Critique my new recording

[Revelation7069]

Hey,
I'm rather new to this forum but I have read a lot before posting my first (which is this one). I just wanted to ask all of you out there how this mix sounds. I was going for The Devil Wears Prada style (or atleast the band that I was mixing for wanted that).

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=942535


Here is what I use:
Guitar->Guitar Port->Guitar Rig w/ no cab->Impulses
*Quad Tracked and each with different eq and impulses*
Bass->Guitar Port->Ampeg SVX
Drums are Superior Drummer 2.0 w/ presets I downloaded from here with minor adjustments.
Vocals are through a mixing board (for phantom power) ->guitar port->then gearbox pre-amp
Screaming vocals have two tracks and one with distortion
Singing vocals (both harmony and normal) are my main problem. I have them compressed with Rvox (waves) and DeEsser. Then they are sent to a Vocal Bus where there is a Doubler and TrueVerb. I can't seem to get them to sound right.

Other than that everything is pretty much eq'ed the way I like it as far as the low end of the song. I just want to see how ya'll think it sounds and what I should improve on. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Metaltastic]

Hey man, welcome - first off I should mention that these types of threads belong in the "Rate my Mix/Tone" Subforum, but since it's your 1st post it's an understandable mistake Anyway, clip sounds pretty good, though the immediate thing that comes to mind is an absence of bass guitar; I can't deny the guitar tone is pretty good for Guitar Rig, though no doubt the impulses contribute to that; still, there's a bit of a weird digital top end to it, but it fits well in the mix. Also, the clean vocals are a bit thin and sound like they have too much going on in the 2k range (giving it that nasally sound, though he doesn't sound like an overly nasal singer). Can't hear the kick AT ALL, and the snare is really buried as well. OH GOD I hate when singers do that semi-spoken word thing (at 1:52), jesus christ...but yeah, overall sounds pretty good dude!

Oh, but the OH's are a bit loud.

 

[Metaltastic]

And listening a bit more, I feel the guitars could really benefit from a subtle cut (like 2-3 dB) at around 700 with a Q of like .20 to get rid of that cocked-wah sound.

 

[Revelation7069]

Thanks for the response Metaltastic. I will post it in that section next time. I have to bass guitar there i just cut it pretty high because I have to lower end more towards the kick and it sounds awesome with a sub. Too much bass gives me that sustained muddy sound unless I can remove that some how. I'll try to cut at 2k to see if that gets that nasal sound away. Also, I will try to find the right spot for the snare. Again, thank you.

 

[kev]

Welcome! Tune the vocals on the clean. Its the "as i FADE away" section that has the major problem . If you can get the band to ditch the 1:52 spoken vocal thing that will be a bonus, i see no need for that, singer needs to be told when to shut his pie hole Everything else seems pretty decent sounding mate, like metaltastic said definitely calm down the guitar mids, and give us some bass guitar. I think the toms at the start need some work too, i'd give them some more boom (although of course the click attack is still necessary) Then it will kick some ass - it has awesome potential.

 

[Metaltastic]

Great minds think alike Kev And yeah, agreed about the toms in the intro, they sound a bit like popcorn popping (totally almost wrote pooping )

 

[Revelation7069]

Thanks guys. Looks like I'll have them redo those vocals at that part, then fix some of the toms. I fixed the guitars a bit and brought up the bass and brought up the snare as well. I'll post again after I get them to fix their vocals.

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, one thing I wanna mention about the bass is that my Tannoys are good down to probably ~75 Hz, and that's still lower than most consumer systems - one big reason I don't like mixing with a sub is I feel all that low-end is too flattering; it's important to not have it outta control, but it's also easy to get overly complacent!

 

[John_C]

i actually really like that guitar sound, if you tame the lower to mid mids a bit it's got real potential

the toms at the beginning might benefit from different panning, they feel crowded in with the kick

 

[Revelation7069]

Alright, so I did basically everything ya'll said to do and I posted it on soundclick. Here is the link: its Don't Forget a DD (2)

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=942535

I added some low end to the toms and panned them pretty hard L and R, took out some mids of the guitar, retracked the vocals for the part where they were off key, brought up the bass and bass drum, brought up the snare. I think this sounds pretty good but I am still pretty new to recording. Thanks.

Oh, btw I took out the spoken part at 1:52 , they were okay with it as long as they kept the part later on in the song that was spoken

 

[kev]

Much better dude!