How's this mix? Also, programmed drums - learn + teach me

[Morgan C]

A couple of mixes from an upcoming album I'm mixing. Tech metal band from Spain called "Death Volta".

First time using Metal Foundry. All the shells are replaced (toms only partially), so the shells sound a little sampley. Hopefully the rest sounds pretty realistic though - where can I improve?
Bass was utter hell. Old strings (super dull), noisy and constant pops and clicks in the unedited tracks. Meant that any sort of highend on the bass tracks was a nightmare - tossing up between loads of noise and pops and clicks. I've done the best I can.
Guitars I think are Lecto.
Also my first time in 64bit Sonar which has been utter hell. Half the plugins don't work, the wrapper is utter bullshit (entire project containing 7 songs of audio files and a ridiculous amount of plugins = 20% of CPU. Wrapper is somehow using 50% of CPU and crashing nonstop). I'm considering dropping back down to 32bit - which means sacrificing my extra 4GB of RAM - until this shit is sorted out.. probably a few years -_-

Couple of songs. They still have other elements to be added (not the second song, but the first has strings and some leads still to be fitted in, I'm struggling with the strings, maybe its because of the balance of the main mix?).

updated:

Hopefully there's no editing errors or mis-triggered hits, let me know. I've been mixing and editing as I go.

 

[Virgil.]

Overall sounds great man! I really love the crack on the snare. Which one did you use? I would compress it a tad bit more if it were me though. I would also turn up the cymbals just a bit more too. Otherwise I'm loving them! Great job!

 

[Morgan C]

Overall sounds great man! I really love the crack on the snare. Which one did you use? I would compress it a tad bit more if it were me though. I would also turn up the cymbals just a bit more too. Otherwise I'm loving them! Great job!

Snare is a frankensnare. I don't actually know what samples I've all used as its all combined into one TCI. Loads of different room samples though. I've made it a bit poppier in this latest mix. Cymbals I think sound better now too? This mix also has the strings in them. I think they're not sounding too bad, but they're taking up a bit too much space. I may have to EQ the guitars when they come in, cos the whole mix is designed to sound great w ith just guitar+bass+drums, then when you add strings there's no room.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

The snare is very loud. Too dominant in the mix. The guitars are a bit scooped.

 

[Sweetnothing]

The strings sound like overpowering the guitars, comparing the intro to the rest of the song IMO

Besides, I hear some phasing (because of the line the sample is playing) on the strings at 0:21

I'd try to make the strings smaller or playing the part a octave higher, but then again, I'm focusing more on arranging than on sonics, since the mix is nice to me.

 

[Morgan C]

The snare is very loud. Too dominant in the mix. The guitars are a bit scooped.

I agree about the snare, but the band wants it loud. I'll try and make it a little softer.
Guitars are a bit scooped, they were even more, but they sound choked if I put more mids in there. I'll see what I can do. Just to verify- you were listening to the latest mix (post 3) not the ones up top?

The strings sound like overpowering the guitars, comparing the intro to the rest of the song IMO

Besides, I hear some phasing (because of the line the sample is playing) on the strings at 0:21

I'd try to make the strings smaller or playing the part a octave higher, but then again, I'm focusing more on arranging than on sonics, since the mix is nice to me.

I agree with the strings, they're not fitting great yet.
I hear the phasing too, I think that's some delay I've got there, it's too fast.
Arrangement is up to the band, not much I can do there.

 

[AdamG94]

I like this, the overall mix is good, but there's something not quite right about the strings, it sounds and feels like it has been programmed which is not what you want in a strings section! Editing the midi looser on the grid would help a lot, as well as spending more time on the velocities, and some larger step harmonies too towards the end of the intro wouldn't go amiss. Also the drum fill needs to be different in my opinion, it needs to be much more epic with fewer hits as the current one doesn't fit right in my opinion.

I also hear the strings-guitar battle at the end, I think it's mostly caused by the fact they are both playing in a similar register. Moving the strings an octave or so higher would definitely help, as would two small-ish cuts in the 200-500hz region and the 2.5-5.5k region to help the guitars 'breathe' a bit more.

 

[Morgan C]

I like this, the overall mix is good, but there's something not quite right about the strings, it sounds and feels like it has been programmed which is not what you want in a strings section! Editing the midi looser on the grid would help a lot, as well as spending more time on the velocities, and some larger step harmonies too towards the end of the intro wouldn't go amiss. Also the drum fill needs to be different in my opinion, it needs to be much more epic with fewer hits as the current one doesn't fit right in my opinion.

I also hear the strings-guitar battle at the end, I think it's mostly caused by the fact they are both playing in a similar register. Moving the strings an octave or so higher would definitely help, as would two small-ish cuts in the 200-500hz region and the 2.5-5.5k region to help the guitars 'breathe' a bit more.

Thanks. I can't really change the arrangement, this is not my song, and while I can encourage the band one way or another it's really up to them. I did take your advice with the strings EQing though, it seems to have helped quite a bit. Also focused on some different strings. Updated the mix in the first post, another new song, probably the most complex in terms of the amount of things in the mix, but I think everything is sounding pretty badass atm. There's a few tweaks still needing to be done, but nothing is sticking out weirdly, everything has found its place more-or-less.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

When I heard, was not this song. The strings are very loud when all the things are playing.