My best mix ever. Mix/composition suggestions?

[will.record.for.food]

I have a song here that I re-recorded. You may or may not care, but if you wanted to reference the old version to the new version, you can find the old version @ http://www.purevolume.com/goodfightgoodnight and click on "Rise Again". The old version featured a crappy drummer (me) on a crappy pacific set with junky cymbals. The new version has a good friend on drums with a nice and properly tuned drumset.

BUT... This Link:... http://www.aisd.net/crow/riseagain.mp3 ...is the new version. Sorry about the low bitrate. The last minute of the song is clipped off to save bandwith. Hopefully I'll get a better upload spot soon

I've got the basic tracks laid down (besides vocals...they are coming). I like the feel of the song, but I think I'm stuck. Part of me wants to add more guitar parts and pad stuff. I've played around with ideas, but cant really get anything usable.

Drums:
Mapex M series Mic'd with:
1 AKG 451E, and 1 superlux hi-hat mic (of all things) on overheads
Audix i5 on the snare
Superlux kick and tom mics

Lo-cut on ovrheads at around 70. Toms are gated (manually w/fader automation). Snare and kick compressed (Waves RComp) on their own respective tracks. Kick, Snare and Toms are all parallel compressed lightly(Classic Compressor) w/ reverb added. Minimal EQ

I had the overheads parallel compressed as well, but the cymbals were too squashed

Gutars:
Charvel TX Custom through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe mic'd with:
MXL v57m LDC
Distortion: "RealTube Tube overdrive" front ended into amp

Minimal EQ. Some compression (classic compressor). Clean guitars have slight classic delay.

Bass:
Old Arbor bass direct
a god amount of EQ, A bit of OD applied for a bit more crunch.

I feel like the guitars may very well just be too loud. I cant really hear some of the intricate drum work over the guitars at times. Should I be cutting some EQ at some places to bring out that sparkle the drums have?
The bass seems to fit very well to my ears.
Should I cut some of the lows on the clean guitar? When the distortion kicks on, it seems that the song gets emptier.

Thanks for any help/advice!
-Jeff


All songs are recorded through my Edirol UA-1000 Interface and into Tracktion in my "home" studio.

[will.record.for.food]

Is it that bland?

[ataraxia]

I would try to take an approach kinda like this band. http://www.lovitt.com/media/mp3/Bats__M ... e_Same.mp3
as far as filling out things goes.

[JWL]

It's really hard to tell, without the vocals. When I mix, the vocals are always at the forefront of my attention. I'd have to hear these other things you are asking about in the context of what the vocals are doing.

But, yes the guitars sound like they aren't sitting too well. I'd use a parametric EQ set to a very narrow Q (12 or more) and sweep through the frequency range on a large, unnatural boost (12dB+). Sweep around until you find where the guitar resonates unpleasantly. Usually a cut (tweak the depth and width of the cut with your Q and level knobs) at these frequencies improves things and makes everything "sit" better and sound more in-the-mix.

Good luck

[;ivlunsdystf]

If you have a fast connection (and perhaps you don't?) you can use www.esnips.com to put huge files up on tha intraweb for our enjoyment. They limit you to 10mb per upload (not bad, I say)

There are probably 20 others just like esnips but I found esnips first and therefore it's my go-to site for this type of thing.

[;ivlunsdystf]

File sounds good, btw. I suck at mixing so I can't say much beyond that.

[will.record.for.food]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll have to play with the guitar levels for sure. Do the drums and bass have a pretty good mix?