Welcome to RO.

You should use the "Upload A File" button at the bottom right hand corner.

SC uses a lot of compression when uploading files which add unwanted artifacts.

You can upload an Mp3 at 320kbps. You will get more replies and feedback on your mix doing so.

- Sean.

Fixed. Thanks for the tip, Sean!

Not a bad song, but its very bright...are you mixing in an acoustically treated or untreated room?

This could be having an effect on how you are mixing, as your room could be lying to you, with whats coming out of your speakers not correlating with what you are hearing in the room.

It definitely could do with some more low-end to give it a fuller sound, at present its a little thin and bright.

I always find that listening to a mix in other environments, say in the car, on a portable device like a phone or ipod etc..outside of the mix environment helps determine what needs to be changed in a mix. Have you tried this?

If you can address this issue and repost another version we can then determine what sits where in the mix and give you some advice.

I think its a little hot about 6k, I just dropped it into Studio One, and pulled back around -12db at around 6k, and rolled everything off at around 15k with a LPF with a 24db/oct slope and it sounded better. You could even roll it off at 12k & -12db at 5k and it still sounds good to my ear.

But, thats subjective to what I think sounds OK, ask 10 different engineers and you'll get 15 different answers as DonnyThompson would say.... YMMV.

It all comes down to what you like :)

Thanks! I'm mixing in the corner of a terrible, bright room with no carpeting or curtains. I know, but i literally have no money at all, and i'm renting so i can't toss stuff up on the walls too much. I'm using tiny little Roland DM-10s for monitors, and my AKG K-44 cans, and occasionally my KOSS PortaPro headphones. I've brought it out to the car, and my home theater system, and it always sounds too boomy for me. I keep turning the bass down because it seems too out front.

Here's another stab:

[MEDIA=audio]http://recording.or…

Attached files like_we_are-008.mp3 (12 MB) 

Mix wise it sounds better...not as bright and there seems to be more low-end to this mix.

Are you using a compressor on the drum bus?..they seem a little squashed.

Maybe back it off a bit to give them a little more air, allowing the transients to come through.

Its a little hard to hear those cymbals, are they on a separate track?...if so give them a little boost.

Sometimes its a good idea if you are in an untreated room to mix at lower levels, therefore the room doesn't come into play as much, and if possible, get out of the corner.

Its got a bit of a U2 sound to it the more I hear it...not bad for a first attempt back after 10 years.

No compressor on the drum bus. They're MT Power Drum Kit. There's a little on the snare, meant to accentuate the attack. To my ears, it sounds snappier with it (30ms attack, 126ms release, 4:1 ratio at -14.6dB threshold).

Funny, i used to love U2 back in the day. This song always sounded like Afghan Whigs in my head. Now it reminds me more of later Sunny Day Real Estate.

Having another listen to the two tracks one after another, maybe you should try to get somewhere in the middle between the two...

The first one sounded a little bright, the second when played after it sounds a little boxy.

Whatever you did, halve it. It could be a little brighter and still sound even better.

Thanks! I'll work on that tomorrow. I really appreciate the feedback!

Great song!!!.. I second the more cymbal idea.. Sounds like there's a lot of low mid fighting going on between guitars , drums and bass.

I'd try and clean that up a bit.. Stuff around 200 to 500.. Try soloing the guitars and bass and get them to be distinct between each other.

Am i getting closer? Or back to grating? Thanks again everyone, really :)

[MEDIA=audio]http://recording.or…

Attached files like_we_are-009.mp3 (12 MB) 

I don't really know what you are ultimately after, sonically speaking; it sounds to me as if you have quite a bit of lower mid - and upper mid range energy happening with this. The lower mid range tends to muddy up the mix - but the upper mids make it pretty tough to listen to, even at moderate listening levels ( 70 db), it's kinda painful.

I suspect that this has to do with your monitors and your listening environments. According to the specs of your Roland monitors, the woofer size is 3.5" - which might explain why you have heavy lower mids - because the small woofer you are using isn't able to give you an accurate representation of the lower ranges, so your natural reaction is to boost them...

The peaky upper mids could be a result of several things; but my initial hunch is that the Rolands you are using aren't up to the job of accurate monitoring.

As far as mixing with cans, unless you are using a very nice set that have been designed for that purpose ( which are pretty expensive) then you are likely dealing with the built-in dips and hyped freq's that most cheap consumer grade HP's present; and you're not being given an accurate sonic representation from which to reference.

IMO.

d.

Here I feel the first mix was better, had room and clarity but was missing some low end.. After that you went affraid about the top end and I find it misses some.
Mixing in an unwelcome environment is hard. It gives a lot of guesses. You can reduce those guesses by comparing your product to commercial CDs of the same music style. Don't play the loudness game it's for the mastering and you are mixing now.

The song is interesting but I got bored with the drum part which I think most drummer would too after a minute of it. It seems to be alone in an ok groove but with not much support from other instruments.
Also you had many audio ambiance there, different instrument would have a different reverb and I find it disturbing or obvious they are not recorded together, so unnatural to me.. This is my taste alone, some would love to have many different reverbs, I don't. If I'm using samples or vsti, like you probably do, I try to choose some that I can strip the reverb from and choose my own

I think you can get way better result with a better position in your room, (get in a middle of a wall not in the corner of it)
Keep at it, I'd like to hear more !! ;)