Hey Doug,
thx for the crit. How could I forget to cut 4k - I must have been out of my mind
It's funny that you hear the same problems that I had on my mind but was somehow too shy too tackle. The snare has a lot of punch, maybe too much, but I was afraid to reduce the impact with a transient designer because we all know how fast a snare can disappear in a full and dense mix. Still like it the way it is though. Toms probably have too much high end, and the kick could come down by 1db. For my ears, the low end is supertight and kick, bass, guitar and snare are really glued together - maybe that's the reason why you think it sounds stodgy, because no element is really dominating the low end. I´m using TDR SlickEQ on my 2bus for a while now and always use the "match to pink noise" to help me make the mix more linear. It's not much (we are talking about 0.5 to 1db adjustments) but that might be the reason that my low end sounds a bit too plain lately.
Regarding the cloudiness around 200-500hz: I think my version sounds better & beefier compared with your mix. The cut you made is exactly what I try to avoid in my mixes. I think the mix sounds hollow without that beef down there and I hear this kind of hollowness all the time in other mixes on this forum... often to a point where there is absolutely no body/low mids left in the guitars. I always come back to Andy Sneap/Killswitch mixes for reference because I absolutely love the guitar sound and the overall balance. His mixes always have this low mids beefiness and I always try to preserve that, but I must admit that a small cut around 400 hz would probably help the song to gain a bit more clarity.
I probably make a second version tonight and address all that stuff we talked about. Thx doug!
thx for the crit. How could I forget to cut 4k - I must have been out of my mind
It's funny that you hear the same problems that I had on my mind but was somehow too shy too tackle. The snare has a lot of punch, maybe too much, but I was afraid to reduce the impact with a transient designer because we all know how fast a snare can disappear in a full and dense mix. Still like it the way it is though. Toms probably have too much high end, and the kick could come down by 1db. For my ears, the low end is supertight and kick, bass, guitar and snare are really glued together - maybe that's the reason why you think it sounds stodgy, because no element is really dominating the low end. I´m using TDR SlickEQ on my 2bus for a while now and always use the "match to pink noise" to help me make the mix more linear. It's not much (we are talking about 0.5 to 1db adjustments) but that might be the reason that my low end sounds a bit too plain lately. Regarding the cloudiness around 200-500hz: I think my version sounds better & beefier compared with your mix. The cut you made is exactly what I try to avoid in my mixes. I think the mix sounds hollow without that beef down there and I hear this kind of hollowness all the time in other mixes on this forum... often to a point where there is absolutely no body/low mids left in the guitars. I always come back to Andy Sneap/Killswitch mixes for reference because I absolutely love the guitar sound and the overall balance. His mixes always have this low mids beefiness and I always try to preserve that, but I must admit that a small cut around 400 hz would probably help the song to gain a bit more clarity.
I probably make a second version tonight and address all that stuff we talked about. Thx doug!