17-11-2016, 03:28 PM
[I've attached the mix version I critiqued to this post, as the version at the top of the thread has been updated in light of these comments (and others).]
Well, this is certainly a sound that takes no prisoners! It's almost got a bit of a punk aesthetic going on here, which is an interesting angle to hear -- especially in contrast to more conservative, hi-fi-sounding visions such as Olli H's for instance. Within this context some potential criticisms of finer points of balance or blend become less relevant, because a certain amount of imbalance is inherent to this kind of 'everything fighting with everything else' sound. The most important thing to me is that it sounds exciting, after which most other things are just window-dressing!
I really like the way the Mid-sections open out in stereo, with that wide modulation on the cleaner guitars providing a great contrast to the super-aggressive and focused drums/guitar sound. I also enjoyed the way the gnarly bass tone pulled out all his little melodic fills and slides -- I'd not properly noticed them all until now!
Even taking your mix on its own terms, though, I think you've mid-biased it too much, which makes it a pretty tough listen at louder volumes, or on anything that further emphasises its prominent 1-2kHz region or upper-midrange distortion components. It just comes across as rather hard and brittle at the moment. I reckon you might also be able to push the loudness more cleanly than you have -- at the moment the vocal in the verses seems to be hitting a clipping stage in a way that's sending clipping 'sprinkles' dancing around the stereo picture. I'm not at all squeamish as far as clipping goes, but you tend not to be able to get away with it as well on periodic waveforms as you often can on transient peaks.
Despite my general liking of the bass, it does still seem shy of fundamental (as indeed the raw recording is), and that also tends to highlight the mid-emphasis of the mix as a whole further. Some EQ or LF compression on the bass buss might help here. I also wonder whether the snare drum might be a bit overpowering compared with the lead vocal -- it seems a bit stuck on as a result, makes the guitars feel a bit small, and also makes the verses a big drop-down in terms of energy and rhythmic drive compared with the riff sections that precede and follow them.
Another strong vision, though, which I'm always a fan of -- thanks for posting!
Well, this is certainly a sound that takes no prisoners! It's almost got a bit of a punk aesthetic going on here, which is an interesting angle to hear -- especially in contrast to more conservative, hi-fi-sounding visions such as Olli H's for instance. Within this context some potential criticisms of finer points of balance or blend become less relevant, because a certain amount of imbalance is inherent to this kind of 'everything fighting with everything else' sound. The most important thing to me is that it sounds exciting, after which most other things are just window-dressing!
I really like the way the Mid-sections open out in stereo, with that wide modulation on the cleaner guitars providing a great contrast to the super-aggressive and focused drums/guitar sound. I also enjoyed the way the gnarly bass tone pulled out all his little melodic fills and slides -- I'd not properly noticed them all until now!Even taking your mix on its own terms, though, I think you've mid-biased it too much, which makes it a pretty tough listen at louder volumes, or on anything that further emphasises its prominent 1-2kHz region or upper-midrange distortion components. It just comes across as rather hard and brittle at the moment. I reckon you might also be able to push the loudness more cleanly than you have -- at the moment the vocal in the verses seems to be hitting a clipping stage in a way that's sending clipping 'sprinkles' dancing around the stereo picture. I'm not at all squeamish as far as clipping goes, but you tend not to be able to get away with it as well on periodic waveforms as you often can on transient peaks.
Despite my general liking of the bass, it does still seem shy of fundamental (as indeed the raw recording is), and that also tends to highlight the mid-emphasis of the mix as a whole further. Some EQ or LF compression on the bass buss might help here. I also wonder whether the snare drum might be a bit overpowering compared with the lead vocal -- it seems a bit stuck on as a result, makes the guitars feel a bit small, and also makes the verses a big drop-down in terms of energy and rhythmic drive compared with the riff sections that precede and follow them.
Another strong vision, though, which I'm always a fan of -- thanks for posting!