Hello everyone! This is my first mix from this site, and I am kind of a novice at mixing. I am a student, so I don't have a lot of mixes or experience under my belt. This mix took about 3-4 hours for me to finish.
I really love the song. Please take a moment to listen and let me know what I can improve on! I think the toughest thing for me is getting the distorted guitars to sound nice and bright without being harsh and too bright.
Anyways, let me know how I did! And I would love any and all criticism.
Let's start with pros : pretty balanced mix. We can hear everything. There is a nice vintage effect with some distortion here and there on the guitars.
Now the cons : the overall EQ is quite muddy. It's like every instruments are fighting to find some space in the mid range. Vocals are very drowned except during the bridge. I'm not a fan of the very little flanger effect or so on the vocals, but I guess it's just a matter of taste.
Did you use a reference track to mix ? It's very important to have some kind of a guide to follow for EQ and how you will place each track.
09-02-2015, 03:07 PM (This post was last modified: 09-02-2015, 03:09 PM by JakeHalm.)
(27-01-2015, 01:39 PM)Mandubien Wrote: Hello and welcome here.
Let's start with pros : pretty balanced mix. We can hear everything. There is a nice vintage effect with some distortion here and there on the guitars.
Now the cons : the overall EQ is quite muddy. It's like every instruments are fighting to find some space in the mid range. Vocals are very drowned except during the bridge. I'm not a fan of the very little flanger effect or so on the vocals, but I guess it's just a matter of taste.
Did you use a reference track to mix ? It's very important to have some kind of a guide to follow for EQ and how you will place each track.
So not bad for a first mix ! Keep it up !
Hey Mandubien,
What do you mean by the overall mix being muddy and fighting for the midrange? In my monitors and headphones, each instrument sits in its own place sonically and it seems like no one is fighting for each other and if anything the guitars on the chorus seem a little harsh, not muddy. So would you be able to expound on that?
Also, I also am not able to hear what you mean about the vocals being drowned out. They sit above all of the instruments, each word can be heard, and they aren't over powering. Any louder, and I feel like they just won't sit right in the mix.
On the vocals I used a slight chorus/vocal doubler just to fill out the track since for the genre, I felt the vocals needed to be filled out a little more.
I did reference other tracks throughout the mix process.
Thanks for the critiquing and taking the time to listen!
Well, it's quite hard to explain :p It can sounds good on your monitoring system, but mudding on mine (or the contrary). Did you EQ while listening in mono ? It's very important because it will show you any phase issues, and if you can hear every track perfectly in mono, then in stereo it will be like magic
So here I have the feeling keys and guitars mostly take too much place in the low miss, at around 300-350 Hz. Just some dBs can help.
For vocals, it's maybe the reverb which is a bit too much important, and the guitars too much loud.
So nothing big, just some things here and there.
(09-02-2015, 05:59 PM)Mandubien Wrote: Well, it's quite hard to explain :p It can sounds good on your monitoring system, but mudding on mine (or the contrary). Did you EQ while listening in mono ? It's very important because it will show you any phase issues, and if you can hear every track perfectly in mono, then in stereo it will be like magic
So here I have the feeling keys and guitars mostly take too much place in the low miss, at around 300-350 Hz. Just some dBs can help.
For vocals, it's maybe the reverb which is a bit too much important, and the guitars too much loud.
So nothing big, just some things here and there.
Ahhh I see! Haha strange because I almost think guitars could use a little more low end dang monitoring systems! I mainly mix on AT-M50s.
Also, I should probably do a mono mix... I have only listened in stereo. Oops. haha
dang monitoring systems! I mainly mix on AT-M50s.