After listening to the track here are some comments.

The music is actually pretty good however, you need to do some self education on mixing drums and also EQing drums and bass. I agree with ChuckC on the low end. It's a bit shy there. Also that hi hat is too loud.

The vocal sound and EQ are atrocious. Can't tell if that room sound is an effect or the actual room but a drier vocal for that type of music is the norm or a short delay on the vocal. You may be challenged by the microphone, preamp, compressor chain or lack thereof. Also, background vocals generally are best recorded with a different chain or just microphone to sonically get them in the mix as complimentary.

For some encouragement, your are not far off however. Drums and vocals are the areas you should concentrate on and this could be pulled together. I would as others suggest, retrack the vocals in a place where you can treat the walls or near a curtain or blanket. Get that under control. Then work on different EQ for the background vocals. I might go with some more compression on the vocal once the EQ is corrected in the mix.

WHOA! Lots of replies here, and thanks to all for what I've got so far! I'll adress each one individually.
@mike: I'll definetly have to start listeneing to other artists like that. The cymbals are certainly too prominent- I actually thought I fixed that, but I guess not
@Rain: I'll take a look once I get the time. Thanks!
@droddey: Not really much. :) Although I did use samples for my drumkit, as I'm no drummer and have no means of doing such, so if this song tends to sounds really 'baked' in the percussion, you'll know why.
@ ChuckC: I'll be honest to say that I never really understood the meaning of the word 'muddy' in terms of sound. Is it like a meshing together of frequencies? I tried to punch up the bass a bit before I uploaded it, and it actually at this level is just right, if not a tad too quiet. So essentially... Give lead and what-not a bit more in the highs? I actually used a Gate, hoping that'd free me from slip-editing, but whatever, I'll do it anyway.
@ Kalle: It's a pretty good room, not extremely sound-damp but not enough that it would be picked up. I have a major tendency to add the reverb effect to vocals- don't know why, it just seems right. Does it sound bad? Because for whatever reason, I feel like there is supposed to be *some* kind of effect on the vocals. But then again, I know nothing.
@ GH: You.are.right. I gotta stop blaming my equipment for my problems- considered that I'm the musician/technician doing the work, and the stuff's just there to make it look good :) When it comes to using the BR-532, I use it for guitar/bass stuff because it has a direct output specifically for Line In, and I don't have proper peripherals to connect my guitar right up to my (stock) soundcard, and with what I can do that with, I get a terrible, terrible hiss which renders recordings unusable. Plus, with the BOSS, I can do all of my effects and levels from right there in a snap, which is a benefit. To be completely honest, my biggest reason for rushing the finish was to show some school friends my dedication to a girl *blush*. You are so totally right... I'm sitting with tons of free time on hand and the ability to do essentially what I want. May as well make use of that. Thanks for your reply!
@  Middleman: Hmmmm..... Yup, I have yet to really get the purpose of equalization... is it to reduce the amount of contrast between amplitude of different frequencies?

Thanks so far on the comments, guys... Keep them coming!

1. work your levels with no effects until all the parts are cohesively balanced. slowly correcting problem areas with eq and compression. Then, you can start spicing it up.

2. have a few reference tracks handy that you like the sound of. easiest way is to just have them in the project.
refer to them (listen) often. I mean every minute or so and work your mix to what you hear from the references.

Go do it your way. (In other words, I don't think I have learned it myself yet, so no I can not help you).

My comments were about the mixing tutorial, not your stuff. Sorry if that twernt clear.

Yes, by muddy I mean.... overlapping dominant frequencies of instruments. For instance, when you listen to some of your favorite records, some of them the kick dominates the low low end, and the bass is more mid ranged. Others the kick is more snappy & includes more of the beater sound while the bass is holding the low end down with a fat warm sound. This is a conscious decision the engineer made when tracking/mixing the song.... ask yourself, OK what is going to go where? and what do I need to do to make sure there is room for it where I want it?

davdud101


@ Kalle: It's a pretty good room, not extremely sound-damp but not enough that it would be picked up. I have a major tendency to add the reverb effect to vocals- don't know why, it just seems right. Does it sound bad? Because for whatever reason, I feel like there is supposed to be *some* kind of effect on the vocals. But then again, I know nothing. 


Thanks so far on the comments, guys... Keep them coming!

I'm an amateur, so my comments need to be read with that in mind.
I don't think I could ever make that kind of a vocals sound sit in the mix, especially because the song is of that genre, loud and full of energy. With only a piano accompaniment it could work, because then it would get all the frequency space it needs, but it lacks crispyness, clarity, definition, edge.. it's like recorded in the bathroom with a towel on top of the microphone.
+1 to Middlemans comment. Instead of reverb I would try some delay with only a little reverb. If you want a longer reverb you should IMO put it through a send with an EQ before it and exclude the lowest end so that only the higher part gets reverbed. But before that, you'll need a proper sounding dry track to start with. You did not mention, what kind of a mic you're using.
 
Eq is used to emphasize or decrease certain frequencies.
 
And note that I have only heard your tune through poor loudspeakers. The more experienced ones here are able to give more accurate advice.
 

I just realized (as far as my vocals):
To start, I am, in all seriousess, using a SingStar USB mic. For the Xbox game SingStar, yes. But what i found out is that this cruddy mic REALLY represses highs... A LOT. I was listening to one of my older recordings (probably about 4 years old... I was only 10 or 11 years old at the time), and notcied that my old mic, while being one of those terrible desktop standing mics, picked up highs way better than this new one. Thank goodness this one is a tad bit better sounding overall, but I really need those highs if I want my vocals to stand out in a track.... :| The time to upgrade is upon me.

I'll try without reverb.

Thanks for that reply, Chuck- Really informative! I never really thought of that some parts dominate freq areas, but I guess that's what keeps a recording sounding really clean.

davdud101


     Thanks for that reply, Chuck- Really informative! I never really thought of that some parts dominate freq areas, but I guess that's what keeps a recording sounding really clean.

    No problem at all, I am happy that I can now help some others on this forum, as they have all helped me (and continue to) along my journey as well.  It helps me to think of the EQ kind of like a jigsaw puzzle.  You have to cut out a notch in instruments so that others fit with it.  Each instrument is going to dominate certain frequencies on the surface  and they do overlap a bit underneath.  But you make sure you get rid of anything that will be distracting or detrimental to your audio tracks when combined.   Guitars that sound good in the mix will often sound a little thin when solo'd because the low end chunk a guitarist wants in his sound is being occupied & filled in by the bass.  
    Then once you have all that worked out you will run into times where there are 2 different instruments like guitars playing different parts.  They need to occupy the same frequencies but each need to be audible and clear separately...  Now you start to play with the stereo field and panning one of them off to the left & the other to the right to get separation.  But be careful not to leave a huge hole in the center of the mix!  Learning to mix is an art in & of itself.  You are literally learning to play a new instrument.  It takes years, sometimes decades to become really proficient at it.  
  Enjoy the journey & the learning process, each little epiphany can be exciting as hell!  Clean clear audio doesn't come together over one or two moves or techniques.  there is a cumulative effect of each tweak making the mix a little better.  A little EQ, some compression (whole other bag of worms), panning, proper use of effects and each does a small bit of improvement.  Add them together and your mix starts to shine getting clearer & cleaner.  Good luck with it sir!

Oh boy!
It sure would have been good to know that it's recorded with a toy microphone. Getting a real microphone will lift your sound quality a lot.