First time I want to really give up a mix

[Heabow]

Hi

Well, I'll resume the thing. I produced this EP a few months ago, everything went smooth except with the vocals. The singers were not ready at all so we decided to focus on the choruses at my place with me and let them record the verses at home. It took a while... When I received the tracks, I was quite surprised. There were actually about 40 tracks for each song, for the verses only! Nothing was properly named and worst, nothing was organized. Ths guys resend me a more logic bunch of tracks but it was still Nagasaky. I mean, it was a real chinese problem!!! I took me a long time to organize the shit. Now it's "approximately" okay.

I worked a lot on this record. I was very involved production wise because they were not very experienced, I put many arrangements, etc. And when I hear the vocals on the verses and the overall sound/mix, I don't know if it was worth it. I am really tired and quite depressed I must admit.

I have to finish before Christmas and I realize my mix is horrible. Boomy but no body and the guitars are far and not aggressive at all, no big bass.... If I could, I'd delete it!!

http://we.tl/YO0y64S8dH

I have two basic questions:

- How does it sound to you? Please be honest, even if it's rude.
- What could I do to get something less awful? Unfortunately, it's just about little things not redo the drum sound, etc.


Thanks a lot for your help guys.

 

[BearOnGuitar]

Reading your post made me curious so I gave it a listen and it doesn't nearly sound as bad as I thought it would. Go outside for a walk, meditate or get a clear mind however you can and get your focus back on finishing it.

Personally I would turn down the vocals slightly and use some more compression on the master buss/groups.

 

[~BURNY~]

It's really not that bad.
You probably need to carve more space for the kick low end subduing it from the bass gtr and quite possibly separate the guitars a bit more frequency wise. On my end, the whole mix feels a tiny bit edgy (around 4khz) and missing some mids (around 600 hz) and like you said boomy.
I hate the music though.

 

[Fox Mulder]

I'd try bringing up the kick a little before making any more eq decisions. This is light years away from an awful mix.

 

[ibzrgtoffire]

Yeah it's definitely not a shitty mix. The music is though The mix overall sounds boomy and a bit edgy. As mentionned, i would carve some space in the bass for the kick drum to cut through better before bringing it up. Turn down the vocals a bit and defizz those guitars and you should have a much clearer mix.


EDIT : Damn after listening back i realised they sing in french lol didnt noticed at first. Where are you from ?

 

[Nikolas Quemtri]

The advice I'd give here is to put the verse vocals (rap-like) a bit deeper into the mix, putting some ambience on it. On the choruses the lead vocal is sometimes not as clear.
Agree that the snare is better recognizable than the kick.
The mix sounds good in general!

 

[Mago]

I agree, it's not nearly as bad as you described it.

Bass could indeed use some work, but that depends on the DI and the playing. From what I hear it seems you could get it to work. Guitars are a bit distant and not too much in your face, but it's not that bad. If you get Kick and Bass to work it should come up as a decent product I think. just needs a bit more balls in the lower department, then it doesn't matter if the guitars sit bit further away.

 

[Heabow]

Thanks a lot for your time and advices dudes. I really appreciate!!
I agree with you about the music itself, not my cup of tea for sure! But it's still MUCH better than the demo versions I got before the recording.

@BearOnGuitar: having a break would be great indeed but I had to work a lot on the vocals tracks to fix the shit and now I have no more time. You confirmed what I felt about the vocals. I turned them down a bit and they sound less disconnected I think.

@Burny: I tried to make some space in the bass for the kick. As for the boomyness, the bass was guilty. I tried to fix that.

@ Maamar Huq: I did turn up the kick a very little bit (0,5db). It sounds overpowering to me but I'm not objective at all anymore.

@ibzrgtoffire: I gently shaved the high end of the guitars. Very lightly, it seems a bit better tho. I am french and the band as well I must admit that I've always found french is the worst language ever to sing Rock and Metal actually! (maybe with Spanish!)

@Nikolas Quemtri: thanks man. I don't know what to do with the vocals on the verses tbh. Either I turn them up or down, they sound "too much" or "not enough" and I did automate the shit out of them.

@Mago: In fact, the DI is good, no problem but his playing is not that tight/clean. Nothing really hyper fucked up tho. I tried to clean the bass and bring the kick up just a touch but this mix totally lacks real bottom end and to me it's due to the guitars. I simply don't know how to make them sound better than that - at least to my very tired ears!

I followed all your advices: http://we.tl/AYpwdqwFsy

Thanks again, it's good to have encouraging feedback in the hard times.

 

[LeSedna]

Not as bad as I would expect it to be reading you ! Don't put too much pressure on yourself.

The only thing I could say by listening it quickly through my laptop (but that's a good indication for consumer listener actual use) is the bass seems to not work too well. Are you actually using the pure DI in the very low end of the song ? are you slamming it through several good quality compressors ? Do you have waves bass rider ?

What hi pass did you apply to the guitar, and did you apply it at the end of the guitar chain ?

It could be the matter of a few dB only somewhere !

Can't hear the french and I'm french ahah. I thought this was english and I couldn't understand it !

I'm hearing a tiny bit of clipping as well hear and there in your mastering chain. Check your limiter maybe ? Can't be too sure but I thought i'd mention it

 

[xPoopsx]

The whole mix sounds a little thin and the guitars are still lacking a lot in the mids. I used to have the same exact problem with my mixes. I started boosting 800 on the master eq to see if that remedies the problem. If so, put the master eq back down and make the fixes in the mix. Also, make sure the phase is all correct because it can screw up a mix real quick. It also sounds like the master compressor has the attack set too fast. This is all based off my opinion and that doesn't make me right.

....BUT the mix really isn't bad. Don't give up.

 

[Heabow]

Thanks for listening, you guys are great

@LeSedna: yes I used the DI for the bottom end. I followed pretty much all Ermz explains in his book actually. High passed at around 45-50Hz with a cut around 62Hz to let the kick breath. Guitars HPF set at around 70Hz and C4 for the 120-130Hz zone mainly. Maybe R-bass could help to bring some lows but I am really not sure what frenquency needs to be boost!

@xPoopsx: the mix is pretty thin indeed. A for the bottom end, I don't know what frequencies I could boost, I don't if the guitars need a boost or if it's the bass that needs to be thicker. The guitars defo need mids but, again, no one range frequency is really pleasing. It sounds bad either I boost 300-400Hz or 500-600Hz or 700-800Hz or even around 1kHz. Nothing sounds good in this mix to my ears actually. I don't think there's a phase issue, I checked it out.

 

[nezvers]

I'm probably too late, but for me guitar palm mutes in verse asks to have multi-band compression on those booms. I barely hear kick and vocals, at some parts, sounds bit overpowering.
Guitars have something weird in mids - sound like podfarm simulation (not a deal-braker, but weird for me).

 

[Heabow]

I reamped the main guitars with my 6505 but I agree they sound weird. There are multiband comps on guitars, one on each rhythm guitar tracks and one on the rhythm guitar buss. I tried many things on drums, bass, guitars to improve this crap and nothing works.

 

[Heabow]

Final chapter of this nightmare. I made my best to fix the low-end issues and give some "punch" (may I use this term???)
That's the last attempt. Could you share your thoughts please?

Soundlcoud https://soundcloud.com/slabsoundstudio/master2312 or Wetransfer http://we.tl/Qcsuv9FHER

 

[nezvers]

Guitars now sound really fat and doesn't have nasty boom on palm mutes.
On kick low end was kinda tiny amount underpowered (really tiny amount). On second half it became stronger, but I think it would benefit with touch of clearing lowend from other stuff (pushing hi-pass of bass a tiny bit).

 

[Skrynor]

(from listening to the downloaded mp3)
Sounds better now, still missing more kick - it's barely there..i want to get smacked in the face by the kick and snare, louder kick - but no more low end on the kick. Snare sounds awesome though
Guitars sounds...dry and not quite in place, for some reason they don't sound..organic enough in my ears. Makes me think of the Quake 2 soundtrack..and rammstein..
They are also a tad loud.
Would be nice to hear with vocals..

 

[Heabow]

Thanks a lot for listening.

Another song with vocals: https://soundcloud.com/slabsoundstudio/mastvoc2312 or http://we.tl/bxEjWHxVJg
The voices are a bit too bright to me. I have the same feeling about the guitars but it's real amp and the playing is good so I'm guilty.

 

[Winston Wolf]

You're overanalysing it.I see no reason to be worried about this mix that much.being obsessive about 0.5db here and there is counterproductive.

 

[Heabow]

You're overanalysing it.I see no reason to be worried about this mix that much.being obsessive about 0.5db here and there is counterproductive.

You're right my friend. I fought with fucked up tracks as I said during days and days and I've lost all objectivity. I was getting crazy! But now the thing is over, the mix is done.

Thanks to you all for your help and support. Merry Xmas guys!