Helpful ReplySeeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue

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danalyze16@gmail.com
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2015/10/16 13:09:46 (permalink)

Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue

Hello Everybody;
   I just completed the final mix on my band's latest single "Anathema" and would like to hear thoughts and ideas on the overall production and mixing of the track. Still learning and growing as an "engineer" so all thoughts are welcome and very much appreciated ! 
   A couple of quick notes about the track while forming opinions. I am using Sonar X3 Producer version. My drummer currently is only able to send me mixed down stereo .wav files. Treatment to the drums then becomes tricky and I am hoping someone has some ideas on EQ / Compression that may help get a punchier more up front drum track having to work this way. I DID use Percussion Strip on the drums and used a "Moderate Bright" setting to try to bring them out to the front a little better. 
   On the bass, the bass line was a little "round" to me and did not have a lot of attack. For that I added some EQ and (believe it or not) a Tube Screamer plugin. Not sure of any other methods to have gotten the needed definition in the bass? Guitar wise everything was done with various Digitech RP500 patches straight into the DAW via USB. No Amp, cabinet or mics.
   
   Please see the link below for the track and thanks to all who will give it a listen and offer their thoughts! 
 
Anathema
 
Thanks again!
 
post edited by danalyze16@gmail.com - 2015/10/16 13:20:23

Rock On~~
Dan S
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gtrpastor
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/16 17:46:31 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby danalyze16@gmail.com 2015/10/16 19:58:39
Hi. I'm not an expert on mixing--still pretty much a beginner myself. So I hope my comments are helpful. This has kind of a "live" sound to me. That's a good thing IMO--lots of energy. Really great performances. Fantastic guitar playing. The instruments all sound like they are mixed well--they all seem to fit into their respective parts, none too quiet or too loud. 
 
The mix does seem like it has a bit too much compression though. The waveform (on soundcloud) looks all the same level. On the quieter parts of the song it's nice when the level drops a bit so it has more "natural" dynamics. 
 
I really enjoyed listening. In fact I also listened to another one of your tunes as well. Good stuff. Thanks for posting. 

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Bert Guy
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/17 02:10:03 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby danalyze16@gmail.com 2015/10/17 12:36:43
Dan,
 
Well, this is furious guitar rock to the max. Its got a sinister, droning riff which is stretched and improvised well. I like the mix which has a mesh and texture in which I can hear the interplay of the instruments clearly through out the track. The drums sound good to me, altho you might consider bringing them up in the mix a bit.
 
Good stuff,
 
Bert

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bapu
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/17 12:23:54 (permalink)
JMO,
 
Too mid heavy, bass is muddy, drums are lost.
 
As we say hear, sound like it was mixed by a guitar player.
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synkrotron
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/19 03:35:05 (permalink)
Some great axe wielding stuff there Dan. Lots of it in fact.
 
Mixing rock ain't my strong point, but having read Ed's comment just above, I agree... The drums are missing in the lower frequencies. I think, if it was me, I'd get the drums right first, working with the bass line. And then I'd start to raise those faders on all the guitar tracks.
 
cheers
 
andy

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dcumpian
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/19 09:01:31 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby danalyze16@gmail.com 2015/10/22 13:02:18
So the drummer sent you a "stereo" mixdown? I ask because it sounds like a single mic mix to me. Kick is completely gone as well. If he can't send you separate mic tracks, you may want to replace the drums with a better sounding drum VSTi. He plays fine, just sounds terrible.
 
If you want a more aggressive bass sound, what you did is fine, but I would suggest doing it on a parallel bus, or a copy of the bass, then blend both together. You pretty much killed the "bass" part of the bass.
 
As Baps alludes to, the mix does sound like it was mixed by a guitar player. Guitars sound great, everything else suffers...
 
Regards,
Dan

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daryl1968
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/19 09:41:09 (permalink)
First off, great playing - plenty of energy in the mix too.
I agree with a comment above that the lower end gets lost in the mix because of some mid range mud.
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emeraldsoul
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/21 01:29:18 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby danalyze16@gmail.com 2015/10/22 13:02:45
Everybody plays pretty well and it's a nice mood. Time to get the eq out - did you boost the lower frequencies of the drummer's stereo track? And you might safely remove with eq everything south of 200 hz from the guitars. Just as an experiment?
 
Something is flanging up those cymbal hits as well?
 
Still, good chops all around. Guitars sound great!
 
cheers,
-Tom

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stevec
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Re: Seeking Comments / Opinions -- New Song "Anathema" From Fused In Blue 2015/10/26 18:42:31 (permalink)
I really like the tune...   it's got a cool late 80's metal sort of vibe happening - great playing, everyone's tight.  Guitar sounds good.   
 
Otherwise I'll defer to the above regarding the mid-heavy aspect of the mix.  In SPlat, Drum Replacer would be perfect for this by letting you replace the kick and snare with a VSTi, though for me to some extent it's hard to tell where the cymbals are sitting too.   Multi-tracked drums would be soooo much better in this context.  Also, for the dual guitar melody I would pan those out from each other as you've done with the other guitar parts to relieve some of those centered mids.
 
Overall though, good stuff!

SteveC
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