Well only very slight improvements. Kick drum is very woofy and still very undefined. Snare a little better for sure but overall drums are still way back. Bass sounds is also pretty undefined. I am not hearing a big drum and bass thing with guitars on top.

There are serious balance issues here. It is still all guitars and not much else. You just need to let go and get away from that mix once and for all.

I wonder if it might be a good idea to perhaps consolidate all the tracks without effects and make the multitrack session available as a download somewhere and some of us could do a mix for you. (I would be happy too) It might be a case of a picture is worth a thousand words type situation.

Here is an example of the type of thing I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdrweUGfuP0 

or:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMznXdD4kX4  
 
These are Guthrie Govan tracks. OK style is not exactly as per yours I agree but there are some essential things about this mix though. Drums and Bass are driving and up front. Notice how quiet the rhythm guitars are (your rhythm gtrs are more distorted than this example but see how loud or not loud they actually are) and the lead solo is not that loud really in the mix yet it is clear and well defined. And yes Guthrie is quite amazing and may make you want to give up playing guitar but don't let let scare you off.LOL 

http://www.fendicator.com/ghijqwtx/T25-0.zip

Ok, I made folder with a cwp file and the audio folder. All tracks are barebones, no effects no nothin. Kinda sucks though, apparently I have some timing issues to work out lol.

If you are not able to work with this just let me know and I will figure out another way.

For mixing it's important to keep in mind what the important instruments are or else you'll end up having unimportant things too loud. In this case the rhythm guitars. First thing I would do is turn down the gain on those gtrs. They sound too distorted and mushy. The lack power and they're up to loud in the mix. Start with the kick drum, then add the bass drum, next the snare, then overheads, etc. The rhythm guitars are the least important thing in your mix, so if there is ever a conflict between the clarity of them and any other instrument, turn the rhythm gts down. As some else here said, use high pass filtering. Don't change the eq on your instruments, use an eq plugin. Also use a reference mix to guide you. Listen to the balance between instruments. Try to make your balance sound similar to those mixes. This song is similar in genre to yours, listen to how low the rhythm gtrs are when the lead comes in. http://youtu.be/1q4kJ03E2h0

Hi Jeremy, Got your zip file OK no worries. A few points:

The levels were so low on the files that the waveforms weren't even visible at first. Had to normalise everything up. (Average levels were around -30 db or lower) Herb is correct in his post below about getting good record levels going in. You may have done that but sometimes it is easy to export them incorrectly.

Most of the tracks were stereo but only had mono information. This is not necessary. Drums are stereo though.

You need to practice exporting. It is an art.

Drums and bass sound excellent. Despite the total drum sound being mixed on a stereo track they sound very good. A little too much reverb on the snare though but should be OK in the final thing.

I see the guitars are all clean so I guess you want me to crunch them up. Can do.

The guitars sound a bit boomy, dull and bassy. You should have recorded them differently so they are clear and brighter. Changing the guitar sound prior to tracking would improve this. Putting EQ plugins on after the event will work but less EQ would be required or at all if they had been tracked better. Get things sounding great at the source. But even so they sound fine and I will be able to massage them into something good. All the parts including the rhythm guitars are very important to the mix. They do have to be present but balanced correctly. 

The mix mentioned above is sort of OK but not a great example you should be trying to emulate. If you read the comments people are saying he does not mix well and it sounds a bit like it too. He is doing all the playing and doing the mix. He is a much better guitarist than a mix engineer. Poor kick definition in that mix.  Very bass heavy too.

I will get it mixed and up on my Soundcloud soon. Just got to do the various Christmas parties and thingies. Might be a day or so.

If I have the time later... I too will come back and grab the tracks and do a mix.

If Jeff says the levels are so low the wave looks like a line.... you have issues with the input levels through your interface/sound card that need resolving. There is no reason in the world your input levels should be so low. 

You really need to work on first things first..... get the levels up to where they look similar to these below.




Once you have that..... you now have a good foundation to build on. You should not have to normalize a track wave.  The waves above were recorded straight in with levels set at 50% on inputs.

Now that you and Jeff have said that my input was too low, your both right. Apparently
my input setting on my soundcard was only at 20db. I Just raised it to 50, it does
sound much better now. I wish I would have noticed that about 3 months ago before I
started recording this album LoL. I have done 10 songs with that low input setting.
Do you think I can save them with just normalizing the tracks up, or should I
record the guitars agian?
 
Also, I remember watching a video on mixing and this guy said it was a good idea to
get all the tracks with-in 5db of each other. Is that right, or should I just do it
by ear?
 
Another question, I find myself always lowering the mid range (700 to 800hz)
with a wide Q on my guitars when adding EQ, I usualy do it -3 or -4.
It just seems to clear up the sound to me, this a good or bad practice?

I don't worry about getting the tracks with  -5db of each other..... the important thing is a good clean, and strong signal in.... and that gives you a wave that should fill at least 50% of the track up to about 90% or so. Your faders and envelopes will compensate easily for a well recorded track regardless of a few db difference. 

If you record low levels like you did, and use normalize, here's the problem you have. There is always ambient noise that gets recorded. The ratio of the noise level to the signal level is critical. You want the signal to be much higher than the noise. Called the signal to noise ratio.  If the signal is weak, and you use normalize, you will be boosting both the signal and the noise by the exact same amount.  That may present a problem when mixing because you now have noise mixed into the track with no realistic way to get rid of it. 

It might be better to record again with stronger signals and move forward having learned this lesson. 

The external ambient noise to signal ratio does not change even after you have normalised. The noise that gets raised up is the internal digital noise that is introduced by your digital recording medium.

For example let's say if you recorded a signal well and it reached -10dB nicely ie you got healthy levels going in as your supposed to do. At 16 bit the practical digital noise floor is 90 dB down so that means you end up with a signal to digital recording system noise ratio of 80 dB which is pretty good. ie you would never hear digital noise that is 80 dB down from a signal.

But if your levels only reach say -30 dB like yours, the digital system noise level is still only down at -90 dB but you only have a signal to digital system noise ratio of 60 dB now. When you add 30 dB by normalising you will bring both the signal and the digital system noise up by 30 dB. You end up with nice loud tracks but with a signal to digital system noise ratio now of say 60 dB. You may start hearing the digital noise floor now but only in very quiet passages.

So if you don't actually want to rerecord anything and I can certainly understand that, then you will probably get away with it. You will find my mix for example will still sound perfectly fine. If the music is pretty loud and punchy you are not going to notice digital system noise that might be 60 dB down.

Herb is definitely correct in terms of re recording especially if things get quiet in a passage anywhere. eg if a signal drops down say another 15 dB due to quietness then the signal is way down at -45 dB now and the digital noise floor is still at -90dB so after normalising you will only have a signal to digital system noise ratio of 45 dB which could prove problematic. You will start to hear the digital noise floor in that situation. But then only if it is on its own and fairly exposed. If there are still lots of things going on around it you may not notice it either. The louder stuff will mask the digital noise on this quiet track.

Jeff is correct.... about masking the noise. 

Many times there is something else playing and the noise does get masked quite effectively. However.... it is still one more thing "in the mix"... so while you may not be able to hear it, it is still there and still "taking up room" in that mix. 

On some of my tracks that are recorded with a mic.... such as a vocal.... in the "non-vocal" parts, I can see some sound present on the wave and if I solo the track I can "hear the room" as well as bleed and other noises in the neighborhood. I can let it pass since the instruments will "mask" it quite well..... OR..... I can, and often do, take the time, especially on the vocals, to go through the track and use the MUTE function to place dead silence in the non-vocal parts.... I zoom in and get the trim points pretty surgical ..... maybe that's not necessary but I still like to do it..... I consider it the final part of my "housekeeping" on the project. It also forces me to listen closely and I sometimes find other things that I missed and fix them as well while I'm cleaning it up. 

Jeremy just bringing you up to speed. I am mixing this and so far it is sounding good. I am just trying to fit this into all my Christmas partying!

I am glad you have got the guitar tracks all clean. I am finding the thing to do with the rhythm guitars is to not make them so distorted but rather back them off so they are still crunchy but also that will separate them a bit more from the lead track. I think that is where you might be having trouble in your mix. You are distorting the rhythm guitars too hard maybe. Hard to distinguish those from the lead sound. 

Hmmm I am trying to get a great crunchy rhythm sound from a clean guitar track. I have got Guitar Rig, Studio One Ampire, and Nigel from UAD 1. (This is my first time with Nigel too and that baby is pretty full on) and a few other things too.

This is hard. Danny please help!  Look the best result so far I have got with the rhythm guitars is from Shred would you believe and it's free. Interesting that Native have just given away a free plugin called Driver and it does a pretty credible job as well. (especially with Shred) Saturation knob seems to be no good in this situtaion. I know what I want to hear but just cannot quite get it. I will in time for sure. The lead sound is going to be easier I know it.

I know Ampire and Guitar Rig are all good too but there are just soooo many options. (hey Danny maybe you could point me to a nice crunchy rhythm sound quickly!!)

I do have a Marshall amp here (only a Valve state 100 watt) but I am thinking reamping now and giving that a shot. It does sound a lot better than most of the VST's so far. The rhythm guitars need some stereo imaging as well to get them out of the way of the lead sound. Maybe the reamping on one side and a great VST sound on the other might work. I will keep you posted.