Hi guys, Im recording 5 tracks for a local alternative rock band in my garage. Here's the first pass at the first track. Im am somewhat a novice at mixing rock music, but have been making music for years.

Any criticism on the mix is welcome. I am working on decent behringer monitors with the matched sub and ultrasone cans. Still got to get some levels and eq right. Having a little trouble getting the rhythm guitars to sum to mono properly. Like I said, any help is appreciated.

 

Last edited: Aug 7, 2016

sounds good, well recorded, nice and clean, which might be an issue, i personally would want some more natural room to give it a bit more life and vibe, but that's me, watch the lead guitar being to upfront

 

Thanks for the listen, I was thinking the same thing about the lead guitar. Got to automate/ride the fader. Thanks!

 

The recording itself is OK.

i like the sound of the snare and the way the kick drum punches through.

although

there is too much compression and the mix sounds lifeless.
there also issues with the guitar paying/drums go out of time
vocalist sounds boring. try and spice it up a bit. maybe dbl track
instruments need a bit more seperation.

 

Thanks for the raw and real criticism. That is exactly the kind of input I was hoping for. Much appreciate your time and ear!

 

Hey I have lots of comments.
I have been doing this shit for 50 years.
Firstly we are confronted by an out of tune guitar.
Funeral From Hell 1st Pass
Next the vocals have bits out of tune.
You may not want to hear this but fix the vocals in Melodyne.
Rerecord the out of tune guitar. It possibly would not hurt the guitar player if you apologised for missing he was out of tune. Double edged sword.
Now the rest is nicely recorded but the mix sounds indie. Which is 4 fifths of useless. Your market wants to hear finely mixed and recorded songs. Listen to the billboard top 100 and if your mix does not fit in there you are getting it wrong. Obviously you are are starting out but you are the future of music.
You have to learn very quickly if you are going to survive. This will take a lot of effort. Go to my website which I am trying to make educational as I am nearly 70 and need to pass on my knowledge before I leave. http://spencerlee.audio
Dave Pensado, Warren Huart are some of the great educators. Follow their lead, there are many more links on my website.
If you like send me the files for the second song after you have fixed it and I will do a mix. Then you can break down my mix and maybe you can be a star in the future.
Spencer

 

The lead guitar is fighting with the vocal for centre spot, try a stereo widener, or copy the track and try a bit of complimentary eq.
http://therecordingrevolution.com/2...ur-mix-using-eq-one-song-one-month-challenge/

The arrangement is a little boring, try dropping things out , eg, have a verse with just drums, bass and vocal.

I would recomend subscribing to Graham's blog, you'll learn a lot form him.

 

"The lead guitar is fighting with the vocal for centre spot"
Yes maybe because you have not hipassed everything below 120hz in the lead vocal and compressed the shit out of it.
Stereo widener sure but but get the vocal working first then whatever method you use to get the guitar out of the way is credible.
The arrangement is a little boring. Most songs arrive like this. Create great sounds and then try and find some part in the arrangement you can make a hook.
Its up to you as the mix engineer to make the track exciting.
sorry I will not make anymore comments...

 

A trick with your monitors. Put a multiband eq across your mix and eq your monitors. This is time consuming. Start with an oscillator and set it to 1k. Put your speakers at a comfortable level with 1k. Then do a sweep from 20hz to 15k. This will tell you where the troughs and peaks are.
Slowly go through your bands and eq every one to sound smooth throught the sweep. This should take you about 3 hours. But in the end you will hear what your mixes sound like and you will be able to mix correctly. Save the eq settings and put this across your master bus when you mix. Then switch it out when you put the mix down.
This is how radical my Eq is. 2 eqs in series...

 

Wow thats some seeeerios eqing!

 

Second pass....

Tuned and timed the lead gtr. Spread it out a little too to make room for the lead vocals. Also rode the fader up around and down to breathe with the lead vocals and up 4 decibels for the lead at the end. Hi passed all the vox at 120 as well. The lead gtr and lead vox sit and breathe a little better now.

 

Last edited: Apr 4, 2016

Getting there. Now hipass every track between 30-40hz 12db per octave. Then go to every track individually and raise the hi pass till it starts to affect the sound then back it off. This will stop any interaction of unwanted frequencies. Dont worry if it sounds a little thin. You can then bring up the kick and bass. Look for overlapping frequencies in the kick and bass. Then make a decision. I find punching a hole in the bass about 100z then bring up 40 hz works for me. For the kick try the EQ curve below. There is a plugin called Voice of God. This is all it does.
Piss of the boink frequency in the snare. Make sure you have a big hole in the toms at 400hz. -10 or so. This will give the toms air. CLA has a trick with the overheads where he Eqs in the bottom end which makes the drum sound bigger. Bring up the Vocal to where you think its too loud and leave it there. You will find it will work and the master bus compression will bring up your guitars without you riding them. It does not hurt to lopass filter tracks that are not really using the top end like guitars. Unless you are going for the metalica sound with the huge hole around 400hz. Dont be scared of compression. T-racks 1176 on fast attack and realease is good for non percussive instruments and as a second limiter on the vocals. Lets us hear what you do Spencer

 

, very interesting to see the impact of advises and how the mix evolves by them. Thanks.

 

Yes the idea is to train by experiencing the process. Then hopefully then he can start to mix in the future with what he has learned. I am very much looking forward to end result that is if he keeps up. I am prepared to continue until it is a great mix.
Spencer

 

Hey Spencer, I just wanted to personally thank you for holding my hand and walking me through this. The help is greatly appreciated. When we reach the final mix, we will have to move this thread to a different topic and sticky it, as well as link it to your site.
I was up til 5am this morning polishing up the raw tracks on the 3rd song I recorded for them. Melodyne, vocal/bass riders, amp sims, ect. Correct phase issues in the drums, general cleaning up of the tracks. All the housekeeping and organization before you can even mix.
To keep this thread easier to follow I'll just keep it to this 1 track.
After I'm done with my daily routine I will dive back in and apply the techniques you just mentioned.
And again, THANKS MY MAN!

Mikey Thai

 

Last edited: Apr 5, 2016

This is very interesting! I'll be following it to see how the song evolves. Good to hear that the lead guitar was tuned. To me it just ruined the mix as the dude sounds like a complete beginner. I'd still say is not 100% there (I'm a guitarist so I can't help noticing).

The drums are its strong point. Considering getting a good drum sound is the core of the song you have a pretty good base.

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2016

or the free version by BOZ, Bark of the Dog http://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/bark-of-dog/

 

Wow, just wow. Applied all the techniques you mentioned in the post above and I can really hear the difference. Better separation and clarity in the mix, much less mud. Here is the 3rd pass.

Bass and kick are not fighting anymore. That filter trick did wonders on the kick. I used the free BOZ plugin, Bark of the Dog.
On the snare, I found the ringing at around 660hz and cut the hell out of it with the same super narrow Q that I used to find it. Did everything else exactly as you said in the post above. I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHATS NEXT!
These guys are going to think I am an engineering genius, but the credit is all yours!
My ears are tired right now, that lead gtr killed them, lol. I've got to give it a fresh listen in the morning, but here is what I got for now.
THANK YOU SO MUCH MY MAN! My second born son will be named Spencer, lol. The first was already named years ago, sorry.
Best Regards,
Mikey Thai

 

Last edited: Apr 4, 2016

Now create 4 busses, name them Drums, Kick, Snare, Toms, Bass. Send the Kick, Snare and Toms buses to the Drums bus.
All other drum mikes sent to the drum bus. Add 3db of 10k to the snare. Im a not hearing the toms. Add 3db at 7k to the toms or even more to get the crack. This will bring up the cymbals a bit so balance the overheads against this. I am not hearing the overheads.
On each buss add the McDsp 6030 set to picture below. If you don't own the McDSP you can use an 1176. But McDSP prefered.
They shoud be limiting no more than 2 db.
Create a room reverb of about 1.2 seconds hipass the send at about 150-200hz. Add a predelay of 12ms. Send enough from the drum bus to create some space around the drums. In the mix you should be able to hear different layers from the drums the guitars the vocals.
You may need to lopass the reverb down to about 7k. Play a bit. Also you can compress that reverb return to taste. If you compress the reverb return you may need to shorten the reverb down to about .9 sec.

Add an 1176 to the bass bus. Fastest attack and release. Set it to 8 to 1 ratio. Set the threshold so it just tickles the meter. no more than 1db.
You may need to add some 40hz to the bass just to fatten it a bit on good sound systems. After the limiters. Add a shitload of saturation to the bass to taste. You wont hear it as distortion it will just give it character.
Get this right and we will move onto guitars. I hope other young engineers are watching this thread.

As a note the T-racks stuff is far better than any other emulations of 1176, Fairchild and SSL. The McDSP 6030 is god. Low CPU and lots of choices. I used to own 2 hardware 1176s and much prefer the sound of the plugin. Anything made by Softube give a miss. Sounds plastic to me.
Compassion is another great limiter but it takes about 2 days to get your settings right. I have created about 20 presets that I use. I don't understand the metering but it sounds great. And you will know every time you need to use it over other limiters. CPU is a bit high on some settings.
Drum and bass limiters. use either 1176 or the 6030.

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2016

I created 5 bus tracks and used the 6030 on the drum tracks.
Then I eq'ed the snare and toms. I immediately heard the drum tracks getting "rounder" as I dialed them in to 2 db of GR.
And just like you said, my overheads were screaming at me, so I re-balanced them with my hi-hats.
Next I went to my room verb aux, (I'm using the LX480 with setting that were already very close to your recommended ones) and sent ALL the drums to it. I was just sending the room mic to it. Applied some recommended eq and made the drums gel alot better. I didnt squash the drum verb. Im already coloring (console&tape) them going into the verb then eq going out. It seemed adequate for the indie sound that these guys want. I can hear the "drum layer" clear as day now.
Next I threw the black76 and decapitator on a bass aux with a boost at 40hz. Nice! There's the bass again...
The drums and bass are sounding really good now. The guitars and vox are getting swallowed in the mix, so I turned them up to compensate. But, they don't have their own layer yet, so they sound like a mish mash mush in the mix soup compared to the rest.
I think I might have too much "room" on the drums, but I will address that later after I got some proper gtrs and vox to balance it with.

Eagerly awaiting my next lesson sensei

 

Last edited: Mar 19, 2016