Dark Ride: 'Hammer Down'_qmix

[Q-Mix]

Hi!

First time mixing this genre, also first mix on new monitors, so any feedback is highly appreciated.

[Jimdolorian]

Hi

What came to my head while listening:

-Voice is too loud.
-Rythm guitars ad solo needs to be louder (they get lost).
-Not bad sounding overall !

Take care !

[Imagine Mix Studio]

What monitors did you upgrade to? Too a while for me to get use to mine when i got some. The greatest benefit i get is mixing with both of them A/B. I recommend it if your interface and space allows it. For your mix I think there is low mix build up and a lack of contrast between the instruments. The solo is very low. Some tracks could also benefit with some brightening. It is a good start. I would go through everything and make sure it is improving the sound and creating contrast.

[Q-Mix]

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply.

Thanks a lot for your time to listen to my mix, new monitors are JBL LSR 305, first monitors in my bedroom, with no acoustic threatment, other mixes I posted here was mixed on headphones (AKG k240).

(I have Tannoy PBM 6.5 II, and KRK Rokit 6 RP2 in studio, they are imo pretty different, so it's hard to get used to them)

[Philament]

Hey man!

Here is what I find when listening to your mix:

1. The overall mix is left heavy in the stereo field. It sounds a little unbalanced.
2. The rythm guitars have too scooped low mids. They lack a little of that drive that makes the song.
3. The beater of the kick drum is too audible. I like a defined kick, but in this case, in the 5k range, there is so much going on, that it doesn't feel in the right place.

Other than that, a decent try on the way to perfection

[Blitzzz]

What Phil wrote, but it's not only the beater, it's the kick itself that's dominating the mix in a bad way. You have to turn the kick down and bring it on a level with the rest of the drum kit. There is an easy way to level kick, snare and bass against each other:

First: Try this for kick and bass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECRx4WF3pcc

Second: For Kick and snare, I adopted a trick from Nolly from Periphery that's been really helpful: Put a bus compressor like Slates FG-Grey (that's what Nolly uses in his example) on the drum bus and dial in a fast release and fast attack (but not the fastest attack - let some of the transients through). Now solo kick and snare and set the threshold so that each snare hit gets compressed by 3 dB and each kick hit gets compressed by 1 dB. Be careful with double bass parts because if you haven't already treated the kick to be quieter in a double bass part it will trigger the compressor too hard. Usually, you have to change the volume of the snare track to bring it on the right level with the kick. Nolly is using this technique on the mix bus, but I find it works better on the drum bus for me. In 9 out of 10 cases, kick and snare will be in the perfect spot afterwards

Back to your mix: The kick almost completely disappears in the double bass part which is kinda strange, too It sounds like you have reduced the highs and also turned down the volume of the kick. I wouldn't touch the highs and only reduce the low end with a low shelf by -3db and automate that shelf so it's on every time the drummer plays a double bass line and off if the drummer only plays single kick hits.

Also: A bit too much reverb, the guitars are not loud enough (and are missing mids and therefore sound weak compared with the mastered version) and the synthies are too loud

Hope that helps - have a great day and keep up the good work
DIrk

[Q-Mix]

Thanks a lot guys for the feedback and for the tips, I really appreciate this!!

When I find some time I'll try to fix everything you said.