Attack Attack style song! Tell me what you think!

[qwe1234]

Yo guys,

my friend just wrote another song for me to practice mixing and all that stuff.

Some opinions would be pretty nice!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Cheers,
Lasse

Edit: I know that the song and the music are shit, so I removed the link.

 

[oroinvictus]

The guitars are lacking in gain and low-end. I can't hear a bass guitar if there is one. The drums are really dry, quiet and fake sounding. The vocals are way too loud, need some work to get them to fit, and sound awful, IMO. The clean singing parts are 'tuned way too harshly, and also don't sound great. The vocal chop effect also needs to be redone, it sounds like the vocalist is burping or something.

 

[Ozterkvlt]

Agreed with oroinvictus. I think this would sound a lot better if you started by getting the basic levels right...

 

[Rob Logic]

Hi-pass the vocals, a lot of low frequency data is there that isn't necessary to the range of the vocals. They are also pretty dry in relation to the keys and drums (drums don't seem too dry to me at all but then again, maybe in relation to the Attack Attack style {don't even know if it's their style} your buddy is trying to emulate it is dry). May want to consider throwing some delay and reverb on some aux bus action for vocal processing. Vocals are the weakest link but it's obvious they are the only thing mic'd and processing acoustic instruments and voice were most challenging for me starting out.

 

[kernelxsanders]

ew, please tell me this is a joke...

 

[Spiritbeast]

ew, please tell me this is a joke...

His avatar IS a trollface ...

 

[theforgotten]

A lot better than autosturgis!

 

[qwe1234]

ew, please tell me this is a joke...

I'm sorry, if the mix is not good, but I'm just a mixing-beginner looking for some constructive criticism.

 

[qwe1234]

Hi-pass the vocals, a lot of low frequency data is there that isn't necessary to the range of the vocals. They are also pretty dry in relation to the keys and drums (drums don't seem too dry to me at all but then again, maybe in relation to the Attack Attack style {don't even know if it's their style} your buddy is trying to emulate it is dry). May want to consider throwing some delay and reverb on some aux bus action for vocal processing. Vocals are the weakest link but it's obvious they are the only thing mic'd and processing acoustic instruments and voice were most challenging for me starting out.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try that later.
Yeah, it's really hard to get vocals to sound nearly acceptable, I'll just try around with your tips

 

[CubanDude]

Mh.. Yeah.. Many things you can work on What's that humming / buzzing in the background? Guitars and vocals are both really off...

 

[Backe]

this makes lose faith in music

 

[kernelxsanders]

well for starters, you should try working with a song that isnt intentionally ripping off another band. and im not sure who did vocals, but they arent that great. you cant really make a crappy vocal track sound good. one of the key rules of sound engineering: good input = good output, bad input = bad output. and do you even have anything in the vocal chain? it sounds like you just hit record then export.

just some constructive criticism.

 

[DanLights]

this makes lose faith in music

ew, please tell me this is a joke...

I think this was uncalled for. He's a beginner looking for criticism so he can get better, no need for these negative comments. And he did mention a friend wrote a song so he could practice mixing, the song in itself is not the point treated in the OP.

This said, I didn't hear the song cause he removed the link

 

[christopher ridley]

Good on ya Dan. Threads like this keep me from even reading what most of you guys have to say anymore. Everyone is a Chris Lord-Alge with a superiority complex these days.

 

[kaamosprod]

qwe1234 ---> can you post it again please ? I want to re-hear and give some advices.

Don't give a shit about non-constructive comments and concentrate about the ones which will permits you to improve yourself.

 

[Backe]

I think this was uncalled for. He's a beginner looking for criticism so he can get better, no need for these negative comments. And he did mention a friend wrote a song so he could practice mixing, the song in itself is not the point treated in the OP.

This said, I didn't hear the song cause he removed the link

didn't mean to be harsh. in the 70's some people went "damn them hippies!", and 40 years later I'm sitting here with my ears bleeding because of another musical subgenre. history repeats, and this is metal evolving in a wrong directon in my opinion, and the particular songwriting is just attack attack plagiarism. if his friend wrote the song, my comment adresses him, since I said nothing about the actual mix.

my advice is: get some nice Mixing Practice songs of the forum. Ola has alot of stuff, Widek too. you should check that out, then you can compare to what other memebers of the forum have come up with

 

[qwe1234]

qwe1234 ---> can you post it again please ? I want to re-hear and give some advices.

Don't give a shit about non-constructive comments and concentrate about the ones which will permits you to improve yourself.

of course i can here's the link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21534434/AAStyle_Final.mp3

didn't mean to be harsh. in the 70's some people went "damn them hippies!", and 40 years later I'm sitting here with my ears bleeding because of another musical subgenre. history repeats, and this is metal evolving in a wrong directon in my opinion, and the particular songwriting is just attack attack plagiarism. if his friend wrote the song, my comment adresses him, since I said nothing about the actual mix.

my advice is: get some nice Mixing Practice songs of the forum. Ola has alot of stuff, Widek too. you should check that out, then you can compare to what other memebers of the forum have come up with

good to know, that I wasn't adressed
I've already tried some of the stems, which people posted.. but nothing from ola. I'll look for some of his practise songs tomorrow!

 

[RLab]

The mix is not that bad... I think the problem is that the vocals really lack energy and feeling, but there is nothing you can really do to improve it... Try to hi-pass them, give it some reverb and delay as previously said. Oh and the guitar tone is really to pod-ish to my taste, what amp sim did you use ? To me it really needs more low-end !
Keep it up man, the sound is way better than 90% of my local sturgis-core bands

 

[OneDaySky]

Guitars have a little fizz still, and yeah besides the vocals, its pretty rad.
Snare is a little to robotic @1:15
otherwise nice job dude, i love the piano stuff

 

[NashMuhandes]

I don't think it's THAT bad as some people put it here. I actually kinda dig the guitar sound. I dunno, I find the super fizziness of it semi-cool .XD

I think the main problem with the vocals has nothing to do with the sound/engineering/processing/mixing, but rather - the actual performance.

The screaming and growling doesn't sound harsh enough. I would suggest the screamer to adjust his screaming techniques a bit. There are a ton of scream tutorial videos on YouTube (you gotta weed out the wannabe ones from the useful ones though), and there's that Melissa Cross DVD...

As for the clean vocals... I think it's sang one octave too low. He needs to sing an octave higher.

And as for leveling - yeah it is a tad too loud - if the singing was done properly, I'd notch the vocals down by like 2 dB or so.

Love the keyboard parts.

Guitar performance is pretty tight too, IMO.

There's this buzzing sound all the way throughout the entire song. I was convinced it was a deliberate synth thingy at first but after hearing it throughout the entire song, I'm pretty sure it's some kind of unwanted noise...

Seriously pal, I think the mix is pretty decent. If Attack Attack is what you were aiming for; you're pretty close.

As for the SONG itself - and this is beyond your control maybe - I think the arrangement is kinda meh. It's just not exciting enough. Maybe the song's flow is... how do I say this, flat? It just doesn't feel something I'd bounce/mosh to enough. XD If this is intentionally the feel that the band wanted, then ignore this part.

Keep practising!