Left Blind - Hard Mix - No Drum Samples

[OmegaTheRed]

This song/mix is not for those with a weak constitution. It's very difficult and I now feel that I've progressed far enough to be able to mix this and even still I feel like it's missing something.

And like I put in the subject I used no drum samples so I feel proud about that with how the drums sound.

Any comments are welcome

Edit:
To think that only 6 months later, I have "improved" my mixing/mastering a lot.

Just listening side by side there's a big difference in the sound. Most noticeably the drums are lot more punchier, and the just the mix overall sounds better. And again no samples on this one. I like to think that even drums that aren't recorded all that well can be used, it provides a nice challenge to get them to sound good.

Edit January 2018: Its great being a mixer, always learning more and more. so after 5 months made this mix even better ;P
Also there is one sample now, its a kick sample to help the punch on the kick. (This kick sound is starting to become my signature sound cx)

4/14/2018: I changed back the kick as it suited this song better and came through the mix better. Also changed up the guitars some, more of just changing the EQ. And tried some new plugins on vocals.

[Roy]

It feels ok. It reminds me of a late 80s metal or hardcore mix. I don't mean that in a bad way. My biggest issue is it feels too "mono". My gut reaction is to want the guitars panned hard left and right but I'm not sure if that would change the feel of everything else. Maybe more cymbals. A little more bass guitar too. I don't really hear it but it might be just following the guitars tight enough that it doesn't stand out.

Overall it works. It reminds me of some of the sounds of music I grew up with. I don't know how a younger listener would react to it. It feels like a mix and I may have done some things differently I think it works for the song.

[OmegaTheRed]

It feels ok. It reminds me of a late 80s metal or hardcore mix. I don't mean that in a bad way. My biggest issue is it feels too "mono". My gut reaction is to want the guitars panned hard left and right but I'm not sure if that would change the feel of everything else. Maybe more cymbals. A little more bass guitar too. I don't really hear it but it might be just following the guitars tight enough that it doesn't stand out.

Overall it works. It reminds me of some of the sounds of music I grew up with. I don't know how a younger listener would react to it. It feels like a mix and I may have done some things differently I think it works for the song.

I did have it originally with the guitars hard panned left and right, but I kinda thought maybe that the way I have it was better (75%) but here's it hard panned. But re-listening to it i think hard panned is better because I have have the 3rd guitar just sitting center.

I did some tweaking including what you said about the cymbals, but looking at I realized the cymbals were the worst part recorded. I ended up having to us the OH mic as part the snare mic because of how bad the OH were recorded. I also tweaked the guitars, I used a different preset I had and i seemed to helped the "mononess" of the guitars, though the only thing that'll truly fix that is removing the 3rd guitar and then tweaking around the other 2 since the 3rd adds to the volume of the other 2 and help them punch through the mix. And as for the bass I saw what you were saying and tuned them it a bit different, and lowered the the distortion I had on my one bass track (I use 2 bass tracks, one just the low frequencies and do a bass lowpass and the other for distortion).

[OmegaTheRed]

So literally right after I made that reply I noticed the kick got lost in certain parts of the song and went back and adjusted the volume on it in certain parts.

[OmegaTheRed]

Also I am a "younger" listener, maybe. I'll be 21 in march so I don't know if that counts lol. I actually really like the 2 songs, I added the album to one of my spotify playlists.

[Roy]

Ha. I meant no disrespect about the "younger" remark. I'm relatively old so the "aesthetic" of the first mix appealed to me in a nostalgic way. I could see a younger mixer want to hear more samples and a more modern sound but I think it fits.

That said I do like mix 2 more. I suspected that some of the decisions you made in the first mix was based on the raw tracks and sounds. Especially the OHs. I like the wider guitars. I like the character of the snare but feel like it needs some extra punch mostly in the opening slow sections. During the faster parts it works but it's so expose in the beginning that it needs to have some more weight behind it. I might be overthinking it. You said you used the mono OH as part of the snare sound. Did you check the phase of the drums? Maybe there's some cancelation going on. Or maybe not.
I still want something else from the bass. Maybe a little more of the hi passed track. But it's not bad as is. Just a personal preference.

There is an overtone in the overheads on one of the cymbals. In the intro section (0:21-to the 1st verse) is where I hear it the most. It's a little resonant and could probably easily be notched out.

It sounds good. The balances are all there and there's no real problems that I hear.
Good job.

[OmegaTheRed]

Lol none taken. I was just adding to it as a joke cx And about the OH on in that time section, I'm not really sure what you're talking about. As for the bass like I did a lowpass of just the bass frequencies and the other track is where I throw my effects on it and used only the mids and highs. I like to do that since sometimes having the lows can mess with the effect I'm trying to do. Possibly i just didn't do enough to the mids and highs like I thought. xD

[Roy]

Ok Cool. As far as the OHs, I just hear one of the cymbals having a resonant overtone that peaks out a bit. There's a frequency that is louder than the rest. It could just be how I'm hearing it.
I do the same with bass mostly to anchor the low end and having the option of "dialing in" the definition of the bass without losing the low end.

[Andrzej Pyrowicz]

Overall, I like it. However, you would work on choosing a guitar cabinet. Now the sound is a bit dry.

[javierpg84]

This is djent for real!!! Great mix and great feel!!!