Pain Remains - DaimonB

[GoetheX]

Hi everyone, 

I would like your feedbacks to progress... 

Thanks 

(Many thanks to the Artist for sharing)

[SonicTramp]

I just kinda almost got done with my mix on this song, so I took a listen to yours. Very nice. I like the smack of the snare but would like to hear a hair more of the top end (3-4Khz). I also think you can still HP a bit more on the guitars/synths. They seem to make the whole mix a little dark (200Hz-500Hz). That, I think, will give the guitars more bite and perhaps your mix will get even wider and louder (master) if you take care of that. I like the thump of the kick but would like to hear more beater to help the kick cut thru easier. Some of the vocals can use a bit more balancing.

In my experience, when I faced the guitar with a lot of lo end and I didn't want to HP/cut anymore (bc anymore would make the guitars wimpy), I used a gate. I am not sure all gates have it but mine has side chain filter (pro tools 11 stock gate). And all I did was lo filtering the guitars around 100Hz-250Hz depending on the sounds I sought so that anything below that would not trigger the gate. The same with top end. If I thought the guitars had too much of that screeching top, a little filtering (sometimes not too little) could shave off some of that w/o touching the EQ. For example, in this song, I gate filter the guitars lo ( up to 447Hz) and hi (down to 1.7kHz) with a huge lo Q cut (4dBs) (170Hz-500Hz) on EQ. Once I cleared that out, it seemed much easier to work with the synths. Thought I share that with you just in case. Hope it helps. Cheers!

[GoetheX]

Thanks for your return 

I'm agree with you about the 200-500. Got some problems here with guitars + bass + bass synth. It was my first time with metal mix. It was difficult.

I tried to mix dark drum with thump kick in parallel comp, metallic snare with saturation and parallel comp (agree for 3-4k) and synths in front just with tightening and eq.
But... my distants guitars made my mix disorganized. Sidechained the bass or/and guitars wasn't sufficient. 

I'll try your technic with gates next time when I'll restart this song. Be focus on low mids, loudness and vocals could be better.

I'll listen to your mix as soon as possible and give you my opinion 

[SonicTramp]

Thanks for your return 

I'm agree with you about the 200-500. Got some problems here with guitars + bass + bass synth. It was my first time with metal mix. It was difficult.

I tried to mix dark drum with thump kick in parallel comp, metallic snare with saturation and parallel comp (agree for 3-4k) and synths in front just with tightening and eq.
But... my distants guitars made my mix disorganized. Sidechained the bass or/and guitars wasn't sufficient. 

I'll try your technic with gates next time when I'll restart this song. Be focus on low mids, loudness and vocals could be better.

I'll listen to your mix as soon as possible and give you my opinion 

Ha! if it's the first time you mix metal then you fared much better than I did. And that's ok, man. Nothing is easy in the beginning. According to my family, it took me a couple years just to learn how to walk, and almost 10 years just to make some sense to what I said. I am an expert on the first now, shame that the same can't be said about the latter. Some things are just a bit harder to grasp, but we live and we try, right? .

I have my way of practicing and it works for me. Maybe you'll find it useful. Pick out your favorite songs, something similar to what you'd mix. The bigger names the better. They don't get there being sucky. Choose an instrument and start listen, actively. Pay attention to the sound, everything about it, and ignore (not an easy thing to do) everything else. Do that to all the instruments in the song. Rinse and repeat (many times).

What it does is to train your ears to recognize subtle nuances in a professional mix, gives you an idea what the instrument should sound like in a mix, and how the instruments are treated in that particular mix. You can use the info obtained from your listening and apply to your own mix. It's better to sit and mix having some idea what things should sound like, right? Now you can use the EQ/gates/compressors to beat them down to shape. That will depend on your skills and knowledge. And I can't help you with it, maybe someone else can; I am struggling learning how to use them myself.

[GoetheX]

[quote pid='120957' dateline='1669148195']
  merci pour ce conseils. Je vais former mes oreilles avec ce nouveau style. 

Je référence généralement mon mix avec le même style bien sûr, avec la même tonalité si c'est possible et le même tempo. Ensuite, je règle le volume. 
C'est utile pour mixer je pense. 

La prochaine fois, j'écouterai tous les instruments plus consciencieusement ; comme tu as dis. Spécialement pour les guitares.

THX. 
[/quote]

[SonicTramp]

Well, mixing is listening, right? I "suspected" that a long time ago. The problem is: what, where, how. The what took me a few years to learn. Quite easy now that I figured it out, but I am always a little slow so it took longer than it should: everything. Same with the where, everywhere. It's the how that is the monster I fear, bc it requires proficient level of detection of the first two. I am only on the first leg. I try to listen to everything in a song, any song; it doesn't matter it's my mix or not. I try to listen not to the sound itself but what's around it, room sound, rumbles, dynamics, annoying freq, etc. It took me a long long time to learn to listen bc, first, I didn't know what to listen and there was no one there to point it out for me and, second, I didn't listen to it the proper way, the mixer's way. I have to confess that I lost the ability to listen to music like I used to. Put it this way: it's more technical than pleasure now, and I miss it.

I am glad that you mentioned the key of the song. I, too, think that the key of the song is just as important as the tempo in mixing. If one relies on the bpm to set up compressor, delay, reverb, gate, ect then one also needs to know the key of the song to EQ in mixing. EQ is one of the processors us mixers cannot do without. Yet no one talks about it. No one cares about the key of the song. Quite evidently. I wonder why. I have a list of reasons why we need the key of the song and how useful it is to us when mixing. Am I the black sheep of the family? I am curious of your reason though. Merci.

[motomojo]

Hi everyone, 

I would like your feedbacks to progress... 

Thanks 

(Many thanks to the Artist for sharing)

Very nice balancing of tracks. Now lets here your mix. 
Drums sound nice but need some life, a bit dry.
HP the guitars an some synths to clean up the bottom.
Vocals seem way out front and also need some
Processing verb, delay or more exotic fx.
Good start now get creative and push some boundries.

[GoetheX]

Salut tout le monde, 

j'aimerais que vos retours progressent... 

Merci 

(Un grand merci à l'Artiste pour le partage)

Très bel équilibrage des pistes. Maintenant, laissez ici votre mélange. 
La batterie sonne bien mais a besoin d'un peu de vie, un peu sèche.
HP les guitares et certains synthés pour nettoyer le fond.
Les voix semblent bien en avant et ont également besoin d'un
verbe de traitement, d'un retard ou d'effets plus exotiques.
Bon début maintenant, faites preuve de créativité et repoussez certaines limites.

Very good advices, Thx.
I'm agree. A little shy for the moment. I used basics adjustment. 

I'll check my guitars/synths in low mids as you said, and I will try new thinks with vocals and drums.

[GoetheX]

Well, mixing is listening, right? I "suspected" that a long time ago. The problem is: what, where, how. The what took me a few years to learn. Quite easy now that I figured it out, but I am always a little slow so it took longer than it should: everything. Same with the where, everywhere. It's the how that is the monster I fear, bc it requires proficient level of detection of the first two. I am only on the first leg. I try to listen to everything in a song, any song; it doesn't matter it's my mix or not. I try to listen not to the sound itself but what's around it, room sound, rumbles, dynamics, annoying freq, etc. It took me a long long time to learn to listen bc, first, I didn't know what to listen and there was no one there to point it out for me and, second, I didn't listen to it the proper way, the mixer's way. I have to confess that I lost the ability to listen to music like I used to. Put it this way: it's more technical than pleasure now, and I miss it.

I am glad that you mentioned the key of the song. I, too, think that the key of the song is just as important as the tempo in mixing. If one relies on the bpm to set up compressor, delay, reverb, gate, ect then one also needs to know the key of the song to EQ in mixing. EQ is one of the processors us mixers cannot do without. Yet no one talks about it. No one cares about the key of the song. Quite evidently. I wonder why. I have a list of reasons why we need the key of the song and how useful it is to us when mixing. Am I the black sheep of the family? I am curious of your reason though. Merci.

I'm a composer at the begining, I learned recently about mixing cause I would like to create my song completely.
So, I can't listen different key in reference, it makes me crazy and I get lost. Don't have technical proof... It's like that. 

But I think the most important is loudness. Louder is better is a trap in mixing. 

I'll listen the details with more attention now, Thx for the advices. 

[SonicTramp]

Yes, louder is better. That's the axiom. Loudness won. And tbh, it does take some skill to get a mix loud. I have been trying to get my mix loud lately and rediscover the use of the limiter. The only time I use a limiter is on my stereo bus. Not the best way to utilize the limiter, imo. So I try putting it on single track, snare, kick, OH, toms, and bass. What I notice is track can get quite beefy and loud w/o messing with the stereo bus tho I lose a bit of dynamics. The lo end seems steady and the whole mix can get very loud, much louder than I could a month ago. It should be at the end of your chain. I put it everywhere now, vocal, guitars, etc. But each with diff purpose. Sometimes I just want to control the peak, other times I want loudness. It depends. If you have not tried it, try it. It may work for you. And maybe come back here and tell us your observations?