Help! how is my mix/mastering?

[plisken]

Hi guys! Been reading this forum for ever but never posted or made an account until now.

My band has been recording some of our songs and I have been mixing and mastering them. Would love some advice if possible!

This song is a cover we did by Sonata Arctica.

 

[thefalloftheheretic]

Drums: the ride is way too fucking loud in the beginning.
The kick and snare are getting drowned out 99% of the time.

Choirs are fine, maybe a bit loud.
Guitars sound good, but maybe a bit undergained at parts and drowned out by the ride and choirs.

Vocals sound genuinely good. Props.

Just my 2c.

 

[oroinvictus]

Drums: the ride is way too fucking loud in the beginning.
The kick and snare are getting drowned out 99% of the time.

Choirs are fine, maybe a bit loud.
Guitars sound good, but maybe a bit undergained at parts and drowned out by the ride and choirs.

Vocals sound genuinely good. Props.

+1 to all of this

 

[corymg]

this reminds me of dragon force meets journeys (ish) vocals

 

[plisken]

Drums: the ride is way too fucking loud in the beginning.
The kick and snare are getting drowned out 99% of the time.

Choirs are fine, maybe a bit loud.
Guitars sound good, but maybe a bit undergained at parts and drowned out by the ride and choirs.

Vocals sound genuinely good. Props.

Just my 2c.

Thanks for the advice! I will work on all the stuff you mentioned post it here once done.


EDIT

I forgot to mention. Im not sure that I like the reverb I used on the vocals (the waves IR1). What plug in do you guys recommend I use for Vocal reverb? Suggested settings?

Thank you about the vocals =) Our vocalist is really great! But I would be lying if I said it was easy to mix >.< what a pain =/.


@corymg

Funny you should mention the journey-ish vocals. A lot of people tell our vocalist the same thing lol. Sounds like Journey, and indeed I think he does, but he was never trying to.

 

[plisken]

alright here is a new mix. Tweaked everything you mentioned and even though you said the vocals sounded good I felt like it could use some more tweaking. Let me know if its better now or was better before.

Let me know if everything mentioned is fine now or if anything else now needs tweaking. I think its pretty good now?

 

[iarebrandon]

the kick needs more low end less high end. it almost sounds like a snare.

 

[HostileEx]

That kick needs boosted around 50Hz and turned up some. The snare also needs a good boost around 200Hz. Parallel compression on the drums would help. Drums sound really distant in the mix.

 

[kronk_1985]

jesus.. your mastering needs work.. mix sounds alright i guess.. but it's not exactly mastered..

 

[plisken]

Thanks for the replies guys! I will work on the drums. As for the mastering any advice would be greatly appreciated! Its what I know the least about. =(

 

[kronk_1985]

There's heaps around to read. Google is quite a good search engine these days

 

[plisken]

I have read a few guides on mastering and well, its very generalized. I know its because every session is different but I couldn't find anything through google for mastering in terms of metal.

Cant find much when it comes to EQing in mastering, also the stereo imaging. Any information is usually about the mastering compressor which is the main thing I know but still.

 

[plisken]

Alright guys, made a new mix using you advice. I tried working on the mastering more. Better? worse :S?

 

[SirKnucklesmd]

Much Improvement over the others, I can't really tell on the monitors I have on my home computer vs my studio comp but the kick still sounds "tinny" like someone whacking bamboo over a washboard... less tick and more click, and possibly more low end punch... the one thing that's been kinda bugging me that's been the same throughout your mixes tho is the vocals... scoop some low-mids from them to brighten them up more, and i'm not sure if you have a De-esser on it or not but if you do let up on that threshold a bit cuz from where i'm sitting it sounds like it has hardly any sibilance to them.

 

[Spite]

The kick needs some more "OOMPH" and less "tick" and the snare just lacks fullness imo.
The toms sound a tad too scooped for me.
The choir is just a tad too loud and the vocals could sit a bit better in the mix.

 

[plisken]

sweet, thanks again for the advice guys! I made a new mix! I took everything you guys mentioned into account. Kick has more oomph, snare sounds a little fuller. Tweaked the vocals a little, also lowered the choir a tiny bit (is it still to loud though?)

Let me know your guys thoughts again please! Tweaking the vocals sort of made them pop up more, maybe to much?

 

[plisken]

ok so I decided to work a lot on the mastering, tweaked the mixing a little to but mostly mastering. Its quite different then before. Wanted to know what you all thought about it mastered this way as opposed to before.

 

[plisken]

alright I think im going to stick with it like this one for now, then come back to it later. See if my perspective changes on it.