Cheers mate,
you definitely have the skills to mix this song but a ref track from Metallicas "squashed to death" album was a real bad choice. Burning Bridges wasn't supposed to sound like a metal song without mids
As a result your mix sounds very harsh and thin (on my AKG's 271 in the studio) - just like Metallicas Death Magnetic. The guitars completely lost their warm character, the snare is too compressed, the kick is buried in the mix - i can't even hear it in the vers. This is bad because the kick really drives the groove together with the rhythm guitars, especially in the chorus.
If you want to hear how this song was supposed to sound check this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPW9AbRMwFU
For kick/bass/snare/guitar levels in fast parts check the fast parts of this song: http://youtu.be/Vn3WKmyprEo?t=15s
Those two songs are much better ref tracks then anything from Metallicas "Death Magnetic". The recorded guitar tracks are very, very close to the guitar sound from My Curse from Killswitch Engage ... to a point where you can't hear a difference. I have made a comparison on soundcloud so you can check it for yourself. The riff in the following example runs 4 times and is changing between original Killswitch guitar sound (1st & 3rd run) and the sound that was used for Burning Bridges (2nd & 4th): https://soundcloud.com/darkridemetal/mycurse-kemper1
I have allready written this in another thread: If you want to mix this song you don't have to tweak much. You don't need a lot of EQ - in fact you can mix this song with hi/lowcut filters and fader rides and it will sound great. You can leave most of the tracks uncompressed and with little to no eq at all and the song will come together nicely if you move those faders. that's what mixing is about =)
Add A LITTLE BIT of reverb or delay on the vocals and spice up the solos and it's done. Just make sure that every chorus hits hard (again, fader rides will do the trick) and don't use too much compression on the 2-buss. 2-3 db will do the trick. Don't squash it to death with an Ozone preset or FG-X.
Hope that helps.
you definitely have the skills to mix this song but a ref track from Metallicas "squashed to death" album was a real bad choice. Burning Bridges wasn't supposed to sound like a metal song without mids
As a result your mix sounds very harsh and thin (on my AKG's 271 in the studio) - just like Metallicas Death Magnetic. The guitars completely lost their warm character, the snare is too compressed, the kick is buried in the mix - i can't even hear it in the vers. This is bad because the kick really drives the groove together with the rhythm guitars, especially in the chorus.
If you want to hear how this song was supposed to sound check this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPW9AbRMwFU
For kick/bass/snare/guitar levels in fast parts check the fast parts of this song: http://youtu.be/Vn3WKmyprEo?t=15s
Those two songs are much better ref tracks then anything from Metallicas "Death Magnetic". The recorded guitar tracks are very, very close to the guitar sound from My Curse from Killswitch Engage ... to a point where you can't hear a difference. I have made a comparison on soundcloud so you can check it for yourself. The riff in the following example runs 4 times and is changing between original Killswitch guitar sound (1st & 3rd run) and the sound that was used for Burning Bridges (2nd & 4th): https://soundcloud.com/darkridemetal/mycurse-kemper1
I have allready written this in another thread: If you want to mix this song you don't have to tweak much. You don't need a lot of EQ - in fact you can mix this song with hi/lowcut filters and fader rides and it will sound great. You can leave most of the tracks uncompressed and with little to no eq at all and the song will come together nicely if you move those faders. that's what mixing is about =)
Add A LITTLE BIT of reverb or delay on the vocals and spice up the solos and it's done. Just make sure that every chorus hits hard (again, fader rides will do the trick) and don't use too much compression on the 2-buss. 2-3 db will do the trick. Don't squash it to death with an Ozone preset or FG-X.
Hope that helps.