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Hi guys! So i'm new to this forum, thought I would share my latest mix/song. The bands me and my band are inspired by, both music and production wise are:
Red, of Mice and Men, memphis may fire, i see stars, Breaking benjamin etc..
Would like to hear what you guys think about the mix mostly, but also the song.
Been investing in some new studio equipment, studio monitors and upgraded my computer hardware so i've been trying to improve my mixing skills.

For the drums I use superior drummer, blend the kick and the snare with an andy sneap sample and a free snare i found online.
Some Eq, multiband compression, stillwell- bombadier, parallel comp.

For the bass i use zombass4, some distortion, ClA bass plugin , some eq, multiband compression, parallell comp and also side-chain the kick to the bass.

Guitars are pod farm 2. Doubled left and right 100%. parallell compression, EQ and stereo enhancer.

Strings are ewsql, plugins i use- Ozone 5, eq and parallell compression.

So thats pretty much it.. i'm about to buy a new condenser mic so I can record some decent vocals.

Is there too much bass? too much compression?
I use a lot of tricks i read about online that I'm not too familliar with, but this is how I do it for now. Would be really greatful for constructive critizism,
what i can improve and what sounds good.
Hope you like my new tune, cheers!

Comments

RemyRAD Thu, 08/28/2014 - 12:22

Hi and welcome aboard!

Well that was pretty bad ass sounding! And I didn't even need any Preparation H.

What can you improve? Well I'm sure there will be suggestions from others? I have no further suggestions. It is what it is. And that's pretty awesome.

Don't go out and purchase a condenser microphone for the vocals because it's about 100% unnecessary. Sheesh... I don't know why people think they always need condenser microphones for vocals? You don't. In fact I don't generally recommend it. Just use the god damn SHURE SM-58. As long as you make sure you stick a nice large foam condom on the microphone. Use the foam. Don't bother with the nylon stocking lollipop filters.

The reason you need the foam on an SM-58 is because folks can get too close. A large foam pop filter will then place your vocalists at a proper distance from the diaphragm on the microphone. Otherwise most folks just get too close and that over accentuates the low-frequency proximity effect. And I speak from 40+ years of experience so... take that for what it's worth. If ya use them properly, it will sound a lot like the $3300, Neumann U-87's and that's no joke. Believe it. But without the foam pop filter, it might sound just this side of dog crap? Which is why novices like yourself always think we need crappy Chinese condenser microphones. No... ya don't.

That $100 microphone is one of the finest overall recording microphones, in the world. If Ya got more cash than brains? Maybe you'd want the SM-7? That'll cost you three times what the SM-58's will cost ya. And there really isn't that audible difference there that everybody thinks there is. Oh sure... folks will tell ya they can hear a huge difference when they do a shoot out between the 58 & 7. But that's only because they don't know where the diaphragm in the 7 is, versus the 58/57's, actually is. So those kinds of comments come from folks who actually don't know how the microphones are constructed. But when ya do understand that and then compare them, most folks figure out, the SM-7, really isn't worth the 200 extra dollars over the 57 & 58's. But it makes people think they're being more professional LOL. There's a fool born every minute.

Folks like Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson's lead vocals were cut on SM-7's. While some of the McCartney older stuff at EMI and Capitol were cut with Neumann 47's. The original version. And you're not going to get a condenser microphone that sounds anything like that, made in Taiwan. It won't even be close. Because it's a misnomer to say that all vocals archived on condenser microphones. They're not. They're absolutely not. Not by the real engineers who are actually in the know. Ya know? Ya know Ya know?

I'm no fool. I'm the real tool.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Reverend Lucas Thu, 08/28/2014 - 12:50

Hi Rasmus,

Welcome to the forum.I’m just learning myself, so I'm probably less than qualified to be offering mixing critique. I do, however, appreciate the good feedback I’ve received on this site so I’ll throw in 2x10^-2 dollars. You can decide if you’d like to take my comments with a huge grain of salt or just ignore them completely.

First of all, good job! I like the tune and the mix. Here are some thoughts:

I’d like to hear a real bass guitar, but then again I’m a bass player. The synth sounds fine. There’s more click in the kick drum than I’d use, but that’s genre specific and probably more a matter of personal taste.

There’s what I’m going to call a ‘whooshiness’ at times throughout the track that I found a bit distracting. Examples are at 0:38, 0:49, 1:02. My guess would be it has something to do with the multiband compression, but am not sure. Is anyone else hearing that, or is it just my less-than-stellar at-my-dayjob ‘monitoring’ setup?

Again, some of the more experienced/better mixers on the forum will have more valuable input.

Rasmus321 Thu, 08/28/2014 - 12:55

RemyRAD, post: 418994, member: 26269 wrote: Hi and welcome aboard!

Well that was pretty bad ass sounding! And I didn't even need any Preparation H.

What can you improve? Well I'm sure there will be suggestions from others? I have no further suggestions. It is what it is. And that's pretty awesome.

Don't go out and purchase a condenser microphone for the vocals because it's about 100% unnecessary. Sheesh... I don't know why people think they always need condenser microphones for vocals? You don't. In fact I don't generally recommend it. Just use the god damn SHURE SM-58. As long as you make sure you stick a nice large foam condom on the microphone. Use the foam. Don't bother with the nylon stocking lollipop filters.

The reason you need the foam on an SM-58 is because folks can get too close. A large foam pop filter will then place your vocalists at a proper distance from the diaphragm on the microphone. Otherwise most folks just get too close and that over accentuates the low-frequency proximity effect. And I speak from 40+ years of experience so... take that for what it's worth. If ya use them properly, it will sound a lot like the $3300, Neumann U-87's and that's no joke. Believe it. But without the foam pop filter, it might sound just this side of dog crap? Which is why novices like yourself always think we need crappy Chinese condenser microphones. No... ya don't.

That $100 microphone is one of the finest overall recording microphones, in the world. If Ya got more cash than brains? Maybe you'd want the SM-7? That'll cost you three times what the SM-58's will cost ya. And there really isn't that audible difference there that everybody thinks there is. Oh sure... folks will tell ya they can hear a huge difference when they do a shoot out between the 58 & 7. But that's only because they don't know where the diaphragm in the 7 is, versus the 58/57's, actually is. So those kinds of comments come from folks who actually don't know how the microphones are constructed. But when ya do understand that and then compare them, most folks figure out, the SM-7, really isn't worth the 200 extra dollars over the 57 & 58's. But it makes people think they're being more professional LOL. There's a fool born every minute.

Folks like Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson's lead vocals were cut on SM-7's. While some of the McCartney older stuff at EMI and Capitol were cut with Neumann 47's. The original version. And you're not going to get a condenser microphone that sounds anything like that, made in Taiwan. It won't even be close. Because it's a misnomer to say that all vocals archived on condenser microphones. They're not. They're absolutely not. Not by the real engineers who are actually in the know. Ya know? Ya know Ya know?

I'm no fool. I'm the real tool.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Thanks, glad you like it! And also happy to hear that you can actually get good results with a sm 58 since my bandmate has one of those. Thanks for the info :)

Rasmus321 Thu, 08/28/2014 - 13:06

Reverend Lucas, post: 418995, member: 48050 wrote: Hi Rasmus,

Welcome to the forum.I’m just learning myself, so I'm probably less than qualified to be offering mixing critique. I do, however, appreciate the good feedback I’ve received on this site so I’ll throw in 2x10^-2 dollars. You can decide if you’d like to take my comments with a huge grain of salt or just ignore them completely.

First of all, good job! I like the tune and the mix. Here are some thoughts:

I’d like to hear a real bass guitar, but then again I’m a bass player. The synth sounds fine. There’s more click in the kick drum than I’d use, but that’s genre specific and probably more a matter of personal taste.

There’s what I’m going to call a ‘whooshiness’ at times throughout the track that I found a bit distracting. Examples are at 0:38, 0:49, 1:02. My guess would be it has something to do with the multiband compression, but am not sure. Is anyone else hearing that, or is it just my less-than-stellar at-my-dayjob ‘monitoring’ setup?

Again, some of the more experienced/better mixers on the forum will have more valuable input.

Hi! Thanks for the feedback! A real bass would probably sound better, but sadly i don't have access to one at the moment. And about the kick, I tweaked the eq for the kick and the snare before I posted the mix here. When listening back to it i'm quite satisfied with the snare but the kick sounds to clicky as you said and too hard especially in the verse. Will work on the kick when ive rested my ears

RemyRAD Fri, 08/29/2014 - 14:45

The clicky kick was in the pocket. Don't screw with your own genius. People don't like clicky kick ass bass drums because they can't get it. You had click with balls. They just get clicks. I go for click with balls. One frequency to hear the attack of the bass drum. One frequency to kick your ass. Both are required. Don't bury the bass drum in mud. It never did anything to hurt you?

I definitely think there's a place for keyboard bass guitar. Those have a unique quality of their own. Not that I would do an entire record album, that way? But many times it works great. You just really can't do the articulate picking and popping the real bass player can do. But they can still sound very solid with the right sampled bass guitar. Though who doesn't love hearing a great bad ass bass player? They're fun! The bass. Not necessarily the player. But I frequently see them smiling when they're doing that because they know, we all love that sound. And so do they.

I know everybody likes to remix their tracks and do their best to perfect their mix. In the end, I have found, that many of my live for broadcast mixes, really can't be improved upon much in a remix. Sure... I've made them a lot better that way. But they never impact me quite the same way as the original live and flawed mix. So while I've remixed plenty. I frequently go back to my original live mix. Because at that time, I'm playing my instrument (the control room) along with all of the other musicians, in real time, at the same time. And as a performance, it sounds more like a performance. The remix sounds like a remix. Even if it's better. It's missing that special je ne sais quoi. That ya get with all of the flaws. It's real. It's honest. And people don't approach honesty in music anymore. They want to tell lies to make it perfect. And for the obsessive-compulsive? They have to have perfect. But that's an illness not a trait. And what is illness but something bad. Whereas a performance is a performance, to entertain others with. It's real. It's organic. It's human. And it's not the robot on Lost in Space.

Danger! Danger Will Robinson!
Mx. Remy Ann David