Would really appreciate a Mix Critique

[Gage Cottle]

Hello everyone,

I am a new poster to the site, however, I am a long time follower! I recently got the Slate Mix/Master/FX bundle, and thought I would upload my first mix with the new plug ins. I would really love to hear some critiques and suggestions from other professionals within the industry. If you've got a spare second, I'd really appreciate the listen!

The song is "Gate", performed by The Lily Bandits, Recorded at Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, OH.

Side Note: This is a roughly mastered file (Using Ozone 6)

Thanks!

-Gage Cottle

 

[Sean G]

Sounds like the Greg Calbi preset 'General Clarity'...yes?

 

[Gage Cottle]

Sounds like the Greg Calbi preset 'General Clarity'...yes?

Actually, I am proud to say that I didn't use any presets on this song. I'm usually not one to go to the presets. I like to manipulate my audio from scratch.
I feel as though presets put an idea in one's head of what it "should" sound like, and you continue trying to tweak to perfection. Somewhat limiting depending on how you view it.
Not saying that presets aren't beneficial, I just personally don't prefer them!

 

[Sean G]

It had a clarity about it...thats why I thought it may have been that one.

 

[Gage Cottle]

It had a clarity about it...thats why I thought it may have been that one.

Well I'll take that as s compliment! Thanks for the feedback!

 

[pcrecord]

Hey Gage, Thanks for sharing !!
I think it's an interesting song and it's a nice mix..
You can guess from my avatar, I'm a drummer..
The first thing that bothers me is that the bass drum and snare sound boxy and could be fuller sounding.. Maybe it was the instrument/tunning, I can't say without listening to the raw tracks..
But I find they both are missing some dynamics and/or transients and their frequency ranges seem narrow. The snare could be brighter and the bass drum could have a bit more lows.. Again it might not be possible to do with the raw tracks you got.

Other than that your vocal sits well in the mix and get the right attention, so that's great. But other instruments kinda fights for attention. There's alot going on in the same space and frequencies. If you would explore wider panning, it could let the mix breath a bit more and we'd get to hear everything better..

All in all, good job, nothing to be ashamed of, just take my ideas as suggestions not critics

 

[Gage Cottle]

Hey Gage, Thanks for sharing !!
I think it's an interesting song and it's a nice mix..
You can guess from my avatar, I'm a drummer..
The first thing that bothers me is that the bass drum and snare sound boxy and could be fuller sounding.. Maybe it was the instrument/tunning, I can't say without listening to the raw tracks..
But I find they both are missing some dynamics and/or transients and their frequency ranges seem narrow. The snare could be brighter and the bass drum could have a bit more lows.. Again it might not be possible to do with the raw tracks you got.

Other than that your vocal sits well in the mix and get the right attention, so that's great. But other instruments kinda fights for attention. There's alot going on in the same space and frequencies. If you would explore wider panning, it could let the mix breath a bit more and we'd get to hear everything better..

All in all, good job, nothing to be ashamed of, just take my ideas as suggestions not critics

Thanks for the critiques!!

I do agree about the boxiness of the drums....I am primarily a guitar player, so I'm not too versed in the drum world! However, wen up mix drums, it's usually for a rockier and snappier sound. I had a rough time with this mix because I was trying to find a nice middle ground between snappy, and crisp. The tracking was really well done, so I have no excuse for the drum sound, it's all me! I'll deffinetly go back in and see what I can do about that.

Thanks for the feedback!

-Gage

 

[DonnyThompson]

@Gage Cottle , @pcrecord @Sean G

I agree with Marco that the drums do sound a bit "boxy".

Generally, "boxy" resides around 400Hz or so, especially with snare drum. "Honky" is generally around 600-750hz. You might want to look at carving out around that area by a few db; add a bit of 240 for "warmth and "weight", around 3k - to 5k for "snap" and 7k to 9k for presence. I'd also consider rolling off the lows on the snare below 80 hz or so.

Kicks will vary, but 60-80hz will give you that very "chesty" bottom end ( the kind you can feel in your chest); and again, perhaps carving out somewhere between 350 - 500 to get rid of the "box"; 2k-3k or so for "snap", and 6k-7k for "click".

One of our members here ( @Kurt Foster ) also wisely suggests adding a bit around 200-250Hz or so, on the kick, (with a fairly tight Q ) for those who may be listening through ear buds... around here we affectionately refer to this as "The Foster Bump"

All of these settings are just general guidelines, but they are good area to check, and from which to start.

I like the song, and it's a pretty decent mix; you have nice clarity going on. It just needs some tweaking here and there.

IMHO of course
-donny

 

[Chris Perra]

I like this song. Sounds great. It's hard to critique a great song performed and mixed well. There's nothing to really comment on except for a personal preference of mixing approach or sounds.

Is there something that you want the song to be different mix/mastering wise? Or are you just checking in to feel confident about the mix? It's easy to get inside a mix so much that you get lost there and need a fresh set of ears to re-calibrate.