Tear apart my mix?

[slater05]

So i feel that this is the best mix I've done to date... not that I have that many under my belt anyways.

This is one of three songs that I did for the "Advanced" semester at my school. And even though I think it sounds pretty good and I'm proud of it I know that it still isn't at the same level as the pro's.

I'm just looking for some advice on what it's missing to help me keep getting better.

http://soundcloud.com/slater05/pieces


If you like you can also check out the other 2 songs I did at www.mikeslatermusic.com



Feel free to be as brutal as you like as long as it's constructive

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by slater05

So i feel that this is the best mix I've done to date... not that I have that many under my belt anyways.

This is one of three songs that I did for the "Advanced" semester at my school. And even though I think it sounds pretty good and I'm proud of it I know that it still isn't at the same level as the pro's.

I'm just looking for some advice on what it's missing to help me keep getting better.

http://soundcloud.com/slater05/pieces


If you like you can also check out the other 2 songs I did at www.mikeslatermusic.com



Feel free to be as brutal as you like as long as it's constructive

Hi,

I'de give you a job if i had one to give

If you've done that on a laptop you've done a stunning job! Well you've done a great job anyway.

Personally would like the snare to be sitting higher in the mix and a bit more defined as a snare sound, i found the mix can fall apart a bit if the snare isn't punching through.

Overall to my taste a bit too much in the 6k-10k region, as the hat and cymbals can be a bit bright and fatiguing at high levels. would go for a bit more 1k-2k region to open the mix out a bit.

The level from soundcloud was -4 dbfs peak? Is your mix that low? i', sure other soundcloud tracks are at full level about -0.3 dbfs

Wrock on....


Chris

[slater05]

Thanks for the input!

Sadly I can't say it was all dine on my laptop, although all the editing was. My school has a HD3 system.
I agree with your comment about the cymbals, I neglected them in the mixing process, not that I didn't do anything, they have a gradual low cut, a high cut around 16-17kHz I think, and a couple small dips, but I never really got the piercing quality quite out.

And I do have a snare sample that I made in the mix that gave it that balls that you were missing, but I think I just second guessed it all the time especially on snare rolls where it sounded drum-machine-y.

And that's interesting about the level. I slammed it through the waves LL3 so the snare was hitting -6 GR, but the 'final' copies are being mastered by someone else so maybe the frequency issue and level will be a lot less obvious after that.

[albee1952]

I think crizdee hit it pretty much for me, although(on my computer speakers) the kick drum has enough tone to jumble the bass guitar(but again, that's on computer speakers).

[TOM@METRO]

One thing that stands out to me is the environment surrounding the snare. It sounds to me, to be in a different room than the rest of the drums. In this musical style I prefer the drums to sound more unified.

All in all though... very nice.

[slater05]

Originally Posted by TOM@METRO

One thing that stands out to me is the environment surrounding the snare. It sounds to me, to be in a different room than the rest of the drums. In this musical style I prefer the drums to sound more unified.

All in all though... very nice.

It's funny that you say that because the only two samples I added to the drums were a sub-kick to add a little beef, and a snare sample which ended up being buried, so all the drums you hear are the original recorded ones.

Maybe if the snare was up a bit and the drum verb that they are all sent to was a little more prominent it could have fixed that.