What is wrong in my mix?

[Laban]

Hi guys, this is my first post so please be gentle.

I am a guitarist and have been recording demo stuff on my home PC for about ten years but never cared much for effects and the mixing process. But after hearing what some people can achieve I thought it could be nice to learn a little and maybe produce a recording that is possible to listen to without vomiting.

I bought the Steven Slate drum samples to get a good start on the drums and I use Revalver for the guitar and bass.

I have read some compressor tips and some tutorials on this forum and tried my best with my mix but since I'm not used to pulling the effect parameter knobs I can't really say what is wrong. Well, I can hear that the compressor is killing the music in the double kick parts but I fail to avoid it without loosing loudness on the rest of the song.

I made a group track for all the instruments and put a compressor there with 4:1 ratio, -10 dB threshold, 4.5 dB gain, 13 ms attack, 250 ms release.

If other obvious mistakes are detected I am listening to any tips that could make my music sound better.

Here is the sound clip:
http://www.mediafire.com/?no1mbnjrmod

BR
Robert

 

[ahjteam]

I don't know about the mix, but that song was pretty kickass!

 

[Fragle]

song is very children of bodom-esque

as for the mix, well it seems to be pretty compressed. what 2bus compressor are you using?
from my experience, you don't really benefit from 2bus compression unless you're using some quality stuff...waves ssl comp comes to mind here. to me it's about the character and not so much the compression. so far i haven't come across a freeware comp that adds the kind of "glue" i'm looking for on the 2bus.
what i'm trying to say is, try to use less/if any! you also shouldn't use a comp for your loudness (as indicated by your post)....try 2 gclips in series, and a limiter - w1 is a great free one.
as for ballpark comp settings, try 30ms attack, 100ms release, and 2db gain reduction at a 2:1 or 4:1 setting.
otherwise, the balancing is pretty good, esp gtrs/bass. drums need some work imho, hihat for example is rather thin and doesn't really glue with the kit. try to add more ambience with the room sound!

 

[Laban]

Awesome reply! I will try your suggestions out asap. Thanks a lot!

I am not sure of what you mean with the word 2bus compressor, but I used the standard compressor included in Cubase.
Is this the gclips you are talking about? http://www.gvst.co.uk/gclip.htm
When I read the manual I get the impression that it is an amplifier used for creating soft clipping. What is the difference between this plug and a limiter?
Regarding the drum ambience, do you request this on the whole kit or the hihat only?

 

[Fragle]

2bus is another word for the master bus, in cubase that should be the far right labeled master channel iirc. if you#re just using the stock cubase one (dynamics or whatever it's called), don't bother with compressing the whole mix. btw, i suggest you head over to http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=5 and grad all the freebie stuff over there....blockfish is pretty cool on single tracks like kick, bass etc, spitfish is a nice de-esser, also check out endorphin.....it's pretty much the best freeware compressor if you're looking for something that doesn't fuck up your stereo image when compressing stereo tracks (such as the master bus )

as for gclip, yes that's the one. do a search on this forum for a thread called "getting your loudness", it's all been explained in detail. in short words, you're using the clipper on the master bus just to shove off the highest peaks, which consequently makes the whole thing louder. a limiter would try to duck the whole mix whenever a peak occurs, which is a less transparent way of loudness maximizing. still, that thread is a great read, check it out!

regarding the ambience, i'll have to check again, but if memory serves me well the whole kit seemed rather dry. btw, do you have the overhead button on the kontakt player engaged for all the cymbals? if not, do it!