DIY home mix feedback required

[Marcello]

Hi there! I need a feedback from some experienced mixing engineer about my DIY home mix here, possibly into rock/metal/punk stuff (still missing the vocals but interested into the instrumental part)

I'd like to know if any of the following is ok or needs improvement: volume balance, performance, compression, EQ, dynamic, loudness for a mix (I kept it around -6db)

PS: the drums are programmed.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q13gbotrcH3jCGcTEEdmWW9qMYk7eXQS/view?usp=sharing

[Marcello]

All that I have used is: A laptop, a DAW, an interface, amp sims, MIDI drums software.

Edited May 14 by Marcello

[Kevin Walsh]

I'm no professional, but I think the mix sounds pretty good. You've done a really nice job here. Look forward to a cut with the vocals in it.

[Starship Krupa]

I listened on headphones and I concur. Great-sounding track, nothing I would change except for maybe one thing. I was especially impressed with the drum programming, and I'm a drummer.

On your hard-panned guitars, have you used any ambient reverb?

Bu this I mean a full stereo reverb that's in a bus rather than the instrument's FX rack so that it isn't hard panned.

The reason I ask is because during the few times when one or the other is heard in isolation, there's something odd about the soundstage. They sound isolated, which may be deliberate, but I mean isolated not in the sense that there's an imaginary space with a hard-panned guitar in it, but more like one side of my headphones cut out.

If that's deliberate, then, well, you nailed it. But if it's not, I'd try maybe sending a little bit of guitar to a reverb bus.

[Marcello]

Thanks glad to hear that.

I did not use any reverb on the panned guitars, just occasionally on the central guitar.

I think you hear it kind of separately when isolated because they are panned 100% left/right, that's why, but that's the general rule to make a  wide mix.

Actually I panned them 95% L/R to leave a tiny bit of glue.

Edited May 15 by Marcello

[Marcello]

I just used delay occasionally in the panned guitars when needed.

[Marcello]

Maybe I could automate the panning and leve the lone guitar in the middle and pan it back 100% when the other instruments come in?

[jack c.]

it sounds real good.jack c

[Supa Reels]

Hi,

Are you pushing everything through the same output channel ie no separate bus's? To my old ears there is little differential between guitar and drums when it comes to reverb .. this gives an overall output similar to an overly compressed sound. You have separated ( by choice I assume  ) some of the guitar solos which does seem a bit harsh so maybe pull them closer to the middle field ?.

The skins are great but I feel could do with a little more compression on their own bus before the LR Mix ( Main O/P )this way you could adjust to lead the overall mix.

As said the reverb is IMO a little too wet .. but who knows when you add vocal ... great project

 

[Marcello]

30 minutes ago, Supa Reels said:

Hi,

Are you pushing everything through the same output channel ie no separate bus's? To my old ears there is little differential between guitar and drums when it comes to reverb .. this gives an overall output similar to an overly compressed sound. You have separated ( by choice I assume  ) some of the guitar solos which does seem a bit harsh so maybe pull them closer to the middle field ?.

The skins are great but I feel could do with a little more compression on their own bus before the LR Mix ( Main O/P )this way you could adjust to lead the overall mix.

As said the reverb is IMO a little too wet .. but who knows when you add vocal ... great project

 

Thanks for the comment.

Hang on I don't get it, of course I pushed each track into their own bus, GUITAR bus, DRUMS bus, BASS bus, then all of these go to the master bus.

I don't get this reverb thing you are claiming, I didn't put any reverb at all on the guitars or bass, only on the drums bus, and I put only reverb on the central solo guitar  in the quiet part of the song to give some depth., are you referring specifically to the reverb in that section of the song? is it too wet?

And then, how panning a guitar in the middle fileld should make it sound less harsh? not clear.

I only compressed the drums (parallel compression) , the bass, and a little bit on the master bus to give it some glue (-2 gain reduction)

Should I just reduce the reverb level on that guitar part and on the drums bus?

Edited May 15 by Marcello

[Marcello]

12 hours ago, Kevin Walsh said:

I'm no professional, but I think the mix sounds pretty good. You've done a really nice job here. Look forward to a cut with the vocals in it.

You are also saying I'm using reverb on the panned guitars? Strange cause I did not!

I just used some delay on one of the guitars on the right side during the octave riff, and reverb only on the central guitar solo during the quiet part of the song

Edited May 15 by Marcello

[Kevin Walsh]

I'm responding because you quoted my post.

He's suggesting (or someone suggested somewhere) that your guitars sound somewhat isolated and that ambient reverb can help. Adding a reverb to a single track will have the reverb being panned along with your signal. To fix that, don't use a track-based reverb plug in, use a bus-based plug in that will spread the reverb across the sound scape regardless of where you have the individual instruments panned.

To that, create a new stereo bus, name it reverb. Then add a reverb plugin (or use the pro-channel Re-Matrix Solo plugin) and set the mix to 100%. Then go to your guitar track and go to the Sends box and add a send, then select the reverb bus. You can adjust how much of your guitar signal to send.

This has the advantage of being a stereo reverb and you can eq the reverb signal without monkeying with your guitar tone, and it creates a nice fill of sound to your track. Adjust the reverb bus slider or the individual sends to control the level of reverb. 

You can also do sends for multiple or even all your guitars to that one reverb bus, or even (like I do) send drums, guitars and vocals to the reverb bus to get everything to sound like the instruments are all in the same room. I do the same thing with delays and vocals. 

Edited May 15 by Kevin Walsh

[Marcello]

8 hours ago, Kevin Walsh said:

I'm responding because you quoted my post.

He's suggesting (or someone suggested somewhere) that your guitars sound somewhat isolated and that ambient reverb can help. Adding a reverb to a single track will have the reverb being panned along with your signal. To fix that, don't use a track-based reverb plug in, use a bus-based plug in that will spread the reverb across the sound scape regardless of where you have the individual instruments panned.

To that, create a new stereo bus, name it reverb. Then add a reverb plugin (or use the pro-channel Re-Matrix Solo plugin) and set the mix to 100%. Then go to your guitar track and go to the Sends box and add a send, then select the reverb bus. You can adjust how much of your guitar signal to send.

This has the advantage of being a stereo reverb and you can eq the reverb signal without monkeying with your guitar tone, and it creates a nice fill of sound to your track. Adjust the reverb bus slider or the individual sends to control the level of reverb. 

You can also do sends for multiple or even all your guitars to that one reverb bus, or even (like I do) send drums, guitars and vocals to the reverb bus to get everything to sound like the instruments are all in the same room. I do the same thing with delays and vocals. 

ok thanks for the advice, but on all tutorials I've seen they don't recommend to use reverb on guitars especially distorted ones, when they are played with other instruments together, because it results in the mix being muddy. Everyone is recommending to not use reverb on guitars but rather delay, to prevent muddyness.

Again the separation is probably due to the guitars being panned 100% L/R, so they sound separated, but at the same time this is to make the whole mix wider in terms of stereo image, everyone on tutorials I've seen recommends to pan guitars 100%L/R and not to use any reverb.

There might be different schools of thought.

It might also be that in the middle there's only bass and drums and the guitars are mosto of the times panned 100%, but maybe when I'll record the voice should be ok

Edited May 16 by Marcello

[Supa Reels]

Just to say mixing is really much harder than people think, for me I have mixed and mastered songs in the past that I cringe when I hear them now ... meaning I meant no disrespect for the work you have done ?

I, like yourself, watch and read a lot of stuff on the procedures of a good mix and have done for many years ... and still the experience of the guys here put me right when they hear somethings out of kilter so to speak .. anyway hope we're good .. I leave you with this gem from YT

 

[Marcello]

14 minutes ago, Supa Reels said:

Just to say mixing is really much harder than people think, for me I have mixed and mastered songs in the past that I cringe when I hear them now ... meaning I meant no disrespect for the work you have done ?

I, like yourself, watch and read a lot of stuff on the procedures of a good mix and have done for many years ... and still the experience of the guys here put me right when they hear somethings out of kilter so to speak .. anyway hope we're good .. I leave you with this gem from YT

 

Thanks, I appreciate your tips, just not sure you are confident with this genre.

Consider I have used amp sims, so the guitars are already compressed when you apply distortion from the amp sims, if you also put a compressor on them as this guy says, they will be squashed I guess and loose their original tone.

I already put a compressor on the mix bus.

I used this track as a reference, you can compare it, if you can spot a difference with my track let me know.

https://toucheamore.bandcamp.com/track/-

[Paul Bush]

Oh yes this was just fine loved the riffs and the drums were dam fine , look nothing to report on this piece of work except its bloody great , I could listen to this all day long ..cheers P