One Minute Smile mix

[Ansercanagicus]

Hi, this is my take on One Minute Smile. I'm not really content with the palmuted arppegios during the prechorus, I didn't manage to make them sound good. The snare drum is also underwhelming. Cymbals are fatiguing (diffiult to skymie with the bleeding). And I should have spent more time with automnation since it sounds a bit flat, especially near the end. Otherwise it's a cool song, always pleasant to listen to, I had fun doing that. I'm also clueless about the amount of reverb needed for the vocals, whether they should be dry and upclose, or spacy... It seems like both would work.

Listening to others work I also notice my general EQ is rather bassy... :/ should have referenced before posting

planning to fix:
reduce 500Hz, over all a bit muddy
use less reverb, it doesn't work on male vocals, and doesn't work on the snare either
big problem with the cymbal drench
balance problem on the chorus
try to get a better general eq
try to get a better snare sound
work the dynamics for the end of the song, everything is falling apart as it is...

[Matz]

Hi, this is my take on One Minute Smile. I'm not really content with the palmuted arppegios during the prechorus, I didn't manage to make them sound good. The snare drum is also underwhelming. Cymbals are fatiguing (diffiult to skymie with the bleeding). And I should have spent more time with automnation since it sounds a bit flat, especially near the end. Otherwise it's a cool song, always pleasant to listen to, I had fun doing that. I'm also clueless about the amount of reverb needed for the vocals, whether they should be dry and upclose, or spacy... It seems like both would work.

Listening to others work I also notice my general EQ is rather bassy... :/ should have referenced before posting

planning to fix:
reduce 500Hz, over all a bit muddy
use less reverb, it doesn't work on male vocals, and doesn't work on the snare either
big problem with the cymbal drench
balance problem on the chorus
try to get a better general eq
try to get a better snare sound
work the dynamics for the end of the song, everything is falling apart as it is...

Hi Ansercanagicus, here are my thoughts about your mix:
- the overall balance is nearly ok ( back vocals is too quiet
  and snare and second voices is too loud )
- fast songs need no long reverb, 500ms - 1.2sec is enough (the reverb for snare and vocals is too long, that´s why it don´t fit )
- sometimes you don´t have to eq every instrument but sometimes you have to clean it, to eleminate the unwanted frequencies, that´s why your guitars sound thin
- listen to reference songs ( the cymbals do not have to be loud and shiny as you think )
- when you mix the instruments and the vocals properly you only need a little amount of reverb
- use reverb only when you want to hear it
- the guitars don´t need reverb in this song
- mix the song with the mainvoice first, so that the mainvoice is carrying the song alone, back vox are a bonus for the song
Hope I could help you a little and excuse my english. I am a german guy

Greets Matz