30-07-2021, 11:01 PM
Hi,
I've listened to mix 5 -
This is a tough one to mix.
Straight off - I the delay and reverb on the guitar are making the mix less focussed than it could be, and are really muddying up the mix and masking the ambience and power of the drums. I do like the fact you can hear the bass in the intro. I like the drum hits in the intro too, they have about the right power and presence. Less reverb and delay on the guitars will enhance the effect of the reverb on the drums.
You might be able to high pass the kick a little more, as there may be just a touch too much sub there - it feels that it is overpowering the mix as the track continues on. The sub on the bass is quite heavy too.
(You can surely cut the word 'always' at the 24 second mark? I feel that's just where the singer came in too early by mistake?)
The snare is ok during the intro, for me I do find the tone a little wearing and obnoxious throughout the song. I am not sure that it is possible to get a better tone out of that snare than you have already. Blending in a sample would really make a positive difference here.
Might want to revisit the drum/guitar/vocal balance. The vocals feel a little too forward, because the guitar delay/reverb pushes them back. The drums feel a little far back because I suspect the low end is stopping you from bringing them more forward in the mix balance wise. The low end of the bass is also having the effect of making the other elements feeling smaller than they might?
For me it would be worth trying removing all the reverb and delay effects from the guitars. Cut some low end from the bass and kick. I would still have the real low end of the track coming from the kick rather than the bass, just needs to be a little more controlled. Blend in a kick and snare sample, tweak the balance to try and get the vocals to sit a little better with the bass and drums. Should hopefully be on the way to a winner then.
Regarding the monitors:
The following is based on my own experiments, struggles, frustration and observations. Of course we are all different and what I feel works for me, might not work for you. It hopefully might give you some ideas though.
You'll have to be prepared to give it some time and also really work at learning your new monitors. Spend a week or so listening to your favourite music on them. Spend a day cross referencing your mixes with pro mixes, and also with other speakers and headphones too if you can, to really learn how they translate. You don't always have to be mixing to work on things that will really help improve your mixes.
Personally I find it best to make the monitors the definitive reference - if you hear something you don't like on a mix on other speakers, try and work out how to both hear and correct the same issue on your monitors. Also helpful is to set a fixed 'reference' listening level - this will help with judging frequency balance. A lot of guides seem to recommend 80db to best compensate for the Fletcher-Munson curves. This is far far to loud for me, so I monitor quite quiet really. You still need to test mixes at louder volumes though to catch everything frequency wise, which is something I often forget to do. Not cranking the volume should also reduce the effect of the room a little.
I also stopped using 2 of the 3 pairs of 'studio' type headphones I had too because I found they really didn't translate at all well for me and I found were problematic for me for mixing - causing more issues than they were solving. The best pair I found out of the few I own were by far the cheapest too.
I think it is important to try and reduce variables as much as possible and pick a few tools that work for you (or those that you feel could work and are worthy of learning).
Regarding room treatment - putting some sort of treatment at the first reflection points (side walls) for me was the most noticeable change. I assume you have the speakers at proper ear height, and the 60 degree triangle thing, etc. Although I do have a GIK room kit - making up your own panels would be quite do-able and effective also, if you use the right materials.
Getting the monitoring sorted is only fixing a quarter of the battle too, once you feel you can rely on the monitoring it is one less thing to worry about. It is really a case of learning the monitoring and also having confidence. There are some members on here that use headphones and earbuds and get good mixes because they have really learned them.
We are all different - it's just a case of finding what works best for you - out of the tools you have available.
Also regarding referencing - it really helps to spend time with the library reference mixes - and also to spend time playing your own mixes and the ref mix in a playlist along side other pro mixes. This can be quite brutal! For me the challenge is to try and at least beat the library mix, and to get in the ballpark of the pro mixes (am still trying!). It also might help to have break of a day or so before reviewing and evaluating a mix. Finding suitable reference mixes can be quite a challenge in itself.
Cheers!
I've listened to mix 5 -
This is a tough one to mix.
Straight off - I the delay and reverb on the guitar are making the mix less focussed than it could be, and are really muddying up the mix and masking the ambience and power of the drums. I do like the fact you can hear the bass in the intro. I like the drum hits in the intro too, they have about the right power and presence. Less reverb and delay on the guitars will enhance the effect of the reverb on the drums.
You might be able to high pass the kick a little more, as there may be just a touch too much sub there - it feels that it is overpowering the mix as the track continues on. The sub on the bass is quite heavy too.
(You can surely cut the word 'always' at the 24 second mark? I feel that's just where the singer came in too early by mistake?)
The snare is ok during the intro, for me I do find the tone a little wearing and obnoxious throughout the song. I am not sure that it is possible to get a better tone out of that snare than you have already. Blending in a sample would really make a positive difference here.
Might want to revisit the drum/guitar/vocal balance. The vocals feel a little too forward, because the guitar delay/reverb pushes them back. The drums feel a little far back because I suspect the low end is stopping you from bringing them more forward in the mix balance wise. The low end of the bass is also having the effect of making the other elements feeling smaller than they might?
For me it would be worth trying removing all the reverb and delay effects from the guitars. Cut some low end from the bass and kick. I would still have the real low end of the track coming from the kick rather than the bass, just needs to be a little more controlled. Blend in a kick and snare sample, tweak the balance to try and get the vocals to sit a little better with the bass and drums. Should hopefully be on the way to a winner then.
Regarding the monitors:
The following is based on my own experiments, struggles, frustration and observations. Of course we are all different and what I feel works for me, might not work for you. It hopefully might give you some ideas though.
You'll have to be prepared to give it some time and also really work at learning your new monitors. Spend a week or so listening to your favourite music on them. Spend a day cross referencing your mixes with pro mixes, and also with other speakers and headphones too if you can, to really learn how they translate. You don't always have to be mixing to work on things that will really help improve your mixes.
Personally I find it best to make the monitors the definitive reference - if you hear something you don't like on a mix on other speakers, try and work out how to both hear and correct the same issue on your monitors. Also helpful is to set a fixed 'reference' listening level - this will help with judging frequency balance. A lot of guides seem to recommend 80db to best compensate for the Fletcher-Munson curves. This is far far to loud for me, so I monitor quite quiet really. You still need to test mixes at louder volumes though to catch everything frequency wise, which is something I often forget to do. Not cranking the volume should also reduce the effect of the room a little.
I also stopped using 2 of the 3 pairs of 'studio' type headphones I had too because I found they really didn't translate at all well for me and I found were problematic for me for mixing - causing more issues than they were solving. The best pair I found out of the few I own were by far the cheapest too.
I think it is important to try and reduce variables as much as possible and pick a few tools that work for you (or those that you feel could work and are worthy of learning).
Regarding room treatment - putting some sort of treatment at the first reflection points (side walls) for me was the most noticeable change. I assume you have the speakers at proper ear height, and the 60 degree triangle thing, etc. Although I do have a GIK room kit - making up your own panels would be quite do-able and effective also, if you use the right materials.
Getting the monitoring sorted is only fixing a quarter of the battle too, once you feel you can rely on the monitoring it is one less thing to worry about. It is really a case of learning the monitoring and also having confidence. There are some members on here that use headphones and earbuds and get good mixes because they have really learned them.
We are all different - it's just a case of finding what works best for you - out of the tools you have available.
Also regarding referencing - it really helps to spend time with the library reference mixes - and also to spend time playing your own mixes and the ref mix in a playlist along side other pro mixes. This can be quite brutal! For me the challenge is to try and at least beat the library mix, and to get in the ballpark of the pro mixes (am still trying!). It also might help to have break of a day or so before reviewing and evaluating a mix. Finding suitable reference mixes can be quite a challenge in itself.
Cheers!
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