HELP ME SEND MY MIX FOR MASTERING

[SlimJim]

Dear UMF users,

This is my first post although I have been lurking on this site for a while now.
I have learned a great deal from this forum and now I finally have something to show for it.

This is a song I have written/recorded. I will eventually send it to a studio where vocals will be tracked and then mastering will take place.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gmogtrfiwlx7dwi/AABg5KOxDL1Q6DVm5GP-qvkga?dl=0


I am quite pleased with my mix. However there are some slight "things" on it that could be fixed but being a novice I can't really identify and fix them.

I am looking for any fellow users who are willing to give me some feedback on my mix as I want to send it to the studio as best mixed as possible.


Thank you all in advance.

SlimJim

 

[LeSedna]

Hello,

As the question was asked nicely, I went ahead and downloaded your recording.

To be honest, there is way too much lacking for it to sound any good even after mastering. I mean you can do better with a little tweaking.

You need to go back to your mix and fix problems right away :
- guitars are weirdely upfront and on the left, check the level of the Left vs the Right one ?
- there is little bass going on. I literally can't hear the bass track on my HD650s, I just don't know where it is really. Maybe it is so edited and tight pocketed to the kick drum, in any case it doesn't glue well with the guitars.
- in fact there is too much bass going on "overall" on the track, but in a muddy way. There is too much bass and too much high end as well. A rule of thumb you might wanna check is that the kick more or less has its low end sitting below 100z, say 70 to 80 sometimes, while the bass could cover up the 100z area. It should be easier to distinguish the kick to the bass and vice versa
- there is clipping, my meter reads 0.2 or 0.3 db of clipping. This is probably due to the mp3 conversion, you need to back off to 0.5dB lower than the 0dBfs maximum level in order to avoid this to happen in the conversion to mp3. In fact it doesn't matter if you have it mastered someone else, but I thought you should know about that. You can inform yourself on youtube if the topic interests you. Google "intersample peaks". If you are mixing hot and loud already, then you should do something about it because the mastering house won't be able to do anything about it. Give them at least several db of headroom

 

[SlimJim]

Hello,

As the question was asked nicely, I went ahead and downloaded your recording.

To be honest, there is way too much lacking for it to sound any good even after mastering. I mean you can do better with a little tweaking.

You need to go back to your mix and fix problems right away :
- guitars are weirdely upfront and on the left, check the level of the Left vs the Right one ?
- there is little bass going on. I literally can't hear the bass track on my HD650s, I just don't know where it is really. Maybe it is so edited and tight pocketed to the kick drum, in any case it doesn't glue well with the guitars.
- in fact there is too much bass going on "overall" on the track, but in a muddy way. There is too much bass and too much high end as well. A rule of thumb you might wanna check is that the kick more or less has its low end sitting below 100z, say 70 to 80 sometimes, while the bass could cover up the 100z area. It should be easier to distinguish the kick to the bass and vice versa
- there is clipping, my meter reads 0.2 or 0.3 db of clipping. This is probably due to the mp3 conversion, you need to back off to 0.5dB lower than the 0dBfs maximum level in order to avoid this to happen in the conversion to mp3. In fact it doesn't matter if you have it mastered someone else, but I thought you should know about that. You can inform yourself on youtube if the topic interests you. Google "intersample peaks". If you are mixing hot and loud already, then you should do something about it because the mastering house won't be able to do anything about it. Give them at least several db of headroom

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment. I appreciate your input.

In terms of peaking, you are right. On my MIX group channel I used a limiter and I guess its not favorable for the studio I will send it to as they won't have any headroom.

For the bass, I have two tracks going which are split into the Low and High(distorted) frequencies. I think the LOW channel just has too much bass with not enough mids and too much compression. I will look into the frequencies you suggested.

For the guitars, comparing to the reference mixes I use they don't sound too upfront to me but I will also look into it. I will also look into the levels.

Unfortunately I don't have any near fields, so I use a pair of Beyerdynamic DT880's for mixing which I know is not favorable.

I'll try improve upon my mix and repost it here.

Thanks again.

 

[LeSedna]

No pb ! The DT880 should not be too bad, maybe simply reference again with other mixes ? And good ones. I felt something was wrong with your guitars for sure

As for the limiter etc, well it sounded quite loud already, and very compressed, for something that is going for mastering. The general rule is, if you're not doing it yourself, leave dynamics to the master engineer. The general analogy is like : he is the cooker, and if your bring him a steak already overcooked, he can't do anything about it. Give him something raw, and he will cook it just perfect for your own taste

 

[SlimJim]

So,

I went through my mix and worked on the points you suggested. I definitely see an improvement. I worked a lot on the bass to give it more definition and less "boomyness". I also removed some high frequencies from the guitars and cymbals.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gmogtrfiwlx7dwi/AABg5KOxDL1Q6DVm5GP-qvkga?dl=0

You initial post was very helpful. Going back and listening to my mix, much of what you said was quite obvious all of a sudden.

I'd like to hear what you think of this version.

Anyone else?

 

[SlimJim]

After comparing my mix to a few on the forum, it seems like I might have a bit too much treble going.

For a reference I'm using "Scathing" by Nightrage which is from their album "A New Disease Is Born". Jacub Hansen did it, and it's a great sounding record in my opinion.

When I listen and compare in Cubase with the DT's, it seems like I have approximately the same amount of highs. I'm using Ozone's EQ analyzer to see approximately what frequencies are present.

However, when I listen from my computer sound card and my speakers (non near fields) it seems like the treble is expressive.

Could it be that I need to check my export settings in Cubase?