Can I borrow your ears on this mix?

[TheDepthsWillRise]

My band recently recorded one of our songs in the hope that it would help us find a vocalist. We also wanted to take the opportunity to work on some of our sounds. The performances here aren't perfect, but hopefully it's solid enough for everyone to hear what we're trying to do tone wise.

We spent the most time on drum sounds, and it kills me, but I think we still have the most work to do on drums. We ended up going with a mid/side out front and a pair of overs for the "whole" sound. We sample replaced the spot mics. I wanted to use more of a mix of samples and mics on the shells, but phase was a problem. The next time we do this, fixing phase issues is step 1.

For guitar, I used my AxeFX2 and Setius. I've had that thing for a while, and love the crap out of it, but I'm still just getting started with tones for recording. I finally started getting close to a tone I liked, but think i have a bit more work to do.

I was actually fairly pleased with our bass tone, so please be super critical of that if you like. We ran an american P dlx through a dark glass into the axe. We also grabbed a direct off the DG and used that to reamp. In the end, we used the DG tone through a couple of impulses, a tone we heavily carved up in logic, and a reamp tone through the axe with a 5150 rig PEQed mixed together.

We know we have more work to do. But I've heard this song so many times, my ears can barely hear changes anymore. I'd be very grateful for anyone who can spare a few minutes for a listen and critique. Thanks!

https://soundcloud.com/ifmachinesspokeinriddles/the-fire-through-the-trees

 

[col]

Snare is too loud and the kick could use more oomph in the low end, maybe carve some space for it out of the bass guitar? Other than that sounds pretty good to me!

 

[TheDepthsWillRise]

Thanks for the feedback and the kind words.

 

[TheDepthsWillRise]

Bump for a few more opinions.

 

[TheDepthsWillRise]

Bumpity

 

[TheDepthsWillRise]

Last try bump.

 

[Alimination]

I agree snare is a bit over the top at the moment.

You can try experimenting with side chain compression of the bass and kicks subtly. I think that may benefit it a tad bit.

I'm just nit picking though, it's pretty good.

 

[Phantom]

 

[TheDepthsWillRise]

We put some vocals on this tonight and I tweaked on the snare a bit. Let me know what you think.

https://soundcloud.com/ifmachinesspokeinriddles/the-fire-through-the-trees-w

 

[4Eyes]

snare needs more attack, toms and kick lack some serious bottom end. drums still need some work to make them sound good

bass and guitars seem to be sounding ok, but cannot judge until drums don't sound mind blowing. maybe try to hi pass guitars bit more to create more space for bass in the low end a try wide cut in mids to create space for snare. also I would try to "reamp" guitars with kind of brighter tone - they sounds muddy (too dark is better) - but I would say this about whole mix. it needs better instrument separation is what I want to say.

not bad at all, but it still needs some serious work.

 

[TheDepthsWillRise]

snare needs more attack, toms and kick lack some serious bottom end. drums still need some work to make them sound good

bass and guitars seem to be sounding ok, but cannot judge until drums don't sound mind blowing. maybe try to hi pass guitars bit more to create more space for bass in the low end a try wide cut in mids to create space for snare. also I would try to "reamp" guitars with kind of brighter tone - they sounds muddy (too dark is better) - but I would say this about whole mix. it needs better instrument separation is what I want to say.

not bad at all, but it still needs some serious work.

Thanks for the honest feedback man. I really wanted to use more of a blend of mics and samples on the drums, but we ended up with tons of phase issues on the mics. I haven't spent nearly enough time with the samples for them to be the primary sound.

I'm a little surprised to hear you say the guitars are too dark. I'll try to brighten those up a bit and see how it fits in the mix. We have a few more vocal parts to record. I'll post another mix when we finish those. Thanks again.

 

[4Eyes]

Thanks for the honest feedback man. I really wanted to use more of a blend of mics and samples on the drums, but we ended up with tons of phase issues on the mics. I haven't spent nearly enough time with the samples for them to be the primary sound.

try to revert phases on several drum tracks and you'll see if it sounds better, but I would try to use more of a samples, if know samples as primary source for kick, snare, toms... I know that "we want more natural drum sound" thingy, blah blah. the truth is, that with samples, when used right, you'll get more natural, cleaner sound without phase issues, and muddiness .

I'm a little surprised to hear you say the guitars are too dark. I'll try to brighten those up a bit and see how it fits in the mix. We have a few more vocal parts to record. I'll post another mix when we finish those. Thanks again.

I just prefer brighter sounds, they cut through mix better, they sound livelier to me. but maybe they are drums what makes them to sound tad darker. try and see, what's working for me may not work for you