Help me deal with band's weird mix requests

[Soundlurker]

It's a band I've worked with before, and everything was cool the previous time but now one of the members apparently wants to be a producer and is insisting that I make a mix with the following features (in my own words):

1. The bass guitar must be really loud. You have to be able to hear it's melody and rhythm clearly, yet it must not have any mids
2. The snare should be loud and you must be able to hear all ghost notes. It should be dry and sound like a can (think LoG, St, Anger, etc.). It shouldn't have much compression.
3. The guitars have to be hi-passed @ 120hz and really bright
4. The kick must have a 2-3khz click and you have to be able to hear all of the soft hits.

After a couple of frustrating days I managed to satisfy his requests without completely disregarding my own opinion on how things should sound.
To hear the mix click here

I'm still not sure how many of these thing I can get away with and still have a good mix. Among other things, I'm most worried that the low-end will be too much and that the guitars are too bright and without a hint of body. Or does the mix sound OK, just KoЯn OK and not

EDIT: New Mix

 

[xFkx]

Sounds fine, quite fits the genre.

 

[gabriel g.]

I´m missing all what stands for a hard guitar tone!!!!
drums, bass, and vox are OK, but the guitars are totaly missing

 

[Soundlurker]

Good to know it's sounds ok. Hopefully, I'll be able to convince the band that the guitars have to come up and that the bass guitar has too much lows.

 

[2000ContourSVT]

I don't think the bass guitar has too much lows, however I do think the guitars need to come up. The mix fits this style real good though IMO.

 

[Pot]

the guitars dont convince me...dull and far away
i think the bass is maybe overpowering the mix but that´s the style...

 

[Nebulous]

The mix is definately not as bad as your description had me thinking. If nothing is changed I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of, it's just more of a rock mix with the bass sitting nice and prominent.

If there are any doubts about the lows on the bass, I'd take it to a bass heavy environment (Club, car with sub, etc) and make a judgement from there.

 

[Morgan C]

If you raise the guitars I think this would be a killer mix. You did very well going with his suggestions.. honestly half of those are completely contradicting.. a Lamb of God snare without much compression?

Singer ain't great, rest sounds pretty good.
I would perhaps add some (more?) reverb to the snare. Not sure, its popping out the mix a little too much atm.

 

[Soundlurker]

Thanks guys, these were some really useful comments that should help me have a clear perspective of how things are turning up. Keep 'em coming I'll post an updated mix soon.

 

[~BURNY~]

Sounds pretty cool for the genre actually. Maybe a tad bassy indeed. I'd remove a just a bit of low end on the master bus to make sure it won't fart on a consumer grade system. Also the kick pop out a bit too much in the lower frequency range I think. I wouldn't touch the guitars. They fit the genre imo.

 

[LeSedna]

Well, the guy would have been playing with his life if he would have asked all this to some other people here. But you managed it quite well ! If it's want they want...

I simlpy agree to other people. It sounds ok, just lack a bit of guitars and that's quite perfect.

 

[Soundlurker]

New Mix
Edit: Updated

 

[Erik Monsonis]

I can barely hear the kick drum. Snare sounds too "can" and raw for my taste, but if they like it...
Everything else seems to sound ok for the mix.

 

[cobhc]

Maybe a little more guitars, and yeah, bring the kick up a bit too, otherwise it sounds really good dude.

 

[GarethSE]

I'm thinking some compression could really help those drums sound a lot more polished. I'm sure you could still maintain the character they wanted too.
It's not like this is the most dynamic music ever or anything, just reminds me of the period when Nu-Metal bands thought they were pushing boundaries by adding in clean singing in the verses, some compression won't hurt.

Maybe do a mix with some compression and try and get the big radio sound while still maintaining the character of the recording so far and see if they like it?

 

[nwright]

2nd mix sounds better. Vocals are weak, but sound good. Lyrics are *facepalm.

 

[CarlBlomqvist]

I'd say you should raise the kick.

Tell the band that a snare dry like that sounds totally OUT of the mix

Sounded way better than I thought when reading the description ;D

 

[Soundlurker]

^^ Haha true

Nice suggestions, I'll bring the kick up and I'll see if I can get away with a bit more compression

 

[Soundlurker]

OK, how does this sound:

New Mix

 

[GarethSE]

I'd personally sample replace the kick and snare.
They sound way too in the background. Too roomy, in a bad way.
Divide all the hits up into soft, medium and hard hits on seperate tracks and replace them that way. It'll retain the dynamics the drummer wants (despite this being nu-metal, and therefore damn near dynamicless :lol) while enhancing the sound a HUGE amount.
This is a damn good mix so far though considering their requests.
Check out the samples of the black panther snare Lasse uploaded if they want a tin can, dry snare.

Compress it in such a way that you're getting more hit, less sustain, then add a reverb as a send effect and use it to construct a reverb tail for the snare. That should give it a more professional sounding sense of space without compromising what the band wants.