no energy in mix - help for analogue recording

Ahh, I think I know what is happening. This is a pretty simple fix. What is happening is you have left too much in the bottom end (bass and kick) that is eating up the available overhead and not leaving room for anything else to be added without forcing the levels down and losing volume (energy). It could be caused by your monitoring setup rolling off too soon, or not even reproducing the low frequencies at all. This might cause you to boost the EQ levels in an attempt to get the bass you want, but is actually resulting in some rather serious harmonic distortion (due to transient peaks) below about 100hz or so. Run a highpass filter on the bass and kick starting at about 125hz and then test it on various setups to find the right balance of tone vs energy by dialing it down to around 95 to 75hz. Then take a look at compression on those and each of the other instrument tracks to get the volume you want - Good luck. - Shad -edited for grammar.

>>Is there any kind of plug in to help me see this if I can't hear it on the monitors?


http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

as you see.. lol... I was looking up the link when Jeff posted.

I agree with foxwolfen - the bass & kick are very similar tonewise, so when they meet up it's pretty heavy down there.
If there's a way to change the kick to something more "clicky" that would help too, otherwise eq that freq (on both if needed) to make them sit better.
General rule to consider: 
Thumpy bass, clicky kick.  Clicky bass, thumpy kick.

SPAN will help you identify that freq that they are both strong at.


The toms are pretty thumpy as well (but I like 'em that way).

Snare could use more crack since that's kinda fighting in that zone also.


Performance-wise, the drums & bass sound pretty good, though.

  

Hey Pickle-

The mix may need some help, but the song is f-ing awesome! Great song. 

Oops, I mistakenly called the Attack Ratio Threshold and Release parameters Attack, Sustain Decay and Release, which is incorrect. Sorry for the confusion (Synth guy... ADSR is on the brain).

I think you're being overly critical of yourself.  This production sounds pretty energetic on my speakers, and your bass, snare, and vox are good performances regardless.  Sonar 6PE is capable of making good mixes, as it has the Sonitus plugs that can provide punch and good EQing.  Should you ever upgrade to X2, you'll be in Nirvana.  BTW, the Zoom R16 is a digital device and not analogue, so your header is a little misleading.

I see where you're coming from about the analogue.  Regardless, you did a pretty good job with the tools you have.  I made several good recording with S6.  There's a song called "Fallout of you Love" on my Soundclick site that was done in S6 that I'm proud of.  Can't wait to hear more of your stuff.

Listening on Sennheiser HD600 (referred to as "audiophile" grade) cans.

Shad (foxwolfen) has hit the nail on the head.

BTW, the song is good. Work on that production and this will be killer.

Thanks guys for all the help and the props on the song. I've downloaded Span and taken a look at it and understand it's purpose. What I don't really understand is how to apply the information it gives me. All the tutorials on it (that I can find) deal with a lot of electro music and not real instruments. If i'm trying to mix bass and kick for example, do I find notches in the eq of each instrument's predominent frequencies to fit in the other instrument? Does anyone know of a good tutorial link for a knowledgable noob? Thanks for the suggestion on contacting Danny.... sounds tempting.

al

However, in the computer world, there is a saying.. garbage in garbage out. While a bit ugly, it does apply, and it also applies to music production. The better the source the easier it will be to mix. If you were planning on retracking some of this, then I urge you to do so before going any further mix wise. You dont want to risk growing frustrated with it, or that frustration might taint your perception of the mix (and song) in general later on.