Hired Jake Pitts (Black Veil Brides) to mix our EP, thoughts?

[frogman81]

Hey guys, so my band went with Jake Pitts to mix/master our EP. Curious to hear some thoughts on his work, I won't colour your opinions in any way

 

[Bandersnatch]

I'm not sure if it was the way the guitars were recorded or if it's just because it was mixed by a member of BvB but the guitars are in sore need of a high pass filter to remove that aweful hiss to them that reminds me of a similar tone from their song Perfect Weapon.

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

Sounds fine. People(more so here than anywhere I'v been) put way too much emphasis on production mix. If its clear and understandable, who gives a shit. Its the content.

 

[budda]

Sounds fine. People(more so here than anywhere I'v been) put way too much emphasis on production mix. If its clear and understandable, who gives a shit. Its the content.

Labels who may put out your future releases and help fund said releases generally give a shit

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

Labels who may put out your future releases and help fund said releases generally give a shit

Eh. If it sounds obviously bad, sure. But the hair splitting that people go over? Just silly.

 

[frogman81]

Sounds fine. People(more so here than anywhere I'v been) put way too much emphasis on production mix. If its clear and understandable, who gives a shit. Its the content.

I tend to agree. I don't scrutinize guitar tone like some/most people here do, nor do I claim to have godlike tone. I'll have a listen for that hiss that Nicki mentioned though.

For this mix job I mostly wanted someone to "brick wall" it so we can keep up with the loudness war, without squashing/destroying the nuances. I think Jake succeeded in that regard.

 

[budda]

Bricking it does destroy the dynamics... ?

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

Digging your band's sound.
I am no expert on mixing, but I will say that the guitar sound seems to sit a little 'too far back' in the mix to me, in addition to being a little too 'narrow' and not thick enough in the mids. Now, this is all artist's and mixer's choice as to how they wish to approach the guitar sound, but I think I would personally prefer a 'thicker/fuller' guitar in the mixes, especially for your last song.
If you're happy with it, and that is the sound you want to present for your band, then you should be happy as overall the mix sounds good.

 

[Rawkmann]

Sounds fine. People(more so here than anywhere I'v been) put way too much emphasis on production mix. If its clear and understandable, who gives a shit. Its the content.

Wholeheartedly agree with this. I think people should spend more time crafting and writing songs than trying to get their mixes to sound 'perfect'.

 

[frogman81]

Digging your band's sound.
I am no expert on mixing, but I will say that the guitar sound seems to sit a little 'too far back' in the mix to me, in addition to being a little too 'narrow' and not thick enough in the mids. Now, this is all artist's and mixer's choice as to how they wish to approach the guitar sound, but I think I would personally prefer a 'thicker/fuller' guitar in the mixes, especially for your last song.
If you're happy with it, and that is the sound you want to present for your band, then you should be happy as overall the mix sounds good.

Thanks dude! Yeah I tend to scoop the mids a little, even though this forum generally frowns heavily on that. I would agree that the guitars generally aren't "up front" in the mix, which is at least to a certain extent intentional because this wasn't intended to be a "riff-driven" EP, but something a little more balanced between bass, guitar, and synth. But I would agree, that they could still come forward in certain sections. Jake actually put a little of his own guitar reinforcement on the chorus of the last song, and I noticed his tone is much more "modern" to my ears - drier, more mids, "tighter" sounding pickups... I'm hoping to write some new material that's a little more riff-oriented in the near future. I'll take the comments from this thread into consideration in sorting the tone going forward!

 

[KingAenarion]

I tend to agree. I don't scrutinize guitar tone like some/most people here do, nor do I claim to have godlike tone. I'll have a listen for that hiss that Nicki mentioned though.

For this mix job I mostly wanted someone to "brick wall" it so we can keep up with the loudness war, without squashing/destroying the nuances. I think Jake succeeded in that regard.

Dude, the loudness war is over.

Look at what YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes do. Especially look at the RMS value's of mastered for iTunes stuff.

You don't want to keep up in the loudness war, that's like wanting to keep up with the dudebro who's skulling a bottle of Jack Daniels to be cool.

 

[frogman81]

Dude, the loudness war is over.

Look at what YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes do. Especially look at the RMS value's of mastered for iTunes stuff.

You don't want to keep up in the loudness war, that's like wanting to keep up with the dudebro who's skulling a bottle of Jack Daniels to be cool.

I have a vague awareness that YouTube has started normalizing the audio levels on videos, but that's it. Digging into that topic isn't a priority for me at this moment, though I'd like to have a better understanding at some point.

 

[bulb]

you get penalized for loud mixes on youtube and spotify, so basically louder mixes end up sounding worse than softer mixes, sweet spot is -12dB if memory serves

 

[frogman81]

you get penalized for loud mixes on youtube and spotify, so basically louder mixes end up sounding worse than softer mixes, sweet spot is -12dB if memory serves

Makes sense, thanks for the summary! I'll have to check what we ended up with for an RMS value.

 

[NickLAudio]

Is it just me or is the kick causing the master comp to pump the whole mix slightly. Kick sounds sweet, I just think it might be over working the master compression.

 

[schwiz]

Given the style, it sounds like the mixer did exactly what you asked. This isn't a guitar shred band, therefore the guitars are sitting exactly where they should be. The guitars could be high passed a touch more but that is like a 0.02% detail and imo doesn't matter in the context of the mix. I think he delivered you exactly what you asked for. Great balance and a good sounding mix.

 

[frogman81]

T

Is it just me or is the kick causing the master comp to pump the whole mix slightly. Kick sounds sweet, I just think it might be over working the master compression.

Thanks dude, that's entirely possible. Something to watch out for next time for sure!

 

[frogman81]

Given the style, it sounds like the mixer did exactly what you asked. This isn't a guitar shred band, therefore the guitars are sitting exactly where they should be. The guitars could be high passed a touch more but that is like a 0.02% detail and imo doesn't matter in the context of the mix. I think he delivered you exactly what you asked for. Great balance and a good sounding mix.

Thanks dude! I tend to agree - totally fits our style. I should let it slip now that the guitar and bass (other than the last song chorus where Jake threw in some guitars to reinforce) are all POD HD stuff. I won't claim that the POD HD is amazing, but for the price point (especially used now that the HD technology is getting older and after years of people dumping on Line 6) I think they do the Mesa Rectifier sound pretty well. I have the POD Pro X, and have been meaning to go Axe FX for awhile... But other than trying to keep up with what the cool kids are using, I don't find it necessary just yet. Waiting on a smokin' used price I suppose.

As for the drums, the first song is live drums by Kevin Talley (session player with active Facebook page) and the rest I programmed in EZDrummer 2. Jake put them through his presets in Superior. Pretty happy with the drums other than a section here or there where I should have thrown in some more embellishments!

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

Thanks dude! I tend to agree - totally fits our style. I should let it slip now that the guitar and bass (other than the last song chorus where Jake threw in some guitars to reinforce) are all POD HD stuff. I won't claim that the POD HD is amazing, but for the price point (especially used now that the HD technology is getting older and after years of people dumping on Line 6) I think they do the Mesa Rectifier sound pretty well. I have the POD Pro X, and have been meaning to go Axe FX for awhile... But other than trying to keep up with what the cool kids are using, I don't find it necessary just yet. Waiting on a smokin' used price I suppose.

As for the drums, the first song is live drums by Kevin Talley (session player with active Facebook page) and the rest I programmed in EZDrummer 2. Jake put them through his presets in Superior. Pretty happy with the drums other than a section here or there where I should have thrown in some more embellishments!

Cool. Is this a solo project, or do you have band members?

 

[frogman81]

Cool. Is this a solo project, or do you have band members?

Duo! Just myself and John - who writes/performs the vocals and some keyboard work.