Critique my mix..... please
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Posted on Mar 30, 2007 11:43 pm
Shuffle
Member Since: Mar 30, 2007
Hey guys. I'm new with this forum, and I'd love some advice with my mix. This is a demo project that was recorded in a Sunday school wing of a band mates church. There are obvious flaws with the performances themselves, but outside of that; do you have any mixing related criticisms for me?
findingnineveh.com/mixes/Mixdown%2003-27-07.mp3
Thanks.
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Mar 31, 2007 04:27 pm My major criticism would be that everything seems to just be hanging in the background. It all seems panned fairly well, but there's very little distinction between the instruments themselves. That might've been what you were going for...I'm not sure. But I'd like to hear those individual parts (the two separate guitar sections just before the midpoint of the song, the bass, etc) stand out somewhat.
Now, if you were aiming for a "wall of sound" approach, that's fine (heck, I really like that concept myself), but then you need to sink the vocal back into the mix some, and make the backing tracks uniformly louder. As it is now, the vocal is so far out in front that I needed my headphones to effectively hear anything else.
Mar 31, 2007 04:44 pm thermocaster,
nice advice. I hadn't thought of it in quite that way before. So are you suggesting a little bit of EQ work to notch out places for each instrument? I want to get a nice thick sound, but not quite the "wall of sound" idea. I really want some of the cleaner guitar work to be heard. Thanks for the advice.
Apr 01, 2007 11:30 am Yeah, some EQ on each of the parts, to help give them each their own space. There are some really excellent tutorials on EQing elsewhere on this website that will help you out with this task.
If you do that, and bring up the overall volume level of the background a bit, I think you'll be in good shape.
Apr 02, 2007 08:47 am Thanks!
What could I do to get a better snare sound at the beginning? I'm going to cut down the snare drum intro to only one measure, but I still want to make it sound better. I'm using a Beta 56 on the top and an MXL 990 condenser on the bottom. I want a crisp sound, but also one with some of that bottom snare sound. Any suggestions?
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Apr 02, 2007 11:00 pm Hey shuffle, welcome to HRC indeed. There is a very good tune in there musically waiting to come out. I had a quick listen and liked the tune for sure. I'll give it a better listen tomorrow and see if I can give you anymore ideas other then what has been given here already.
It sounds like a very well put together tune by the way.
Apr 02, 2007 11:23 pm Noize2u, Thanks for the welcome and the encouragement. I have set that tune aside as far as current mixing is concerned and I am using some of the techniques discussed above on another tune in hopes of learning and coming back to this one in question.
Any and all suggestions would be more than welcomed. Thanks again!
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Apr 17, 2007 10:07 pm I do have to agree with the above comments indeed. IT seems that most of the sounds are hanging together in a pretty melded way. Now that doesn't mean it is bad at all. By all means the sound is all there and the mix as far as level is all pretty good for the most part. I think finding the EQ to use for each part will really help you get them separated. A little reverb on the vocal wouldn't hurt at all either. I have to say it is an excellent song by the way.
Apr 18, 2007 12:11 am This EQ thing seems to be the major thing that holds my mixes back. I feel like I do some fairly drastic EQ cuts on most instruments. Is it possible that I'm not being aggressive enough? (I'm cutting much more than adding.)
When I do a frequency analysis (wow I sound like a nerd) it shows that the loudest part of my mix is in the 90-550 Hz range. I imagine this could also be a problem.
Thoughts?
Also, I remixed this song. Try this file:
www.findingnineveh.com/mi...%2004-16-07.mp3
BleakA small pie will soon be eatenMember
Since: Aug 26, 2004
Apr 18, 2007 12:33 am I've just listened to the remixed version.
Let me start of by saying this is a great song. like it a lot
Given the prior comments it does still sound a little to bunched up. The vocals are very clear though and really well sung.
It's tricky getting all the 'middles' to seperate sometimes.
Try mixing with just the drums and bass, nailing that then going bit by bit.
Looking forward to hearing more from you
