Hard rock mix keeps drifting toward mono.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i actually kinda like the drums, they have sort of the dry sonic youth vibe. i'd just turn the other stuff up a bit, especially the vocals. those seemed a little peaky in the midrange, i'd maybe try and compress/thicken them up some more.

if you do want to try some parallel drum squash, i recommend the blockfish compressor. www.digitalfishphones.com. the 'fat drum loop' preset is a good place to start. watch out for latency! on my system it's always 2 samples behind, which is enough to COMPLETELY ruin your drum sound.

[dsw]

nice guitar hook
great bass tone

don't let me get ahold of it....I'd add B3. chase ALL your fans off.

[maggot]

Fans? You must be thinking of someone else! Anyway, thanks! The bass tone was easy: P-bass recorded direct w/amp modeler.

[maggot]

Here's the remix. Either I'm an eager student, or I'm avoiding the stuff I'm really supposed to do. I tried to respond to everyone's input, including keep it the same and make it different.

For the parallel compression, I used the FuzzPlus2 VST fuzz box. It's free. The cool thing about it is that it has a really cool tone knob like a Big Muff or a Rat, and you just turn it where you need for your sound.

Who knows how many things I've messed up that were fine before?

http://soundcloud.com/feierman/basted-and-roasting

Edited to include most recent version.

[maggot]

I actually think I may have accidentally bumped the guitars up on this when I went to fix the vocals on the quiet part. Too loud vis-a-vis the drums?

[Snarl 12/8]

I find it much more "listenable" now. Frankly, the drum part itself, and the recording of them seems like the least interesting part of the song. Basically works like a metronome for me. I wouldn't worry at all about anything being louder than them. There's not much nuance to the drums, but the voice has a lot of "hair" on it that I'd like to hear more of and the guitars have some details and tonal subtleties that I wouldn't mind hearing more of as well. The only thing my ear sortof craved during that last listen was about a db or two more vox. Maybe parrallel comping on the vox or compression to just get it a bit more up there. I can make out every word but I found myself wanting more of the scratchiness and breakup of the voice. Totally a taste thing though and maybe everyone else in the universe would disagree with me. Someone on this board, years ago, had a post with the phrase "vocals ARE the franchise" in it (it might have been JR, ugh) which has always stuck with me as being true. Drums, bass, guitar licks, etc., etc. are all very important to US, but I think most listeners want to hear the vocal, loud and clear, front and center, if there is one.

[maggot]

Thanks for all the input Karl. I ended up mixing another take where the drums are just a hair darker and the guitars are a hair quieter, which makes to vocals sound louder. It's not even really different enough to bear listening.

http://soundcloud.com/feierman/basted-a ... ngjuly13-5

Part of the problem is that this is one of our best songs, but the performance isn't the best. We made a demo that sounds awful but has better singing and a better groove.

One of the ideas that I tried, but I may go back to in a couple of weeks is having one really rangy sounding Telecaster dominate verses.

The singing has a fair amount of compression on it already, this is kind of what I sound like. I generally mix my vocals very high because I'm proud of my weird voice, but I overdid it a while ago & freaked people out!

Anyway, thanks for the input, it really helped. - Josh

[mvollrath]

For the parallel compression, I used the FuzzPlus2 VST fuzz box. It's free. The cool thing about it is that it has a really cool tone knob like a Big Muff or a Rat, and you just turn it where you need for your sound

I love parallel with that plug! Instant presence.

Nice mix. Performance does lag noticeably at the end, which means your next task is to transform the ending into the coolest part of the song. Make it psychedelic! I know you can save it.

[maggot]

For the parallel compression, I used the FuzzPlus2 VST fuzz box. It's free. The cool thing about it is that it has a really cool tone knob like a Big Muff or a Rat, and you just turn it where you need for your sound

I love parallel with that plug! Instant presence.

Nice mix. Performance does lag noticeably at the end, which means your next task is to transform the ending into the coolest part of the song. Make it psychedelic! I know you can save it.

I'll do that when I can stand to listen to the song again! I've never fussed over a mix so much. Plus everything is a shot in the dark here at Coby-Phonic studios until I can afford some real monitors.

There's about 3000 tons of Devi Ever fuzz buried at the end of the song, so I have some raw materials. The trick is to communicate a sense of exhaustion without imparting it to the listener.

[maggot]

Ok: I didn't make the end psychedelic, but I did add some delays and tremolos and cleared out some of the gunk. I also made the vocals clearer and a bit louder.

I'm realizing something about my voice (at least on the loud songs). It's always gonna sound slightly like it's coming through a bullhorn & cutting lows only makes it harsher. My de-dorkification rituals do not produce the desired effect. I just need to set it loud and proud.

http://soundcloud.com/feierman/basted-and-roasting-2

Thanks for the tutelage everyone. I think I'm gonna lay this one to rest for a while!

[goose42]

If it were me, I'd try inverting where you have the big cross-panned delay on the vocals... put that effect, or maybe a lighter flavor of it, EVERYWHERE and make the last section before the instrumental break the only part with a dry vocal. But there are a million ways to do anything, and not every record needs to be "Here Come the Warm Jets." Enjoy the fruit of your labors! Preferably with fermented wheat.

[Nick Sevilla]

Newbie question here, but judging from the radio, it's applicable to others. I'm mixing one of my own band's recordings. It was ably recorded by Nick Peterson in Carrboro NC, but I'm trying to mix it myself. I have a song with a basic hard rock mix that is driving me crazy. There's no action in the stereo field & it sounds blah.

I've got some movement in the solo section, but for the verse/chorus section, the guitars are basically playing the same thing (there's any number of them if I want to use them, but I'm trying to keep them down to two or three at most.

Anyway there are semi-clean and fuzz guitars, basically playing ringing power chords or unison rhythm parts. Right now I have two somewhat overdriven guitars hard-panned, sometimes with a fuzzier one in the middle.

Bass is in the middle, snare and bass drum are in the middle with overheads and toms hard-panned, but the drummer isn't playing anything but bass, snare and hi-hat so all the actions is in the middle. I've got stuff panned all over the place, but it's so un-dynamic RE the stereo field. What can you do w/ nothing but a bunch of guitar/bass/drums to liven it up without sounding random in an 80s kind of way? I'll post a link to a rough mix when I have access to it, but, for now, anyone have any ideas?

The mistake is shown in red.

Cheers

[maggot]

Goose, thanks for the advice, I tried something like what you suggest and the bandmates hated it. Sounded good to me, though.

Nick, thanks for the vote of confidence. I have no money, no ambitions of fame and fortune, the band broke up, and I'm trying to learn how to do this. I have no ambitions to go pro. I understand your response, however. I'm a public defender. If people ask me about their legal problems, I tell them to get a lawyer.

That said, I downloaded reaper so I could mix my solo iPhone recordings, which I'm pretty sure are the best rock recordings ever recorded entirely through the phone receiver mic of an iPhone. Having done a few of those, I realized that I had a bunch of perfectly good recordings that were abandoned because I didn't have any money or strong incentive to go back into the studio. I decided to finish them, simply so they would exist,, not because I thought I could do it best. Once I started I wanted to do the best job I could. I'm at a stage in my music life, where if I wait for optimal conditions to do anything, it will not get done.

[Nick Sevilla]

Goose, thanks for the advice, I tried something like what you suggest and the bandmates hated it. Sounded good to me, though.

Nick, thanks for the vote of confidence. I have no money, no ambitions of fame and fortune, the band broke up, and I'm trying to learn how to do this. I have no ambitions to go pro. I understand your response, however. I'm a public defender. If people ask me about their legal problems, I tell them to get a lawyer.

That said, I downloaded reaper so I could mix my solo iPhone recordings, which I'm pretty sure are the best rock recordings ever recorded entirely through the phone receiver mic of an iPhone. Having done a few of those, I realized that I had a bunch of perfectly good recordings that were abandoned because I didn't have any money or strong incentive to go back into the studio. I decided to finish them, simply so they would exist,, not because I thought I could do it best. Once I started I wanted to do the best job I could. I'm at a stage in my music life, where if I wait for optimal conditions to do anything, it will not get done.

Point taken.
In this case, since the song is making you crazy, try something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
You say you are only using 3 guitars, start by using NONE. That's right.
Go from there, see where it goes.
Oh, and one more thing, NEVER EVER EVER mix politically, it undoubtedly ruin the song, every time.

Cheers

[Snarl 12/8]

I tried something like what you suggest and the bandmates hated it.

If you're the one mixing it, and it sounds like strictly for shits and giggles reasons, and you're asking us what to do, and not your bandmates, maybe you should do what makes you happy and let them do their own mix if they want something different.