Howdo all?

Here's the first demo of this new track i'm working on at the moment

One Of These Days (Demo 1)

Let me know what you think if you would guys, levels and things like that

Cheers

 

The melody is quite good.
Arghhh...very negative is the amount of high frequency sounds!
You should put an EQ or even De-Esser on them, smooth them!

 

Yeah I struggle with mixing quite a bit

When i mix back on my monitors, it sounds ok, then i play it back on the pc speakers and it sounds like there's no top end?

How do you get a good compromise between the two?

Cheers man

 

1. Use the best monitor speakers you can get! *yes*
2. Avoid to mix/master with headphones, because they tend to raise the basses. *no*
3. PC speakers are generally mid-frequencies boosters, avoid them. *no*

Check good Tutorials @

 

Cheers dude, i'll check that out in the morning

 

Dig the track very much, but highs are too sharp, you mixed your cymbals way too loud IMO, they are ripping my ears here on Adams, I barely had strength to listen whole track

 

Gee... I'm surprised u dont hear how sharp and hot that track is.. If you cant hear that, Maybe someone else should be mixing for you, I'm pretty sure no matter what you played this track on, it wouldn't sound good.. mix-wise.

Song is pretty good tho

 

Crap. That's one of the brightest tracks I've heard in a long time. Sounds very 90's, even if you remove the distorted cymbals. ;)

Get a dedicated audio interface (with good converters) and some active monitors and the treat your room. Get to know your setup (can take a long time). Then learn the art of mixing.

 

The overall groove of the track is great..the vocals are funky and marries the beat and rhythm very nicely. I do share the opinions of the other peeps on here that the high frequenies are way too harsh..and I would guess it starts at 5k hz that's where your problem starts and it goes up from there...Mixing is always the hardest aspect of music production, you just have to take it one step at a time and always go back to the basics..forget about multiband compressors and other fancy toys..EQ is your best friend. I'll try and give you some clear step to improve your mixing, but first some more comments on the track..it lacks bass and bottom end punch, most likely due to lack of good monitors and headphones (yes good headphones are great for fixing the low end in a home studio setup)..the track also lack low mids to give it that fullness and richness. Now here's how you can approach your next track

1) Select the best drum and percussive samples possible before starting your track. Choose ones that will help you achieve the vision you have for your track
2)The processing on these samples should be minimal because in most cases theyre already heavily processed. So just cut some frequencies you don't like and boost tastefully IF you need to make them fit with the groove of the track
3)Start with low frequency instruments and work your way up t the high frequency instruments when mixing, get the kick and the bass working nicely together..then maybe you layer your percussion in there, which should not go higher volume wise than the kick. Use a spectrum analyzer and make sure that the highest frequencies in your track do not exceed the peak of your kick drum, they should on par with each other or your highs should be slightly lower than your kick drum peak. A free spectrum analyzer you can use here. Use it like your life depends on it, and of course use your ears
4) Always use a similar song (commercially released) as a reference to yours. Use the spectrum analyzer on the commercial track and study it's frequency curves and how the frequencies move and interact with each other. Where do they peak? How much do they move (dynamic)?

In general you don't want any frequencies jumping out at you, the song should be comfortable to listen to (use your ears). Also, usually when a track has excessive high frequencies it's often due to listening fatigue..your ears quickly adapt to high frequencies and dampen them because high frequencies can damage your ears, so your natural reaction is to boost the highs some more..that's why you need to take breaks when mixing, for every hour that you mix, take a 10-15 minute break.

But yeah, I still really like the song, great percussion and groove, very nice vocals

 

Thanks for all the comments guys, and special thanks to Faud for the detailed tips on mixing

I'm gonna spend a bit of time trying to learn the art of mixing, i've always avoided anything to with learning when it comes to music, i prefer to just jump in and get my hands dirty as opposed to listening to some techy expert waffle on for hours about khz freq 0')

Obviously, that's what i need to do though, better stock up on coffee

Here's the monitors i use for mixing on... Fostex PMO are these ok do you think?

The problem i have guys, is playing back on the monitors things sound ok, then i play the track back on my pc speakers and everything sounds muddy, so what i done was boosted the HF using the waves LMB until it sounds ok on the pc speakers

So basically, should i never mix on the pc speakers, always use the monitors instead?

I'll work on this track over the next few days, and post it back up again, hopefuly it should sound a lot better then after a good mix

Thanks again for the input chaps

 

Ps, i'm now replacing the dodgy mix & uploading the flat mix i had on my monitors before i got busy with the waves lmb '0)

 

Use pc speakers just for reference, but you must know how music translates on them, so you have clear picture about your work....but mixing on monitors is essential.

I check everything on two different sets of headphones, 2 different sets of home 5.1 system and 2 friends with their few possibilities.

Check out this monitors, I find out about them recently from one guy that tested them on some forum, in his words they put on shame most expansive ones...if you have some money try them out, you can always return them and refund your cost

http://www.equatoraudio.com/D5_Studio_Monitors_with_DSP_300_Pair_p/d5.htm

IMO room&monitors are essential, you can gateway with cheaper room treatment, but without trusty monitors....or you learn how they lie or you are screwed big time.