Lifeless sound

[Fael]

I just finished mixing a part of one of my band's songs and we're definitely not satisfied. I did a lot of research but most of the tips and advice on this and other boards focus on metal. And even though I am a metalhead, my band is not.

Anyway, the loudest complaint I got from my bandmates is that the mix sounds "dead," "lifeless," or "sterile." And I agree with them.

I can't remember the exact chains but I think they're something like this: Rhythm guitar (double tracked and hard panned): Epiphone Les Paul -> 4 band Waves EQ -> C4 -> LeXTAC -> LeCab -> Waves TrueVerb -> C4
Bass: Shit Bass -> C4 -> Ampeg SVT
Lead guitar: Yamaha AES620 neck stock pickups -> ReValver
Drums: AD

I'd really like you guys to bash this mix completely so I can improve it.

First, I'd like to know what can I do to bring up the rhythm guitar. It sounds as really far... and dead. Kind of synthetic. Should I get rid of most of the crap on my chain? What should I change?

Second, I think the bass sounds like a fat lady farting. How can I make it more defined without distorting it?

Third, do you like the distortion on the lead guitar? I'm kind of leaning towards less gain... more like a RHCP clean solo sound.


Here's the URL:


Thanks!

 

[XnaySaturo]

Humanize the drums, and do something other than the same beat for the whole thing.
Thrash all those instances of C4. You probably don't need it at all. EQ before going into an amp sim? That's kinda weird too. You might want to use EQ AFTER.
If you don't know how to use C4, and can't get the sound you want with it, remove it from your bass chain too. "Shit bass" explains your "shit sound". Good bass with new strings is a good starting point. I'm not sure you're putting reverb on rhythm guitars or you're just talking about cleans here. Reverb on rhythm would only make them sound muddy/distant. Lead sounds kinda thin.

 

[Fael]

Humanize the drums, and do something other than the same beat for the whole thing.
Thrash all those instances of C4. You probably don't need it at all. EQ before going into an amp sim? That's kinda weird too. You might want to use EQ AFTER.
If you don't know how to use C4, and can't get the sound you want with it, remove it from your bass chain too. "Shit bass" explains your "shit sound". Good bass with new strings is a good starting point. I'm not sure you're putting reverb on rhythm guitars or you're just talking about cleans here. Reverb on rhythm would only make them sound muddy/distant. Lead sounds kinda thin.

Thanks! I really need more replies like this. That was very helpful.

I forgot to mention that I don't care about the current drums. I plan to redo them, this ones are just temporal.

I'll trash all of the C4's. And yeah, bass sucks.
I'll also try taking out some reverb.

Any more specific advice? Maybe on EQ?

 

[XnaySaturo]

Specific advice on EQ would be to avoid it as much as possible. Do everything you can to have a good sound first, and then maybe just HP/LP and a notch here and there but thats it.

 

[cloy26]

IMO, I always stick a saturation plug after the sim and before the IR... I use ferox. It's free and hopefully it will help you... I don't use an amp sim without it now.

 

[Fael]

IMO, I always stick a saturation plug after the sim and before the IR... I use ferox. It's free and hopefully it will help you... I don't use an amp sim without it now.

That sounds very very logical to me. I'll try it when I get home (that means in like 10 hours... my job is killing me....)

And I totally get the non-EQ specific advice, it was really stupid of me to ask for it.

The leads already have plenty of mids... I'll try adding some more. Oh and by the way, the last part is just fooling around... just the first part is meant to stay.
Someone also mentioned that the leads were "thin." How can I make them fatter? I thouhgt this was with EQ but I guess it maybe isn't. Should I be double-tracking the leads too?

Also, the leads have plenty of effects: reverb, delay, tremolo and a little distortion. Maybe I need to turn the gain knobs a little further?