Hey,

Just working on a song with the band and I'm having a hard time getting the mix to come together. Not sure if I should ask for help in another forum but I'm sure someone will have a couple of hints. Recorded on Zoom R16 and transfered to Sonar PE 6. I can't seem to get things to sit in the mix properly and if anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. I'm not liking my vox, snare, and bass in particular.
Thanks and have a great new year everyone. 

It's called "august slide for greg"

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=picklebunker

al

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.

Thanks. You may have just pegged my little M Audio SP-5B Monitors. Maybe a little weak and I'm overcompensating in the control room. I'll try what you're suggesting to add a little headroom. Is there any kind of plug in to help me see this if I can't hear it on the monitors? I've pushed an Ozone harmonic exciter up to 125hz on the low frequencies but maybe I shouldn't have? How can I add the thickness in the low end without boosting it?

al

>>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/

Voxengo span -- http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/ (free yet priceless)

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

You can add thickness with compression using the ATRR along with the wet and dry settings.

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.

  

Thanks guys. Looks like I'll dial up a high pass and fit the eq jigsaw together. I'm assuming this should be a high pass on each track individually instead of a bus? Still trying to get the handle on appropriate compression (when and where, and how much) so I'll have to play around with that a little bit. Clicky bass = thumpy kick - never heard that before but it makes sense. I'll add some more beater to the kick then. Guitars are all scratch tracks and will be redone anyway so I'll tackle those another day.

al
 
 

Hey Pickle-

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