First Mix - Fergessen's (The Wind)

[sab]

Hi,

Learning some mixing skills so I'm hoping for some constructive criticism on the mixing.

Thank you in advance!!!

[takka360]

This is a good mix,nice balance nice solid kick too and thats good.
Nice one

[sab]

Thanks Takka360, much appreciated. First time really mixing. I really enjoyed it.

[takka360]

Well if thats your first ever mix i will look forward to hearing your next

[Dags]

Far out! As Takka says, if that's your first real mix and you've managed to pull that sound from the source material I can't wait to hear what you come up with for some of the other songs which are recorded more cleanly!

Dags

[sab]

Thank you for the kind remarks.... Much appreciated.

I didn't realize that the recordings were so bad, I thought it was normal. I must say that I had a heck of a time cleaning things up. In fact, now that you mention it, the main voices were recorded in one track and they were distorting no matter what I did.... Uggggg......Every time I put a compressor on a track, the noise would jump out at me..... It was very frustrating... Took me about 15 hours to mix this one, in three separate sessions to give my ears a break. The guitars had effects on them and it was hard making them fit in. The kick and snare's were brutal so I augmented them with samples, not sure if I should have done this or worked with the drums that were there.

In your honest opinion, with what I had to work with, is the mixing job good enough that it is mastering ready?

If it is only demo quality, do you have any suggestions to get it to mastering ready quality (besides the artist re-recording some of the tracks)? Perhaps the concensus is that there isn't much that can be done with the quality of the recording.

I realize these are very loaded questions but I thought I would ask anyway....

Thank you again for you help.

[Dags]

I'll let Xabi answer the question about mastering. I am definitely not an expert. He mastered the original mix of the track that the band recorded so he'd have a much better idea of how your mix compares. But I think that, given the source material, you have squeezed about as much as anyone could from the song.

I haven't tried drum replacement with any tracks yet. I am working on the assumption that these are the tracks the band wants me to work with and I try to get the best sound I can out of them. Not always a simple task!

Dags

[JohnSmith]

Hi there everyone !

before commenting and listening, just wanted to tell sab that this thread is at a wrong place !
Should be in the Fergessen thread, and actually is in the Arise thread...

I'll give an ear this morning !
And thanks Dags, but even if i mastered the album, i'm not expert at all and will never be... always learning Humility is the main thing to have in our job...

But just to precise a little, i did "more" than mastering, as for me, the mixing process was as the recording : bad. i received mixed files which were already so compressed i couldn't get the dynamic back. it was more rescue than mastering... anyway, was funny ! (and so hard...)

I'll advise MIke for the thread position as he can surely move it to the right place.

See ya soon for comments.

Cheers

[Mike Senior]

before commenting and listening, just wanted to tell sab that this thread is at a wrong place !
Should be in the Fergessen thread, and actually is in the Arise thread...

All sorted!

[JohnSmith]

Hi Sab !

Well, i had a go on your mix, and there's one thing i'd like to point out before commenting the rest : the lead voc is at least 2 dB too loud... turn the volume really down, and listen carefuly to what's left : only vocals...
The rest is well balanced ! That f..... hi hat is ..well ... as usual : a fu.... hi hat i know it's hard to deal with....
The backing vocals could be a little more present, and stereo spread. They are quite mono here, why not making space for the rest and "throw them away to the sides" ?

The overall tonality is a little aggressive around 2-3k, and tends to be a little harsh at high level.

But you did a good job !

Cheers