Face The Line - Comments On Mix Please - UPDATED APRIL 16

You probably do not know me, as i have not been here in a while, so I apologize in advance, but I am very blunt. I hope you will take this in the spirit it is meant. 

Let me start by saying I like the song. Great vibe to it. 
 
The mix however... I think you are far from ready to master, I am sorry to say. There is no life to this track. By that I mean depth, width, and richness. Back way off the compression for start. You have lost all the dynamics which actually renders the song "flat" sounding.

Consider that your soundscape should be 3D. Think about placing the instruments and effects in their own "space", not just side to side, but front to back. Right now everything is sitting on top each other.

Rethink the EQ and filters you have used. You are losing too much. Get your vocal track properly ready and mix with it included as its part of the soundscape. It will effect everything else.


Cheers
Shad

Joshua, try panning guitars left and right to open up the center.  Maybe try so short delay stereo reverb on the lead vocal and lead guitar.  That may give some space to it also.  I like the drums and bass.  Snare and cymbals might need a touch of 6-8K.  

Keep on truckin'

Rimshot

jamesyoyo



Get Voxengo Span (free) and take a look at the freq response. Set it to infinite and it will add up the entire song. If it looks like a frown, you are in good shape. If there are too many peaks or dips, you may have more tuning to do eq-wise. Problem freqs are easy to spot, smooth them out.

So you don't want spikes on the overall mix? Would you mind posting a screenshot of voxengo Span looking like your comment? I have that tool and have recently learned how to use it a little better.
And the process would be SPAN the master, but EQ the individual tracks until the master looks like a "frown"?

FastBikerBoy
 'Mixing Audio' by Roey Izhaki highly enough. My mixes really improved after getting that and it's a surprisingly easy read given the subject. 

Look forward to hearing it again once you've worked on it a bit.

Karl

Yes, I saw that on a another thread this last week and ordered it. I don't do vocals first because I feel like the vocal needs to feed the dynamics of the song. So - maybe it's just my process but I do drums and bass first then guitars, then vocals. But this is usally because i'm writing at the same time that I'm tracking and mixing! I'm never not being A.D.D. hey is that a butterfly?

Very cool tune... everyone above is correct in their advise, and I agree with a Shad and James comments especially... this is a good start...  

Lynn, would you care to look over my shoulder and talk through this? I'd love some validation on my choices...

I like the song. Very cool! I take it your a fan of Soundgarden? Me too!

On Youtube there is a guy who does a "5 minutes to a better mix". He calls it the "recording revolution". He's got some great stuff there that may help in your quest to make these songs sound as good as they should. The Cakewalk videos on groove 3 are nice as well. Another is the T-Racks mastering video. Even though mastering is different than mixing, the video gives some great insight to how to use different techniques that can be used in both situations.

Looking forward to hearing more!

Foxwolfen;

I'll bypass the effects and mix it down and send it to you. Can you PM me your email address?

I don't take it as mean. I have very little experience doing this. and I'm posting here for feedback. I could careless about feelings; I want it to be good.

I have Mackie monitors - 8inch. Small, untreated room.

Slight ringing with a long decay. It's longer in the orientation of my monitors. Perpendicular to my monitors, it's relatively short.

Monitors are about 18 inches apart and about 24 inches from my ears.

18" apart? Are you sure? Even for nearfield thats way too close.

If you can, you need to move them so that they are about 4 to 6 feet apart, 4 to 6 feet from your listening position, about 18 inches from any wall behind, and 24 from any wall beside. Ideally.

If you cannot, then you need to train your "ear" to compensate for the sound. 

I would also suggest you take a break from your songs, listen to some great sounding music you like for a few hours (better yet a few days) through your rig. Then go listen to your track again. You may have become "deaf" to them, if you know what I mean.

Listening to the MP3 you sent I see what you were trying to accomplish with the compression.

Voice, e-guitar, base, and snare are all sitting in the same space. You have some width in the toms and acoustic.

Consider panning far left with the acoustic with trails to the right, and far right with the electric with trials to the left. Lets see how that exposes the vox and base.

You have come to the right place to learn. And I can learn along with you.

Tools should supplement and enhance the mix. Getting a solid foundation first allows you to add texture and interest without crushing it.

Right now, as mentioned, I would get the vocals done. Then work with the mix as a whole. Build it from the bottom up... make it sound good, then make it sound cool.

You do need to filter and compress the bass a bit. Do not go too far though. You are seeking tone, not loudness. The tone as it is drowns out the drum's low end. Moving the guitars to the edges will give both the drums and bass more room to breathe, and should add some life to the mix even before effects are added.

No - I've been gone for awhile. I've been concentrating on work and for about 18 months had given up the possibility of pursuing music. After working with Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy for the last 5 months and joining a pretty rocking band, I've decided I need to do this. I need to get my music going. I missed you guys though. You're a stellar group, fo' sho'.

Josh, you've got a great song here with a killer Soundgarden vibe. Here is a couple of ideas I've got. Load a Soundgarden song in this project on a track and give it a couple of good critical listens. This will give you a reference track to shoot for. You won't get it exactly right for obvious reasons, but it will tell you what the guitars, bass, drums should sound similar to, and where they should be in the soundscape.

Don't be afraid to start any mix from scratch, no matter how long you've been working on it. In other words, pull the faders down to silence, then bring up your kick drum and get it thumpin just right with eq and compression. Next is the bass guitar. If these 2 components aren't working right together, the rest won't either. I like to get my scratch vocal up next and see how its sitting with the bass and drums. Remember to leave headroom with these components, for later polishing. Kick, Bass and Vocals are right up the middle. Now you have the rest of the drums, guitars and all kinds of room on the stage.

Guitars. If you can't get them sounding right, they probably weren't tracked well enough. Do them over, paying attention to how they sound with your drums, bass and vocals. Do they have the "meat"? Are they thick? If you spend a little extra time getting the right tone from the amp before tracking, mixing will be a breeze. Same goes for acoustic. It's gotta be mic'd right when tracking, or its always going to sound thin. Experiment with mic placement, and make sure you are using new strings.

Don't get frustrated. You've got a good song here. Keep your ears fresh and be patient.

Randy

Guys, I can't thank you enough for the encouragement. It'll get there. I'm doubling down on this and restarting if I need to.

In part - I haven't laid the vocal because I tend to get too excited as I hear it and I lose focus, but I agree with that sentiment now. I guess I have to put it in there. Good thing I'll have my reflexion filter tomorrow! And - new strings on the Taylor... ; )