My latest mix (The Storyteller)

[jipchen]

Hey guys,
please tell me what you think about my latest mix! Criticism is welcome
This song was recorded by the band (M-Audio 24/96 soundcard, Studioprojects VBT1 preamp), drums are Superior Drummer for the cymbals, Slate and other samples for the rest.
Rhythm guitars have been reamped by lolzgreg here on the forum (I guess most of you know him) through his 5150 and a Mesa Cab if I'm correct (www.myspace.com/thetomatofarmstudio).
The band is "The Storyteller" from Sweden (http://www.storyteller.nu).

Here's the mix: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3245929/sancto spirito.mp3

Cheers,
Max

 

[Ermz]

One of the guys from that band was a regular member here several years back (nickname 'The Storyteller'). He was a pretty good engineer from memory - any reason he didn't work on this, or is he no longer in the band anymore?

On headphones at the moment, so can't really judge this properly.

 

[jipchen]

One of the guys from that band was a regular member here several years back (nickname 'The Storyteller'). He was a pretty good engineer from memory - any reason he didn't work on this, or is he no longer in the band anymore?

On headphones at the moment, so can't really judge this properly.

I honestly don't know. I didn't talk to the user "The Storyteller", but their new bassist Marcus. He's on the forum too so perhaps he'll chime in.

Your feedback would be much appreciated Ermin

It's my first mix with the new monitors in the new (3/4 finished) room, so despite the improved monitoring it wasn't very easy because everything sounds so different, haha (I tend to make mixes much too wet now, never had that problem before).

 

[DanLights]

there seems to be something too low-middy about the whole mix, like guitars and bass both need to be cut in that area, makes everything a bit too woofy. I like the highs though, vocals are awesome, so are lead/melody guitars. Guitars are too "round" for my taste, and drums are kind of weak, I don't like the snare. Still, not bad dude

 

[dcb]

hm, guitars seem to sit on top of the mix, the whole thing is not really focusing on the main elements of the mix (id say vocals are crucial here).
drums sound cool, love the superior drumroom. but id try getting the vocals up front, cause they are pretty strong i think!

 

[Mago]

Despite reading a lot of you in the forums I think I never heared a mix from you Max, so this is the first time

Some vocal stuff sounds quite off for me tbh

Mixwise I'd tame the quitars a bit, they are eating quite a lot of EQspace I think, especially in the higher ranges
there's some nastyness going on in them that I'm not a huge fan of
I like the bass & drums they sound cool
bit much reverb on the choir vocals I think
Snare sounds a bit "distant", maybe a bit less room?

 

[AEL89]

there seems to be something too low-middy about the whole mix, like guitars and bass both need to be cut in that area, makes everything a bit too woofy. I like the highs though, vocals are awesome, so are lead/melody guitars. Guitars are too "round" for my taste, and drums are kind of weak, I don't like the snare. Still, not bad dude

Maybe your monitoring/room dude, sounds pretty good in that area to me.

I think you just need to carve a little room for each element. Definitely a bit more 3k for the vocals and get rid of some 2k in the guitars just to give the vocals even more space.

hm, guitars seem to sit on top of the mix, the whole thing is not really focusing on the main elements of the mix (id say vocals are crucial here).
drums sound cool, love the superior drumroom. but id try getting the vocals up front, cause they are pretty strong i think!

Yeh, vocals just need to be sat in a little more for me too. And the drums are great. The low end is cool too - great relationship between kick and bass.

Solid mix overall though man. I'm sure you'll be churning out awesome mixes once you're used to your room!

 

[OneDaySky]

Loving the vocals Max Yeah there is just something to prominent in the guitars.

 

[jipchen]

Oh wow, thanks a lot for the comments guys! I totally missed the answers (the thread wasn't highlighted bold.. dunno why) - sorry

I felt the guitars were a bit absent sounding at first so I pushed the hights pretty hard .. too hard obviously.
Instead of taming the rest I just boosted them, haha damn it. I should know better.
Some nasty spikes are already cut out, but cutting more meant making them muddy so there's still a bit fizz.

I fiddled around a bit - before reading your comments - and today I used the curve EQ for the first time. I actually like what it did, but the guitars got even nastier so I'll work some more on that. The mix got a bit clearer, though. I was about to ask what you think of the new version but now I will go back and try to optimize what you guys mentioned. Thanks for the help!

By the way, I noticed that I accidently fucked up the mixbus compressor (attack was 3 instead of my normal 30), the drums got a lot better after fixing it.
I had a bit of a hard time with the vocals with the de-esser because the s's were really nasty but cutting too much was no option either.