new mix [pop/punk inside!]

[Ganks]

Hey guy,

This is a new mix I'm doing for a local band. There are no vocals or bass in this track, but I wanted to know how my guitar tone sounded.
Does it fit this style?


Ps - Disregard the incredibly sloppy drummer. Their drummer is 13, and I'm going to have to do some major hand-editing or re-recording before this is released.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say.mp3

Comment away about guitar tone, and overall about the mix!

Thanks guys!

UPDATE:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_DRUMSEDIT.mp3

Here's the updated mix. I edited the crap out of the drums. Some parts are still a little sloppy, but this was my first time editing drums, EVER! Whew, what a chore, too.

The bassist tracked his bass today, and here's the result.
Rhythm guitars are panned 100% L & R.
Lead guitars are panned 80% L & R.
The harmonic melodic parts are centered.

UPDATE #2:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_GUITMIDS.mp3

Updated mix.

- Did nothing different to drums from last mix.
- High Pass Filter on all guitars at 225Hz
- 2.5 db boost between 600-650Hz on all guitars.
- 5.5KHz boost on all guitars (About 2.5 db)
- Brought the volume of the bass up.

UPDATE #3.

Here's an updated mix with GClip on the master bus.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All%...TER_LOUDER.mp3

Settings for GClip:

Gain - 10 Db
Clip - 100%
Softness - 100%


Do you think it distorts the mix at all? I just wanted to bring the overall volume up a little.

UPDATE #4.

Here's another updated mix with GClip turned down a bit:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_MASTER_LOUD_OZONE.mp3

Gain: 5 Db
Clip: 100%
Softness: 60%

I've also added a little bit of Loudness Maximizer from Izotope's Ozone 4.

I set the threshold at -2.5.

I also added this to the master bus.

UPDATE #5.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_HIGHPASS.mp3

- Boosted mids of guitars. (about 4db)
- Increased high pass filter on all guitars to 300Hz.

UPDATE #6: PROBABLY FINAL.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/REMIX.mp3

Let me know what else I can do to improve this mix! Thanks guys!

 

[Ganks]

Is it that bad?

 

[colynomial]

Guitar tone sounds OK but it sounds like you have everything panned up the center?

Don't forget that the bass guitar makes up a big part of what your final perception of the guitar tone will be. Right now your guitars sound very scooped with a good deal of lows but you're going to want the bass to fill in that region of your mix so if the guitars don't sound big and chuggy on their own it doesn't necessarily matter- in fact it may just make your mix muddier. Arguably some of the best guitar tones are the ones that serve the mix and don't sound like you'd "expect" them to sound on their own.

Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you in the editing department- good luck.

 

[AStacy2]

Hey man,

The drumming is that bad, sorry. That's not your fault though, but next time try and push the musicians for better takes because it will make your job much easier and ultimately the final product better in the end.

I think the guitar tone could work but like Colin said about the bass is definitely true. Post it back up with some bass and we'll see what's going on better. For now, I would say the tone sounds a little scooped in the mids and maybe lacking some prescense.

 

[Ganks]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All%..._DRUMSEDIT.mp3

Here's the updated mix. I edited the crap out of the drums. Some parts are still a little sloppy, but this was my first time editing drums, EVER! Whew, what a chore, too.

The bassist tracked his bass today, and here's the result.
Rhythm guitars are panned 100% L & R.
Lead guitars are panned 80% L & R.
The harmonic melodic parts are centered.

Let me know what you guys think now!

Any suggestions are extremely appreciated!

 

[colynomial]

Ok this sounds a lot better BUT...

Drums are still pretty disasterous dude- of course you can't be blamed for the performance but you should really force the bands to track to a metronome to give yourself a fighting chance when editing. Guits are pretty scooped and boomy which makes them feel buried. You should throw a highpass filter on them at least up until the fundamental frequency of the lowest note on the guitar (this is usually my rule) or until they start sounding thin.

Big improvement from the first version but you're probably going to need much better source information (in terms of performance) before you can get a really professional sounding mix. At this stage in the game it wont hurt to reference your mixes against something you know sounds good already. In other words, load a New Found Glory track or something into your session on a separate stereo track then go back and forth between your mix and it to see what yours is lacking and can improve upon. Andy Sneap doesn't need to do this because he is just that awesome but for the rest of us it can help to get you moving in the right direction.

 

[Ganks]

Ok this sounds a lot better BUT...

Drums are still pretty disasterous dude- of course you can't be blamed for the performance but you should really force the bands to track to a metronome to give yourself a fighting chance when editing. Guits are pretty scooped and boomy which makes them feel buried. You should throw a highpass filter on them at least up until the fundamental frequency of the lowest note on the guitar (this is usually my rule) or until they start sounding thin.

Big improvement from the first version but you're probably going to need much better source information (in terms of performance) before you can get a really professional sounding mix. At this stage in the game it wont hurt to reference your mixes against something you know sounds good already. In other words, load a New Found Glory track or something into your session on a separate stereo track then go back and forth between your mix and it to see what yours is lacking and can improve upon. Andy Sneap doesn't need to do this because he is just that awesome but for the rest of us it can help to get you moving in the right direction.

Thank you for all the help.

Yeah, the drums are awful, and I know that.
But this is technically a demo for the band, so I'm not TOO worried about it. And I'm doing it for free.

It's a learning experience for me, as well as the musicians. So everything I learn here, I'll take away with me.

As far as drum editing goes, do you think this'll pass for a demo?

And also, I'm going to upload a new track with brighter guitars.
Possibly a boost in the 5Khz area? Along with a boost in the 600Hz area?

Also, my high pass filter is set on 100Hz on the guitars right now.
I'll bring that up to around 250 or 300, and re-upload.

Thank you again for the help!

 

[Ganks]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_GUITMIDS.mp3

Updated mix.

- Did nothing different to drums from last mix.
- High Pass Filter on all guitars at 225Hz
- 2.5 db boost between 600-650Hz on all guitars.
- 5.5KHz boost on all guitars (About 2.5 db)
- Brought the volume of the bass up.

Let me know what else I can do to improve this mix! Thanks guys!

 

[Ganks]

Is the updated mix any better?

 

[colynomial]

Yea it's better man. Guitars are still pretty dark sounding though. You probably know this but you've got some funky edits going on here and there too where it sounds like you missed a crossfade.

 

[Ganks]

I want to say thank you for all the help. This is definitely my best mix yet.
It might not be the best performance from the musicians, but the mix is definitely my best.

That being said, PLEASE point out anything I can do to make it better. I know I should have gotten a better performance out of the musicians, but we were pushed for time.

Anyways,

Here's an updated mix with GClip on the master bus.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_MASTER_LOUDER.mp3

Settings for GClip:

Gain - 10 Db
Clip - 100%
Softness - 100%


Do you think it distorts the mix at all? I just wanted to bring the overall volume up a little.

I can always take the gain back down to around 6 Db.

What do you think?

 

[colynomial]

Yea you've got a bit of distortion going on I would back off G Clip a bit. Make sure your out ceiling is set to -0.3 to prevent distortion when converting to mp3. Don't necessarily need 100% softness unless you like the way it sounds. Glad I could help a bit- big improvements from what you originally posted despite the dismal performances- keep practicing.

 

[Ganks]

I think it's much better, as well.

I'm very proud of this recording and how it turned out, despite the poor performances.

Anyways, I know I'm uploading a TON of clips, but it's helping me out tremendously!

Here's another updated mix with GClip turned down a bit:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_MASTER_LOUD_OZONE.mp3

Gain: 5 Db
Clip: 100%
Softness: 60%

I've also added a little bit of Loudness Maximizer from Izotope's Ozone 4.

I set the threshold at -2.5.

I also added this to the master bus.
Let me know if this sounds any better.

Any distortion?
I think it may have also brightened the guitars just a tad.

 

[Morgan C]

Why don't you just program the drums? It'll be faster than editing it all by hand, for this style, and probably sound much better.

Guitars are still too scooped, and have too much lows.

 

[Ganks]

Why don't you just program the drums? It'll be faster than editing it all by hand, for this style, and probably sound much better.

Guitars are still too scooped, and have too much lows.

I've never programmed drums before and I have no idea how. Haha.

And I'm pretty sure this whole song is off-tempo anyways because they did not track with a metronome.

I'm uploading a new track with the mids of guitars boosted (about 4 db), and the high pass filter at 300Hz on all guitars.
Let me know if this sounds better.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/All The Things I Couldnt Say_HIGHPASS.mp3

 

[Damian B]

Dude I applaud your effort on those drums, they were absolutely horrible, and now they are fairly listenable.

 

[Ganks]

Dude I applaud your effort on those drums, they were absolutely horrible, and now they are fairly listenable.

Thank you so much man.

I tried to retrack the drums myself, but there are such bad timing issues with this song that it is hopeless. So I had to hand-edit them all.

But I'm learning that a good engineer will make the most of what he/she has!

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[Ganks]

Edit: Nothing

 

[Ganks]

I know I have kept this thread going for FOREVER, and I'm SO incredibly tired of this song, but business is REALLY tight down here (Thomasville, GA), and so I have to work with what I have.

I updated this mix after taking like a week break from it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2798302/REMIX.mp3


I wanted to make the vocals sit, and I cleaned up the guitars some.

Let me know if this one sounds better?

Things to remember for their next track:

- Record with CLICK!
- Use another guitar (one I have here)

Let me know if this is better than the rest.

 

[whatwhat]

I hear some peaking/disortion?