Guitar Gear Forum

Just working on a quick Cover band demo...vocals aren't recorded or mixed yet...just have a bit in there as a place holder.

I spent a while mixing this the other day and decided it sounded like shit so I scratched it and redid it tonight.

It's "good enough" for a cover band demo, but I need the practice. So absolutely rip this bitch apart and tell me what I could do to improve it. (Besides vocals...once they're "done", they'll sit much better).

As of now, I don't love the snare, and the guitars may be hidden a little (intentional...but maybe they're too far back).

http://theroaband.tripod.com/FLRemix.mp3

Not bad. Snare maybe needs more snap around 5-8kHz and less low mids 200-300Hz. Cymbals could be a lot brighter to bring some air to the whole mix. Overall there's a huge buildup of low mids centered around 300Hz, I downloaded the clip and cut around -7dB on the whole mix there and the missing clarity and air came out. Just to make sure, don't do this, cut at different frequencies on the instrument tracks, never do this big cuts on the master bus.

There's some weird clip/pop sound at 0:27, maybe from the vocal or bass track.

Thanks, I'll mess with it tonight and see if I can fix those issues.

The snare is certainly "different" - I'd try a different kit maybe? Guitars seem very dry as well. Fun song though.

JerEvil wrote:The snare is certainly "different" - I'd try a different kit maybe? Guitars seem very dry as well. Fun song though.

Yeah, I may change the snare in there. Normally it sounds pretty good, but in the context of this mix, I don't like it.

I added some verb to the guitars, but I made it subtle...maybe a hair too subtle. Thanks for listening/advising.

Ok, I think I fixed my issue with the snare...it's much more pleasing to the ears now IMO. Same with the cymbals...at least in my speakers, the drums seem good...probably my favorite part of the mix.

The guitars...I fixed a little, but I'm still not thrilled with them. The bass...awful. I just may have to get the bass player back over to re-record it. I'll try to work some magic on it tomorrow. Vocals seem "ok".

There's still some upper-low/low-mid frequency thing going on...but i think it has to do with the bass.

http://theroaband.tripod.com/FLRemix6.mp3

The snare gets a bit buried now, there are some hits that I can't hear at all. Try out a transient designer on the snare to bring out some of the snap so it doesn't blend so much into the music?

Here's a really good freebie: http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/bittersweet-v3

I think the bass guitar sounds fine as it is tonewise.

It's possible that the snare is just too low in the mix too. Good way to find a balance is to lower your listening volume to zero and very slowly raise it. The first thing to become audible should be the snare and vocals.

From what I heard I actually thought the snare was a bit too loud if anything. The bass sounds really good to me. Guitars could use something, not sure what. Maybe a little less hair, narrow band para dropping a db or two around 4,000-5,000 somewhere?

So the snare is buried but too loud.

I'll check out that transient designer...thanks!

Yeah after listening this morning, bass seems ok...guitars...not so much. I might just re-record both parts. Might be a problem with the source and not the mix.

Ordered a Cascade Fathead. Going to re-record the guitars with that and either a SM7b, Beta 58a, or SM57. I'll see what combines for the best blended recording. May lower the gain and try to get it a little wetter.

http://theroaband.tripod.com/FLRemix10.mp3

Final attempt to try to save the guitars. This is good enough for a fucking shitty cover band demo...but I really wanted to get it more polished for practice. I think one of the problems is just the lack of quality in the actual recording. Should have spent more time on the guitar tracks.

Sounds good to me! Add some tape saturation plugin on the guitars for fake polish.

If you have an iLok stick, the Slate Revival plugin is free!