Guitar Gear Forum

And let me know what you think of this mix.

http://www.tonefinder.com/index.php?section=user&value=Loins%20of%20Fire

Feel free to tear it a new one. I appreciate constructive criticism.

I don't have any constructive criticism for you. I thought it kicked ass.

It's a far cry from what I play myself, or the recording values I embrace, but I love listening to it.

Cymbals seem pretty sizzly on my monitors.. And there seems to be some digital clipping on the guitars or perhaps the whole mix.. Hard to say, but it could be part of the cymbal splattiness too.. Maybe a bit snare heavy for my tastes as well, but that's a feel thing..

Overall, pretty good track, not too crazy about the arrangementt ,tbh.. Kinda feels like it was running in place.. Good riffs, good playing obviously.. But the one thing that really stuck out was those cymbals.. They need more body, less sizzle and prolly less compression as well..

Yeah the Toontrack EZX Im using for drums is known to have pretty poor cymbals. Im aware of it but I can live with them for now.

Thanks for listening guys.

As far as the arrangement goes I think it will come to life a little more when I put vocals on it. I consciously tried to make the arrangement more like old school metal. Instead of having a song with a bunch of different riffs one after another like a lot of guys are doing these days I wanted to have more of a structure.

Loins of Fire wrote:And let me know what you think of this mix.
http://www.tonefinder.com/index.php?section=user&value=Loins%20of%20Fire
Feel free to tear it a new one. I appreciate constructive criticism.

Edit: I'm having hardware problems. From what I heard through my studio headphones, it sounds really really good. I've checked it out on different system for my own diagnostics, and it sounds great! once I listened on my desktop. I realize now my laptop audio hardware sucks.

Can't open it?

Sounds great! Add some vocals!!!

Thanks guys I plan on doing vocals for it really soon. I still have to get a good mic. I plan on buying a Shure SM7B.

Good snare sound but it's too prominent in the mix. Guitar is a bit nasally/solid state for my tastes. Overall it's a strong, loud, and bright sounding mix.

I really dig the riffs and overall song. Great playing... Also the drum parts kick ass and are well put together.

My only thoughts - guitars should actually come up a little, snare/cymbals should come down a bit.

Great insight so far guys thanks. Seems like everyone agrees that the symbols and snare are too loud in the mix. I personally think the bass drum may be too loud also. Maybe if I lower the volume of the whole drum kit that might fix some of the problems.

I think you'll get different opinions from different people. I believe it all comes down to personal taste. Where some may think the bass drum is too dominant, others may like it up front, and the brighter symbols to add the counter balance. Enough people respond and we can pick it to death. You'll be running around like a dog chasing its tail. In the end, it's what sounds best to you and your experience, then just go with your gut.

Something I just found out, all computer audio hardware processing is not the same. I can have a USB interface on my computer for recording, tracking, and so forth, but it's my computer's internal audio hardware that processes an audio file or something on the web. Our opinions can be all over the place because we are all hearing something slightly different. So I think you should take that into consideration when listening to other opinions. Now if there is a general consensus on one or two things, then yeah. tweak those.

At the end of the day, it's you that needs to be pleased with what you're producing. Trust your gut.

RustyMetal wrote:I think you'll get different opinions from different people. I believe it all comes down to personal taste. Where some may think the bass drum is too dominant, others may like it up front, and the brighter symbols to add the counter balance. Enough people respond and we can pick it to death. You'll be running around like a dog chasing its tail. In the end, it's what sounds best to you and your experience, then just go with your gut.

Something I just found out, all computer audio hardware processing is not the same. I can have a USB interface on my computer for recording, tracking, and so forth, but it's my computer's internal audio hardware that processes an audio file or something on the web. Our opinions can be all over the place because we are all hearing something slightly different. So I think you should take that into consideration when listening to other opinions. Now if there is a general consensus on one or two things, then yeah. tweak those.

At the end of the day, it's you that needs to be pleased with what you're producing. Trust your gut.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I understand everything is subjective and I realize my personal taste differs from the majority quite a bit. As you can probably tell I prefer mixes with a scooped mid range and a lot of brightness like most of the album's in the 90's were made. I think most people these days really like modern mixes with a very flat eq curve and up front mid range, which isn't really my style, so I'm sticking to my guns in that regard.

It is good to have a fresh set of ears though, especially when you've been mixing something for a while. Ideally I would like to find a middle ground between my personal taste and the general publics opinion.

That's very well said also. I like the 80's stuff the best, but often with a more modern mix. A little heavier on the bass that was never really there in the 80's on vinyl, from the ones I've heard.

I also agree with the fresh ears. Same with writing a novel or something, I would think. You hear it time and time again, and you don't hear obvious mistakes. I do it when writing a post here, and don't see missing words until I post and then re-read. So yeah, you've got a good handle on it. I want to hear a finished version of that.

MSguitar1 wrote:Can't open it?

Me? No, my laptop hardware makes it sound like an ultra compressed mp3. Real bassy, even muffled, and no top end. On my desktop computer (both have the sound card circuitry built in the main board) it sounded way better. Desktop is an Inspiron 546 and laptop is a Latitude e6500.

I can't really add a sound card to the laptop, so the DAW I bought it for, is out of the question. I can attach a USB interface for incoming signals to record, but I can't trust what I'm hearing because the audio hardware processing is so crappy. And that is what the computer uses for internal processing when playing an audio file to mix or whatever, afaik.

My only real option for quality work is to add an M-Audio (or similar) advanced sound card to my desktop and do everything from it. I believe a sound card like that, with it set for the input and output default, the computer would run audio signals through it when playing a multi-track file for mixing, or even audio tracks or background sounds on the web.

Please correct me if I am wrong.