Please review this mix, bash away!

Here's the link

http://www.box.net/shared/41yj5poxjk

Needs bigger GTR's or smaller Drums (sonically and spatially). Fun though

sounds a little crisp to me...I would like to hear a less saturated sound on the guitar tracks (might be impossible at this point of the process though). I find that the guitar sound gets bigger and more open. A hollowbody electric with a tube amp would really give a nice growl in contrast to the shwanka shwanka of the wah. One other thing, did I hear a humming amp in the first and middle sections? You might have wanted that in...if so that is a personal call.

Just my two cents...

I enjoyed the tune!
Paul Crawford

Ok here's a re-mix with a little less exciter on the top end, more guitars, less drums and a little less mid-highs on the vox. The guitars are kinda set in place as this is a live take other than the wah. I agree though, too much distortion on the one guitar, also they are just close mic'd as this was done live, this is a scratch track and will all be re-done. I was kinda going for the 70's porno sound on the wah so I left it direct, I might try to re-do that later. The humming was unintentional as well, but that's what happens when your other guitar player uses a compressor, a tube amp and a tele. Thanks for the input, here's the new mix.


http://www.box.net/shared/x4omn4y6x3

what could you re-track?

I can tell that the additional "vocal effects" took some time to get right...good impact.

Does the bass line miss in the middle of the first verse or so? If so, punch in or re-track that.

A couple of half step guitar slides in the right channel pull the ear out of the progression more than pull them back into the funkiness of the grove after the slide happened.

Do you need the Aural Exciter?
Could you do it without it? (they always taste like msg in cheap Chinese food to be...hmmm...)
But honestly, if you hadn't told me it was there I might have missed it entirely!

I don't mean to be negative by any means.
The guitar parts are written that way...but if the Bass was a miss, you could fix that.

Paul

Yeah sorry I noticed I didn't state this on this post. This song was written and recorded on the same day. It was done for us to remember the song more than anything so the performance was quite sloppy, the half step slides where done right, just that no-one else followed me. After listening to it though I think you're right pbc, they're just cluttering things up. I'm not sure if I would call it an aural Exciter or just an exciter, its in isotope ozone and it's on the whole mix.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is ignore the performance and focus on the song structure and above all the mix, I'm fairly new at recording so I'd like input on that especially.
And by the way I didn't think you were being negative, just constructive which is exactly what I want and appreciate. Thanks

cool...
Paul

Ozone is the devil....
THe drums are REALLY hyped. Lots of 'click' on the fills and still too much top.
Everything else is sounding much better in general.

Seriously...avoid instant mastering tools.
I used to lean heavily on the TC Finalizer and I hate listening back to my old work from that time. I still mix through Buss compression/EQ and limiting.

Listen carefully to "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" as a reference (I think you already have maybe?).
Those are bright roomy drums for SURE but there is more "Core" left to the fundamental tone and the spizzy High End isn't taking over.

That record has lots of very creative usage of intentional out of Phase GTR and Drums.
The Panning is very educational as well

jmp

I agree with what have been said, however the only thing in that recording that doesn't let me enjoy the music is cymbals. I wouldn't care about the rest if that got fixed.

And yes, definitely do get rid of Ozone, that thing is terrible. Although I do have the habit of having a limiter on my master, recently it is nothing but a limiter, meaning - threshold set to -0.1db, which takes care of some accidental peaks, however it doesn't do anything most of the time. I have a buss compressor & EQ set just before it & I'm liking a lot what they do.

Thanks guys

John, as for the drums, I think your right, they are pretty hyped, maybe I'll pull back a bit on the reverb in the mix. The clicking I think is partly due to mic placemet. The Firepod only has 8 inputs, so when doing something live, I only use a kick, snare and two overheads on the kit. It's kinda a compromise as far as Toms go as you're trying to get good cymbal sounds,not too much snare, not too much muddyness and yet get some of the tone of the toms , I'll work on it a bit. I'll have to listen to the RHCP drums a bit, good idea (I'm getting sick of listening to myself anyways). As far as experiment with out of phase guitar and drums, well, we only get together once a month as it is. I had a real bad experience with out of phase drums and guitars, kinda turned me off of live recording. Note taken though.

Nbarts
I'll pull back on the high end on the OH's see if that helps

As Far as Ozone

Shouldn't of mentioned it. Every time I do people jump on the Ozone bashing bandwagon, figure that it's the whole problem with the mix and quit listening all together. You mention all you use is a buss compressor, limiter and EQ. That's what I'm using on Ozone. The maximizer (a limiter), a multiband compressor,and the eq (but normally it's flat). Once and a while I'll add a bit of exciter on the top end, sounds like I should quit doing that though.Note taken

So I'll pull a bit of reverb and highs on the OH's for a start and try to re-post..baby steps

Some real good input here, learning lots thanks again

Here's a re-mix with less highs on the OH's, a little less click on the kick, more toms and a little less highs on the whole mix

Please take a listen

http://www.box.net/shared/s3itoku89y

Thanks

SORRY....
Now the 'comittee' has messed up your Balances.
The sounds are more in line now though.
This often happens when deconstructing and revising a mix.

I'm doing the same thing myself right now.

RE: Ozone
The reason I say "it is the devil" is that it is specifically designed to make poorly recorded and mixed material sound "Commercial"

If you don't abuse it and you understand how to use it, I would think you could get good results from it. I know I got some decent things out of T-Rax back in the day.
The TC Finalizer just WANTED to taint my mixes. It had to go!

jmp

Ok took some advice you guys gave me..

re-balanced(mixed) from scratch, slight compression on the busses, limiter on the whole mix, might have the threshold a little low on the mix, but it' set fairly transparent, have a listen

http://www.box.net/shared/exnf30yhpn


Thanks

I really like the funky groove of the song, It was like Isaac Hayes meets Deep Purple..Very Cool
I immediately thought of the Spin Doctors when the Vocals came in(that's a good thing)

My ears where not hearing a solid distinction between the kick and the Bass.

It's Really got a fun feel to it, I think the core of the song is the funky fun groove, mixing to keep that up front is what I would do.

Jeff

Thanks for the input Dutchman, I'll keep it in mind for the next mix

Ok did some cleaning up of the muddy bottom end and put some edge on the guitars, cleaned up the vox too, please take a listen and tell me what you think

http://www.box.net/shared/avqj886wwk

Another new mix... Anyone?

http://www.box.net/shared/jrkz1ik8w8