Deny Control - Friggy Mix

[Friggy]

Added 2nd mix.

Code:

Great song  :D Here is my first mix, let me know what you all think about it.

[Blitzzz]

The kick has too much low end for the speed/style of this song. Because of that, your mix suffers from a severe low-end buildup in all of the double bass/blast beat parts and also some of the regular parts as well. I wrote about this problem in my FAQ

https://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/show...?tid=38685

[manuke]

Really nice mix Friggy, plenty of energy, good stuff.

[bcs_mix]

Gotta admit that I disagree with Blitzzz the owner of the song, I love this mix! (Oops) I find the low end just right to my taste. I do think the snare is unnecessarily authentic. It's a pro-quality song for the billboard, why not just cut to the chase and make it pack a punch and explode a little bit more!?

Would love to hear your take on my mix.

[Blitzzz]

This not a matter of taste, it's a matter of "Do you want to have a competitive mix or not?". The excessive low end in the blast beats /double-bass parts reduces the amount of headroom you have left when it comes to mastering. There isn't simply enough headroom left to bring the mix up to commercial levels because of the low end.

You can either use a multiband compressor on the low end to keep it under control (and pin it to a certain level throughout the song which is usually what most of the pros do), or use a low shelf with -1 to -3 db (depending on what's needed) to bring down the low end manually.

"I want my low end to be pinned. It's not gonna move until I want it to move" applies to both the low end of the bass and the low end of the kick in metal. Here is a nice video of Joel from Nail the Mix showing how he's doing it for the bass. The same approach also works for kickdrums in metal, but instead of a limiter, a multiband comp or automated low shelf usually does the trick without messing up the sound too much.

https://youtu.be/00kI0Ashqp8

[Friggy]

Took a while to get back to this but I sussed out some stuff with a car check and I think it's better now.

[bcs_mix]

Gotta say I still stand by my comment for V1 about my choice in low end, but also still gotta say that the low end in kick is indeed too much for me, haha. I do think overall both of them are generally nice mixes, though. V2 sound more polished and 'finished' than V1, so the least effort imo for V3 is just to back off the kick a bit, maybe un-crush the mixbus a bit, too.

Would love to hear your opinion on mine, thanks.

[MATW]

Very interesting mix, and a great improvement over V1. You have solved the problems in the bass department, and the kick now fits perfectly into the overall sound even in the fast passages.

What I find remarkable: Your mix is distorted and has this "all faders set to 11" feel, which I usually don't like. But here, the distortion adds an aggressive element to the metal carnage which is awesome. Love the fact that I can hear some of the ghost notes, the overall balance is also very good. I gotta be honest, I prefer more "clean" mixes for this genre, but I would make an exception with this one. The mix is coherent in itself, and all the mixing decisions make total sense.

[aftercutrecords]

Very scooped. And the overheads and spot mics kind of make the drums less intelligible. The snare sounds great most of the time but lacks intelligibility during the blast beats. This mix is very aggressively mastered and has good overall balance. I like it, though the low end pumps the mix pretty hard sometimes. THe vocals come across as surprisingly boxy, especially against the more scooped guitars.
YOU HAVE THE PERFECT BASS SOLO. I love it. Thank you. You've made me happy with just that one section. I can hear the bass solo so clearly.
The leads get a little bitey, but it works i think. More midrange on those rhythm guitars and a little less splat on the snare during the blasts would be perfect.