Mix opinion/mastering problem

[MaellaJohn]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9992828/mix2 master.mp3

This is my second professional take at producing. I wanted to hear some opinions.


Also, the preamp is all nice and pretty. And then I go to amp it up in the mastering process and it sounds like it's being beaten to death. It's not always a bad thing, I guess, but it sounds too pumpy for my tastes.
I can't get a consistent volume level without ruining it, either. I've never really had this problem when doing mastering before, given I'm still pretty much in the "noob" tier of producing.

I tried applying some comp and it made it more pumpy. I'm stumped. :/

Master chain:
C4 > Ozone > Limiter

 

[Wyldechyld]

The drums are very robotic.. It sounds like all the hits are at the same velocity.. They need to vary a little bit, especially in fills. As for the distorted guitars, they sound kind of muddy, but the clean guitar part sounds good. Also, the part at 2:20 was totally unexpected but it was cool.

 

[MaellaJohn]

I think I'm going to high pass the guitars and bring the bass down just a little to clean that up.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure how to go about randomizing the velocities. I'm not using .midi or anything and I don't feel like sitting there for 5 hours and manually automating for each drum. :S

 

[Wyldechyld]

What are you using for drums?

 

[MaellaJohn]

An old program called Drumsite. It was cheap and simple to use when my guitarist bought it. It's easier for him to program the drums as he goes when he writes the songs. So we program into that, and then bounce the drum tracks as .wav files, then I just load them into Cubase.

 

[Wyldechyld]

If you can export it as a midi file i'll run it through superior drummer and randomize it a little..

 

[MaellaJohn]

I don't like Superior. As far as I know, you can't use custom samples with it and I have this kit of samples that I'm really partial to.

Is there another plug or program that I can load midi files into which lets you load in your own samples and randomize velocities?
That would be the sexiest plug known to.. me. Besides melodyne. That shut makes editing singing fun as balls.

 

[Wyldechyld]

You can randomize the velocities with Reaper and I think you can load your own samples with it too but I'm not completely sure.