Professional mix engineer; wanted to take a crack at one of these "mixing challenges"

[ikura]

Hey guys,

I've been working around studios ever since I graduated college. I freelance mix in studios as a side job, and (hopefully) my mixes are already at a professional level!

Tell me what you think

[thedon]

Welcome to this Awesome Site !
Nice mix I like it ,one minor thing can hear some intermittent resonances with the bass and kick on some bass notes .
Cheers

[Bangbang]

Hey Ikura!
Great vocals and guitar!
For me, this mix is too compressed. Especially the drums. I don't think that they're playing along with the other instruments.
I would change the bass by cutting some mid frequencies, and maybe lower a db or so. It stands out too much for me.
I also feel that there's no room to breathe. Everything seem to be pushed in your face most of the song. Have you pushed a limiter too hard maybe? Or it might be the overall compression.
I would cut some highs from the tambourine in the choruses.
Other than that, your mix sounds really good! Keep it up!

[ikura]

Hey Ikura!
Great vocals and guitar!
For me, this mix is too compressed. Especially the drums. I don't think that they're playing along with the other instruments.
I would change the bass by cutting some mid frequencies, and maybe lower a db or so. It stands out too much for me.
I also feel that there's no room to breathe. Everything seem to be pushed in your face most of the song. Have you pushed a limiter too hard maybe? Or it might be the overall compression.
I would cut some highs from the tambourine in the choruses.
Other than that, your mix sounds really good! Keep it up!

thank you for the feedback! I was lying about being a professional actually I just felt like I'd receive more feedback that way. I come from a dance music background so I can now definitely hear how everything is overcompressed! Mixing acoustic instruments is still a challenge for me because the process engrained in me over the years makes everything end up sounding tinny.

If I may ask, what are generally your average LUFS/RMS levels on the master bus after mastering? In the loud dance music I make I'd smash it up to around -6 to -8 but I'd assume it's very different in instrumental music like rock. What are some processes I can go through to make a mix loud, present, and exciting, yet also give the the tracks breathing room and detail?

[Bangbang]

Hmm, I'm not at all familiar with LUFS or RMS, so i can't answer that, sorry.
However, if you want to make a mix sound good and include all of the things you mentioned "loud, present, and exciting, yet also give the the tracks breathing room and detail".
I'll have to give you a boring answer my friend. Practise, practise, practise!
There's never a process to solve everything. You have to train your ears to hear when to use what. Be it compression, eq, panning, volume, automation and the list goes on and on. There are tons of tutorials on youtube to tons of problems when mixing that can explain better than I can.
Also, because you mentioned that you wanted loud mixes. If you haven't heard about the loudness war, i suggest reading up on it. It's really an eye opener.

[Shul]

Hey man. Good thing to hear you freelance every now and then.

*Sounds nice but I agree drums sound too compressed. Perhaps more volume on them would make them pierce more through the mix.
*bass sounds likening has some revert Fx.. Did you put any revert on it? Perhaps you boosted some cardboard like frequencies that are causing a foggy sound on it.

Hope this helps. Keep it up.

[Edgar Samuel Aragon Lopez]

Hey man. Good thing to hear you freelance every now and then.

*Sounds nice but I agree drums sound too compressed. Perhaps more volume on them would make them pierce more through the mix.
*bass sounds likening has some revert Fx.. Did you put any revert on it? Perhaps you boosted some cardboard like frequencies that are causing a foggy sound on it.

Hope this helps. Keep it up.

the truth does not sound good at all, it sounds quite crude, as if I had not used any preset, as if I had only leveled volumes to consciousness.

[ikura]

Hey man. Good thing to hear you freelance every now and then.

*Sounds nice but I agree drums sound too compressed. Perhaps more volume on them would make them pierce more through the mix.
*bass sounds likening has some revert Fx.. Did you put any revert on it? Perhaps you boosted some cardboard like frequencies that are causing a foggy sound on it.

Hope this helps. Keep it up.

the truth does not sound good at all, it sounds quite crude, as if I had not used any preset, as if I had only leveled volumes to consciousness.

thanks for the feedback; do you have any tips for keeping breathing room between elements while also maintaining a cohesive/glued mix?

[Shul]

the truth does not sound good at all, it sounds quite crude, as if I had not used any preset, as if I had only leveled volumes to consciousness.

I'm having trouble understanding your comment. Can you rephrase that again?

[Shul]

The biggest tip for room in a mix is panning and detailed balancing. Mixes nowadays have so much automation.. From faded levels all the way to delay Fx. Sometimes when I really want to detail the song I use a lot of automation. Turn things down and half a second later turn them up etc.
panning is very important because a mono like mix will always give you problems. The instruments for the most part will drown each other out.

So my biggest tip is "don't be afraid to hard pan something. Sometimes I would hard pan a guitar or a vocal just to get it out of the way. If ultimately it doesn't sound right I later place it somewhere else but in the mean time that left me more room and space to identify other stuff in the mix.

As for the glued together mix.. For example in drums.. I run all tracks to a bus and I use a very small ratio of compression. Slow stack and slow release.. A compresor will ALWAYS glue a group of tracks together or at the very least it gives you that impression. I use it all the time on drums and for back vocals for example.

Hope this helps. Saludos!