I've been working on some new music here lately and I am not too sure about how my mixes sound, it tends to be very hard for me to look at my own work objectively, so I thought I would come and see if someone else can give me an objective opinion on this. Thanks in advance,

 

I like it. it reminds me of the band Isis, to an extent. the mixing is similar. I would listen to it with a sub, and see if the bass notes where the kick drum and bass notes stack up, are how you want them. There were spots where I expected it to get rumbly sounding, and it gets pretty close.
maybe a little upward compression on the kick? idk. my reference for comparison is Isis; and in many cases they really highlight the kick because their drummer is sick. but still keeping the darker sort of atmosphere with the reverb.

nice work.

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2022

Hey there. Played through in mono first. Levels seem set well! But there may be some phasing issues, when I switch to stereo I hear what was missing in the mono mix. The stereo guitars. If you could run them to a bus and use ARX ONE (if you're a PC user) or something like Trackspacer (or FabFilter's Pro-Q 3's Eq-match and then flip one of the guitars in the opposite direction, EQ wise) to handle the issue, you'll be fine.
Lyrics? I guess if you're going for obscure diction (I mean, it's not broadway music, I get it ...) then okay, but if you're not into most of them being deciphered, then you're fine. I grew up with 70's rock and couldn't even understand Elton John on some tracks so whatever!

Took a screen capture of your mix using Tonal Balance (Izotope). Noticed that you have a real dearth (lack) of frequencies between 300-600 hz. Is that intentional? It just seems like maybe too much is being scooped out there, unless, of course, that's what you're going for. As I said, apart from your frequency collisions causing phase cancellation for the stereo guitars, this seems to stick out, but that's just me. I notices you roll off pretty soon (12,000hz) with a hard knee. It looks like a cliff drop on the scope, rather than a 60 degree hill. I can't hear a problem with that, as maybe the music style supports that, but I just thought I'd report on it.

Take care,
Cardamom

 

[QUOTE="clone,
nice work. [/QUOTE]

thanks a lot! I had never heard of the band Isis before, but they are pretty freakin good, so that's a nice compliment to me. I will try some upward comp on the kick and see if that improves the track any, great advice!

 

[QUOTE="
Take care,
Cardamom[/QUOTE]

Ya know I always use Tonal Balance but for some reason I've always kept it on the broad setting, I flipped it to the fine setting and boom, you're exactly right about those lacking frequencies, thanks a lot. I would prefer that people be able to understand the lyrics so that is something I will work on for sure, so glad you pointed that out (being a writer first that is important to me). As far as the phase cancelation in the guitars go, it's strange, I have thrown a few different phase inverters on one of the guitar tracks and it makes no difference, am I doing something wrong, I use Studio One and it has a stock plugin call mixtool which has a phase inverter on it, I also use an Arturia pre-amp plugin which also has phase inversion option to no avail. I do I tend to be disappointed in how the guitars turn out when listened back throu my car speaker but can never pinpoint why, maybe that's it? I just don't know how to fix it since these phase inversion attempts seem to be doing nothing. Thanks a lot for the feedback.

 

[QUOTE="Cardamom, As I said, apart from your frequency collisions causing phase cancellation for the stereo guitars, this seems to stick out, but that's just me.

Take care,
Cardamom[/QUOTE]

Missed where you said to put it on the bus, that worked thanks a lot!!

 

I'm sorry, but am I missing something? Is this photo supposed to be representing something relative?

 

It is a kind of a joke on feedback , however, some people could find this feedback button on a Xenyx mixer very, very useful. I use a Xenyx mixer for live performances. Shit price, decent quality, and incredibly useful automatic feedback cancelling button! So you don't have to find the freq. yourself, just enjoy your beer and the show, if it's your cup of tea [or wine? :P].

Your mixing skills are quite good. Not to mention that your style is right up my alley! Very enjoyable. Ready for release IMHO. So there was nothing to add. Great work! I heard your track on a very decent monitoring speakers and a treated room. [you can get a list of my equipment if you click on my profile] Keep it up! Cheers!

Since you're new to the forum, it's nice to have some "funny" ratings on your list, too. Xupito is a local very funny guy. I'm actually not, just usually extremely technical and scientific. You'll find everything out yourself if you stick to this forum which I highly recommend!

I left Gearslutz and KVR in favour of AudioSex. Nuff said.

p.s. you've got yourself another follower. I was surprised by the quality of your track and wanted more.

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2022

Not my musical preference, but the mix is well done. I just tweak a little bit the high for clarity.

 

I'm just curious: do you like bands like Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Rammstein, Slipknot... ? What bands have influenced you in your opinion?

Vader is actually right. Your mix could use a little more air. But it could be the limiter you're using [which one?] that sucks the air out of your mix. We're talking just a couple of gentle shelving dBs at say maybe 8-10kHz here. [shelving EQ means everything above that freq will get louder, just to clarify] When mastering, you should use a mastering EQ before hitting the limiter. Do you do that? Also a very gentle compressor before the EQ just for levelling.

I would try to add some air to the vocal first, actually. and a little dip [-2 to 3dB, half octave Q] on the bass sound at about 250-300Hz [will make kick sound more prominent]. That should get rid of the a little boxy bass sound. Snare lacks a bit of air, too. Could be that you smashed it with limiter too much, so the transient went bye-bye. Everything else sounds decent, really IMHO. Lovely guitar sound. Change nothing there!

You could use the chorus on this Celldweller's track as a reference:

I've done some remixing stuff for Celldweller. His stuff is very cool. I like it a lot.

"Switchback" is also a good reference track. If you heed my advices you should get a sound like that. Compare. Then compare again.

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2022

Thanks a lot! It's so damn nice to have some honest and helpful feedback, I will most certainly take you suggestions into practice and see how much better I can get this mix to sound before I officially put it out. Yeah so as far as my influences, you nailed it, Slipknot, Stone Sour, Rammstein, Breaking Bejamin, Staind, Audioslave that era really, along with a lot of grunge Alice, Soungarden etc. On the mastering side, I'll do a very light bit of saturation, into some light multiband comp, slight EQ (Fab Q3 ), then into Ozone 9 maximizer (sometimes Fabfilter L2 but mainly Ozone).

 

Celldweller sounds good as hell, never heard of them until now, but I love that, that first track reminds me of some early slipknot/powerman 5000 stuff, very cool. I usually use a lot of the bands I mentioned as my reference tracks, but it's never bad to have more sources to help get an even broader view of what to aim for, thanks for turning me on to them.

 

I'm glad you like Celldweller. He's a bit under the radar, undeservedly so, IMHO. Klayton is great, kinda like Trent Reznor's underestimated younger brother.

Anyway, back to your stuff. Your mastering chain is great. It just needs a little adjustment.

I'd go back to the "raw" mix and make it sound more clear first [according to advicements]. Then see how it compares to "Switchback"... and then work a bit on the ProQ and limiter. Limiter shouldn't limit more than up to 6dBs - the less the better. You can achieve that by adjusting the mix. If the limiter is working too hard to get the loudness you're aiming for, it means your mix needs adjustment. Check it on the analyser, too. Voxengo SPAN is the best to check for stuff that peaks out too much.

Really, your stuff sounds just fine, but if you can make it even better.. why not? Cheers!

p.s. my guess is you're mixing on smaller speakers [5" driver?] that lack bass. [?]

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2022

[QUOTE="
p.s. my guess is you're mixing on smaller speakers [5" driver?] that lack bass. [?][/QUOTE]

I actually have a decent sub to compliment my, yes, 5 in monitors. A big problem is that the room I am in is not optimal for mixing at all. I have yet to get any acoustic treatment in place and the room is huge with an open doorway with no door going into the rest of the house.

 

I havent heard of them since like 09

 

Yeah, that's fucked up having a sub in an untreated space. Lows build up so easily and resonate, doubling the loudness. You need bass traps. I have no sub. Dyns BM12A go down far nicely. You should probably try mixing without the sub and turn it on for checkups [to check that you haven't HPFd the tracks too much]. 5" speakers can be actually great for mixing, like Yamaha HS5s, for example [could mix on them any day], but definitely getting the mids and highs right is the priority. Sub can be added at any time, bloke. Focus should be on 100Hz-10kHz

100-700Hz is the enemy one has to learn to fight with. Those have to be just right. What I'm saying is a kind of reverse philosophy. To make mix clearer, you leave the highs as they are, but rather lower [with a shelve EQ] the freqs in the lower mids. Know what I mean? It sounds more natural to subtract EQ than to boost.

Gosh, I'm, listening Klayton's whole first album [called Celldweller] for the 2nd time... it's so great and sounds very fresh even almost 20 years later! Damn. I've put it aside and forgotten about it years ago. WTF?! Brilliant mixing and mastering. Really good reference for industrialish-strumming stuff.

KoRN! Yay! :love: OK I'm getting smashed... both ways.

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2022

Sometimes you can pick a really bad band name. Even if it isn't bad, yet. In 09, I'm sure it was just swell. You really get an odd feeling, typing that into Youtube just to find some metal songs.

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2022

haha I feel you, but remember the media changed the name to isil, so its all good now