Help with my mix/techniques

[paledecay]

Hey guys & gals.
Been lurking here for a while, decided to stop being a "googlemixer" and ask some people with good knowledge for a little help or a little guidance.

I'm currently trying to get something decent for my band as far as demos are concerned. We're a pretty new band and spending thousands in a studio right now isn't something we want to do until we can get more shows and some more fans. I figure having a good quality demo cd/download out there to give away will help.

SO, with that out of the way, here is a link to just one of our tunes:

https://soundcloud.com/shivastone/ouroboros_demo1

It sounds OK. It lacks presence and seems to lack the high frequencies. For this demo run, we won't be using a live drumset, rather our drummer will be sending me MIDI from his elec kit, that'll I'll use in conjunction with superior drummer 2.

The drums in this track are just straight programmed by me and sound pretty robotic.

My guitars were all recorded direct as my room sucks balls for micing cabinets. I'm quite pleased with the tone I have, but needs work. My chain is line6 HD500 -> UX2 line in -> Sonar X1
4 guitar tracks. 100%L, 70%L, 70%R, 100%R
Using the lepoulin cab vst and an ENGL impulse response for all tracks. I can't give exact eq settings, as I'm not at home, but I read the sneap guides on guitars and drums and my eqs are pretty close to that guide.

Bass is a tricky monster for me as well, as my bassist is a very dynamic player and doesn't really hit the strings consistently. I'm going to be bringing him back to try to get a more consistent take here soon.

Vocalist did his tracks at his house and sent them to me. I feel they are good enough for our purpose here, but need to sit in the mix better. They seem to be on top or beneath on most things that I try to do with them.

Anyways, I guess what I'm after is, how do I get some that of that higher space back? Are my LPF too heavy on the guitars/bass? On some playbacks my guitars overpower and others they sit pretty nice. Am I just going too much for loudness and need to bring everything down a bit?

Thanks for any advice

 

[rapucore]

The drums lack serious punch and glue + the snare is very dead. I wouldn't say that you lack so much of high frequencies, than the fact that the lowend seems too cloudy.

If your bass player is too dynamic you could always automate the bass track and compress it.

The vocals are clouded by the fx and other instruments, carve some more space for the vocals! And the LPF isn't too heavy (imo) on the guitars, but you have too much cloudy hi mids or smth in the guitars that overpower (I.e.) the vocals.

AND - don't read too much into the actual numbers in the eqs etc. you've read in the quides, you need to adjust the numbers to fit YOUR mix.

Just keep mixing with your ears, not with your eyes!

PS. The song is great, I like it very much!

 

[paledecay]

Ya, I totally agree with the drums and I'm going to be spending more time on those once we get a good way to record our actual drummer and not use pre-programmed drums in SD2. Plus he's had recording experience and will be able to help shape his sound much better than I can.

Also bringing my bassist back over to get a better take at the recordings. I think I need to get a good sounding recorded take instead of trying to fix it in the mix(same with every other instrument).

It feels to me that when I carve out more guitar space, they end up sounding real weak, I've done a few of our other songs and it feels like my guitars are sitting nicer, but I'm also using two different guitars based on the song's tuning. This song was on my gibson V with a seymour duncan invader in Drop Bb, while some others are on my explorer with emg hetset in drop C. It seems my explorer sits much better off the get go and I spend more time messing with the V sound. Which takes me back to get a good take and not fixing in the mix.

I think I've WAY over processed, eq'd, etc. on this song and need to take a step back and listen again without all the crap.

Thanks for the response and glad you like the song!

 

[rapucore]

Damn, this song grows on me! You may have a fan here.

I can't judge if you've processed too much since I haven't heard the raw tracks.
Damn, your vocalist has very amazing voice. The fx you've used on it suits it very well, but it needs some sculpting to fit a bit more into the mix.

And yeah, re-tracking is great if you're able to do it. It gives so much better results than trying to fix-it-in-the-mix as you said.

It's good to listen to a song without any processing and then make notes of what needs to be done in the mix.
Then you get rid of too much used-to-processing (that you don't always need!) like:

• HIPASS EVERYTHING FROM 200Hz EXCEPT THE BASS AND THE BASS DRUM BECAUSE add-favorite-mixer-here DOES IT TOO!!!!!

• SLAP A COMPRESSOR ON EVERYTHING WITH THESE SETTINGS add-exact-settings-found-in-some-post-here BECAUSE add-favorite-mixer-here DOES IT TOO!!!!! etc. etc. ...

BTW not saying you do this, just a general advice.


PS. I'm sending you a P.M soon, please take a look and response if you want to!

 

[paledecay]

Glad you like it. Like our facebook page

Anyone else have any input/remarks?

Here's a link to a few more tunes I've been working on.
None of these have any vocals recorded yet.

https://soundcloud.com/paledecay/sets/nephilim_1_novox

 

[rapucore]

I have liked your Facebook page! Just sent you an email BTW.

 

[paledecay]

Started toying with another one of our songs while we wait on our singer's new equipment to arrive and he can redo the vocals.

https://soundcloud.com/paledecay/remnant_take4-mix-test

The drums were played by our drummer on his ekit. Sent me the midi file and that was used in conjunction with superior drummer 2. Some mistakes in here, but just going for the overall sound.

I think it's an improvement over the last ones I've done. Any tips, thoughts or ideas from anyone?