"Speed Queen" (Rock) - Mix#4, Hopefully the Final!

Love the guitar riff! Just the right kind of repeating thing that a good rock tune needs as it drives everything forward!
 
The mix sounds a bit unbalanced. The vocals dominate a little too much and I don't feel the boom from the drums that a good rock tune has to have. The bass drum needs to kick you in the balls!
 
But this is a very nice track! Just get the mix in place. :)

Bob Oister
Kuusneimi:
 
HI, Tapsa,
 
Thank you for taking time to give this a listen for me, and for your good input and kind words!
 
Looks like I’ll have to lower the vocals a bit, and beef up the low end on the drums.  After a 6 or 7 month break from recording and mixing, I’ve been struggling a bit to get my ears back, and it seems from comments on my last few posts, that I’ve been mixing a little light on the low end.
 
Thanks again for checking this out and commenting, and good luck with your contest entry!
Bob
 

You'll get there. This is just tweaking now. There's nothing wrong with the actual music. :)

Great tunage brother. Great suggestions for the mix above, looking forward to final mix.

You should be a baseball player Bob  --- you hit another home run!  I love that guitar work.
 
Nice one!!!!!

Hey Bob. Really good song and playing!
Still need more bottom! Some timing issues between lead vocal and the track. Should fix that ASAP. 
The song is really nice. Guitars are done really well. 

Just what I needed for a wakeup tune to accompany my morning coffee! Thanks for sharing it with us.
 
If I was sitting at the board tweaking, I'd see what pulling up that great bass does for the song. Maybe just during the solo breaks.

A couple of timing issues on the vocal here and there but great stuff Bob - love the lyric on this one. 

Hey Bob! how've you been my friend?
 
your songwriting skills are top notch! 
your guitar playing is killer!
 
the mix is still in need of a lot of work, IMO.  I second all the stuff bat mentioned (and Daryl's right, too, there area  few timing issues with the vox, those can easily be fixed with AS in sonar)
the drums and bass really need some "cajons" if ya know what I mean.
 
but great song and outstanding playing and singing!

You're cranking 'em out lately Bob! Very cool track, loads of arrangement details that keep up the interest. One thing that detracts for me is a very slight timing issue with the lead vocal and the groove, like the waveform needs nudging back a hair (I think). It's not much, but it just stops me from headbanging..and you know I need to! . The parts 'you live on your life on fire' etc are OK but listen to 'she likes to rock' at 1:43 for example, it's definitely out of sync there.

Cool song!    Great hook as always - a Bob specialty IMO - and the playing is spot-on. 
 
I also do hear the timing issue mentioned above where the vocals tend to lag behind, which personally I would focus on first.  The mix can always be tweaked but the song deserves priority. 
 

Rimshot:
 
 
Hey, Jimmy, how are you, buddy?  Hope you're doing great!
 
Thank you so much for your always good input on my stuff, I truly appreciate your observations, comments and advice!
 
As per your comments, last night I finally got a few minutes to touch up some of the vocal timing issues, and tried to bump up the bottom end for a bit more punch.  Please let me know if you still hear any timing spots on the vocals.
 
Thanks, again, Jim, have a great night!
Bob
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kakku:
 
 
Hi, Kakku,
 
Thank you for giving this a listen, I really appreciate your input, good observations and kind comments!
 
Yep, I know exactly what you mean about clean vocals on some hard rock and metal songs.  In my case, I think because of multiple decades playing and singing in "live" hard rock and metal cover bands, with me singing lead most of the time and high harmonies when not singing lead, I've kind of become accustomed to protecting and "saving" my voice to make it through four or more hours of singing a wide variety of everything from Led Zeppelin, Rush, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Queen, Dokken, Metallica, etc., to AC/DC, ZZ Top, Motley Crue, Nickelback, Godsmack, Poison, etc.
 
I usually had to strategically plan out the set lists to put the songs with grittier/scratchier vocals towards the ends of the sets to not blow out my voice in the smoke filled nightclubs.  I consider myself very lucky because in most of my bands I usually had another that would be able to sing 90% of the AC/DC, Rod Stewart, and really scratchy stuff!  But, I often wish I could find a magic plugin that could add some artificial rasp to my vocals for some of my more metal type songs without having to torture my vocal cords, LOL!
 
Anyway, thanks again for checking this out and commenting, I'm very grateful for your input!
 
Best Wishes,
Bob
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bitflipper:
 
 
Hey, Dave, It's really great to hear from you!  Hope you're doing well!
 
Thank you so much for stopping by to give this one a listen, and for your much appreciated input and kind words!
 
I took your good advice and bumped up the bass guitar on this and also gave it an EQ touchup to boot.  I'm hoping it's driving things along a little better, although I've been struggling with my "studio ears" lately due to unfortunate long periods away from recording and mixing, so I'm not quite sure if the volume levels are balanced correctly.  If you happen to see this, please let me know what you think!
 
Thanks again, Bit, I always look forward to and greatly appreciate your input and suggestions on my stuff!
 
Have a good one, buddy!
Bob
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Mesh:
 
 
Hey, Mesh,
 
Sincere thanks, brother, I'm truly grateful for you lending your ears to this and your good suggestions and kind words!
 
I was finally able to get 45 minutes on this one, and bumped up the bottom end, as per your advice, and Jimmy, Bit, Beagle, and a few others of our helpful forum buddies!  Please let me know if you think I'm heading in the right direction, I really appreciate your help and support!
 
Much appreciated, Mesh, have a great night, my friend!
Bob
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daryl1968:
 
 
Hey, Daryl,
 
Thanks so much, brother, I really appreciate you checking this out for me and your always good input and comments!
 
I'm hoping that I have most of the vocal timing issues tightened up a little better in the current Mix #3, please let me know if you think I missed any obvious spots.
 
I'm always grateful for your advice and input, and value it highly because of the extremely high quality of your work, and I truly appreciate your support!
 
Enjoy your Sunday, Daryl!
Bob
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batsbrew:
 
 
Hey, Rob, how are you, bro, hope you're doing great!
 
Thanks for the great suggestion on leveling off the bass frequency peaks to try to get the bass to sit better in the mix, I'm going to try that on another stubborn mix that I'm planning to work on next week.  Getting the bass to sit right in my mixes is always a challenge for me, probably because I usually use my 5-String, and my guitars in most of my stuff are kind of "dark" and drop tuned many times.
 
And actually, when I mentioned boosting the bass on this one, I didn't mean the bass guitar frequencies, I actually raised the high pass filter to cut some low mids out and then notched up the bass volume about a dB and a half.  I'm hoping I'm more in the ball park bottom end wise without swamping the mix.
 
Anyway, thanks again for coming back for a second listen, I really appreciate your input, advice and support!
 
Have a good one!
Bob
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Beagle:
 
 
Hey, Reece,  how are you, buddy?  Hope you're doing great!
 
Thanks so much for checking this one out for me, and for your very good input, honest observations and suggestions, that's what makes this forum such a great place to get better at this stuff!
 
After six loooooooooong weeks away from the forum and the studio, I finally got a little bit of time to make some of the adjustments that you and the rest of our helpful forum friends suggested.
 
I did some slipping and sliding to try to iron out some of the vocal timing issues, and did a little bit of re-eqing and punching up the bass and drums to try to thicken up the overall mix a bit.  I'm hoping the overall instrument and vocal levels are closer to where they should be for balance, but I'm not quite ready to trust my ears just yet.  If you happen to see this, let me know if it's getting better or worse, LOL!
 
I greatly appreciate your always good input and support on my stuff, Reece, thanks again!
 
Have a great Sunday!
Bob
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Bob,
  Fun tune, love that main guitar riff, very cool!  Your lyrics are always a blast as well.  The mix came through loud and clear on this end with no noticeable issues.  Rocking stuff!  I have got to talk you into putting your killer vocals on a Distant Towers tune one of these days.  Nice work!

Finally back with Mix#4, Hopefully the final!
 
Touched up the vocal timing a bit more, gave the guitar solo another 1.5dBs of juice, and decided to try to put some punch back into the overall mix, but I'm still not sure about the instrument and vocal volume levels after not doing this stuff for a couple months.  Please let me know if anybody has any suggestions!
 
Links in Post #1, thanks again for all your great input, guys!  Things are finally slowing down a bit at my real work, so I'm hoping to be back around soon for some listening and a bunch of VERY late thank-yous!
 
Sincere Best Wishes!
Bob
 

I'm not big on Metal, but for what I know you got a pretty good sound there as it is now.  To add more would be overproducing it.  You keep it interesting throughout.  Something different at every turn.  I say you got your mix down here.
 
JB