Do I mix my snares too loud?

[Star Ark]

Simple question really
Am I mixing my snares too loud?

I understand a proper mastering job would squash them down a bit. The kind of music I do doesn't feature a huge amount of vocals so I don't mix with leaving space for the vocals in mind, I just automate the snare down a touch, the vocals up a touch when vocals feature.

So what do you think?

myspace.com/starark

the first song up called Write is my latest work, when I send it to Jack the Bear in Melbourne Australia in a few months for mastering is it going to be a problem for him. Is it going to limit my maximum volume (I'm not too concerned with being quiet) or is it only the lowend that eats up headroom?

And most importantly, do you think it sounds good the way it is? Or do you think it would sound better if it were mixed quieter?

Thanks for your time guys, I get a lot out of this forum, I've been a lurker for a couple of years, and owe this board a lot

Peace

Neil

 

[Notuern]

Both your kick and snare is just a bit too high(At least on my normal speakers, dont have my monitors set up.).
And again, im an 80's guy so i might be "wrong" on this, but: some snareverb plz? it sounds so empty in the slower parts.

 

[Star Ark]

Thanks for the quick reply mate

I'm just heading out the door to work, but tonight I'm gonna have a few beers and experiment, I have a hard time with reverb and I'm not surprised it was the 1st thing pointed out, thanks for listening.

Also, do you know of any free ware verbs that might work well for me? I use to spoil myself rotten with cracked stuff, but not anymore

Cheers

 

[Matthias King]

Everything sounds good to me on my monitoring setup. The snare MIGHT be a hair too loud, but honestly it sounds fine too me. The drums seem to do great job driving your music, so it sounds right to me. The only thing I would suggest, as Notuern said, when the mix gets more sparse, the snare really pops out, not because it's too loud, but because it does sound rather dry, I agree there. The snare sound itself is pretty awesome I think, just needs a little "room sound" maybe.

As for free reverbs, I'm not sure anymore. It's been quite a while since I got into a lot of freeware stuff because for a few years now my go-to reverb has been IK's CSR, but if I had to think of a good free verb, from the very little I've used it, Bootsy's EpicVERB seems very nice. It has a great GUI, good controls and undertandable parameters, and it comes with a lot of presets to get you started.

On a side note, "Write" is a fantastic piece of music man.

 

[Star Ark]

Thanks for taking the time to listen and give feedback Matthias, I've used a few Bootsy plugs before and they were awesome for free, I'll have to give the verb a try.

Last nights reverb experiments didn't work too well, I just can't get the results I want. I'm using the Lexicon plug that comes with Sonar 8 producer and a little of the plate sounds good, more and it turns nasty. I tried room settings and it was either too subtle or way too much. Automating more verb during the slower sections worked though, at least I'm a little closer to getting it right.

Cheers for taking the time guys

 

[Star Ark]

I'm giving some of your tunes a play right now Matt, Hammer of Fate and Isis. Sounds pretty cool dude! Nice drum sounds and tight guitars, I'm having fun soloing over Isis actually, very cool!

 

[Josh Burgess]

try freeverb 2 for snares