First mix help needed - WCARish type tune.

[properboraz]

Hey everyone, long time reader, first time poster. Would like to say thanks to everyone on this board firstly, I've read and learnt a lot from the threads posted on here, there's an insane amount of info hidden away on these forums.

Anyway, I'm doing a project with my housemate for fun, and we need some constructive crit on this mix, I'm sure the music won't be to everyone's taste, and there's no prizes for guessing whose style we're aping, but here goes nothing:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6817132/trial mix 7.mp3

There's no lead guitar or vox yet, but I was wondering if I could get some feedback on what's there so far. I'm having special trouble with the drum sounds and getting the balance of the bass guitar right. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, many thanks.

 

[leaky24]

Sounds like you've got too much reverb on the snare.

 

[properboraz]

On the main snare, or the breakdown type snare? Or both haha.

 

[CubanDude]

Not really diggin the kick & snare sound... It sounds "artificial" in general to me, dunno if its supposed to sound like this...

 

[leaky24]

What are you using for the snare?

Id get rid of all the extra processing on the snare.

 

[properboraz]

Thanks for the input so far guys.

The kick is the standard Addictive Drums one with it replaced by a sample I found on here, think it could've been the "best kick on Earth" one.

The snare is again Addictive Drums, but this time replaced with the Joey Sturgis gog. At the moment all it's got on it is EQ and compression. Would you start again with the snare and kick sound?

It is midi so maybe that's why it sounds a bit artificial? I've tried mixing up the velocities a bit, but I'm not sure where else to go with making it sound more organic.

 

[leaky24]

If your snare has added reverb without you adding reverb i'd get rid.

Go for a dry snare. Then you can add reverb yourself on a send and control the send level of the reverb.

 

[properboraz]

Oh yeah, the original gog file is dry, I've added the reverb myself through a send, I just think I've overdone it. For the big snare during the breakdowns I was going for this at 0:55: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBEnZ8OpR0o&feature=fvst[/ame]

So I need to re-do the kick and snare, any other feedback?

 

[Backe]

Try to mix in a room sample for that huge snare during breakdowns, beats reverbs.

 

[properboraz]

^I've tried doing that, but I could never get it to sound right, I couldn't get the original AD snare to sound good behind the sampled snare.

Is this kick drum any better? : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6817132/trial mix 10.mp3

I'm utterly lost with this snare drum, whatever I do it just seems to make it sound worse. I've been trying to mix it since I posted this thread, I think I might be going slightly insane doing it. In that version the snare has nothing on it but reverb, no comp, no eq.

 

[leaky24]

The kick sounds better.

For that effect i'd reverse my snare hit on another track but still have the original hit as well.

Also give your snare eq & compression, just take the reverb down.

 

[Laneismusic]

You did too much guitar editing for the breakdown or whatever... mehhhh

 

[zackpennington]

The snare sounds panned left a ton. Bring it back to the center.

 

[properboraz]

Right well I've put comp and eq on it as well as moving it to the center, and I think it sounds a little better but still not right. It still doesn't snap as much as this one, which is the same sample, I guess it's in the mixing and mastering as well:




It also feels like the mix lacks bollocks when I listen to other people's.


The big snare still isn't working for me either:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6817132/trial mix number infinity plus four.mp3

@Laneismusic, how'd you mean, does it not sound good, or just overproduced? Going for that really tight sound.

Thanks for all the feedback so far, it's really appreciated, keep it coming!