http://soniccreeps.com/media.html

Please critique, I have my own concerns after giving them the car test this morning.

Nice tracks! The only crit I have is the vocals are hard to hear over the guitars (which I realize are the focal instruments, but they are too prominent in the mix). I'm not your client, so I don't know if this is or isn't desired, but great job. I did enploy classical harmonic analysis while listening and the use of the minor keys work very well (with the harmonic being at play in the first track). I also noted the VI-VII-i (the classic cadence in such a key)

Again, nice tracks. I hope your client is pleased with them.


I see you mentioned you heard these in your car, so how'd they sound on your monitors at home because you'll end up doing some unnecessary tweaking due to the speakers sets being different. Car stereo speakers are set differently (acoustic-wise) then home studio speakers and/or desktop/laptop speakers. I think Bitflipper wrote a post on this somewhere (He can tell you about this much better than I can)

The client is very happy, that said. My personal concerns reflect your own.

-Guitar is too loud, not well defined
-Vox too low, not my preference, I'll sneak them back up a little. I usually mix vox too hot. Vocal harmonies were a contentious issue during vocal tracking. Others in the group had different ideas about what sounded right. I tended to agree with the vocalist on some of the major points.
-Bass is not defined enough, low mid tweaks are in order.

As far as monitoring at home, I actually mix at home (track in a studio) using 3 sets of monitors and two set of phones, but still have issues with translations. My room is treated, but still needs work.

I agree that there are some minor issues regarding the balance of guitars and vocals, but overall, this is very close.  The engineering is good, and the performances are terrific.  A few minor tweaks and you're there.  I use my car stereo as a test source for my mixes, and I've found that they are quite accurate for gauging the levels of bass guitar and kick drum.  I've learned that after listening to commercial CDs, some things disappear to road noise and some things don't.  Almost always, the vocals, bass, and drums will still be heard under any circumstance, but the more subtle things go away.  I've discovered when my own projects sound similar then I'm in the ballpark.  Of course, my studio monitors, headphones, ear buds, and my TVs surround system still come into play, but I heartily endorse the car stereo for checking mixes.