Well this song is more complicated than it sounds.
Drums.
The hardest thing to get were the drums. I'm still not sure how to
get everything to blend better in harmony with the rest of the tracks without using drum samples. There were some microphones that had a lot of bleed in them. My guess is they had to use a condenser somewhere in there and this is trouble when trying to clean up your drums. Maybe I'll use some samples in it to see how much of a difference I get.
Guitars.
I just used the pair of guitar tracks that sounded like they were processed already. The other tracks have a different vibe that I didn't quite like. I'm sure as other mixes come up there will be a major difference than my mix because of this.
Bass.
Well bass is always my enemy in this genre.. I don't know how to deal with it. I wish I could have a piercing bass without so much of a back wall of sound feel from it. I shall see how else I can manage this.
Vocals for the most part were good. Just some dynamics variations that I didn't quite like so instead of dealing with automation I just used heavy compression and then limitting to have a solid volume across the mix.
Hope you like the first mix. Looking forward to see what you guys come up with. I know some of you are really good at this.
Any pointers are welcomed.
Saludos and happy mixing!
UPDATE;
Fixed the bass some what. brighten the guitars a lil more but wanted more beef in my mix so I enhanced low end on some tracks. This one is bigger and cleaner than the last one in my opinion. I just don't like some harsh freq. on guitars .. after you listen to the whole song you ears are tired.. imagine if you want to beast on your car with this kind of song. That's why mids are so important. Hope you all don't think its too midrange still.
UPDATE2
Below is my final mix of this song.
*I know its very low end driven but i just felt it had to be there in the low end. It's a simple song and it doesn't have as much musical arrangements as others.
*Replaced the toms for samples and I didn't really spent a whole lot of time deciding which ones to get. I simply went with the ones that sounded decent with the overall feel of the song.
*knocked the bass back as i couldn't make better use of the recording. I would say the player didn't execute it as good or perhaps the mic possition was a lil off. Not much to do with the dynamics of a recording if it's very loud at moments and very soft at moments. so I decided it should stay in the back just to fill in for the mix.
*Guitar tones are just what i wanted from it. I'm not a guitar player but I compared with some mixes. Mine has a boost in the low end around the 120hz because I just wanted a fuller sound.
*vox stayed the same except I used a short reverb on 130hz and above so it would thinken it up and sound more badass.. it's not an obvious detail but you feel it however.
P.S. added an instrumental version because the voice gets in the way a lot and while mixing it the voice was giving me a hard time.
And a drums version for those struggling with it I know it was hard to get but just overall i wanted to share it to give you a better grasp of what I did and how it sounds in SOLO. also left the reverb in it. I know some new comers put a lot of reverb and some don't use that much at all.. so this is a moderate reverb. Reverb is like Salt. If you put too much you have a bad mix and if you don't put enough is doesn't sound as good.
anyways.. Saludos!
Drums.
The hardest thing to get were the drums. I'm still not sure how to
get everything to blend better in harmony with the rest of the tracks without using drum samples. There were some microphones that had a lot of bleed in them. My guess is they had to use a condenser somewhere in there and this is trouble when trying to clean up your drums. Maybe I'll use some samples in it to see how much of a difference I get.
Guitars.
I just used the pair of guitar tracks that sounded like they were processed already. The other tracks have a different vibe that I didn't quite like. I'm sure as other mixes come up there will be a major difference than my mix because of this.
Bass.
Well bass is always my enemy in this genre.. I don't know how to deal with it. I wish I could have a piercing bass without so much of a back wall of sound feel from it. I shall see how else I can manage this.
Vocals for the most part were good. Just some dynamics variations that I didn't quite like so instead of dealing with automation I just used heavy compression and then limitting to have a solid volume across the mix.
Hope you like the first mix. Looking forward to see what you guys come up with. I know some of you are really good at this.
Any pointers are welcomed.
Saludos and happy mixing!
UPDATE;
Fixed the bass some what. brighten the guitars a lil more but wanted more beef in my mix so I enhanced low end on some tracks. This one is bigger and cleaner than the last one in my opinion. I just don't like some harsh freq. on guitars .. after you listen to the whole song you ears are tired.. imagine if you want to beast on your car with this kind of song. That's why mids are so important. Hope you all don't think its too midrange still.
UPDATE2
Below is my final mix of this song.
*I know its very low end driven but i just felt it had to be there in the low end. It's a simple song and it doesn't have as much musical arrangements as others.
*Replaced the toms for samples and I didn't really spent a whole lot of time deciding which ones to get. I simply went with the ones that sounded decent with the overall feel of the song.
*knocked the bass back as i couldn't make better use of the recording. I would say the player didn't execute it as good or perhaps the mic possition was a lil off. Not much to do with the dynamics of a recording if it's very loud at moments and very soft at moments. so I decided it should stay in the back just to fill in for the mix.
*Guitar tones are just what i wanted from it. I'm not a guitar player but I compared with some mixes. Mine has a boost in the low end around the 120hz because I just wanted a fuller sound.
*vox stayed the same except I used a short reverb on 130hz and above so it would thinken it up and sound more badass.. it's not an obvious detail but you feel it however.
P.S. added an instrumental version because the voice gets in the way a lot and while mixing it the voice was giving me a hard time.
And a drums version for those struggling with it I know it was hard to get but just overall i wanted to share it to give you a better grasp of what I did and how it sounds in SOLO. also left the reverb in it. I know some new comers put a lot of reverb and some don't use that much at all.. so this is a moderate reverb. Reverb is like Salt. If you put too much you have a bad mix and if you don't put enough is doesn't sound as good.
anyways.. Saludos!