first mix

[guitarguy42]

Big thanks to blitzz and the whole band for providing some awesome stuff to learn with. Fairly new at this and not really used to mixing alot of tracks or drums for that matter, but here it is. might have went a little crazy with the kick towards the end...

[guitarguy42]

well i just figured out what parallel compression was so i think i got the drums to cut through a bit more. any here's round 2...

[Olli H]

I already promised that I won't try to comment heavy music, but here I go.

I listened the version 2.

OVerall sound feels balanced to me. And all the instruments as such sound great to me. If you’re new to mixing, you’re already doing very good job!

But how to make it better? I think you should find a way to open up the sound and space a little bit. I don’t mean reverb, but the way how some instruments overlap maybe too much. Overlaping instruments kill the space. So, here’s some tweaking ideas from a person who knows nothing about heavy music.



Kick and Bass
I’m having problems of hearing the bass. Maybe you could find some more separations to them. For example if you decide to give room to bass around 80-100 hz area, you might make sure that kick is not too active around that area, nor in 160-200 area. And vice versa, if you decide to put kick the low-end of kick to 50-70 area, make sure that bass is not too active around 50-70 and 100-140 hz. (These are just example numbers.)

Main idea is that make these kind of adjustments so that you don’t listen them in solo. Main thing is that the kick and bass work together well, it doesn’t matter so much what they sound in solo. Good test is to listen the song so that you have a low-pass-filter in the master buss so that it passes through only <150hz or so. It should sound as if you’re listening only sub. If you can hear nicely both the kick and bass, you should be quite near.

If you can create better separation there, after that you might be able lessen the low-energy level without making too much compromises with the feeling you’re after. But that kind of change would give you’re much more headroom to make the mix louder and more competitive.

Rhythm guitars
They sound just fine to me the way they are now, but if you succed to carve them some mutual separation or to enhance their specific nature, it would open the middle slightly and that alone would create better sense of space. Now those guitars take little bit too much space from vocals. I’m speaking of just very small adjustments.

Vocals
If this music is to be listend with volume in 11, then the level of vocal is probably just right. But if more moderate levels are to be allowed, the vocals could be slightly louder. For example around 1.30 I cannot separeate any syllables.

Toms
Here and there are nice tom-fills. You could pick up some of them with automation. For example around 1:16

[guitarguy42]

I already promised that I won't try to comment heavy music, but here I go.

I listened the version 2.

OVerall sound feels balanced to me. And all the instruments as such sound great to me. If you’re new to mixing, you’re already doing very good job!

But how to make it better? I think you should find a way to open up the sound and space a little bit. I don’t mean reverb, but the way how some instruments overlap maybe too much. Overlaping instruments kill the space. So, here’s some tweaking ideas from a person who knows nothing about heavy music.



Kick and Bass
I’m having problems of hearing the bass. Maybe you could find some more separations to them. For example if you decide to give room to bass around 80-100 hz area, you might make sure that kick is not too active around that area, nor in 160-200 area. And vice versa, if you decide to put kick the low-end of kick to 50-70 area, make sure that bass is not too active around 50-70 and 100-140 hz. (These are just example numbers.)

Main idea is that make these kind of adjustments so that you don’t listen them in solo. Main thing is that the kick and bass work together well, it doesn’t matter so much what they sound in solo. Good test is to listen the song so that you have a low-pass-filter in the master buss so that it passes through only <150hz or so. It should sound as if you’re listening only sub. If you can hear nicely both the kick and bass, you should be quite near.

If you can create better separation there, after that you might be able lessen the low-energy level without making too much compromises with the feeling you’re after. But that kind of change would give you’re much more headroom to make the mix louder and more competitive.

Rhythm guitars
They sound just fine to me the way they are now, but if you succed to carve them some mutual separation or to enhance their specific nature, it would open the middle slightly and that alone would create better sense of space. Now those guitars take little bit too much space from vocals. I’m speaking of just very small adjustments.

Vocals
If this music is to be listend with volume in 11, then the level of vocal is probably just right. But if more moderate levels are to be allowed, the vocals could be slightly louder. For example around 1.30 I cannot separeate any syllables.

Toms
Here and there are nice tom-fills. You could pick up some of them with automation. For example around 1:16

Hey Olli. I really appreciate the feedback bud. Indeed I am struggling with getting the bass and kick to work together and by reading your post I think I had one of those "aha" moments about frequency harmonics. I did carve them a little separation , but it was somewhat broad and imprecise. That low pass filter trick sounds like a great idea. I'll definitely have to give that a try.
I had a feeling I was having a few masking issues with the guitars and vocals, but after messing with it for a while I couldn't get results I was too happy with. I wish I could quote some specifics of what I had tried, but much of it was blind experimentation. As I said before I'm just starting to get into mixing and still developing an ear/mind for it. Thanks again for the feedback/advice! Even if your not a big fan of heavy music, experience in any aspect of mixing can lead to new ideas and perspectives.
One last thing... Did I detect a spinal tap reference in your post?

[Olli H]

One last thing... Did I detect a spinal tap reference in your post?

Now that you mentioned it, I do realize that the "volume 11" was in that movie. But when I was writing it, I didn't have it in my mind. I could have used also something like "volume to southeast" but I'm not sure if that's only a Finnish or international way to say "very loud".

If you try that low-pass listening trick, listen first some great recordings with top mixers to get idea how the bass and kick should sound in that mode. I found that idea from one of Dave Penasado's videos.

[Blitzzz]

I don't think that you should listen to Pensado as a reference when you are mixing metal :-P

[Olli H]

Pensado came up as source for a general mixing idea how to check kick-bass interaction. I used that trick also in my mix, but I listened as reference your mix and Finnish band Children of Bodom.