don't get me wrong: of course you are free to mix this song in ANY direction you want. the problem is that most people use eq and compression on every track because the think they HAVE to. instead of building some sort of climax, paying attention to small details and making every chorus more powerful then the one before they are mixing individual tracks with "their" guitar/snare/bass sound in mind and completely forget about the fact that mixing is way more then EQ and compression. E.g. somebody told you that a 3db boost at 3khz and a 3db cut a 1khz is a good idea for distorted guitars. While this can be a good move sometimes you should not apply this "rule" to every guitar just because somebody said so. Use your ears. I can promise you that I didn't record the guitars like they are if I wanted a sound like Machine Head. No - I wanted the guitars to exactly sound like this. Same goes for the bass and drums. Find a way to make it all work without changing the "sound" of the band. That's the job of a mixer.
My advice: Load, sort and route all tracks of Burning Bridges into a new project and pull up all the faders so that your master PEAKS at -2/-3 db. Don't forget about gain staging - make sure all the levels of the individual tracks are right in the first place. Now take your time and listen to the mix. What sounds akward? What sounds great? Does the song have a climax? Does every verse sound the same? (if yes = bad). Is there anything special that you want to highlight in the mix like a nice drum roll or really cool background vocals? While listening to the mix you should pull down faders of tracks that are too loud. Make hi/lo cuts and pan the tracks and listen again. Don't use ANY sort of EQ or compression at all, just use the faders. If you constantly have to adjust the volume of a track throughout the song you probably have to fix it with a compressor or - the better choice - with volume automation. You will end up with a good rough mix and NOW you can decide if you want to seperate clashing instruments via EQ or fader moves. But keep in mind that you don't want to change the sound of the band - just give it more definition.
Summary: you can get a rough mix of this song with little to no eq und compression and it will sound really good. just concentrate on hi/lowcuts and do some fader rides. Vocals need some de-essing? Cool, do it. Add SMALL amounts of delay and reverb to the solo guitars and the lead vocals and you're done with the basic stuff. NOW you can start mixing the song, give it impact, give it power, let the solo guitars scream! Everything you did before was just a warm up for the real job.
Don't get me wrong, your mix is good. but from my view - the artist who wrote and recorded it - it's a) not the sound I´m looking for. And b) it is still not "mixed". It is levelled and eq'ed and panned - but not mixed.
Thanks Blitzz!!!
That're the best advices and suggestions I've ever got in the forum...many think that I agree with you and many were you give me input to do better my job...thanks!
In reality I did just compress a little bit the 2 GTR (the solo one are not compressed) and also I did some gentle EQ but then on those 2 GTR I add some heavy 2.5 K to give more of that sound (and that's my ego...gonna kill it one day...lol) that wasn't what you were looking for, and also all the fader level that you are talking is always my first step for mixing so nothing new but thank anyway because probably sometime I forgot to do it well
I'll definitively go back and do the mix again with your thought in mind, thanks again and all best.
Here the revision of my mix with the mind set with what Blitzz say.
I wanna clarify that in my second mix I did not much compression (not on GTR, just on drum bass and Vox) but I touch a lot the sound of the GTR with EQ so then of course all the rest, I was thinking more on my ego and how I would like to make sound the band (I like a lot Machine Head )... On this mix I took away all my compressors and my hard EQ on GTR and went back to the mix...made my static fadar, look on EQ, compression on Kick and some Limiting on snare, compression on lead vox but not the screem's one, I change my hard panning of the main GTR and also on the 2 drums room I put it back in the center. I add some reverse reverb on my vox buss and also a bit of chamber on my drum buss. For the solo GTR I add some delay FX. Made some fader automation on GTR. No compression on GTR and Bass just EQ. A bit of Paralello on GTR and Drums and Bass. Little compression on my 2-buss and some mastering with a kramer MPX and Ozone 5.
Hope now is sounding more how the producer want any advice is always welcome
11-08-2014, 05:33 PM (This post was last modified: 11-08-2014, 05:33 PM by Blitzzz.)
Much better then before. You should work on the stereo image - I can't give you a better feedback because the headphone in my office is really bad. btw here is an article that might be interesting for you:
(11-08-2014, 05:33 PM)Blitzzz Wrote: Much better then before. You should work on the stereo image - I can't give you a better feedback because the headphone in my office is really bad. btw here is an article that might be interesting for you:
Sounds good on my AKGs. Guitars should be hard left/right. kick & snare are a little bit too loud, bass to low. vocals are good. the ref tracks have more "beef" in the low end.
My advice: Leave your mix as it is and try something else. Don't try to get the "perfect" because there is no such mix. take what you have learned from this song and try a new one like the stuff from Hollow Ground.
Here my last mix with the last revisions... I wanna thanks Blitzz for give us the opportunity to mix his work, for me this one was one of the best
experience I had here on this forum. To get the input from who recorded and made the song is priceless, I got many thing about mixing and learned how to be a good sound engineer, thanks again
12-08-2014, 12:26 PM (This post was last modified: 12-08-2014, 12:27 PM by Blitzzz.)
Youre welcome. It's a good mix - everything sits in the right spot (on my headphones in the office - not the best choice but it's a real life check). Guitars are wide & loud. Bass could be a tad louder but it's hard to say because I don't trust those headphones in the office. Compare this mix with your first and you'll hear big difference. Good job Jacques =)
Good mix mate,all I would say s yes bass could have a nudge up but its ok.
OH maybe a little loud and a tad to much 8-10 k on the guitars but I can live with them.
Good work.
(12-08-2014, 12:26 PM)Blitzzz Wrote: Youre welcome. It's a good mix - everything sits in the right spot (on my headphones in the office - not the best choice but it's a real life check). Guitars are wide & loud. Bass could be a tad louder but it's hard to say because I don't trust those headphones in the office. Compare this mix with your first and you'll hear big difference. Good job Jacques =)
Thanks Blitzz, yes maybe bass could be a couple dB up, I also mixed in some crappy headphone so...I agree with you about my first and this mix, they are 2 different world!
Hope my experience and what there is written here on my blog can help all the community...for me it was
12-08-2014, 08:10 PM (This post was last modified: 12-08-2014, 08:11 PM by Jacques.)
(12-08-2014, 01:47 PM)takka360 Wrote: Good mix mate,all I would say s yes bass could have a nudge up but its ok.
OH maybe a little loud and a tad to much 8-10 k on the guitars but I can live with them.
Good work.
Thanks my friend,
I add a bit of 3k on solo GTR and probably 1 dB at 6k but with a sweet bell on the rhythmic one, so probably is this that you ear about GTR, or because I didn't made any subtractive on that range on GTR. On OH true they could be a little bit down.
Thanks for your feedback it always give me to reason
