jmir1111's June mix

[jmir1111]

Here's my attempt.

For the drums, I used the supplied tracks and didn't do any replacing with samples. A couple guitar tracks have some phaser. I added verb and some lo-fi dist on the vocals. Some panning here and there. Nothing special; it's about all I could do with my busy schedule.

I appreciate any and all comments or feedback. Thanks!

[victorsanti]

Hi there.

My comments:
Since you said you didn't have much time to work on the mix, I understand some of your decisions for it.
But, I'd just recommend to don't overuse your FX. i.e: Try to get a good balance with volume, panning, compression and eq. After that, go for subtle effects (unless you need to lift some element of the song at some point).
Also, try to achieve your mix on lower volumes.

See you on the next one!

-Victor

[willj]

Not bad at all man. the delay is a little over-done, but i like what you had in mind. Sounds like you had the predelay cranked up on a reverb. No? The delayed part is a little muddy, so youd want to find a way to get some EQ on it.

Consider using a pitch shifter on the snare drum to bring it down in tune with the song. Its ringing out at a third or 4th above. A pitch shift could make it sound fat and give it more of a home in the song.

Pretty good mix man. I wouldnt be afraid to use drum samples for the competition and work on the technique in your spare time. its going to be the easiest way for you to get a polished sound. Doesnt sound like you have the drum processing fully mastered yet, so theres no reason to sell your mixes short in the mean time. The best engineers use samples.

Mix wise - the drums are dominating most of the way thru the song. you might try sending the bass and drums to a single stereo buss to lock them together a bit better. Sounds like the drums are their own entity, and the guitar and bass reside together. I dont like to let the bass and guitar relate so closely. love your last not flanged ending.

Nice job man!

[fHumble fHingaz]

For a short time spent, a pretty decent mix...

A couple of points that haven't been mentioned yet:

The overheads are mixed a bit hot, or you may have boosted the high end in them too much - all that high end gets a little fatiguing by the end - I would guess that the problem is boosting the high end eq in the overheads, because boosting tends to cause a "brittle, edgy" sound. My suggestion would be to cut lows from your overheads rather than boosting highs. This means you can turn the overheads up, but doing so won't introduce any murkiness from the lows & low mids, so then you don't need to compensate by turning up the highs. I guess the best solution is to reference a commercial mix & try to get the right balance of brightness & smoothness in the highs. Sometimes, using a low pass filter on the extreme high end (around 18-20k) on the mix overall can just "round off" that spikiness.

The resonant "doink" on the snare drum is a little annoying after a while - a "sweep & destroy" eq approach would be able to tame that a bit: http://forum.recordingreview.com/f12...chnique-27765/

Overall, well done!

[danmanisa]

Welcome again Jmir,
Love that snare sound, nice and pingy in the intro. Kudos for using the sent tracks.
Balance and panning of things seems pretty spot on and the impact of the instruments after the musical pauses hits really well! The effect on the vocal is pretty extreme in the verses, yet they sound great in the choruses. Did you alter the setting much there, as it seems to work much better. Brandon did say 'be creative' I guess. Personally, the delay on the verse and bridge vocals is a little too much and does not 'add' to the song but rather distract.
Is the snare treated differently in the build up compared to the chorus? I'm not too sure it is, but it sounds nice and crunchy, lo fi almost in the build up and then a little clearer in the chorus. I think you have nailed the mix in the choruses, although perhaps the hats a re a bit bright. I did not find them fatiguing, but lowering them somewhat would still have them cut through but not be as harsh.
The Bass sounds nice and gritty, with good rumble in the bottom end. I love it! Kick works well throughout, and well with the bass.
Overall, really good spread and sonics overall, just a little heavy handed on some effects.... Great work!

[Magnolius]

Interesting mix You have created a personal sound with the distorted vocals and the heavy reverb. It's a bit unpolished but it's a good idea IMO. The highs have been mentioned so I can just say that I agree that the mix is slightly fatiguing to listen to. I also think the master compression is a little over the top. The track is really loud and there seems to be some distortion artifacts. But overall great energy!

[jackslab1]

I kinda liked where you were going with this one. The effects you had on the vocals sounded good for the bridge part but a little over board for the rest of it. To saturated with distortion and what's on the 2bus. Maybe to much compression? Really dug the vibe on this one.

[ChronoWulf]

I really liked the overall drum sound here as well as the vocals - especially in the bridge - I didn't find them over the top but that could be my strange tastes in vocals. As far as the rest of the mix I think you could have taken the levels of the distorted guitar down a bit as it seemed like it was muddying things. Cutting some of the highs from the overheads would help as well I think as the cymbals were a bit hot. Also Did you run this through a limiter, or heavy set compressor ? Seems like the song was full blast the whole way through which I think misses an opportunity to build up to climaxes etc with dynamics.

[JoshERTW]

Not to shabby bro, great energy in this mix, the delay/wetness of the vocal kills it for me a bit though

[wireman957]

Not a half bad mix, jmir! I've read where others have mentioned the overheads, snare and vocal reverb, so I won't go there.

One thing I did notice is some distortion throughout, probably from whatever limiter you're using on the 2-buss, but it might be something else as well. My meters looked like they were stuck on +4 peaks, so this is a pretty loud mix. It's pretty well squashed which is why I think the problem is with your 2-buss processing. That same 2-buss processing might be compounding the other issues as well, amplifying them somewhat in the "mastering" stage.

Overall, nicely done - just some more attention to details.

[redworks]

there is a lot of energy in this mix. right from the start in feels intense. the reason being the amount of distortion and the amount of upper range. so if that is what you were going for you have achieved it. i do find that the mix gets tiring after a while because there is no break from it. also the overall dynamics of the song is affected there is no build because there is no let down. i dig the distortion you have added and it you had automated an eq on it alone or used a different send for the chorus then you could have then made the chorus more intense than the verse, or the other way around if that is how you feel it. some really good elements in this mix that would have rung out if there was a little more control of the overall dynamics and the top end. probably with a little more time you would have nailed it.

[Jjsodarock]

Hey Jmir,
If you pulled the wet/dry % down maybe 30% on the verse and 15% on the chorus it's possible that you may have still kept the vibe you were after, but help create a difference or a more dynamic relationship between the vocal elements. You have all the ingredients. A bit more finess with your eq and fx and you will be in the top. Good Job, Jojo

[bholst]

Just typing as I listen. Pretty cool mix you have going here. The treatment on the drums is really good overall. A little heavy handed on the highs with the overheads, but that's a pretty easy adjustment. Vocal sounds pretty good. I think the harmonic distortion helped quite a bit, again maybe a hair strong at times. Distortion can be a sneaky critter. It can add great character, but pushed too far, it can sound accidental like it's clipping. That happened a couple times here.
I think that pretty much sums up what I'm hearing in this mix. Some great effects and ideas, but they're pushed a little over the top at times. Perfectly good choices for the vibe you were going for, just a bit too much (ambiance, delay, etc). A quick check with headphones can really help in this department. The tones you achieved on the mix feel really good to me overall though. I think just making those couple adjustments would really take this to the next level. Sounds like you're making good progress to me!

-holster

[bobbybovine]

Hey there jmir1111. Those OH's are ohh so loud!! Defintately take FF's advise on them. You have a lot of room verb on the vox, and I do like using verb, but I think you went a touch too far. It is starting to muffle the intelligibility of vocals. I would reduce the verbin length and in volume and also add a pretty heavty pre delay on it so that the words still pop out but the surrounding ambience kind of has its own space. One thing I have learned about during this comp is the more subtle use of verbs, you can get away with a lot less than you think. You made the kick sound great and the snare works, although I think I would also get rid of some of that boink and add a touch of crack with a high end shelf boost from 1k or 2k up. The vox do suffer in places from a heavy distortion which I am guessing you added on purpose, however it is a little much especially in the bridge. the guitars, I noticed especially in the last chorus has a non pleasing distortion which sounds more like a clipping artifact (whether it is or not I can't say) and I think it is taking away from the crunchiness of the guitars making them sound a bit too brittle. I like the direction you were going here, getting a little more balance going on and this would be rockin.

[jhkillam]

Fh makes some good points about the OH track as a couple people have mentioned, however I have no problem with their sound as far as frequencies go based on what I'm hearing now. The thing about them that I think could use some adjustment is the compression settings. Either just laying off the threshold a bit, or adjusting your attack/release times. It's very obvious when the ride cymbal is playing, you can hear the compressor pumping the ride ambience. On the bridge section, the centered reverb is an awesome idea with the main lines being panned. I think it needs some EQ work as well however. Cutting out some of the lows and a bit of the mids would make it sit a bit better, it sounds a bit harsh to my ear.

The guitars occasionally have some nasty sounding distortion artifacts. Not sure whats causing it. Could be a 2bus comp, or something in the guitar chain.

Really with this mix, some changes to compression at several points would make a huge difference IMO. Notice how the "room sound" shoots way up in volume after the final hit of the song? That's a clear indicator there's too much compression going on.

[Jeronimo Mora]

Nice mix !

Wow. This mix is a hair loud. The vocal reverb is a bit over the top. It's also a bit muddy. Putting a high pass filter on the reverb auxilary send and removing everything up to 500 hz helps keep things clean. There's a lot of information in the lower mids going on. Those guitars could have had some of the fizz removed. An EQ sweep would help to find the offending frequency(ies) and have them removed. Some more aggressive high passing overall would have been beneficial. The snare sounds a bit muddy as well. Removing some ~200 hz might have helped. I felt this mix had an overcompressed character to it that I didn't enjoy. The strong upper midrange also made the mix a little fatiguing to listen to.

Good mix !