How's my mix?

[Petie]

I have an mp3 of a song I've been working on, and I'd like some feedback on the mix, if anyone would like to help. It's not in its final stage, so any brutally honest mixing advice will be gladly accepted! I just bounced this work-in-progress mix to listen to on my iPod on the way to work today so I can figure out what still needs to be done.

The file is here:
http://mp3space.com/file/33139/just_..._full_mix_test

Although I've dabbled in home recording for a long time, it's always been in more of a 'get my ideas down so I don't forget them' kind of way, so this is the first time I've really tried to record something that actually sounds good.

Here are my thoughts. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, right, or completely bonkers.

* Rhythm guitars need to lose a little of the low mids, and they need to come down a little bit in the mix. (They were done with Amplitube 2. Each guitar is panned hard left or hard right, with a second virtual mic/cabinet combination panned 30% away from centre on the respective side, and turned down a little, to provide a bit of extra depth.)

* The bass tends to get hidden a little by the rhythm guitars, which I think will improve a bit when the low mids are reduced in the guitars.

* The lead guitar is a bit loud, but hey, we're guitarists, right? Hehehe.

* I think I need to turn up the room mic for the drums just a hair to get a bit more room sound.

EDIT: There's a new version on my myspace, www.myspace.com/peterhodgson

[tt0511]

Not too bad. Sounds like if you work on the things you listed it'll be in pretty good shape. The guitars are definitely too hot in the mix. The snare and kick punch through pretty good so that's good. The bass is hard for me to pick out as well as that 3rd guitar. You're off to a great start.

[EL-CeeDee]

First of all:
Pretty good !

I'd focus on a couple of things:
- Give the lead guitar a more "open" sound. It's sound a bit muffled to my ears ( could be the mp3 coding ) Avoid harshness, but give it a little air.
- Scoop the midrange on the rhythm guitars a bit, they might sound a tad more aggressive that way.
- Overall mix seems a bit bassy, be carefull here, don't lose the punch you have going.
- You could make the mix more dynamic by automating some levels. Where the lead guitar is too loud in some parts, it's perfect in some other places, play around with the fader the make it fit more. Consider some cool panning effects for added interest factor.
- If you are going to play around with a little more ambience in the drums, take care! Ambience can blur the sharpness of the drums, and this track has heavy rhythmic elements that you don't want to blur. Be especially carefull with ambience on the kick sound.

Overall it has a nice "unique" sound quality. For me it sounds a bit like a 70's al dimeola track on acid. I like it. Open the sound up a bit more for a modern sound. Take care of some of the masking going on between the guitars ( and to a lesser degree bass and guitars ) and you'll have a crisp modern, heavy mix. Try to avoid a "british"-style mix as this would impede the airy, yet tough character of the track.

[Petie]

Thanks for the feedback! I've further refined the mix and I'll upload it when I get home from the office. Everything sits a little better now, including the bass, and I've added more compression to the drums to emphasize the attack. It sounds very punchy now. I decided to only apply reverb to the snare, because I didn't want to mush up the kick drum. I love big ambient drum sounds like Extreme's "Waiting For The Punchline" album, but I realise this song doesn't call for that type of sound.

[Petie]

Hmm, this is tricky. I made a mix which sounded perfectly balanced on my monitors, home stereo, and in a pair of Sony headphones, but on my iPod the rhythm guitars sound terrible and the snare sounds too loud. I've uploaded it to Myspace, and the streaming version sounds very odd, with the toms sounding much louder than they appear on the downloadable file. I've learned to not have much faith in what Myspace does to audio files, but I guess I'm going to have to include the iPod earphones in my mixing process.

You can download the latest mix at www.myspace.com/peterhodgson, but I think I'm going to have yet another pass at the rhythm guitar sounds.

[gu1tar]

Sounds pretty good but the drums may need to be brought down a little; they seem a little too "up front" in the mix. Nice groove though.

[Petie]

I've had yet another pass at it now. I've compressed the drums, brought down the snare and toms, and taken the compression off the guitars. The mix now sounds a bit warmer.