SpeedyGonMixin Chillface McGillicutty Mix

[rdig]

I didnt replace any of the tracks. I kept the electric guitar parts out of your face for the most part. I did a little bit of eqing although there are still some frequencies that pop out here and there. If you want your mix to sound different you got to cut it up a little bit

[JoshERTW]

Cool mix man, everything is reasonably clear and has it's own spot in the mix instrumentally. You're drums sound awesome too - I feel like the other instruments haven't been treated in a way that compliments the drum sound though, I guess the drums sound powerful and "modern" where the guitars and other stuff have more of a vintage feel, almost lo-fi - they sound good individually but seem to conflict stylistically.

I think it may just be a matter of EQ-ing, or perhaps sending everything to a common reverb send or something for "gel" - Other than that the only thing that really stood out as a negative to me was the pick attack on what I assume is the acoustic guitar (I haven't D/L'd the tracks yet) - it almost sounds like an electric being strummed with no amp, some complimentary EQ between the electric/acoustic tracks would probably help to get that shining through, that's the first place I'd look - otherwise panning the rhythm acoustic and electric to opposite sides and sending the to stereo delay's can work wonders as well.

[m24p]

It's pretty quiet. It wouldn't hurt to use a limiter. :P

I agree with Josh - the drums sound great, but I'm not sure they mesh well with the guitars. Drums are a bit over dry (The tracks given, as Brandon mentioned, are pretty dead. Listen to 0:48 to 0:50), making them disconnecting from the guitars which are pretty wet (in the original tracks, unfortunately).

Anyway, congrats on being first and on controlling the guitars. I liked the "time" drop at 1:34.

[IMF OnSite Recording]

The tracks seem rather unprocessed and left without much EQ or compression. I would use some EQ and compression to a larger extent with the drums and guitar and possibly some limiting on the drum bus to help the kick and snare sit in the mix more consistently. I mean, everything is clear and separated, but there's no power under the mix. If you havent, create guitar, bass, drum, and vocals busses and send those tracks to their busses. Take a send of the drum bus to a parallel drum bus and compress it heavily and add some low end then mix that in with the regular drums. Little things like that will get more meat and power under your tracks without audibly affecting the dynamics in a negative way. Id say bring the guitars up alittle more after you do that too along with the bass, then see where the vocals sit in the center and adjust accordingly. Having a compressor on your master bus can help bind everything together as well. Just start off with a preset that is for mastering or complete mixes. You usually dont want to go farther than 3db of reduction, and then top it off with alittle limiting and the mix should come to life more. Aside from all that, create a couple 100% wet mix effects busses (start off with a reverb bus) and run some sends from tracks to them at varying volumes to create depth and gently mix those effects in. You want to be able to notice them when they are not on, but dont want them obvious and in your face when they are. Good job

[Radukku]

Dig it!
Sounds balanced and has defined spaces for all the instruments...Thing is there is some space left here and there...If you used a 2 bus compressor maybe increase the rate a little bit or add a reverb send from the whole mix...I mean I know Brandon said that he recorded the drums in a totally dead room but...
I also like the way you treated the verse acoustic guitar! That's exactly the combination that got me as to where to take this experiment...This acoustic guitar in the verse will cause a lot of...talk for sure..
Superb and lightning fast performance!
Thank you for sharing it with us!

[fHumble fHingaz]

Great sounding vocals - guitars are really well mixed too. All the important stuff is there!

The weak point in the mix is the drum sound IMO - it tends to sound very "roomy" (which is a bit ironic considering Brandon's comments on the recording conditions). The result is a slightly thin & boxy drum sound. That prominent roomy sound also contributes to a sense of disconnection from the other instruments, because they clearly don't appear to be in the same "space". My suggestions would be to high pass the overheads more aggressively & get your "meat" & low end from the close drum mics. You could also send the other mix elements (in small amounts) to a common "room-style" reverb to match the drums, so it binds the mix together with a common ambiance. One thing I would check too - is there any phase cancellation happening between the drum mics? This could contribute to the drums sounding a little thin.

Nicely done - & quick too!

[heygermandude]

I keep saying this mostly because I am not sure who is and who isn't using it. But parallel compression would be great in this if you didn't use it. Phase cancellation as fhumble mentioned could possibly be a contributing factor. I like your balance of the elements and the vocals sound nice.

+1 on the high pass on the overheads. I love doing that! Really helps.

[JoshERTW]

Re- Phase Cancellation I found there was some shifting I had to do between the top/bottom tom mic's to really get them sounding thick and not losing anything - that said I'm not too far into my mix as of yet.

[wireman957]

Hey, rdig. Not half bad for such a quick turn-around! I haven't had squat for time to comment this month and very little to work on the mix. I also didn't want to listen to a whole bunch of mixes before I had mine well under way, so this is my first comment this month - I'm way behind the curve for August! The first thing I did this month was check time alignment between individual drums and OH's, and then with all the bottom heads mic'd I checked phase as well. It appears all the bottom head tracks were out of phase with the top heads which made the drums sound boxy until the bottom head phase was flipped. I think that may be happening to you here. I also noticed a little doppler effect in the overheads, a result of micing them from below, probably, and the rocking cymbal continuously changeing distance from the mic. Not much to do about that. Don't know why I brought all of that up, but say there were some fairly serious issues to deal with this month.

Other than the somewhat thin roomy but dry (does that make sense?) nature of your drums, I think you did a good job on the vocals - and the bass and acoustic guitars sound good to me. I do think the electrics could have used a bit of help, both panning and EQ, to make them a little more powerful and distinct from each other.

All that being said, kudos for speed, and you did a lot more than I could have in the short time! Good job!

[Ewout]

Hey man, good mix, with nice separation. It' dry though....good given the speed of the song, but it seems to lack punch. The drums are on the light side, parallel compression and indeed the use of time based sends would help the mix shine more.

Cheers,

Ewout

[The-Zeronaut]

i liked that you for a more "acoustic" sound
really cool
the vocals sound dry (and maybe a little dull?) to me
maybe you could use some more compression or saturation on them

[danmanisa]

Hey rgid,

typing as I listen. Wow, interesting take on the snare, panning the various tracks. It creates a weird vibe that I am not too sure I like. Maybe I'll get used to it because it is quite strange. Very nice vocal sound....cool editon the time.....

I think overall, the mix feels a little raw still and that the drums, bass and master bus could use some more compression. The bass guitar is very low in the mix, yet there are a few low notes that jump out a little. You can nuke most bass parts almost regardless of style and it should sound great. The drums feel a little dry and loose so parallel compression on those should do it wonders to tighten them up some.
The fundamental balances and width seem to be there, just a few extra moves to polish the mix off. Good work!