First mix with REAPER that actually worked!

[needleinthehay1990]

Hey everyone, this is the first time REAPER actually worked for me. Please give me any tips or advice that you can. This is my friend Bryan Taylor and the song is currently untitled. Again, this is my first attempt at mixing and mastering so please, any criticism, no matter how harsh it is, is deeply appreciated. Thanks for giving it a listen!

[needleinthehay1990]

Here is an already touched up one (kinda). I'm sure there's still much I can do. Again, please say all that you can!

[charliethunder]

cool tune.
I use Reaper too.....I really like it alot.

liked the guitar and vox.

[cheatingatmath]

sounds like the acoustic mic was directly over the soundhole. rarely ever is that the best option.

that electric guitar (sounds direct) that comes in with the vocals isn't doing shit for anything. at first, i thought windows vista was making sounds at me. then it started noodling...and it goes to wtf in an instant.

cool song. good vocals. with a good mic job of that acoustic, you would get a lot more headroom for everything else. send noodles home. find some other instrument that you can lay down for character. remember..if it's not improving the song, it's hurting the mix.

[P.P.T.]

I think you should do it over.

The mic location for the acoustic isn't so good.
The main problem is that the percussive hand hits on the body have too much...body.
You can't EQ it without ruining the guitar sound.
Try different places to see what works best. Around the 12th fret works well most of the time.

The lead guitar track has obvious mistakes that go beyond the 'humanizing feeling'.
The lead guitar is also too busy and rigid, but that is an artistic decision. I don't think the mistakes are at the level of artistic decision.
All, most, players have to do multiple takes to get a good one or to piece a good one together.

There is distortion on the vocal track at around the 3:00 point and going forward from there.
Maybe the levels were too hot. Maybe the mic is overloading.
You don't need to track up near 0db. Maybe the singer needs to be farther away from the mic.
Set the levels so that the highest peaks are around -6db. Even lower is OK.

Keep at it.

[needleinthehay1990]

Thanks for all the advice you guys. I really appreciate it

Yeah, I hear you all on the lead guitar. Basically my rig is set up through the use of communal equipment, if you will. My house is basically the jam spot for many people so they leave their equipment there. Well, the guitarist of my brother's band took the head of his amp with him the night before we recorded so I had to run the guitar directly into the Tascam I'm using.

When I first had my friend play this song for me, I heard a very Pixies kind of sound, you know what I mean? We'd like to get a drum machine in there but we just haven't gotten our hands on any yet.

I did hear the vocals peaking around 3:00 and tried to go back into the mix to EQ it out but nada.

The guitar thumping is definitely pretty heavy. The second track is actually the next day I went in and re-mixed it.

I will ask him to retrack it with a different mic position for the acoustic and everything, so keep your ears and eyes open for the retake! Also, I plan on posting another track if not today, tomorrow entitled "The Ringleader" by him (his name is Bryan Taylor) btw. It definitely has better quality to it so I'll give you all a chance to have at it.

Again, thanks for all the tips and such!