Hey Mandubien just had a listen to your mix and used your reference mix to get an idea of what kind of sound you were going for.
The positive side of things is that you've matched the balance of Bombs Away very closely from what I can hear. The up front bass sound is really working to bring out the cool little bass licks in the turnarounds. The vocal delay on the "Roll the dice little god" parts is also a nice touch and adds to the atmosphere of the track. The vocals overall also sound quite nice with the rest of the track.
While your mix does a fairly good job of matching up with your reference, I think that it could use some automation on the bass, in the verses the bass is almost at the same level as the rhythm guitar and is fighting for that frequency range and taking away the power of the guitars. Automating down the volume of the bass during the verses will also help to give some contrast between the different sections of the track. For me, the mix also has a lack of low end and top end energy that Bombs Away has, listening back and forth it seems that there is more low end separation and overall air in Bombs away than in your mix when level matched. The kick in your mix seems to live more in that 100-300 Hz range rather than the 50-80 Hz range which is most likely the culprit of the low end clashing in the mix. I would scoop out some 100-300 Hz on the kick and make a boost at 60 Hz to reallocate the kick in the mix and make room for the bass. The air can be handled more so in mastering with a high frequency exciter and some multiband compression in the low mids to get a more open sounding mix.
Overall the mix is quite good and I can see what kind of sound you're aiming for.
Hope this helps,
Dcp
Mixing is way more art and soul than science. We don’t really know what we’re doing. We do it because we love music! It’s the love of music first. Eddie Kramer
Gear list: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, Mbox Mini w/Pro Tools Express, Reaper, Various plugins, AKG K240 MKii, Audio Technica ATH M50x, Yorkville YSM 6
Bombs Away instantly came into my head when I was looking for a good reference track (and I looooooove Flying Colors ) So I tried to get as close as I can.
The kick already had a lot of mid range cut so my idea was rather to focus on the attack and subs, but I will check this one more time as you suggest.
Same for the hi ends, I use a little high shelf cut at 8k on the master bus to make the whole song less agressive. Maybe some subtle boost can make it right.
Hi Mandubien,
Listening to version 2 ,sounds well balanced just a couple of things that come to mind while having a listen on Hd600's'.
the electric guitar sounds a touch upfront in the 3.5 area ,putting a narrow parametric cut to tame it and also may leave the vocals some space.
Maybe taming some mid bass to give some more room to boost the bottom end of the kick and bass on the low frequencies as can hear a bit of mid bass build up which could be the panned electric guitar at around 180 hz area which maybe the main culprit also the guitars sound just a touch boxy sounding around the 400hz-500 area.
These are just some guesses while having a quick listen.
Well Done
Just had a listen to the revision you made of your mix. To me it seems as if there's a high pass filter at about 100 Hz over everything except for the bass. The high end seems to be improved but still the mix seems like it's missing, it feels weightless, almost like the low end of the mix isn't gelling together. The rest of the mix is quite good, it just needs something to tie the low end together.
Mixing is way more art and soul than science. We don’t really know what we’re doing. We do it because we love music! It’s the love of music first. Eddie Kramer
Gear list: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, Mbox Mini w/Pro Tools Express, Reaper, Various plugins, AKG K240 MKii, Audio Technica ATH M50x, Yorkville YSM 6
Damn low ends ! They will kill me
I ALWAYS struggle with them ! That's definitively where I need to improve a lot for now... Ok I'll see this week to fix that again.
) So I tried to get as close as I can.
