I really really ned help on this mix (updated)

[craiz730]

What am I doing wrong? Can you please point out ANYHTING you hear in this mix that sounds like crap? Please? I'm doing a cd for a buddy of mine at work and It just sound slike utter crap..... This example is how I have been mixing it....Of course it loses quality as a mp3 but besides that. I appreciate any comments given..Thx.

http://www.djcraiz.net/test21.mp3

[P A M]

What am I doing wrong? Can you please point out ANYHTING you hear in this mix that sounds like crap? Please? I'm doing a cd for a buddy of mine at work and It just sound slike utter crap..... This example is how I have been mixing it....Of course it loses quality as a mp3 but besides that. I appreciate any comments given..Thx.

http://www.djcraiz.net/test21.mp3

This comments is considering the genre...
The first thing I noticed was the lack of low-end, - Hip Hop tend to be a "big low-end genre" and the beat should be right up front and "shake the house".

Vocal could be more massive, - try compressing/duble-tracking it..
Think theres a bit too much reverb on it.. - needs to be fairly dry.

The main riff is a great one, - but try keep it a bit more in the back of the mix - dont worry you´ll hear it anyway.. - try no reverb.

. just my thoughts..- hope you can use it..

Regards

[bjoneill74]

yep less reverb..
The scratching is a bit low in the mix.
And I suppose there could be a little more low end in the drums.

Otherwise it's not that bad at all.

[in10shun]

Craiz,

First of all, where's the bass line? The track may not need much, but it needs something to fill it out. Secondly, I agree about the reverb. The piano loop is pretty ambient to begin with, so I'd ease up on the reverb everywhere else. Try taking it off the kick drum completely and maybe a little less on the hats and cymbals. Also bring it way down on the vocals. P A M's suggestion about compressing/double-tracking the vocals is a good one. If you do a remix, post it up.
-James

[craiz730]

hmm that's wierd.....There is barley no reverb on nehting....I do have supertap on everyhting though except the kick and bass and snare....oh yeh there is no bass./....gotta do that.I think I'm not understanding how to correctly apply delay in a rap song. Also the vocals are double tracked and delayed...Damn I musta made a mess of this mix lol.....

[Keith Lowdon]

Hi,
This is a good test for us listeners - let me know if I'm totally whacked on my comments.

I think this mix and song is close. Here's what I would do:
1.) Beef up the kick - it starts out stronger but seems to disappear when the vocal and keyboard are both playing. To me the keyboard doesn't jump out enough and I wonder if it caused by a muddle in the lower frequencies. Try a low cut on the keyboards and voice. Or maybe try a high pass on the kick. I think there is an eq issue happening around 120. I like how the keyboard is panned more to the right but the voice sounds panned more to the left, myself I would like the voice more in the middle. I would try to get more variance in the keyboard it does the same thing throughout and sounds a bit boring after a while. Maybe things like the triplet portion on the right and the quarter notes on theleft every now and then
right right right Left
Or maybe changes in volume for parts instead of the same volume all the time.
quiet quiet louder loud
Or maybe just changing the eq in parts

2.) Add some bass
3.) Get the rapper to beef up a few lines by doubling or putting some edge in the voice
The line about a couple of girls showin me up. Get the 'showin me up to show some attitude'. Same with bitchin.
Wanna see if you can move it from the front to the back - the next line sounds like something went wrong. I think there might be too many words crammed into that line because it sounds a bit awkward.
4.) Move the scratch more to the left
Thanks for exposing what you are doing and giving us a chance to comment. Good job.

[craiz730]

THX FOR THE HELP!!!

I jus took you guys advice and edited the mix

here it is.... http://www.djcraiz.net/test22.mp3

I think the voice might be to loud heh.

[Keith Lowdon]

I like what you did with the mix!! I'm also getting attached to this because I listened to it to so many times.

[in10shun]

Craiz,

That sounds a lot better, nice work. The only thing I'm not really sold on is the echo/reverb/whatever on the cuts at the end. But that's really just my personal preference, nothing to do with the mix itself. Hope this track does well for ya.

-James

[dubaifox]

Nice elements! I preferred the keyboard in the previous. The addition where it rest's on a 5 sus chord is a little pop'ish sounding.

I'd also play around with the arrangment to give it places where it breaks, breaths, maybe take away the "HUH!" snare effect sometimes, so that it builds, and progresses somewhere. It meanders a little bit. This could be helped as someone suggested earlier by having the doubled vocal track only hit on certain words/phrases for emphasis. It would also clear it up, as the words are a little hard to understand, which maybe is what you want.

But nice job overall! I am being too critical. And it takes guts to bare your creative efforts to people you don't even know.