Whisper To A Scream

[thedon]

+1 on the snare. I think it actually has a bit too much front end and not enough tail, which it why it's poking me in the eye a bit. Great sound otherwise.

Thanks Mike for having a listen and positive feedback !
I will work on the snare !

[Voelund]

Sounds great. You have an ear for those rough sounds. Yah snare is the star, but just little less of it and maybe more meat will do it for me. Hat sounds much better than what I could do, will you share the secret
Great work !

[Pedaling Prince]

Here is my try at this great song !

I disagree with Akor. I LOVE the way you got the snare to punch through the wall of guitars here. In fact, the whole mix has excellent balance, good punch and power while still showcasing detail. Love it!

There are only two major flaws here:

1. Vocals are WAY too loud; they need to come down at least 3 dB, possibly 4 or 5.
2. While overall balance among instruments is good, frequency balance is a bit brash and sharp. Sounds to me like too much energy in the 5-6 kHz region, particularly on the vocals. Guitars could be just a tad less bright, too. Might want to listen to Voelund's mix of this; he got the guitars spot-on, AND he recently included in the thread on his mix the specific EQ settings he used for each guitar track.

So the biggest problems here IMHO are with the vocal balance. Get that tied up and you've got a great mix here!

[thedon]

Sounds great. You have an ear for those rough sounds. Yah snare is the star, but just little less of it and maybe more meat will do it for me. Hat sounds much better than what I could do, will you share the secret
Great work !

Thanks For having a listen Niels !

Still working on the snare ,I had a look at the mix project and the only thing I done to the hi hat was to roll off everything below 4k !

Cheers
Don

[thedon]

Here is my try at this great song !

I disagree with Akor. I LOVE the way you got the snare to punch through the wall of guitars here. In fact, the whole mix has excellent balance, good punch and power while still showcasing detail. Love it!

There are only two major flaws here:

1. Vocals are WAY too loud; they need to come down at least 3 dB, possibly 4 or 5.
2. While overall balance among instruments is good, frequency balance is a bit brash and sharp. Sounds to me like too much energy in the 5-6 kHz region, particularly on the vocals. Guitars could be just a tad less bright, too. Might want to listen to Voelund's mix of this; he got the guitars spot-on, AND he recently included in the thread on his mix the specific EQ settings he used for each guitar track.

So the biggest problems here IMHO are with the vocal balance. Get that tied up and you've got a great mix here!

Thanks John for having a detailed listen !
I am happy you like the punch of the snare as I have been working on trying to tame it a touch ,I will bring the vocals down in the next remix !

The brightness in the 5-6k area is a monitoring issue I have to work on .

Thank you so much for listening and sharing your knowledge as im quite new to DAW mixing and would love to hear your comments and advice !

Cheers
Don

[Pedaling Prince]

Thank you so much for listening and sharing your knowledge as im quite new to DAW mixing and would love to hear your comments and advice !

Well, for one thing the 5-6 kHz problem is a common one. So many newbie mixers figure if 5-6 kHz is where all the "presence" in the sound is (which is true, actually) then that's where the boost needs to be to bring out "clarity" in a track. Now this CAN work IF it's applied ONLY to the specific tracks in a mix you want to showcase, like the vocals, but even then new mixers tend to push the 5-6 kHz region too hard; rule of thumb, under most circumstances, is if you're boosting more than 6 dB in ANY EQ adjustment then you're probably boosting too much. There are exceptions to that rule, of course, but these are mostly under extraordinary circumstances or if you're going for a very specific effect.

Also, when using EQ much of the time it's better to CUT TROUBLESOME FREQUENCIES rather than to boost the ones you're trying to bring out. For example, vocals and overdriven electric guitar are a bit like hard butter and soft bread; they taste great together but they're a pain to put together effectively. First instinct might be to boost the vocals a bit in the midrange around 1000 Hz to try to get them to compete with the guitars, but it's actually more effective to CUT midrange from the GUITARS rather than boost it in the vocals. If you also boost up the low and high end on the guitars while you're at it this often creates a nice "full" guitar sound that has a nice notch cut out in the middle for the vocals to sit in.

Just some quick tips. There are no hard and fast rules; every mix is different. The main thing to remember is the basic principle that "less is more." Always try to do as little as possible to each track to get the sound you're looking for; if you find yourself doing really heavy processing on a track, chances are there's a better way to do it with a less heavy-handed approach if you work at it.

[thedon]

Thank you so much for listening and sharing your knowledge as im quite new to DAW mixing and would love to hear your comments and advice !

Well, for one thing the 5-6 kHz problem is a common one. So many newbie mixers figure if 5-6 kHz is where all the "presence" in the sound is (which is true, actually) then that's where the boost needs to be to bring out "clarity" in a track. Now this CAN work IF it's applied ONLY to the specific tracks in a mix you want to showcase, like the vocals, but even then new mixers tend to push the 5-6 kHz region too hard; rule of thumb, under most circumstances, is if you're boosting more than 6 dB in ANY EQ adjustment then you're probably boosting too much. There are exceptions to that rule, of course, but these are mostly under extraordinary circumstances or if you're going for a very specific effect.

Also, when using EQ much of the time it's better to CUT TROUBLESOME FREQUENCIES rather than to boost the ones you're trying to bring out. For example, vocals and overdriven electric guitar are a bit like hard butter and soft bread; they taste great together but they're a pain to put together effectively. First instinct might be to boost the vocals a bit in the midrange around 1000 Hz to try to get them to compete with the guitars, but it's actually more effective to CUT midrange from the GUITARS rather than boost it in the vocals. If you also boost up the low and high end on the guitars while you're at it this often creates a nice "full" guitar sound that has a nice notch cut out in the middle for the vocals to sit in.

Just some quick tips. There are no hard and fast rules; every mix is different. The main thing to remember is the basic principle that "less is more." Always try to do as little as possible to each track to get the sound you're looking for; if you find yourself doing really heavy processing on a track, chances are there's a better way to do it with a less heavy-handed approach if you work at it.

Thanks John for taking the time to help much appreciated !