Prog-melodic-rock-metal-or shit like that with real drums,,,(beware rant inside)

[>>>GENZ<<<]

Hallo,
My first entry in this subforum,
and a bit of whining from the start

Done this mix about 2 month ago,The band wanted to mix one song they recorded themselves.
they were quite difficult to work with,it felt like they just didn't know what they wanted actually.
in the end they didn't pay and dissapeared without a trace... sent them a few emails after,but no one was there....
I really hate this shit.. everything was normal,they were serious,happy with price and whatnot,
I even made 1 revision and then.....nothing.

it's a shame,that they act like irresponsible wankers.
they're not so bad as musicians though...

it's frustrating,after such incidents i loose self confidence for some time and start thinking that i suck so bad,so people don't even bother to say that...they just piss off.


Here's the mix:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5485685/TORN_R1_M.mp3


the chorus obviously is a mess - strings,brass and vocals are in the same range,and they wanted them there at the same time,
i also don't have any proper sample libraries,so it sounds like midi from windows synth, uke:
I don't even think symphonic stuff would suit the song,i'd rather tried some synths ala 80's ...

Drums are real,they insisted on using only real sounds,no replacement as they thought their drums recorded really good,,,,
heh,
gtrs were printed with some unknown device,i didn't bother to ask.
anyway i couldn't do a lot to them - too overgained and no DI's

So,
What do you think of it all?

 

[>>>GENZ<<<]

Anyone?

 

[>>>GENZ<<<]

Seriously,
no one?

 

[NNotN-ENN]

Hey man it sounds pretty good. Maybe not the hugest mix ever, but it fits the style pretty well. Pretty punchy and airy. I actually think these drums do sound pretty good, especially since they're all natural. I'd probably only blend samples underneath for some consistency.... the tones are already there (maybe the snare could do with a little fattening? all a matter of taste really). Drummer is occasionally playing catch up with himself and losing timing coming back from a couple of fills, but not much you can do about that now...
I get what you mean about the chorus.. are you doing any automation there? I think the synth/horns could get away with sitting a little lower than it is (or even riding the vocal up slightly), and you could try duplicating the track and panning them a little bit out from centre to give the vox some room (they're definitely clashing, frequency-wise).
It's generally pretty solid man... bummer about the band bailing out

 

[>>>GENZ<<<]

Thanks man!
Samples are actually there kick 100%,snare and toms 30-40%,I've selected samples to match original drums.to augment and
clean up the mix yet retain real drums feel. something like SSD would've not worked here.
There is automation through out the song,mainly on rhytm gtrs,but that chorus is just too much for me... never mixed such dense arrangements to be honest,,,,and better monitoring would definetely help,as this was mixed entirely on headphones (Audiotechnica ATH-M30)

 

[Pawel]

Nice song,nice vocal,nice guitar tone,nice.....