Mixage help assenblief

I really need some help with this song. I haven't mixed or played in ages and my ears just ain't up to it. I realise the bass line in sorely lacking, but something else is bugging me... Brutal honesty is appreciated. Many thanks
posted by Zenabi (6 comments total)

1 - Guitar needs to be EQed a bit differently -- it's all over the low end where the a bass guitar and the kick should be. Roll that off under 150Hz for sure, probably roll it off under 200Hz. Put in a bass guitar for some depth and let it and the kick live in that part of the mix.

2 - Guitar sounds SUPER HEAVILY compressed. I don't hear it breathing, I hear it panting.

3 - Use more of the stereo field. Pan that second guitar a little off center more or do something with a little more stereo space

4 - right at 2:26 i hear some peaking. Perhaps ease up on whatever multiband compression you have on everything. The whole song is like listening to some modern music that's been so overhandedly mastered that it doesn't really have any dynamics.

5 - I did a second pass listening to it just at the bare edge of audibility. I think the whole thing is so aggressively pushed into some limiter that all i'm hearing at that barely-audible level is "plunk plunk plunk" from the guitars and that might be part of why the mix is suffering.

6 - Both guitars don't need chorus on them. There seems to be some conflict in the modulation effects you have (and i'm pretty sure it's chorus, and 2 different choruses on the 2 guitars).

7 - All that being said, I like the performance and there's a really awesome mix waiting in there.
posted by chimaera at 5:38 PM on July 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wow! Thank you.

Just...thank you!
posted by Zenabi at 5:54 PM on July 19, 2009

I was listening to this and was about to comment but on preview, here is chimaera rocking it.

Definitely needs some more bass both in the guitar and kick and maybe more mids too...it'd be nice for such great guitar playing to have a little more platform to stand on.
posted by snsranch at 5:59 PM on July 19, 2009

First off--your playing is totally respectable. I understand the feeling of brushing off the cobwebs and playing again, but there is no reason to doubt yourself on this tune.

Here's my take on the mix (keeping in mind you asked for brutal honesty): the guitar tone sounds thin to me, occupying too narrow of a trebly frequency range, and the chorus and reverb strike me as attempts to thicken the tone back up a little, when it might work better to begin with a tone that isn't as utterly clean and chime-y.

My impression is that you're going for a tone like, for example, Robert Cray here (solo starts around 1:25): clean, a strat on the trebly neck pickup with lots of attack from the sounds of the pick. This can be a great sound, but I think it's tricky to do it without getting a loose, thin 'rubber band'-like tone. If you listen to Cray, his tone has more mids to it, and there's a light touch of overdrive.

My impulse would be to get your hands on an amp/mic simulator pedal or plugin like a Line 6 pod, NI Guitar Rig, or Amplitube, so that you have all sorts of flexibility once you've already recorded tracks into your computer. That way, you can experiment with tone that still sounds fairly clean, but isn't so clean that it ends up sounding a little limp. Applying compression could also help balance out the volume of the attack as compared with the rest of the decaying note.

Once you have a bass line and/or brass recorded, this could change to a certain extent. The trebly tone and narrow frequency range might fit better in the overall mix if other instruments are filling in other niches.
posted by umbú at 6:01 PM on July 19, 2009

I came to the right place for advice. Of this, there is no doubt.

This was *exactly* what I was looking for.

I have work to do.

In the mean time...
posted by Zenabi at 6:33 PM on July 19, 2009

there is a lot of pumping when the drums come in due to over compression / limiting.

Also how did you record the guitar track? Is it DIed? cause it really doesn't sound like it went through an Amp. it has no real space or Body too it which is common on a DI guitar.

Can you Re-Amp it?

there are a couple of really sharp peaks in teh Guitar parts - I think you need to Ride the Faders a bit over them to smooth out the levels rather than using a Compressor/Limitied
posted by mary8nne at 2:56 AM on July 24, 2009