The Black Crown: 'Flames'

[matiasgodoy399]

I like the snare at the beginning when drums are alone, then i feel a lack of body perhaps. it´s an amazing mix! Only complaints are that with snare and a little annoying overheads, and maybe too loud vocals? just a dB I think. Please check mine and give some advise! Cheers

[Cudjoe]

Hi don just the vocals as you already know.

[thedon]

Hey Don, your mix sounds great, that bass is just growling through really nice, I'll have to check out some tape saturation on my bass with some high end exciting. Really my only complaint is that the low end of the mix doesn't quite connect together, the kick, bass, and low end of the guitars seem to be in different spaces and it really takes away from the "Wall of Sound" these kinds of tracks need.

Don't be afraid of the 100-500 Hz range, scooping it does clean the low end up but it can very easily overdone and make the mix sound too scooped. Pulling the guitars in to about 60% panning can also help to connect the bass and guitars together, at least from what I found. I found that making the bass tone more similar to the guitar tone helps to really butt it up under the guitars, think of the bass sounds on the heavier Tool tracks like Vicarious and Jambi, or Karnivool's Sound Awake album, they're borderline guitar tones but an octave down. Try lowpassing the DI bass at 2 kHz and let the saturated amp tone add the high end grit from 300 Hz to 4.5 kHz.

Otherwise you'e got a great mix going on, the vocals are clear and the drums sound powerful.

Cheers, and hope this helps
Doug

Hey Doug ,Thanks for having a listen .
I can hear what you are saying about the low end sounding disconnected especially on headphones and will give your advice a try.

Great help

Cheers

[thedon]

Hi don just the vocals as you already know.

Hi Cudjoe,
Thanks for having a listen ,hopefully the vocals will sit better in version 2

Cheers

[thedon]

I like the snare at the beginning when drums are alone, then i feel a lack of body perhaps. it´s an amazing mix! Only complaints are that with snare and a little annoying overheads, and maybe too loud vocals? just a dB I think. Please check mine and give some advise! Cheers

Hi matiasgodoy399 ,
Thanks for having a listen ,I'm happy you like it and agree about the lack of body of the snare ,overheads and vocals too loud.
Hopefull can sort out ib version 2

Cheers

[thedon]

The balance between the elements sound really good to me. I find the snare could have more punch and power sound wise I mean not necessarily louder. The vocals sounds a bit honky. If I listen really really loud the vocal sound hurts; perhaps it's also a half dB to loud. The kick sounds quite thin and doesn't perform the hammering groove it could in the lowend – on the other hand you managed to compensate for it with a nice, full sounding bass.

I think while it is overall nicely balanced you mixed it a bit too save. E.g. when the chorus chimes in, it could get louder, explode and then get constantly (musically, unnoticeable) quiter to the point where you startet until to the next chorus or pre chorus ... You might also pimp the emotional buildup with effect, delay, etc. I think this song almost begs for that to get more exciting. Of course, just my view of trying to make the best out of it.

Cheers,
Andy

Hi Andy ,Thanks for having a listen everything you can hear is spot on and hopefully will sort out in version 2 .

Cheers

[fjuarez3]

The mix already sounds great and you did a great job of getting this singers words out. The kick is a bit low but I know that this is your version 1. Great Job!

[thedon]

The mix already sounds great and you did a great job of getting this singers words out. The kick is a bit low but I know that this is your version 1. Great Job!

Thanks for having a listen Frank ,you are right the kick is a bit low !

Cheers

[loweche6]

Hello Don!

I like it with the Vox up. There aren't a lot of "grabbing" elements in the different sections, so the vox definitely (to me) tell me that they are definitely the most important element through 90% of the song (once you get power behind it, which you certainly did) so keeping it high makes sense to me. I could have done with a touch more guitar 2, but that guitar 3 almost seemed superfluous to me in the overall context of the song. The problem is that if you don't have it there, you are left with a big hole that the space the git 2 was taking up. So, to go back to my statement about git 2 coming up, git 3 would almost have to come up too, and I just didn't find enough meat in the part to justify making it really prominent (granted, I brought up the beginning where the vocals are out and automated down when the vocals come in, but I am still wrestling with getting it just right [I also noticed my drums get slammed up way too high from the second chorus on, so take everything is say about it with a grain of salt]).

But as it sits, it sounds powerful, strong, and I think the vocals sit above, but it calls for it, imho.

Very nicely done!
Draper

[thedon]

Hello Don!

I like it with the Vox up. There aren't a lot of "grabbing" elements in the different sections, so the vox definitely (to me) tell me that they are definitely the most important element through 90% of the song (once you get power behind it, which you certainly did) so keeping it high makes sense to me. I could have done with a touch more guitar 2, but that guitar 3 almost seemed superfluous to me in the overall context of the song. The problem is that if you don't have it there, you are left with a big hole that the space the git 2 was taking up. So, to go back to my statement about git 2 coming up, git 3 would almost have to come up too, and I just didn't find enough meat in the part to justify making it really prominent (granted, I brought up the beginning where the vocals are out and automated down when the vocals come in, but I am still wrestling with getting it just right [I also noticed my drums get slammed up way too high from the second chorus on, so take everything is say about it with a grain of salt]).

But as it sits, it sounds powerful, strong, and I think the vocals sit above, but it calls for it, imho.

Very nicely done!
Draper

Hey Draper ,
Thanks for having a detailed listen I really appreciate it and will use your feedback
in version 2 .
Cheers