My latest project!

[Aaron Smith]

For anyone interested, here’s a song from the latest project I’ve been doing, they’re a band out of Portland called Across The Sun:

http://www.sneapforum.celtiaproductions.co.uk/Aaron Smith/01 Means To An End.mp3

The mix isn’t perfect, but overall I’m quite pleased with it.
I mastered this track as well, and for the first time ever, I was able to match the loudness of legit releases...the funny thing is that I wasn’t even trying to! I remember a post that metalkingdom made once, mentioning that mastering something that’s mixed properly should take 10 minutes, otherwise you’re fixing a mix issue...well, this is the best sounding master I’ve ever done, and it was by far the easiest to achieve as it actually took just about 10 minutes to get it up and running. Anyway...I'm not proclaiming that it's a really amazing sounding master so much, but I'm excited at the same time because I can tell that it's a step forward for me!

Enjoy.

 

[flymo]

Sounds really fucking good man!!

The mix sounds awesome on my speakers.

Very good job!!

//flymo

 

[broken81]

Sounds very good dude!!

Did you actually track this band also or are you just mixing?

 

[KeithRT99]

sounds pretty good. any details?

 

[wishtheend]

The drums and guitars sound really good. It's a very dry mix though - and the keyboards just don't seem to fit well. Maybe use another organ sound - maybe something that has a bit more room sound to it, a little wider spread. All in all, sounds like a really solid mix. The drums sound really great! Props!

 

[CJWall]

Sounds great dude! The playing is very tight all around which gives it a very release ready sound.

Only thing I'm hearing is the snare has a bit too much low-end smack, making it a bit distracting from the rest of the mix.

5150 on guitars I assume?

 

[evolutions_end]

sounds fucking mint! how did you go about tracking it all?

its a very killswitch-esque song. nice pig squeals...skreeee

 

[nuclearass]

Sounds pretty damn good. Quite dark though and I agree about the keyboards in the beginning of the song. They sound too much like a cheap toy keyboard and have a pretty annoying top end. In the middle of the song the darker keyboards sound good.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Sounds badass and I am listening on a laptop.

Good job.

 

[JeffTD]

It is a fairly dry mix, particularly on the vocals, but it's strangely fitting.

The whole thing sounds incredible! Definitely release ready. Great work!

 

[Radd]

I'm not liking the keys that much either. I guess it's the mp3 file that is causing a weird, phasey-ness through out, especially in the hats.
Other than that, it sounds great. Cool band also.

 

[Soundlurker]

Great job!

However, I would like to point out a few things I would do differently. Might be a personal preference thing, but anyway:
-The mix overall might take a little more hi end
-Guitars have slightly more mids than they need, IMHO, and are a bit too loud
-Drums are too low in the mix, the snare is ok actually, but the kick could have more attack and power

That's pretty much it, not saying you have to make these changes but if you're looking for opinions I hope mine helps.

I really like the vocals, musically AND soundwise, very nice job! Also the overall sound of the soung does indeed sound pro

 

[Chryst Krispies]

The guitars sound really nice I think. And the keys in the beginning give it a cool vibe. Kinda like twisted It's cool. Great job duude.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Did you actually track this band also or are you just mixing?

Just mixing this one. This is actually the first project I've ever done a "mix only" job, and although the tracking was by no means terrible, I actually think I could have done a little better myself. The guitar tones weren't so hot, so I reamped them with my 5150, 2x12 v30 cab, and a single 57. I'm definitely getting better with mic placement/dialing the amp in, because it seems like every project I do I need to do less and less processing to the guitars. This time it was just a modest scoop in the low mids, a fairly wide boost in the 6k range, and multiband compression is really helping tame the "chuggas".
As for keyboards, they came to me as audio files so I can't try out different patches or anything. I think a lot of the ambient orchestra type sounds are sitting pretty well, but some of the sharper sounding stuff (like at the beginning) still needs a bit more work.
The clean vocals definitely need more wetness. The screams and growls have some reverb- I was kinda going for the "Alive Or Just Breathing" sound there -but I could probably turn up the reverb sends just a little bit on that too.
The snare and kick are both samples that I recorded from previous projects and re-processed for this project. For toms, the tracked toms were okay, but not the best...so I have to be entirely honest...they're the Chimaira toms with a little bit of further EQ on them. I would have used my drummer's toms (which sound incredibly similar in a mix), but he uses only two, and the Chimaira toms were the best three-tom samples I have at the moment. Plus the band really wanted me to try them out, haha... I told them to give Andy Sneap some credit in their booklet!

Only thing I'm hearing is the snare has a bit too much low-end smack, making it a bit distracting from the rest of the mix.

You're right, just a little though

I guess it's the mp3 file that is causing a weird, phasey-ness through out, especially in the hats.

Correct. I kind of cringed a little when I heard the mp3, haha.

-The mix overall might take a little more hi end
-Guitars have slightly more mids than they need, IMHO, and are a bit too loud
-Drums are too low in the mix, the snare is ok actually, but the kick could have more attack and power

I think the high end is okay actually...but it could sound that way because the mix is slightly muffled in the lower range, and it could use a little bit more 2k, which I will probably add to the guitars to help them cut through the mix a bit better. I also don't think the drums are too low in volume, but I do want the kick to have a little bit more space in the low end.
Does anyone else feel like the bass guitar is just a little too loud or too boomy? I want the bass to have some depth and fullness to it that some of Andy's mixes lack at times..."The End of Heartache" and "Resurrection" both are absolutely killer mixes, but the bass guitar is really hard to hear a lot of the time.

Anyway, thanks for the input dudes, I always really like getting opinions on this stuff!

 

[Chryst Krispies]

I think the bass is good where it is. I can definately hear it standing out.

 

[CJWall]

Bass sounds perfect here and I'm listening on these crazy built-in CRT monitor speakers that honest to god, are the most revealing speakers I've ever heard when it comes exposing flaws in low-end and overall balances.

 

[Radd]

Nothing in particular stood out with the bass/low end. It just simply blended "normally" with the mix.

 

[JeffTD]

I fucking love this vocalist - he sounds like a blend between Howard Jones and the singer from 36 Crazyfists.

 

[evolutions_end]

What kind of vocal reverb did you use?

 

[Aaron Smith]

Waves R-Verb on vocals, Digidesign D-Verb on the drums.