Never Ebb But Flow WIP (What am I doing wrong)

[hcop]

It isn't hitting as hard as I want it to. It's almost there but I can't figure out what the problem is.

[Quathamer]

Hello mate,

You know, the mix is actually not too bad. I can hear all the elements, I can distinguish between everything, and the effects are good. I think considering how hard this mix is, you've done very well.

There's a few things you can think of:

- Stereo image. You've got a fair amount of things panned here and there, but I would consider getting the rhythm guitars as wide as possible to give the mix body while creating space in the center image for the vocals and the lead guitar.

- Highmids and Highs. Like I said, your mix is quite good, but it does need a little bit of mastering on the stereo out. See, mixing is such a tough gig that Mastering engineers were born to help out mixing engineers. Mixing engineers spend so much time balancing tones and getting vocals to stand out and drums to sit where they need to that over time the balance of the mix just goes a little weird. The mix is good but the balance betweet the highs to lows just needs a little adjustment. So in your case, you just need more high-mids to highs to be in balance with the lows. The mix in those frequencies are really great, but their overall level needs boosting.

- Nitpicking. Just a few little mix things I would adjust - Snare presence around 3k needs a good boost and pull out a little of that 400hz. Automation on your guitars. Rebalance the stereo image. Kick needs some kick.

I gotta say though, I'm a big fan of your vocals. Very nicely done on those.

[Friggy]

Sounds like it just needs to be balanced better. I like the tones of most things, kick and snare remind me of Eric Valentine. Verse vocals are a bit dark and get buried by the kick and snare, but vocals aren't too bad for the chorus. The rest of the instruments just seem to always sit under the kick and snare.

A quick fix could be to make a new group with an 1167-like comp on it, send everything except the drums to that bus, get some compression with it and blend that into the mix. And maybe send less of the vocals, because they are already at a decent level.

And then after that, a lot of automation. A lot of elements, from volume, panning, adding or removing fx, can be used to give parts of the song a push.

[hcop]

Sounds like it just needs to be balanced better. I like the tones of most things, kick and snare remind me of Eric Valentine.

That's a huge compliment, thank you!
I'm experimenting with the 1176 idea too - really appreciate the feedback!

[Roy]

Sounds like it just needs to be balanced better. I like the tones of most things, kick and snare remind me of Eric Valentine.

That's a huge compliment, thank you!
I'm experimenting with the 1176 idea too - really appreciate the feedback!

If it helps the 1176 thing is also called "the rear bus" popularized by Andrew Scheps. You can google around and find some examples.

[Mixinthecloud]

Hcop, it sounds like you could use some high pass filtering on some of your sources. This might allow better energy through your mix. It feels like a lot of energy is being lost on unneeded low freq. energy. You have some great ideas and many are well expressed. Clean up some of the unnecessary energy so the good energy shines. So far, this is a great start.

[Retchid Gretchin]

i would say mix it without the electric guitars until you are happy with it then introduce the guitars one at a time - you will find that this is the problem with this particular mix and panning them out of the way. The second thing would be to use Parallel compression on all groups and of course master it on the mix bus. If all else fails see my signature.

[hcop]

Thank you all for the feedback!
Here's my new mix. A little toned down from the last one but I think it's cleaner. Still trying to figure out the vocals (especially the distortion on the word "flow" and the already severe de-essing on the chorus)

[hcop]

New mix - I think this is the one but as always feedback is appreciated

[LukasL]

New mix - I think this is the one but as always feedback is appreciated

This is by far the best one out of the bunch (imo). Good execution and clear vision in this mix! Only nitpick: There are cases where the vocals seem louder than they need to be be, otherwise great job.

And clean up your ending, please and thank you

Cheers,
Lukas