Trying to get my mix better before recording! (Critique please)

when you say it has nothing to it... meaning its too clicky without enough thump? i can fix that. I just know a lot of people like the clicky sounds these days lol. I like thump, but i also like click... having a tid bit of trouble finding the best of both worlds. What about the snare and cymbals? any input on those?
 
TheToddGreen said:
when you say it has nothing to it... meaning its too clicky without enough thump? i can fix that. I just know a lot of people like the clicky sounds these days lol. I like thump, but i also like click... having a tid bit of trouble finding the best of both worlds. What about the snare and cymbals? any input on those?
Click to expand...
Yeah, pretty much. I also just don't like that particular sample. Add some reverb to the OHs, bring the snare up a bit. Compress it a little. Are you mixing the drums inside SD2? It sounds much better when you apply effects after. Also, are you just using one output or many? There will be a HUGE difference when you use multi out drums. You should also do some post processing to the guitars. It doesn't sound like you did any. Did you master this yet?

EDIT: Bring the kick up too.
 
Yeah, pretty much. I also just don't like that particular sample.
Click to expand...

Well, what you hear is nothing like the kick "sample" i am using, because i have EQs compressed filtered etc etc to it

Ill throw my OH into my Reverb bus in Reaper. I have a small amount of Verb in theit bus within Superior, maybe doing it parallel will help without it being overbearing.

Compress what? The OHs?

And about mixing. I do most mixing in S20, but i do run a multi-out, mainly because its a lot easier to work with levels. I add a bus in Reaper, to where everything goes to it, so it creates an identical parallel track, which IMO really adds a lot to it. I have added compression to that bus as well. I also have a second parallel bus in Reaper for Verb, which only my snare and Toms are in at the moment.

with your EDIT: thats funny, right before i posted this, i brought the kick, snare, and overheads down *facepalm*

Here is the mix directly before i turned them down and changed the kick a tad... if this one is better, then we will work at fixing this one instead haha

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6329133/toddssamples%2Bbetterdrums.mp3
 
oroinvictus: The kick could do with some more click in the 1-2k range. The guitars are also a bit dark. The snare could stand to come up some, it tends to get buried under everything else.
Click to expand...

The way im trying to get my kick to have click and "thump" is by adding some click to around the 8k 12k ranges, and boosting a ton around the 60 range, with a strong Q to make it where its steep curves (or maybe thats a light Q idk lol) So you think i should take that 8k and 12k around to 1k and 2k instead? or just add some into the 1-2k range as well?

What do you mean by "dark"? That's a new term for me, i think i know what you are talking about, but what would you do to "fix" it? My older mixes the entire mix especially guitar just sounded what people said "muffled", then ive worked on em... Dark sounds better than Muffled so i guess im on the right track? haha (or maybe its the same) Where should I start with trying to fix this problem

And like i told MisSigs, ironically i turned down the snare, OHs, and kick from my previous mix before posting.. here's the link to right before, if this is better, lets discuss this one instead haha

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6329133/toddssamples+betterdrums.mp3
Click to expand...
 
I meant compressing the snare a bit. It needs some serious EQing. The OHs could use some comp as well. Mid to High range. As for the kick. I suggest a completely different sample. Nothing from SD2. They're all garbage.
 
MisSigs:

compressing snare more? okay, check. i will do that tonight.
What type of EQing would you do to the snare? I made it a little deeper than before. The most recent Mix i posted (the one i said was older, before i brought some levels down) had a more "poppy" snare as well... or is the pitch fine?

When you say comp, then follow with "mid to high range", do you mean compress in that range? i didn't know that was something you did. I thought compression was an overall thing with velocity levels.... not pitch? Or am i reading that wrong?

EDIT:
MisSigsFan said:
As in, the song sounds REALLY muffled.
Click to expand...
Crap... it was worse before.... goodness. Before i took a 1-2 year hiatus from recording, i had the opposite problem... it was too thin, and bright, and just plain annoying with no meat... now im on the other end of the spectrum.... *head meets desk*
 
TheToddGreen said:
MisSigs:

compressing snare more? okay, check. i will do that tonight.
What type of EQing would you do to the snare? I made it a little deeper than before. The most recent Mix i posted (the one i said was older, before i brought some levels down) had a more "poppy" snare as well... or is the pitch fine?

When you say comp, then follow with "mid to high range", do you mean compress in that range? i didn't know that was something you did. I thought compression was an overall thing with velocity levels.... not pitch? Or am i reading that wrong?
Click to expand...
Mid to high refers to the mid and high wave lengths. You can compress individual wavelengths if the plug in you have allows for that.

As for EQing the snare, boost the mids and lows a tiny bit. It also sounds like the snare is bleeding out into the OHs too much. Bring up the volume of the first snare mic, bring down the others a bit.
 
The guitars in betterdrums1 sound better than betterdrums2, personally. By dark I mean muffled-sounding, like there's too much low-mids (maybe 200-700hz range) and not enough high-end. The mix as a whole sounds like there's a lot going on in the low-range area that could be cleared up.
 
MisSigsFan said:
Mid to high refers to the mid and high wave lengths. You can compress individual wavelengths if the plug in you have allows for that.

As for EQing, boost the mids and lows a tiny bit. It also sounds like the snare is bleeding out into the OHs too much. Bring up the volume of the first snare mic, bring down the others a bit.
Click to expand...


I currently just invested in some of Waves plugins. Love some, but some are just weird and hard to figure out, especially the compression. Any compression you would suggest that has that capability? (preferably free) or EQ plugin you would suggest?

As for the snare advice, that is clear cut, thanks a ton, makes perfect sense, i knew something was just not right about it
 
oroinvictus said:
The guitars in betterdrums1 sound better than betterdrums2, personally. By dark I mean muffled-sounding, like there's too much low-mids (maybe 200-700hz range) and not enough high-end. The mix as a whole sounds like there's a lot going on in the low-range area that could be cleared up.
Click to expand...

Really? i didn't do anything to the guitars between those two mixes..... Would that just be a result of the way everything is sitting together in the mix?

a lot going on in the low range.... hmmmm before i added post EQ to my guitars, i thought they were too high. and didnt sit with everything. I'm really trying to work on the technique of giving everything its own "space"

Like my kick, i was working on its "space" being around the 60, with an added click. Bass from like 75-130 or so. And guitars .... crap im on a different computer and forgot what range i was boosting them at.... durrrrrrr, when you said 200-700 were you referring to guitars?
 
TheToddGreen said:
I currently just invested in some of Waves plugins. Love some, but some are just weird and hard to figure out, especially the compression. Any compression you would suggest that has that capability? (preferably free) or EQ plugin you would suggest?

As for the snare advice, that is clear cut, thanks a ton, makes perfect sense, i knew something was just not right about it
Click to expand...

I use Sonar X1 and it comes with some really handy plugins. LP-64 EQ and LP-64 Multiband Compression. Those are what I use.
 
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