Category? Not a clean mix, but fun to make...

[Mike Stone]

let me know what you think... just playing around and fell into it.

[Mike Stone]

Listening back here, i need to relevel it... the chorus bit is too loud/ESS-y... something.

[danielvds]

There are a lot of very deep bass frequencies coming through, even on the electric guitars and vocals. They're all very close on the spectrum and are causing masking. Perhaps pan your deeper guitar track slightly right so it gives the bass some space. For some reason (have you applied automation?), the levels change at 1:20 and sound a bit crisper but still too many low frequencies and a lot going on in the middle, I can barley hear the kick drum amongst everything else.

Vocals definately need bringing forward, its far too muffled and quiet. Having another listen I'm hearing quite a lot of compression going on there, take it down a notch. It may be worth recording vocals closer to the mic with a pop shield.

1. Apply some high pass filters to cut off the unwanted lows in most of your tracks.
2. Set all your levels again starting with vocals, bring in your guitars, then the drum kit, then your bass guitar.
3. If need be, re-pan everything.
4. Re-do levels after panning to balance it all out.
5. Take my advice with a pinch of salt and bring out your own artistic side :]

[Mike Stone]

--danielvds

Whoa... thanks for the input! I'm going to do ALL of that! =D
I don't have a pop-shield but I knew I needed one... and it's not like _that_ is a major investment.

I'll post a new mix when it's done.

[Mike Stone]

Originally Posted by danielvds

the levels change at 1:20 and sound a bit crisper

Heh... I added added a brighter faster hihat to quicken the pace... unfortunelaty when I thought to do that I realized I hadn't remember/noted how I effected the other beats. Can you tell this is my first recording with stuff going on? ;D

I'm usually a acoustic+vox guy.

Thanks again for your ideas.

[danielvds]

I think what happened with the hihats is that the first one is masking out some of the instruments giving the illusion that everything is quieter till 1:20. When the 'brighter faster' hi-hat beat comes in, it gives everything more room to breathe. It's panned slightly more to the left too by the sounds of it, which is good. Interesting auto-panning in the end, this doesn't go throughout does it? (I'd check for myself but it's late and my ears want out- I've been fixing & mastering a song of mine for the past 2 hours... I've gotta start taking breaks and monitoring at lower levels- these headphones are so tight on my head too...)

Also: Pop shields are good for avoiding plosives from killing your recordings but there are some make-shift techniques out there, have a search. Reducing plosives through EQ is a last resort for me... Try changing your approach to singing into the mic, for example plosives are reduced if you sing diagonally across the mic from one side to the other, just passing the mic- of course this results in a weaker sounding recording, and will require further processing in order to bring it forward again (which could cause other unwanted sounds to be exaggerated)

[Mike Stone]

I spent an hour making a copy of the session, naming the tracks properly and removing all the levels and panning--bringing it all back to zero. I then ran high-pass filters on some tracks that had some obvious low-end-roar/noise in them that I didn't want. Then I cleaned up some of the guitar and beats that had unwanted fret noise,etc.

I'm picking up a pop-filter in the next couple days and will re-record the vox (lets face it... it's two looped segments--it's not a lot)

I sang half above the mic to reduce the pop... but then it was weak so I compressed the hell out of it--pretty much exactly what you said...

I think once I get this pop-filter it'll help a lot just because I won't have to be so concious of holding make or making movements to alliviate the problems caused by not having one.


About the headphones... I'll be amazed if I can ever find a set that I can wear for hours without having some serious pain... without spending +$1000 that is... =D

[danielvds]

So with the things you have done, how does the mix sound to you now? Fuller yet clearer or thinner and weaker? Hoping it's the former. I remember doing a mix for my first year college piece and I couldn't work out what to do with it-one of the studio techies told me to wack all my levels down to zero and do a final re-level. I was pretty shocked back then as I had spent a while leveling everything- problem is, panning, EQing, compression, effects, it all contributes to volume changes and really, you should be re-levelling between EVERY phase of mixing (Pan > R.L. > EQ > R.L. > Inserts > R.L. > Mastering). I plucked up the courage to do it and my mix sounded much better (but there were still problems I didn't recognise at the time such as top and bottom snare mics being the same polarity/out of phase, nor did I have time left in the studio as the due date was near and the studio was ridiculously over-booked).
Problem with headphones for me is that I wear "trendy thick-framed 'musician' glasses"- haha, which you can imagine end up being indented into my head after 20 mins...

[Mike Stone]

Originally Posted by danielvds

So with the things you have done, how does the mix sound to you now? Fuller yet clearer or thinner and weaker?

Fuller and clearer!

I never had a bass for this... I don't own one.
I used an octavier filter to give me lows for what I was playing.

I copied out the high pass and low pass filtered pieces... cleaned both...
seperated--WOW what a difference. Also removed lows from other tracks that were just plain muddy and unintentional.

I am so much more happy with this mix...
and you are SO right about the re-leveling...

I was getting stuck thinking that I should just adjust, but I just ended up getting confused about what was where, and inevetiably just made everything to loud and too muddy.

I haven't re-recorded the vocals, but I'm going to when I get my pop-filter later this week. I'll likely also add more vocals, a break, something to take out the monotony.

I know the vocals on this mix are too low, but they sound so hissy and out of sync with the rest of the "sound". so... I've left them low until I re-record them.

[Mike Stone]

I also changed up the end... and I don't like the blend--seems WAY to abrupt--I'll get that back later though.