EQ is your problem.
Mids and highs are overkill.
Have you been boosting all over the tracks or are you using anything particular on the mixbus?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 16, 2016

Just posted up on the top post.
I try very hard not to over compress. Usually try to make sure I'm not hitting to hard past 3db. Sometimes I'll let the peaks hit 7db.

Yeah, I'm going to definitely include the room in the next tracking sessions with the drums. Unfortunately the current tracks don't have them. So I've been using a tight room to simulate the room.
I'm not sure what "stunt" mics are. Could you elaborate? (If it's a joke, please excuse the thick-headedness! Bring in the stunt mic!)

 

Wholeheartedly agree. I need to post up the prior mix. Rhythm guitars are overly loud in the chorus as well. Didn't pass the truck test! I was late into the night in front of the board, and let Neutron do it's thing on the 2 bus and just ripped it without tweaking the adjustments it made.
I'm doing boosts in tracks and try to keep any adjustments made on the 2 bus very small. Usually resonance cuts on the 2 bus.

 

Whatever you did on channel EQs, ditch that and start over.
Right now every instrument is boosted in the upper mid section and the instruments do not reside on their own EQ spectrum.
Ditch plugins like Neutron and Ezmix, its shyte, the magic lies in proper basic EQing.

 

Back to the ole drawing board, haha!
I'll rework this track over the weekend, and post up what I end up with. I think the eq's on the guitar tracks were applied prior to tape emulation being added. I'm going to try eqing into the tape emulation.
Do you feel that the high mids are problematical in the drums, bass guitar, and vocals too? Should I just start with the guitar tracks and see where that takes me, or just go ahead and rework everything?

 

How many tracks do you have?
Yea, drums are also too hyped in the mids, also you probably cut too much low end on the snare, hi hat is also hard on the ears.
Dont be afraid to really cut those high frequencies and reference some pro material for better orientation.

 

In this project, there are 9 guitar tracks, 4 vocal tracks, 10 drum tracks, 1 bass track. It's not too heavy, track-wise.
I'll just redo all tracks again. I think when I originally eq'd this I was monitoring pretty loud so I probably killed some of the old ear sensitivity during that session. Wifey wasn't home so I let it rip!
Hi-hat is just coming through the overheads so I'll pay particular attention to them as well.
I'm guessing that I should turn off ALL eqing in the mixbuss while I'm reworking this and hopefully, when complete, it won't need much if anything there.
This is the curve on the Shure 587 I used on the guitar cabinets. Just got this from the archives at Shure. 8K is really pronounced it seems.


Referencing is proving more important than I had originally thought. That's what initiated this post, haha.

 

Yea those 8k are too much.
Switch between headphones and monitors when mixing and start at low volumes to really get a balanced sound, you will hear more.
Yea turn off the mixbus EQ.
Thing is, when you put a Satin or a Kramer tape , D361A and Slate plugins, the sound comes together naturally so dont worry about the final sound, go slow, you can always boost those frequencies later.

 

Better to boost resonances dynamically than static or otherwise you are going to create a resonator effect.

 

I was talking about mastering, adding some air later.

 

This is one of the nicest reads I've found. Great for reading slow and digesting the advice given. Thank you all, even though I'm not the OP.

 

-3 db is not enough headroom for your master my friend. Try to stay around -18db, at least -12db.
Check aswell all your tracks, they need headroom too. 'Cause if your tracks are touching the red too often even if your master is right,
you will have problems. If you need volume just turn up your monitors or add a transparent limiter to your master to on/off - turn it up
when you need it.
After saying that there are no rules, but … Anyway.
Check aswell between your plugins, if there is enough headroom too. Plugins are made from real hardware (most of the time) so they have different responses between soft/hard hitting input. They generate some pleasant but also unpleasant harmonics, which will be some how, exaggerated by further eq, comp, delay based processes. Some adding aliasing, if your not aware of, you need to check oversampling into your plugins which are giving this addons.
In which sample rate are you working ?
So all these chain need to be checked carefully.
At -12/-18db, the mastering will be more easy and really powerful.
You can achieve a really deep, and punchy mix at -18db with creamy reverbs and so one…
Are you working also with parallel processing ?
Listen your track are low volume. Your male lead vocal needs a tiny more focus.
Check automations, differences between verse and chorus is not enough in terms of punch, for example. Keep a bit of power for your verses. They sounds ok but the drum should explose on the verse like the new verses guitars riff.
All these tiny movements, orchestration mix decision in fact, gives depth and organic feelings.
Being at the service of the music and not the inverse is the key ;)

cheers

 

Damn! Ok I see the point. Thanx for this precision mate. I've read it too fast indeed.

 

I was talking about usually compressing around -3db, no more than -7. Sorry if I expressed that in a confusing way.
As for gain staging, I ensure that the peaks stay out of the red, and ride just under it using the input/output metering in the plug itself.
In the case of Nebula, I let peaks hit -18db according to Nebula's input meter, and pull the output level down so that the Over light never comes on. I use trim plugs in between plug-ins to help. I've found gain staging with some Nebula presets (Olonga's among them) a little odd, having to push the trim plugs into the Red (on their meters) to hit -18db in Nebula, but tonally it sounds better when I do it this way.
Started working with the guitar tracks last night, and after re-eqing them while switching back and forth between a reference track, it opened thing up quite a bit.

 

44.1. That's the sample rate of the Tascam Neo we originally began recording with. I decided to just leave it. Also the Olonga Nebula presets I bought were 44.1 so it made sense to me at the time to continue that way. Is aliasing what you are hearing?

 

Guys, thank you for taking the time to listen and give suggestions!

 

Could you explain the reasoning behind this approach? If you mean stereo imagery on the 2 bus, I get that, but don't understand for the individual tracks or not using the individual track pans for example the guitar takes which I pan almost hard right and left.
I did do some automation panning with the female vocal track during the reverse reverb wash. Just to add some interest in that spot. Everything else is static pans.

 

One of the worst pieces of advice I have heard here is to use boost EQ during mixing. BAD BAD IDEA!!
2 main reasons this is always a last resort to fixing problems.
1) it will mess with your gain structure at the master or subs causing you more work by adjusting faders constantly.
2) it will add noise to your mix which may not be a problem for "in the box" mixing, but will accentuate noise in the original recording.

I actually have a degree in Recording Engineering so I do know of what I speak.

 

@martel80

My understanding is the clarity/accuracy in digital is toward the roof as opposed to analog/tape where it is more situated toward the center. I guess the point is to find the happy medium. Not mix going into the red where you will find digital clipping, but near the roof where the focal area is.
I understand the analogy. But if you put the slinky in a 40% box, and then put that in a 100% box, you're still limited to the confines of the 40% box I would think. I guess I need to do further research on this to have a clearer understanding of it.
Thank you very much for the tips. I will work towards implementing them. Just need a clearer understanding of the mechanics behind it. I'm an electronics/software guy so I like to know what's going on under the hood too.

 

I've heard this from so many different sources. Then you've got guys like CLA who seem to totally disregard it.

Probably depends entirely on how musical the eq your boosting with is too.

Totally agree about boosting raising the noise floor as opposed to cuts which should reduce it.