.
The first thing I did, by the way, was turn my Liquid Mix OFF. Thank you! . any more tips for me?

[MEDIA=soundcloud]jar-head-2/face-to-face-bill-doa[/media]

Comments

anonymous Sat, 05/25/2013 - 05:59

The acoustic sounds pretty gnarly BUT... it works for the "edgy" vibe you are after in this particular case....it's not as if you want the acoustic tones of James Taylor here on this one.

Vocals are solid on pitch, although I think they are kinda harsh tonally, but ...that may be exactly what you were after, as this track isn't exactly a pop/ love song that would lend itself to a silky, warm, smooth vocal tone.

The drums? Well...I'm not a fan of sampled drums or loops for final production... I think they are fine for the pre production stage, but for the final product I think they end up sounding far too generic and "shallow".

Crashes are pretty wacked out... there's some kind of "phasey" thing happening that is disconcerting - to my ears, anyway - I don't know if this is maybe a result of over-compression... or, just a bad sounding sample to begin with? Personally, I'd like to hear this track with a real kit of drums played by a real drummer. The sampled drums and cymbals (and fills) sound "canned" to me, lacking the depth and space of a good kit in a good sounding room, with nice mics and a stereo OH array.

While I don't mind the song in general (even though it's really not my thang style -wise I didn't dislike it) I personally find that the overall sonics to be somewhat harsh and "brittle"....
but ...I also acknowledge that this style requires a certain "edge" too.

Can you provide a bit more detail as to what mics you used and how you used them, along with some specifics about the room you are tracking in? Also... did you use any limiting on the track level? (Or on the 2-bus)?

anonymous Sat, 05/25/2013 - 11:05

Why do you ask me questions I can't answer? :-/
I picked up the first mike I found under the layers of rubbish, played the acoustic guitar through it, then sung through it. Drums were either Addictive drums or Toontracks EZ, I don't remember. Vocals are courtesy of two packs of cigarettes a day for over forty years, as an insert on the vocal group track ......
Having a live drummer is not an option, the neighbours don't exactly love me as it is.
Limiter? Not to my knowledge. I shoved the whole thing through a preset on Ozone 5 ..... maybe the preset was called "tinny and cheap" but I don't think so. I think it was called something like " Single band pass" or similar.
Bass was played on a strat then dropped an octave....put through Markbass .... Guitars with Guitar Rig ... either 3, 4 or 5, I don't remember.

Josh Conley Mon, 05/05/2014 - 17:16

on my crappy iphone, first reaction.
the vocals and the guitars dont "match". it feels like the two elements are playing different songs.
guitar isnt loud/thick enough for my taste. recommend mixing in a bit of a socond track with some heavily distorted mid range or bandpassed around 1k even to give it some ass. maybe a touch of plate reverb?
snare is too bright.
vocals are too loud.

producer notes: at the end when you change your pitch, i like it, but that should back the original as a panned type wide vocal sound, like oz or god speaking to you. try it ;)