Can somebody with some nice studio monitors listen to my mix?

[joelb79]

I've been mixing my band on some nice headphones and I think it sounds great with every speaker that I've heard it on but I'm looking for some constructive criticism.

Its not a Wav, but its 192kbps MP3 which should sound above average.

LINK for Song

[Benjamin Strange]

The guitar sounds terrible. I can hear lots of room in the guitar, and it's got a high-mids bite and honk that's quite unpleasant. I think the problem isn't in the mix, it's in how the guitar was recorded to tape. The cymbal on the left is too midrangy, and the cymbals overall lack presence. The vocal sounds good, but is a pinch too loud for my tastes. The bass gets a tiny bit buried as well.

Overall, it doesn't sound bad. Fix the guitar, and much of the mix might fall into place.

[joelb79]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

The guitar sounds terrible. I can hear lots of room in the guitar, and it's got a high-mids bite and honk that's quite unpleasant. I think the problem isn't in the mix, it's in how the guitar was recorded to tape. The cymbal on the left is too midrangy, and the cymbals overall lack presence. The vocal sounds good, but is a pinch too loud for my tastes. The bass gets a tiny bit buried as well.

Overall, it doesn't sound bad. Fix the guitar, and much of the mix might fall into place.

Ok so the ride is eating the mids. The guitar has too much room? I kinda liked the depth that having it like that added. I can take some out though. I panned the 45 degree cab mic to the right and the room mic to the left and blended them. It can be taken out if that will help.

The cymbals will not be completely optimal. the tracking room was a basement with only 8ft ceilings so we couldn't get much above the kit. 3-to-1 rule still it was very limiting. Im pleased with how it turned out considering the sacrifices we had to make.

Bass being buried is easy to fix. its not up much. But probably the final multiband compressor is sucking too much out. The easy fix is to raise the threshold.

[tumpinjahosafat]

did you guys even use a metronome? I suggest putting up bass traps and buy a metronome

[joelb79]

I wasn't looking for any feedback on performance, just the mix. We tried a metronome but our drummer just couldn't use it as he never has. Bass traps are something we didn't have. Our budget was spent feeding our engineer.

I can count and I know its off. But again, we wanted the feel and not a machine.

[Joe Nerve]

I think the feel was there and I liked the song. I agree about the honky guitars. I think you oughta get yourself something better to mix with and make your own judgements. Sounded like you had everything you need except a good mix. Don't know exactly what it would need to liven it up, but I thought all the instruments sounded too seperated, stiff and cold. Like they needed some kinda smooting out, seperation, re-EQing, some subtle FX perhaps?

I got a song in the works I'd like some input on too. People here can be pretty brutal though.

How do you host/post mp3 and wma files? I used to always just put them up on my old website but don't have the software on my new comp.

[joelb79]

Hmm. I might just remove the room mics. I love the airy feel just before the chorus, but making it sound colder when Ed starts singing might be a good idea. There is actually only two guitars, but we recorded it with 7 mics to future proof whatever sound we wanted.

I also boosted 2.5Khz on the guitar to make it a little brighter. Probably this was a bad move that is easily corrected.

I'll try to make it smack some more. I can do this by turning down the room mic in the left channel and panning the cab mic towards the center. I'm going to leave the airy feel before the chorus and do the same for the chorus.

As far as hosting the files, I have my own webspace which I pay $4 a month for ($10 for the domain). Its a decent amount of space for the price.

[FronTowardEnemy]

All in all I think it was a pretty decent mix. Dont beat yourself up so much on getting a perfect mix. Try and listen to one of your favorite CD's and compare your mix to it and try to match it. If this is your demo then remember this, it is a demonstration on what you could do if you had the money. Nice job. My advice to you is check out and read through this website http://tweakheadz.com/ it has helped me out a bunch.

[agreatheight]

All of the instrumentation sounds distant to me, like the most of tracks were recorded with room mics. This is especially true on the drums and the guitars. There is no immediacy to the instrument sounds, including the bass. Did you do any close mic'ing? If so, try bringing those up in the mix, drums and guitar. Did you record direct with the bass, mic'd or both? If both, bring the DI up.

A good effort though! Keep it up!

[hunta]

It sounds like the guitar was possibly clipping at some point (or was compressed poorly), and the overall mix isn't balanced too well (lo/mid heavy). Be careful if you're using something like Ozone to beef things up, that thing has some power but it can easily destroy a mix. Overall it's really not bad, but I think it could be a lot better with some work. Of course a click would be fabulous The whole mix can be outstanding but when you have a synchronized hit right at the beginning of the song that's off, it kind of steps on the whole thing.

[joelb79]

I'm using strictly waves effects. Any clipping from the guitar is probably due to an aggressive limiter. Both an LMB and an L2 were used in the master channel.

My gains are probably too hot. The cymbals are panned too much. There are some errors. thanks for the link FronTowardEnemy!