What makes a mix great for you?

[GarethSE]

I'm a big fan of mixes that are pretty guitar centric.
Where the drums are poking through the guitars, rather than the guitars poking through the drums.

If Annihilation of the Wicked was clearer it'd probably be the best mix ever.
Dem guitarz be sum creamy shit though.

Aside from that, I like mixes that are just plain weird.
Cynic's incredible mix of sounding like a live show (thunderous drums,) the organic quality of a real performance yet the sterility and clinical precision of any roadrunner records release (take that for what you will) made for one of the best mixes ever IMO
Converge - Jane Doe, I had a rant about this in the 3 mix topic or whatever, but this one, I dunno. No other album has a mix that enhances the music and feel of the album as much as this one.
The total naked emotion on display musically is just backed up perfectly by everything sounding so imperfect and broken and destroyed and downright shit. Plus I love that this album couldn't have been any other way except with analogue equipment. This shits fairly harsh as it is, if it was digital distortion it would be unlistenable, but to me it's just the most beautiful musical distortion ever. Haha. Probably one of my favourite mixes ever, and one of my favourite albums. And I really dig Wrath by Lamb of God for the same reason, I think the production really enhanced the mood of that release too.
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night because that drum sound is so fucking good it's not even funny

I dunno, in general I've been really appreciating mixes that are far from perfect but all the better for it. It's just a reflection on myself as a person. A while back I was obsessed with being as perfect as possible, got so tired of being a shit person, but that's beside the point, and for a while all I listened to was music that was all aligned to the grid, all 5150's through v30's, all pitch corrected vocals, blah blah. And as much as some people on this forum do it SO SO SO SO SOOOO well (I'd rather listen to a mix put out by CatharsisStudios than most, for fucking srs, kids got some chops,) but it ended up boring me and now when I listen to the production of an album I end up appreciating it's imperfections way more than I ever appreciated any albums perfection.

After all, that's what makes 60's and 70's music so electrifying, hearing Robert Plant hit a wrong note, hearing Syd Barret strum his guitar in a completely un-musical manner and creating beauty in the process. To me, that is what MAKES a performance, and that's what I listen to music for, a performance, and on a deeper level, a performance I can connect with, and IMO a mix has to back up the feel of music or create an extra mood of it's own to add to the performance that's already there. Like a deathcore band making an album with a Fender Tweed driven to metal distortion by a big clusterfuck of speaker distortion, tube clipping, distortion pedals and overdrives and big roomy real sounding kits.

I really am having one of those opinionated days... Goddamn.

 

[Metaltastic]

You're so world-weary at 18, Gareth

 

[Erkan]

Listen to "Toxic Garbage Island" off that record... the beginning hits ya like a train!

Train doesn't really describe it...

... getting hit by a planet seems more appropriate

That song has one of the sickest groovy intros I've ever heard. Seriously.

 

[ahjteam]

The sounds don't matter as much if the song is boring, but if it has groove and drive in it, then its pure diamond. Think Pantera and SikTh.

 

[AeternusEternus]

As long as it doesn't sound like a fucking Periphery recording, I'm excited about it.

Guitars need to not sound like an AxeFX, Line 6 Big Bottom, etc.
Bass guitars need to exist, and to coexist with the guitars.
Drums need to be clear, and they need to NOT be sonic explosions.

Above all, leave the mids in your god damned recording, and notch the fucking bass down a little bit.

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeesh!

 

[Morgan C]

I don't actually think it's always a good thing to be able to hear everything clearly.

Agreed.. I love listening to albums and discovering new things that I never noticed, because I'm listening on a new system or in a new environment or whatever. If everything is perfectly audible, there's no discovery after the first listen. Also.. there's something to be said for natural kick drums.. few drummers can pull it off, but it does sound great when they do, even if the kicks are barely audible. In Flames' Reroute to Remain or Opeth's Blackwater Park.. sometimes you can barely hear the kick and as well as giving the illusion of loudness, it just has that extra something that a really clicky, always audible, MIDI-like kick doesn't have.

 

[Ermz]

^ Agreed! Perfect separation is not always something to aim for. Each piece of music demands something else.

 

[Nebulous]

From a engineering stand point, I like the mixes that have very clear, defined elements, but from a listerners perspective, I can honestly say I prefer the oposite. Case in point, two of my favourite albums, Evergrey's In search of truth and Dark Tranquillity's Damage Done are not the best examples of well engineered, clear mixes, but that's why I love them. The density of the mix and music all makes it work, even though it may not work for every band. Sometimes it's about the soundscape and atmosphere, rather than each individual element.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

As long as it doesn't sound like a fucking Periphery recording, I'm excited about it.

Guitars need to not sound like an AxeFX, Line 6 Big Bottom, etc.
Bass guitars need to exist, and to coexist with the guitars.
Drums need to be clear, and they need to NOT be sonic explosions.

Above all, leave the mids in your god damned recording, and notch the fucking bass down a little bit.

 

[GarethSE]

I second a huge WTF at Aeternus.

 

[16S]

when i really think about it my favourite mixes & recordings are the ones where the drums don't compromise the GTRs and the Gtrs dont comp the drums. For my tastes there aren't that many mixes in my library that tick all the boxes. For example (you can shoot me for this but...) the Gathering: great drums but the gtrs aren't great and too buried IMO. And i think if the Gtrs were great (ie. to my tastes) then the drums would probably suffer....dunno...

 

[Torniojaws]

It's always a compromise. There's simply too much overlapping in the frequencies.

 

[16S]

It's always a compromise. There's simply too much overlapping in the frequencies.

agreed. but if the result(cutting, boosting, shaping) is a drum sound and gtr sound i like then thats a fav. mix for me

 

[Dom Ostarig]

To be sincere... i think that in most of times, clarity isn't so good in a mix.... for an example, if the bass is too clear, the the guitar could sound thin.... i believe in balance.