Bashing on computer speakers. Intro and overall riffs kind of remind me of early Ted Nugent records. Your vocals sound kind of Punk and angst-y though. The low end hits hard after the intro but gets kind of drowned out during the rest. Levels sound pretty static through the song though, to my ear. In further mixing you could add more ‘movement’ between sections.
Guitars sound really good, but I think there’s some overly bright harshness on them at 5k or so. That may be competing with the vocals for space too, and obscuring the low end.
I would have liked to hear some improvisation or diversity in the guitar solo. It is the same repeating phrase, and it sounds like a guitar scale practice rather than a melody.
I can hear the bass but it doesn’t really stand out. That may be by design and may be fine for this style. But since the low end doesn’t seem like it’s “there” yet, maybe it could come up in the mix?
Drums seem quite wide, almost as wide as the guitars I think. LCR? There could be some more separation between elements in the mix which might bring clarity to it. Each element in it’s own space in the soundstage. Kick could maybe be a tad louder, but if you cut some 5k (or so) in the guitars it might open up the low end, both kick and bass.
Do you have a Limiter crushing this a good bit? That could have something to do with what I’m hearing too, there doesn’t sound like a lot of dynamic range.
Cool thanks! I have some ideas to try now. I didn’t do a whole lot of eqing yet besides a little high passing and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on it. I will cut some 5k on the guitars and see if I can get the bass to stand out a bit more. Maybe I’ll work on that guitar solo as well, it wasn’t intended to be very complex, more of a tension building thing than a guitar solo, but maybe I should try something else.
Yeah I crushed it pretty good with a limiter, but I actually held back a little since I had a feeling it would get commented on on here I can uncrush it, but then it will be all quiet. I don’t know if it’s a matter of I just need to learn how to mix better into the limiter, but anytime I listen to a commercial track as a reference it is extremely crushed, so I guess maybe I was trying to match that sound.
Cool track - sounds like Jello Biafra fronting Green Day…
However, there are some fairly big frequency problems. I had a play with the mix and some eq to work out what was going on… Starting at the low end, there is way too much sub-low end - try high passing the mix around 40-50hz - that’s just rumble that is bloating the low end and causing the lack of definition in the bass. Possibly the combination of the bass and kick are causing this buildup. Try keeping the sub-lows of both these elements fairly lean for this style.
Moving higher, the 70-100hz region is under-represented by quite a bit. This is where the bass guitar fundamentals need to sit and poke through. Then there is a big chunk of 200hz energy that needs cutting by around 4dB with a fairly narrow Q. I’d guess this is a buildup in the low end of the guitars and the bass.
There is a massive dip in the 400hz region of the mix. While this area can get boxy if it is too prominent, if it is not there the guitars sound wimpy and neutered. I had to boost around 3dB at 380hz to get some respectable response that compared with similarly flavoured commercial tracks. It sounds to me like you’re cutting too many mids out of your guitars for this to happen.
The high mids are pretty punishing - Approx 1dB cuts at 2k & 5k with very wide Qs help tame it. In the high end, further cuts of around the same shape and size at 9k and a shelf at 15k help with the overwhelming brightness. It sounds to me like you have a bit of a frequency-boosting “arms race” going here between the guitars, vocals and cymbals. If an element is not cutting through, this is a case where you might be wise to first think about cutting frequencies from the other elements surrounding the one not cutting through before you try boosting anything. This can result in less escalation and a more pleasant result.
There is also a crazy cymbal “whistle” in the RH channel around 10k - I managed to pull it out somewhat with a notch filter, but you might want to sort that out.
Here’s the eq curve I ended up with - it was much closer to my reference track, but you would be better off solving these issues at the track level, rather than with 2 Buss eq:
100% agree with this, I’m not a purist so I don’t think you have to choose one or the other but I do think there needs to be a cohesive idea behind the musical intent. I would suggest turning down the reverb in the guitars, that would get it to sound a bit more punk and a bit more cymbals would round it out.
Otherwise the performances are good, and I think the solo adds tension like you expected, I would personally vary the phrasing a bit between repetitions to keep it interesting but otherwise it works.
I heard a prominent ride cymbal “bell” in the RH - or something like that - which might be what you are referring to, but I neglected to mention it. It was piercing. It kind of sounds cool but was too much. It sounds way out on the edge of the stereo field and enhanced by reverb or something.
I really liked the reverb, but yeah that was a style clash with the Punk attitude of the vocals. It’s like the song needs to know which style it wants to be.
Yes, that would help. Or the timing of the phrasing, or some dynamics. Just some subtle differences in the way the lead line is being played in each repetition, especially as it gets closer to the end. I thought I heard some kind of “wah” effect separate from the solo right after the solo ended. Maybe a sound effect or separate guitar track. Maybe use a wah pedal on the guitar at the end of the guitar solo instead of that, to make the solo more interesting.
Maybe you need more gain-staging in the mix? If you are using busses for vocals, guitars, bass, drums, some compression on those before the 2-bus could help, and then one or two compressors doing light compression on the 2-bus before the limiter so the limiter doesn’t have smash but just brick-wall.
Another trick, if you’re interested, is Stem Mastering. I posted this yesterday but nobody seems interested so far. It’s a time investment, but could help with gain-staging.
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Good ideas guys! I have lots of stuff to try now. There shouldn’t be any reverb on the guitars except for maybe on the lead. The whistling sound I think is one of the lead guitar tracks that I put a phaser on and some crazy stereo delay. I think I’ll just mute that one.
Wow, that’s a really old version of ReaEQ (or is it the 32 bit version)? It’s amazing that the built in Reaper plugins are of such high quality. Love that company. As for the mix, the guitars sound really wet and it muddies up the mix a bit. I know you said there’s no reverb on them, but maybe the room you recorded in was too spacious or if you close and room mic’d you’ve got too much of the room on it. The snare’s a little snappy for my tastes, but it’s definitely not bad.
About your limiting comment, there is no problem with a song being “quiet”. I’d rather listen to a dynamic piece of music any day, but you could always create two versions. The “single” version which is crushed, and the “album” version which isn’t. If people buy the album version that means they’re already probably into you and you don’t need to brickwall it.
I like the attitude of the vocal Hmm, the song feels overly compressed to me. Like the individual elements sit at a really constant level throughout the song. That’s probably my biggest comment, that the song could use more dynamics overall. I would say that you should either periodically introduce new elements into the song to create dynamics, or else allow the individual instruments to have more dynamics within themselves. The song seems like it has a lot of potential for high energy, but that the compression has sucked some of that out. That’s my impression, anyway.
I’m liking that riff a lot. Something in that vocal that just seems not to project to me. The singing is good etc. I should have read all the other comments I would like to hear more of a shredding type lead. The single note style is ok tho:)
Here’s the newest version, I tweaked a lot of stuff thanks to everyones advice. Still probably has issues though. I turned down the reverb in the intro and worked on the bass. I didn’t redo the lead guitar part, but I brought up another track where i was playing it a little differently for the second half of it, it was in the old mix but it wasn’t as prominent. It is still compressed, but not nearly as compressed, I think it has more dynamics now, but if it’s still not enough I can work on it more. Anyways let me know if this is any better.
You could still get the snare transients to poke through a little more if you slowed down the attack of the drum comp a little. That “whistling” sound in the right channel is still there - it starts @ 40secs - it’s perhaps a little toned down from the previous version, but it’s still somewhat intrusive.
I can uncrush it, but then it will be all quiet. I don’t know if it’s a matter of I just need to learn how to mix better into the limiter, but anytime I listen to a commercial track as a reference it is extremely crushed, so I guess maybe I was trying to match that sound.
It’s a time investment, but could help with gain-staging.
