mix critique Thoughts?

[Tbozaudio]

Finished a three piece “punk” rock band. This is a song from that project

https://www.dropbox.com/s/65m6eksttkr3qcx/Last Train_ITA-M1.wav?dl=0

 

[kmetal]

Hey man id suggest you upload an mp3 directly to the site here. I cant preview wavs on my andriod phone w dropbox, and alot of people dont like downloading stuff from db links. Beyond that it will stay in the site for future reference, so no matter what happens w your DB account, others can still have the track you uploaded here, which is crucial for the comments to make sense.

 

[Tbozaudio]

Good to know. Thanks

 

[bouldersound]

I actually kind of like that there's a wave file instead of an mp3, but I think most here would want it posted on the site.

I think this song has potential, but it's "mastered" really loud so it's hard to tell what's from that and what's going on in the mix. I think there's a lot of compression happening on tracks.

The snare and vocal sort of stand out on top of the mix, which is actually a good basis for a pop mix once you get the other elements balanced. Maybe dial them down into the mix just a little.

The kick has some click but still gets stepped on by the guitars. Odd as it may seem, I think the snare is drawing my attention away. Maybe carving a little of the fatness of the snare will open things up.

A lot of the elements, guitars and snare especially, have a sort of puffy feel to them, perhaps something going on in the low mids, perhaps compression. If you do have serious compression on things, perhaps back it off or slow down the attack to things punch through. The mix needs more impact, more snap in the form of initial transients.

The vocal sometimes seems to be hunting to find the pitch. It's not the kind of music that demands perfection, but it should be more intentional. Other aspect of the vocal are good, tone, enunciation, delivery etc.

 

[bouldersound]

I hope this is okay. I compressed the file to mp3 and reposted it here.

 

[Tbozaudio]

Than

I actually kind of like that there's a wave file instead of an mp3, but I think most here would want it posted on the site.

I think this song has potential, but it's "mastered" really loud so it's hard to tell what's from that and what's going on in the mix. I think there's a lot of compression happening on tracks.

The snare and vocal sort of stand out on top of the mix, which is actually a good basis for a pop mix once you get the other elements balanced. Maybe dial them down into the mix just a little.

The kick has some click but still gets stepped on by the guitars. Odd as it may seem, I think the snare is drawing my attention away. Maybe carving a little of the fatness of the snare will open things up.

A lot of the elements, guitars and snare especially, have a sort of puffy feel to them, perhaps something going on in the low mids, perhaps compression. If you do have serious compression on things, perhaps back it off or slow down the attack to things punch through. The mix needs more impact, more snap in the form of initial transients.

The vocal sometimes seems to be hunting to find the pitch. It's not the kind of music that demands perfection, but it should be more intentional. Other aspect of the vocal are good, tone, enunciation, delivery etc.

Thanks for taking the time. Very challenging project and from your feedback, all things done in the mix were to make up for less than ideal elements. So, everything makes sense.

 

[Tbozaudio]

Than


Thanks for taking the time. Very challenging project and from your feedback, all things done in the mix were to make up for less than ideal elements. So, everything makes sense.

Meaning all your critiques make sense. the drummer played so light on the kick and snare while playing hats loudly. Your feedback makes sense because I had to compress, use the bottom snare mic a lot to just get a decent snare tone. Believe it or not any deduction in volume of the snare made it disappear quickly. So, I can definitely understand your critiques. Other songs off the project turned out a bit better with the drums, but all songs had their issues. There wasn’t one song I didn’t punch in the drums. After 20 some hours of trying to get drums on just 5 songs, you can only be so picky.
He is a nice guy and this was his first experience recording. I was happy to get to know him. He will do better in the future if he ever pursues recording drums.

 

[kmetal]

Meaning all your critiques make sense. the drummer played so light on the kick and snare while playing hats loudly. Your feedback makes sense because I had to compress, use the bottom snare mic a lot to just get a decent snare tone. Believe it or not any deduction in volume of the snare made it disappear quickly. So, I can definitely understand your critiques. Other songs off the project turned out a bit better with the drums, but all songs had their issues. There wasn’t one song I didn’t punch in the drums. After 20 some hours of trying to get drums on just 5 songs, you can only be so picky.
He is a nice guy and this was his first experience recording. I was happy to get to know him. He will do better in the future if he ever pursues recording drums.

This is a perfect situation where tucking in a sample underneath can really make things sound better than they were performed, without sounding fake. Keeping a close eye on phase, layering in a single shot sample either from a library, or from the drummers live kit, can make the mix effortless. Even volume automation on every hit wouldn't "fix" the variations in tone and timbre you get with a lesser experienced performer. As long as the phasing is good, with the sample underneath, those valuations can sound alot more deliberate and interesting, without sacrificing the weight and consistency needed to drive a song in this genre. There's almost no need for dynamics and variation in a kick drum in punk so you can be more heavy handed with a sample and still stay within the genre. Really really good punk drummers will have some kick dynamics particularly on the triplets in galloping beats, were the down beat is a bit more accented.

 

[Tbozaudio]

I thought about sidechaining and ducking, but didn’t know how it would work with such fast occurances.
I know that in this situation again, I will sample other drums.