Why does my job suck to mys ears ?

[ArnaudM]

Hi, and happy new year for everybody.

I'm fighting against a rising feeling of being one of the numerous useless sound freak on the market. I listen to a ton a absolutely brilliant productions I just find myself unable to compete. On another hand, as I'm curious and always willing to improve, I can't help myself from trying to find out what's wrong with my prods. Especially, I kind of dislike the guitar sound of many of the albums I produced (I like INSOMNY's and PAVILLON ROUGE's one - another style) and I always note that at least one aspect of the mix seems unpro to my ears. uke:

My customers are often happy with the result, but to be honest I am never. The only album I've been proud of is the PAVILLON ROUGE's one, which in my opinion sounds quite professionnal.

This is a pillory thread.

Feel free to listen to the stuff, tell me which aspects of my work suck, ask me questions about my way of ingeneering, taking, mixing, mastering.

I feel the time has come for me to receive cruel advices.

 

[ArnaudM]

I forgot : you can listen to the songs here :


http://www.reverbnation.com/hiroshimastudio

 

[Joshandhisguitar]

Guitar tone is the main thing for me here. Get that fixed and you could really have something. Vocals sound good, I think.

yeah.. that's the main thing I'm here, re edit guitars, and get a better setting/tone for guitars.

 

[abigor731]

i honestly think its mainly the music that could be improved

from the stuff on your page i liked those mixes best where i also found the music somewhat exceptional (deathcode society, pavillion rouge), and i liked those not so much where i thought the music was not so exceptional (broken mirrors, insomny)

i listened critically to broken mirrors - holding the trigger, and in the beginning section i found that the guitars sound a little harsh, and the drums kinda dry and a bit "small", like they were noticeably tracked in a small room, (which they probably were - i just thought it doesn't sound huge somehow, or "bigger than life", or something like that)
i thought maybe some big room reverb on the snare and cymbals, or snare samples with a big room sound on em could be beneficial

however when the synths kick in it started sounding a lot better, also the vocals are really nice,
actually, i stopped playing, came back later and played the song only from 1:00 or so, and then i liked the mix, and i also found the top end of the guitars to fit the riffs really well
then i played it from 0:00 again and again found the guitars harsh and the drums dry - i came to the conclusion that in reality i just found the intro riff boring and blamed the mix

the funny thing is: deathcode society, which is seriously one of my all-time favourites, has a similar drum sound, and i absolutely never ever noticed that before but it sounds good on it
i think we people who are into all this production stuff a lot are somehow prone to develop a tendency to blame stuff on the mix
of course it makes sense to think like that from a produciton perspective, but its also frustrating sometimes when the problem cannot be solved with mixing

of course i can only speak for myself, and maybe it doesn't apply to you at all, but when i listen to the stuff, i find the guitar and drum tones kinda imperfect on some of the songs, but i think its mainly because some riffs are just not really interesting, and the music is nothing groundbreaking

really, i don't think there is anything substantially wrong in your mixing approach, if the music is great, they work great, if not they don't, maybe you are not the best "turd polisher" thogh
i also think your mixes are definately on the dry side but they take synths and orchestral stuff really well, also the vocals sound great on all the stuff

 

[ArnaudM]

Thanks friends for the feedback.

It is true that I'm not good at doing everything. I think I manage quite well to perform balanced mixes, and to make the drums sound natural.

My problem is : the guitar tone. I have to work on it hard and try to be more demanding with myself.
Playing a bit with DI's sent by forum members, I also think there is a serious trouble with my guitar pickup : the level is really weak on my DI's. I'll have to fix it soon.

 

[Joshandhisguitar]

Best of luck