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HammerDown Mixbus mix
#1
Hello there, Pro-Doucher here,

I've recently been getting into mixing recordings. I used to do a few live gigs every now and then but nothing to do with recordings. I thought I'd try some of these free multi-tracks to mix and on the list of new uploads this was the song that caught by attention even though I'm not familiar with the genre.

I just got Mixbus version 4 and this is my first mix with that DAW. Overall it was pretty fun but Mixbus is plagued with performance issues. Every time I seemed to be getting into the mix, mixbus would just start getting choppy and became really hard to work with. Its so frustrating because it could be such an awesome DAW!

I'm just going to upload what Ive managed to come up with. Its about 4-5 hours of work. All EQs and comps are those that come with Mixbus (not the 32c version) apart from the free Tokyo Dawn Labs Kotelnikov Bus comp (Only using about 3dB reduction). Mixbus has a limiter built in to the masterbus but I'm not quite sure how it works, I just drive into it a bit. Only other plugin I used was the Klanghelm VUMT which are just meters but they're are fun to use.

Any advice and constructive criticism is welcome.


Pro-Doucher



.mp3    HammerDOWN_HammerDOWN mixbus 1_session.mp3 --  (Download: 11.45 MB)


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#2
Overall very nice Job!, Just a few things that come to my attention. The breath at the beginning of VS1 needs to be toned down. The whisper track in the verse is too loud. If you listen to the reference track it's barley there. Killer Snare sound!, but a little high when balanced against the kick. The kick is probably one of the hardest things to get right in this song in my opinion. That being said I would bring it up a bit in the mix and use automation to try to bring out the dynamics of it. The overheads need some love with some automation to bring out the small details and and to add more punch in the breaks

The lead fills n the verses are a bit low. The picked sustain at the end of the solo needs some of the clickyness toned down.

The BG vocals are to loud. If you listen to reference track they are barely audible and that's the way the band wants it. I personally love that vocal fill at the end of the last Chorus and would of kept that if I was the band, but I'm not hahaha

There are some cool little bass things that go on that I would use some automation to bring out some of the details.

You should also remove the silence from the beginning of the track and bounce from the start of the song.

That DAW sounds interesting, I have heard of their consoles before, but I didn't know that made a DAW.
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#3
Thanks for the feedback! I did read the mix notes but to be honest I didn't really listen to the original reference mix, I just went along with my gut feeling. I'll try some of the suggestions you mentioned! I sort of just threw in the towel because I was frustrated with the DAW and it'll be good to go in again with some fresh ears!

The DAW has been around for a while, its at version 4 but it still seems like a beta at times. Its not quite the magic bullet that a lot of people say it is and its far from perfect but its a great little platform. If they're trying to capture the old school magic of mixing they're definitely onto something and figures crossed they can make it into something awesome, its not quite ready as a professional product yet (Though I'm not really one to judge that). You should try it for yourself!
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#4
Cheers,

the snare sounds outright awful - like it's in a different room compared with the rest of the band. The problem is that you have to compete with brutal, punchy, upfront snare sounds in modern metal and this snare is the complete opposite. And that's EXACTLY THE REASON why using reference mixes is super important when you mix the music of bands you don't know - you have to have a VERY good reason to do things differently from the norm if you don't want to look into disappointed faces all the time Smile

With that beeing said I like the rest of your mix. Yes, there are a lot of problems (where is the bass gone? why do the guitars sound so gnarly? Where is all the punch and power from the ref mix?) but I kinda enjoyed it nonetheless. My advice would be: Fix the snare, bring up the bass and use limiting and clipping on individual tracks if you want to bring this song up to a "commercial" level, but keep some of the creative ideas you have implemented.
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