NSGuitar's Stems - Please help critique the whole mix...

[Virgil.]

Yes, ANOTHER thread with these; but, if everyone can get away with re-posting their mixes of the Rose of Sharyn or Narcosynthesis, I should be able to get away with this, right? lol :Spin:

Please critique my mix. I'm looking to get better, so any criticism, suggestions, or compliments are welcomed. Thank you!

Edit: I haven't had time to mess around with the vocals, so this is just an instrumental version for now.

 

[Virgil.]

buuuuuump. Anyone?

Here's an updated mix I did today...

 

[Virgil.]

Oh, and I didn't adjust the guitars at all from one mix to the other. Just goes to show how much the other instruments have a role to play in how they effect the overall sound. So many of us chase the "perfect" guitar tone, but we neglect learning how to make other instruments sit in a mix. So this is good practice for me

 

[Virgil.]

Bueller?

 

[MaellaJohn]

I was pleased when I didn't hear the vocals, not having read that you didn't have time for them.
The guy's voice annoyed the hell out of me.

I'm not really feeling the kick. What did you use for the guitars?

 

[Virgil.]

I was pleased when I didn't hear the vocals, not having read that you didn't have time for them.
The guy's voice annoyed the hell out of me.

I'm not really feeling the kick. What did you use for the guitars?

Haha yeah I feel the same way about the vocals. I spent all weekend trying to get vocals added to it, but they keep pissing me off. They are auto-tuned, but still sound out of tune. wtf is up w/ that?

The guitars are Lepou's Legion with a combination of Catharsis s-preshigh impulses and Recabinet. No TS in front, just a slight pre-EQ boost in the high mids and pretty standard post eq.

 

[MaellaJohn]

Haha yeah I feel the same way about the vocals. I spent all weekend trying to get vocals added to it, but they keep pissing me off. They are auto-tuned, but still sound out of tune. wtf is up w/ that?

The guitars are Lepou's Legion with a combination of Catharsis s-preshigh impulses and Recabinet. No TS in front, just a slight pre-EQ boost in the high mids and pretty standard post eq.

Plus, some people just have annoying voices and that guy is one of them. Plus, his screams aren't really all that great. On my mix of the song, I did a LOT of tweaking the vocals and harmonizing them by duplicating tracks, panning them, and pitch shifting them.
It didn't help that much.

But, as an honest opinion, this band seems like the type to be presented with the Sturgis sound written all over it. I think yours is a little too warm and not compressed enough.

 

[Virgil.]

Plus, some people just have annoying voices and that guy is one of them. Plus, his screams aren't really all that great. On my mix of the song, I did a LOT of tweaking the vocals and harmonizing them by duplicating tracks, panning them, and pitch shifting them.
It didn't help that much.

But, as an honest opinion, this band seems like the type to be presented with the Sturgis sound written all over it. I think yours is a little too warm and not compressed enough.

"Warm" and somewhat natural is what I was going for. Haha. Glad it sounds that way a little at least. And I completely agree... This band definitely would sound great with Joey on production and mixing duties.

And I tried all the same things you did for the vocals as well. No dice.

Edit: Let me correct myself... I got the screams and some of the clean chorus harmonies to sound pretty decent. However, the lead chorus vocals and the deep mean guy growls just wouldn't stop sounding like shit no matter how much I compressed, eq'd, panned, pitch shifted, saturated, added effects to, etc. To be fair though, I am completely new to mixing vocals, so it's a learning process for me. But I think I was able to get a really good verse screaming sound out of that guy's vox.... it's just the actual chorus clean lines that got to me. Eh, oh well. I tried. My guess is my time would be spent learning how to mix natural vocals from a good vocalist instead of pre-auto-tuned tracks.
No offense to the singer he has, but I guess my ears are just tired of hearing the same screaming verse > auto-tuned cleans >growl breakdown > screams> auto-tune, etc. etc. forumla.