First mix ever made, hoping for feedback

[Andres330]

So im an early student of music engineering. I'm not really familiarized with the post-production work so I've been trying to practice with the multi-traks on this page. This is my fist work. Please feel free to write what you think of ti. All comments are welcome and will help me improve

[orthogonalrecords]

Hi and welcome here,

First of all have fun at this site and enjoy what you're doing.

My opinions are:
I find your mix very dark. There's no higend shimmer and air. On the other hand there seems to be much low frequency stuff going on. I can't hear the kick-/bass-drum but the bass-guitar is quiet present. Maybe it's masking the bass-drum? The acoustic guitar is also very dark in my opinion. That's even the case on my headphones which tend to be overly bright.

Secondly, everything sounds completely dry to me. As if the musician's were crowded in front of my face. I don't feel/hear any room here and thus also no depth. But then again, I am a fan of relaxed and airy mixes where the whole stereo field and also the depth of a virtual stage has been used. Maybe that's not what you're after.

That's it for now. I unfortunately don't have time to listen to your mix more carefully. Maybe you can try to implement my thoughts and we could then discuss the new version.

Best regards,
Markus

[Andres330]

Hi and welcome here,

First of all have fun at this site and enjoy what you're doing.

My opinions are:
I find your mix very dark. There's no higend shimmer and air. On the other hand there seems to be much low frequency stuff going on. I can't hear the kick-/bass-drum but the bass-guitar is quiet present. Maybe it's masking the bass-drum? The acoustic guitar is also very dark in my opinion. That's even the case on my headphones which tend to be overly bright.

Secondly, everything sounds completely dry to me. As if the musician's were crowded in front of my face. I don't feel/hear any room here and thus also no depth. But then again, I am a fan of relaxed and airy mixes where the whole stereo field and also the depth of a virtual stage has been used. Maybe that's not what you're after.

That's it for now. I unfortunately don't have time to listen to your mix more carefully. Maybe you can try to implement my thoughts and we could then discuss the new version.

Best regards,
Markus

Hey! thanks so much for the feedback you were completely right about the EQ, it needed more highs. About the depth of the mix, i tried giving it a little bit more space with some reverb but struggled a lot; i don't know many much techniques to do it so I tried my best with the reverb. Here is what I could do with your comments.. hope it's better than the last one

[orthogonalrecords]

Hi,

I'm very sorry that my reply took so long. I was very busy lately with recording my band.

Your new mix is much better than the first one. Good high end and also no more mud in the low end.
I can also see that the quite upfront approach works well here. However, I personally would mix it with a bit more reverb. But that's very subjective.

The only real thing that I have to criticise is that I can't really hear the bassdrum in your mix (only in those parts where it's playing on it's own).

Best regards,
Markus

[ptalbot]

I agree about the kick being masked. Perhaps you could compress it more.
One useful thing you could try as well is use sidechaining to send the kick to the bass, so that the bass levels duck when the kick hits, leaving room to it.

[Andres330]

Hey guys. So I did these new version of the mix trying to mix the low ends better and also trying to improve a little bit of the panning so it wasn't too one-sided. I also tried a little big more reverb on guitar and bass to take the tips from orthogonal records. The reverb on these song is giving me a lot of trouble, but I hope you like these version better. Thanks for a lll your feedback

[azwayne]

Your mix doesn't need more highs, it needs less lows. Remove some of the low end and it will brighten right up. When you're thinking about EQ, don't think so much about adding in what you miss as think about what you have that you don't want and remove that. Sometimes adding gain to an EQ channel is the right answer but think about going the other way first. Your mixes will thank you.

Also watch out for buildup in the 300-500hz region. If you turn it up a bit and listen to when he says "All right", you can hear that extra ressonance on the first syllable. That needs to be issolated and trimmed out. Other instruments will also tend to do much the same thing in that region. I, almost as a rule, drop that range a little in any track I work with.

The mix also seems a little flat. Overcompressed, maybe?

As to the drums, the snare sounds rather bland and I can't really hear much of the kick drum. I think if you clean up the low end in the other instruments, both of those will tend to sound a little better. Oh, if you want to know what the low end really sounds like, play this back in your car. Few places emphasize the bass more than autos. If that part of the mix sounds alright there, it will sound alright here.

Pass #2 was a definite improvement but it still needs a little bit of love and attention.

Keep at it!

[Andres330]

Your mix doesn't need more highs, it needs less lows. Remove some of the low end and it will brighten right up. When you're thinking about EQ, don't think so much about adding in what you miss as think about what you have that you don't want and remove that. Sometimes adding gain to an EQ channel is the right answer but think about going the other way first. Your mixes will thank you.

Also watch out for buildup in the 300-500hz region. If you turn it up a bit and listen to when he says "All right", you can hear that extra ressonance on the first syllable. That needs to be issolated and trimmed out. Other instruments will also tend to do much the same thing in that region. I, almost as a rule, drop that range a little in any track I work with.

The mix also seems a little flat. Overcompressed, maybe?

As to the drums, the snare sounds rather bland and I can't really hear much of the kick drum. I think if you clean up the low end in the other instruments, both of those will tend to sound a little better. Oh, if you want to know what the low end really sounds like, play this back in your car. Few places emphasize the bass more than autos. If that part of the mix sounds alright there, it will sound alright here.

Pass #2 was a definite improvement but it still needs a little bit of love and attention.

Keep at it!

Hey man! Thanks a lot for your feedback, I really appreciate it. I just wanted to know if you had a chance to listen to my third version. I worked a little bit more on the bass. I just want to know so I know in what to work. Thanks

[azwayne]

In the third version, there is a bit too much bass guitar. Try compressing that a bit more (long attack, long release) to drop some of the sustain. My comment about the vocal ressonance remains.

In that little bridge before the second verse, pay attention to the piano on that last descending line. It should likely be brought out so it can blend with the others.

I'd also suggest bringing up that guitar at ~1:50 since it's the guy we're supposed to pay attention to there. You did this at ~2:40 so I'm gathering that your levels between the two instances are not consistant.

Like I said, keep working at it and do please try some of the other tunes here as well. Lots of stuff to practice on and the best way to learn is to do!