Post Hardcore song, I need more low end in this mix, help!

[chrisadvocate]

This is my band's new single I've been working on for a while now. I'm happy with the mix for the most part, but I feel like it's really lacking low end. I feel like the guitars sound extremely thin, and I'm not sure how to give it more body and thickness. I also feel like the kick just isn't giving that "oomph" I want. I think it's probably because of the samples I'm using, but I know I've managed to get more oomph out of it, but I can't figure out how. Anyways, here it is, give it a listen.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8879741/Illusions.mp3

Thanks guys!

 

[FadeToMuffins864]

Needs moar bass guitar. Also mix sounds smashed to death. Also vocals need to come way up. I can tell you turned them down because you're not confident in them, and I'm not gonna lie, they could be better.

 

[chrisadvocate]

Really? The bass sounded almost too loud on my monitors. I'll try and push it more. The smashing is probably from the multipressor on my master bus, should I just let off of it a bit? And yeah, this is my first try doing clean vocals, I'm not entirely happy with how they are at the moment and have no idea how to make them better. I thought the screaming was at a good level though, should that be louder as well? I'm pretty happy with how the screams sound.

 

[FadeToMuffins864]

Really? The bass sounded almost too loud on my monitors. I'll try and push it more. The smashing is probably from the multipressor on my master bus, should I just let off of it a bit? And yeah, this is my first try doing clean vocals, I'm not entirely happy with how they are at the moment and have no idea how to make them better. I thought the screaming was at a good level though, should that be louder as well? I'm pretty happy with how the screams sound.

Not more bass frequencies, just more bass guitar. The bass guitar needs to provide the meat/body of the harmonic content (christmas tree) and your guitars should sit on top of it (ornaments). The cleans weren't bad, it was the screams in the beginning that sound sort of unconvincing and not aggressive enough. At least in the beginning. It sounds like you turned them down so you could only hear the vocal chord constriction, and not any of the actual timbre of the scream, which in my experience is usually what inexperienced screamers do who are self-conscious of the aggressive quality of their screams.

And yeah, the mix is SMASHED TO DEATH, it's causing very audible distortion to the high end of your rhythm guitars, and makes the transient of your snare drum sound papery. Back off on the limiting/compression. And then back it off some more. And then back it off some more from there. And probably still more. I'm not saying that to be sarcastic, I'm saying it because I get the impression the loudness is really impairing your ability to judge the mix.

edit: That's actually part of why your mix is lacking low end. When you limit/compress a mix too much, the low end starts to become weak, and the highs get unnaturally emphasized because of all of the distortion that's happening from the limiting.

 

[chrisadvocate]

I completely remixed the whole thing from the ground up. As well as letting off a TON of the multipressor on my master bus. Let me know how it sounds.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8879741/Illusions REDO.mp3

 

[FadeToMuffins864]

It actually sounds louder than the other one. Your snare transient is still being squashed. Also, the guitars are waaay to trebbly. Back off on the high shelf, because I hear them fighting with everything in the high end of your mix.

Back to your snare drum, I'm not sure how to fix it. I would reccommend pulling back on your limiter a lot more. Beyond that, slow down the attack on the snare compressor maybe.

 

[Jarpse]

A little bit too much high end going on in the vocals.

The bass guitar is very audible to me in both mixes, pretty pushing in the low mids. some Music Man bass perhaps? Listening on mediocre KRK's tho.