hi, can you tell me if this mix is ok...

 

lacking bass here. genelec 8020. how do you mix? headphones and speakers ?

 

Yamaha HS7 speaking, kick kind of makes no impact (lacks bottom end), which is what I presume should happen when it comes in finally. Bass is pretty weak, and the guitar is eaten up by the too loud strings. They seem glued together by force instead of coexisting peacefully

 

I personally think it sounds decent for just the mixing phase... I mean the track still is in low gain stage so of course its not going to sound as intense as it should be. But listening on my monitors it didn't sound like a terrible mix... bass could be better as well as the kick, but still decent...

I mean, the composition is really nice so it helps it alot

 

Munro Sonic The Egg 150 here says it's lacking bass (or lows overall), guitar is too loud in the intro, drums are super flat/weak (dynamically, sonically and spatially, making them lifeless), and that the drone/ebow guitar is also a bit too loud.

Learn gain-staging. Try not to squash. Make elements sit in their own seat and don't overlap too much. Try finding a balance between the mono-ish drums (make some elements more spatial) and the wide/spatial guitars, so that they are meeting somewhere inbetween, making a better balance.

edit: Btw, "good mix" is both a subjective and a relative term. Also, it's usually not what speakers you have - it's how well you know the ones you have and how experienced you (your ears) are.

 

Last edited: Oct 30, 2015

oh the 650 hz of death...

 

I don't even have to listen. I can look at that WAVE file image and tell everything has been squeezed to death. If you had left some room before where the drums come in around 40 seconds it would have had some impact right there. After that it just sounds like bad use of compression. I like the piece, though. KRK Rokit 10/3's.

 

Last edited: Oct 30, 2015

agree with most
no dynamics left.....no impact

not the best example, but similar frquencies fighting for space here, but notice the subtle diffrence in spaceing and panning of the same instruments, and the lush bass of the kick and the bassline.
if you give a little somewhere you have to take it somwhere else
if one thing is loud something is quite, everithing of the same level is called white noise

push on elemt back in space with reverb, bring it to the forground later without reverb or less "but subtle"
let them dance around each other with panning

loudness isn´t the finish line.....just one element
and have fun of course

 

Do you have good Q-Tips
no serious bass is little low, not to bad but need to invest in some decent monitors

 

krk VXT 8 here.

It all depends upon what you atmosphere you are going for. In many ways it has things that work, or could work with a few small changes.

For an example:
I like the way in early analog dub techno mixes, that the kicks were muted and rather hidden in the mix, the bass line was there, but not in your face, yet the chords and atmospheres were right up in front. The reverb and the delay were not hidden or secondary effects, but rather, they were the effect that the rest of the track hung on. These were not technically good mixes, yet the feel and atmosphere of good deep early dub techno is sublime.

In your track, the tails off the snare and the other drum percussion are getting 'sucked' up by compression and are filling a hole and being prominent in a rather ugly fashion. I do like the effect, but i think it is wrong for this track. I like the way the guitar and strings are wide and prominent, they are creating a nice atmosphere with space and air. BUT Then the drums, all squashed and lifeless come in and fill that space.
I think this track will breath a lot better if a lot of space and air is left in it.

The bass needs some more life also. Maybe a small amount of tape saturation, and a minuscule touch of a tight reverb, and a little eq lift.

In my opinion fixing the drums, in particular the compression that has been applied to them, will improve this track out of sight.
Before trying different drum choices, see if the drums you have will work with out the heavy compression settings. If they dont work, try some new ones.
I would suggest to keep the kick short and tight, not boomy, or too subby, but punchy enough to be heard without needing to be amped in volume.
The snare will also need to be chosen carefully. Maybe try a few that do not have a big tail. I would go for one that is a little deeper, without too much white in it.

Dondadda makes a good suggestion about panning also. Stereo placement with sound is just as important as volume placement. slight adjustments to a sounds position across the stereo spectrum can certainly breath a lot of life into a track.

i would also suggest removing any compression/limiting from your master channel also, in case that is where the squashing of the mixing is coming from.

So, whatever you choose, i think you have the potential for a great little track here. Well done.

BTW, what monitors/speakers/headphones are you mixing on? What is your room like? treatment? etc etc ??

 

Last edited: Oct 31, 2015