Hey Stu, welcome to the fun!
The core elements of a good mix are here, but in my opinion there are some issues that need to be resolved before I can fairly evaluate your mix balance. Feel free to disagree with me, of course
Main issue for me is that there's almost no bass/sub, but there is rather overmuch low mid content, but having mixed the song myself, I think I've got a pretty good grip on why you're having a hard time getting the bass guitar and kick to appropriate levels.... My recommendation is that after setting your rough balance and filtering the low end from the non-bass instruments, mute everything and start your fine-mixing with the kick and the bass drum, making sure to notch out any room resonances in the kick drum (which in home studio productions will almost invariably be present.) In most situations the bass guitar is going to need a narrow peaking cut somewhere in the low mids, usually around 125, since overdriven electric guitars need that space for body, and triggering a frequency-selective compressor on the bass guitar with the kick drum will make it easier to bring the bass guitar up loud enough without eating the drum.
Apart from that, it's very hard to give any suggestions because the only real impression I can get is general thinness lack of bass content and muddiness in other areas. There's a lot of sonic clutter, possibly from reverb, throughout most of the frequency spectrum... the only really useful advice that'd be fair is to more closely examine the frequency relationships of the different instruments to make sure you're eliminating conflict. This is especially crucial on reverb returns, which need even more careful EQ considerations than the principal tracks. Quick question... are you using reverb/delay as insert effects or as sends? Or are you using the reverb on the master bus?
If you're not too busy or you haven't moved on to another mixing project, would you mind posting a version of your mix with the reverb returns muted or with the reverb inserts turned off?
Like I said before, though, I'm hearing the core elements of a good mix and I think when we get to the bottom of what's creating all of the frequency masking and bring those bass parts up, you'll be rocking.
The core elements of a good mix are here, but in my opinion there are some issues that need to be resolved before I can fairly evaluate your mix balance. Feel free to disagree with me, of course
Main issue for me is that there's almost no bass/sub, but there is rather overmuch low mid content, but having mixed the song myself, I think I've got a pretty good grip on why you're having a hard time getting the bass guitar and kick to appropriate levels.... My recommendation is that after setting your rough balance and filtering the low end from the non-bass instruments, mute everything and start your fine-mixing with the kick and the bass drum, making sure to notch out any room resonances in the kick drum (which in home studio productions will almost invariably be present.) In most situations the bass guitar is going to need a narrow peaking cut somewhere in the low mids, usually around 125, since overdriven electric guitars need that space for body, and triggering a frequency-selective compressor on the bass guitar with the kick drum will make it easier to bring the bass guitar up loud enough without eating the drum.
Apart from that, it's very hard to give any suggestions because the only real impression I can get is general thinness lack of bass content and muddiness in other areas. There's a lot of sonic clutter, possibly from reverb, throughout most of the frequency spectrum... the only really useful advice that'd be fair is to more closely examine the frequency relationships of the different instruments to make sure you're eliminating conflict. This is especially crucial on reverb returns, which need even more careful EQ considerations than the principal tracks. Quick question... are you using reverb/delay as insert effects or as sends? Or are you using the reverb on the master bus?
If you're not too busy or you haven't moved on to another mixing project, would you mind posting a version of your mix with the reverb returns muted or with the reverb inserts turned off?
Like I said before, though, I'm hearing the core elements of a good mix and I think when we get to the bottom of what's creating all of the frequency masking and bring those bass parts up, you'll be rocking.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!