Need mix balance input on a track

[Splat88]

I'm busy rerecording all my old shit with a Peavey 6505 which is working out great so far. The trouble is, I'm confined to mixing on headphones at the moment (AKG 702) because my Alesis M1 monitors sound like ass in my room.

I've always found the bass frequencies the most challenging to get right and with the headphones I can't tell if I've overdone it or not. Take a quick listen if you don't mind. Some input would be greatly appreciated.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/868701/Lost%20at%20Sea.mp3

 

[Disconnekt]

Sounds good with the bass balance, I think, except it's just a little bloated around 100 Hz. I think you might want to tighten up the decay of the kick (it's kind of boomy, but that could be some kind of interaction with the bass and/or dynamics processing rather than the kick itself). Also, the guitar and bass could use a little less fundamental and a little more midrange harmonics to my ears (they're also a bit boomy but otherwise recessed-sounding in the mix). I know that sounds totally inconsistent with what I started with, but I think the vocals, synths, snare, and cymbals are holding up the midrange and upper frequencies, so the overall spectral balance of the mix sounds fine to me... I'd just distribute it a bit differently within certain instruments. I'd reference the guitars and bass off of your most recent mixes of "Wake Darker Skies" and "Sand On Fire" (LOVE that one) on Soundcloud, and those mixes sound awesome except they could use a hair more low-end energy and slightly tamer upper-mids (they can be a bit strident at moments).

The vocals and drums (except the kick decay) sound perfect. Fantastic energy, clarity, and balance. I think the more buzzy-sounding synths could be pulled back or lowpassed just a bit.

Keep it coming!

 

[Splat88]

Thank you very much for the input. There's a lot of useful stuff in there, mang. I agree with you 100% about the other Soundcloud mixes being a bit harsh in the upper mids. With this track I tried to counter that and I think I went a little too far in the other direction. This is some frustrating shit, this thing called mixing. I love it and hate it all at the same time.

 

[Disconnekt]

No problem!

But yeah, mixing's tough enough without switching to a different room or monitoring system and starting from scratch... but once you're used to whatever you're using, you're home free. Most of your mixes are ridiculous, and for switching to headphones, this one's already at least 95% there. What's your DAW these days, and what was your guitar chain on this one? It sounds different from the newest "Wake Darker Skies".

 

[Splat88]

Another problem is thinking that a mix template will just transfer over to a different song just fine, which in this case it clearly hasn't. The guitar and bass chain is exactly the same in this one as it was in Wake with the exception of a slight eq change on the 6505 head. I'm using Cubase 6.5. The guitar chain was Ibanez S with a JB in the bridge - TS7 - 6505 - Weber Mega Dump attenuator - MAudio fasttrack pro - Cubase - Redwirez impulse loader with Catharsis spreshigh impulse. Very little post eq, mainly a high pass at 60hz. Bass was Soundgear into PODX3.

 

[Disconnekt]

Man, that's weird... I guess the high-end stuff I was hearing that sounded a bit buzzy was pretty much all synth. I'm pretty surprised that the lower mids aren't out of control with a TS7/6505/minimal EQ... I always have to pull them way down to fix boxiness/honk. In any case, the upper mids are definitely more controlled in the mix than before, but the rest of the midrange could come up and get filled out some... maybe blend some other impulses. I know you were using Revalver 3 at the time, but whatever impulses you had on the clip you did with the EMG 81 a while back had a nice full roar to them (and out of all the sims except maybe the latest X50 release, I think RV3 captured the real 5150 essence the best). I think with the current tone the rhythm guitars could come up just a bit in the mix as well, but maybe changing the guitar tone a bit would make it unnecessary.