Hated Love Mix

[adam_asr10]

With a ear infection it's not been easy to mix lately :]

Comment always appreciated

Thanks

[fHumble fHingaz]

Very slick & big sounding mix! Nice. Cool, beefy bottom end in the mix, too, but not overbearing. The vocals in the first verse sound so sweet, & are at the perfect level on their own...

... however, when the background vocals come in, the summing of all the vocal parts together creates a volume buildup that tends to overcome the rest of the mix & bury the instruments somewhat. Here's where it is essential to automate the lead vocals to sit down in level a little bit, so that you don't have to bring the backgrounds up so much to get a good blend. Sometimes, high passing the background parts more aggressively may help assuage their impact on the available headroom somewhat.

Another impression I got was that the drums tend to sound a little small once all the instruments & voices get going - parallel compression on the kick & snare is often a good way to deal with this issue without eating into your available headroom.

Another thing that suffers because of the vocal dominance is the long-term dynamic build of the track. Because the vocals are so "big", they automatically dictate where the song gets "big", regardless of whether that is required or not. This is especially noticeable after the bridge - Right when the guitar break should kick the song up to the next level, the absence of the vocals tends to make that part sound small by comparison to the vocal-heavy bridge.

I hope I don't sound too critical, because you've done a really good job here (despite the ear infection), but attention to these less-technical "broader strokes" issues will really give your next mix, not only a technically polished sound, but also a professional balance & build. Well done!

[adam_asr10]

fHumble fHingaz's

Thanks

[Magnolius]

This sounds like a personal take on the song and I like the direction you have taken. To me there are two things that somewhat distract me when I listen to the mix. One is the snare that has a bit strange ring to it, sounds to me like the bottom microphone is given too much prominence in the mix. The other thing is the vocal delay. I think the delay was a great idea and the tone and balance of it seems perfect, but it should have been tempo synced IMO. As it stands now it crashes with the rhythm in a way that doesn't help the song. Other than that I think you have created an interesting sound that works really good for this song while not sounding like everyone else. Good job!

[kakeux]

Hi,

There is a lot I like in this mix. The fat drums with the good low bass. Vocal work sounds good too, maybe the delay is too present but I finally got use to it.

The snare sound is a bit out of the mix for me. This is all down to personal preference, but that's not the snare I would have gone for.

The highs are quite crispy here. I'm pretty sensitive to crispy highs, and those one start to hurt a bit. Ok, just a bit.

Nice!

[willj]

Drums sound good. Vocals sound great. would like to hear a bit more guitar. especially in the choruses.

This is a good mix man. The two things that are standing out to me is the snare drum is a little bit more distracting than it is a positive, and the track as a whole is a little to low end dominant. Its a little tough to notice, but its pretty obvious at the very end of the song.

On the subjective end, im never really hearing the guitar. It kinda floats as a back up instrument and leaves a little bit of a gap for me in the tune.

I still call this a successful journey in any case. Its pretty easy to listen to just like the last mix i heard but in a bit of a different way. That low end thing i mentioned is keeping things **** and soft sounding. Your lead vocal might be a bit loud for my tastes, but its keeping me connected to the song nicely, so im liking it more than im finding it to be troublesome. This is good work man.

[adam_asr10]

Magnolius , kakeux's, willj's

Thanks

[bholst]

With a ear infection it's not been easy to mix lately :]

Comment always appreciated

Thanks

I've been in your shoes for the last several months now with ear issues. Definitely adds to the challenge, considering it's the most important part of mixing, lol.
Just typing as I listen. Couple things that stand out initially is that the highs seem a little strong here. That may be due to some overcompensating whilst dealing with your ears. Been there
This primarily shows through on the overheads on the drum tracks. But I'm hearing quite a bit throughout. May have been caused by (or could be cured by) an EQ across the stereo buss (or master). Taming these highs could allow the meaty low end of the drums, bass and guitars to shine a bit more. The nice part of this mix is that it definitely has an airiness and clarity to it. Just needs to be tamed a bit.
Overall mix levels and panning feel good and outside of what I pointed out, it seems to translate well on PC speakers. Good work man!

-holster

[redworks]

interestingly enough you have achieved these sweet sounds that have me wanting more. it is like they are there but i don't quite get enough to ever fulfill that desire. a mix that never fulfills is in the end only frustrating. i think by bringing out some other element in the mix at some point and knocking the vocals back a bit would have done a lot to bring the whole mix up and given me a little more of what i desire there for bringing me some satisfaction. fh fh i think hit it on the head pretty well with the compression clamping down when the vocals kick in.

[victorsanti]

Interesting mix.
I liked the snare and toms at the beginning.
To my ears: maybe a bit more volume for the distorted guitar, and less volume for the delay effect.
Overall, nice mix.

[danmanisa]

Welcome Adam,
So what you're saying is you entered a 'sick' mix! Sorry.....
Very nice overall. As I listen, everything seems pretty well balanced and tonally sounds spot on. The delay on the verse vox is a little distracting. I think it has a place, yet it is not completely working. I would experiment with eq-ing the delay itself, as well as trying different volume levels. There is some sibilance in the delay that pops out a bit and it could come down a bit to nestle in the mix a little better.
The chorus vocals sound great, yet I did not think the hard panning of harmonies worked, as it had an effect of generating three distinct vocals rather than a thick harmony (that may be what you wanted, who knows). Anyway, just a suggestion. I found the performance of some of the vocals in the chorus were not so good, and having them hard panned exposes their flaws.
Excellent sounds, very well balanced mix. Good work!

[dudermn]

my first comment is nice avatar . (double phun!)

The compression is slightly transparent, everything fits in nice,
You should turn off your echo once in awhile

The ahhs got a synth like sound to um, great job!
Snare has to much hi-end... We call that 'pleech' in Romania.
Im giving you a 4 because I can hear the effort you put into this.

[adam_asr10]

Thanks comment well appreciated

[bobbybovine]

Hey adam. Man trying to mix can't be fun with an ear infection. But even so your mix sounds good. I really like the sound of your drums and bass together. The vox sound good, however they are super loud over the rest of the mix. I think knocking those down so they sit better would help the instrumentation set the mood of the song. Also since the vox are so loud some of the vocal delays are very noticeable, and lowering all of the vox as a whole would make those a little more subtle. Another thing I am noticing is the song does feel a bit flat as far as energy goes. The recorded vox were very laid back and actually slightly late on the beat which makes them naturally feel like they were dragging a bit. If you had the guitars a bit louder so they drove the rhythm of the song, then it would add a more energetic feel to the song, especially from the bridge onward. Of course that is a taste thing but is something that I felt lacking from your mix. Overall though, it does sound very nice, you have no muddying or frequency issues that are jumping out at me. Good work.

[jhkillam]

Vocals sound really nice here. I'd maybe cut out some of the "mudrange" from the snare reverb, several db cut from around 100-300hz. It adds clutter mostly to the overall mix. It's interesting that the guitars seemed louder in the first verse compared to the first chorus. Man these vocals sound awesome. The kick could probably use a little bit less attack, then more volume to balance it with everything. If you just turned the volume up as is, it would probably be too clicky. Tom also seemed to be panned pretty far to the right, feels a bit unnatural.

Vocals seemed to come up significantly in volume during the "I need to find a bridge" part. They seem out of balance with the rest of the vocal take.

[jpierre]

the guitars sound a bit boxy.. the long delay wouldnt have been my choice throuhgout the whole song prob on 1 or 2 parts.. ur mix sounds nice and beefy but imo dnt think it reallly fits the rock song. jus sayig.. but overall nice mix... sorry about the ear infection mehn...

[jerze]

Hi Adam
I’m also new around here.
Nice mix for having an ear problem. So if you ever have another one here is some things to remember.

Good vocal sound maybe a little de-essing to tame s sounds also the delay fx good thought just needed to be in time.

Check instruments that they aren’t being overly squashed don’t worry I seem to have the opposite problem. The last thing would be to listen to your panning of the different parts. The vocal in the verse seem to up the middle chorus spreads out then back in middle in bridge. Well after reading some of the other post maybe I need to get my ears check. Anyways Nice job