Mixing New CD with low budget equipment, advice?

[ADRSean]

Ok. So here is how it all is going down. I am not well off money wise. But production is my passion, and I will do it forever. So i'm starting with all I can afford. This is my 4th production but it's going well. A local rock/screamo band and I are making this new CD and this is the way we are doing it.

Guitars, we have NO money to get a direct interface, nor a better amp. Or mic. We are using an Audio-Technica USB condesor mic and a Line 6 120 Watt Spider III combo.

Drums were EZdrummer and oversampled/eq'd/compressed.

Bass is not done yet, makeshift Guitarpro bass is thrown in for sound.

Vocals were using the same mic as guitar and a windscreen. A lot of compression, EQ/etc.

I only have one program to mix with, and that's Adobe Audition 1.5. I've used it for years, and I'd like to say I mastered it. I know each thing on there, and I have a few plugins (Drumagog, CurveEQ). And yeah,

http://www.4shared.com/file/81958046/833c0412/Fear_Of_Living_In_Regret_-_ADRSean_Mix.html - that's the mix/master of the first track.

I don't have monitors. It sucks. I have only little headphones that are shitty. So, I can't hear any buzzing. But we think this is really good sounding. I don't know how to change the tone, i already eq'd it to get that.

Thoughts? I know I had a thread on this, but it didn't have the right info/old mix.

 

[nwright]

Overall level seems quiet, guitars sound a little buried and the high hat is very annoying to my ears. The vocals sound a lot better "produced" than the guitars to the point where it sounds like they were just "thrown over the top" if that makes sense.

Not bad...But man, that high hat has gotta do down...

 

[ADRSean]

Overall level seems quiet, guitars sound a little buried and the high hat is very annoying to my ears. The vocals sound a lot better "produced" than the guitars to the point where it sounds like they were just "thrown over the top" if that makes sense.

Not bad...But man, that high hat has gotta do down...

At the hi hats point *looks at multi-track* woops those are up higher than I had them! ha. Good call.

The overall mix is quiet, and the guitars are "too loud" to the band i'm producing ha. I told 'em screw it and i'm doing things my way to see if they like it. I want to raise up the guitars, oversample the hi-hat, lower it, and raise the mix up entirely.

 

[nwright]

the mix as a whole sounds somewhat small. Perhaps brightening the guitars and adding some parallel compression to the drums could help. It just kinda sounds currently like there is a bunch of sound trying to be stuffed in a small box.

I'd say the biggest reason why I hear it this way is because you used headphones to mix.

 

[ADRSean]

Thank you. Yeah I hadte my equipment. i'm doing an update to the mix right now. Can you recommend any good snares?

 

[JMarz]

DKFH with some nice EQing.

also, an idea, try and get your line 6 to sound as absolutely clean (DI-sounding) as possible, and maybe throw in Wagner VST's/maybe some impulses to the guitar tracks? don't know if that would work, but i suppose it's worth a shot!

 

[GarethSE]

DKFH with some nice EQing.

also, an idea, try and get your line 6 to sound as absolutely clean (DI-sounding) as possible, and maybe throw in Wagner VST's/maybe some impulses to the guitar tracks? don't know if that would work, but i suppose it's worth a shot!

Yeah I swear its possible to turn the cab sims off, or maybe that's just Pods..
But yeah I was gonna suggest Wagner.
You've got more than enough equipment here to somehow coax out a fairly decent mix.

Check out the sneap forum FTP for drum samples, and then there was a topic with drum mixing advice
You'll be almost there by then.