Advice on mix

eddyc

Hey, I'm havin a bit of trouble with mixing a tune, basically the intro has quite a few synth parts going on at the same time, it sounded quite muddy so I did some low cuts on the drums and bass parts of the arrangement, the parts are a little clearer but the mix is quite trebley now, I've tried boosting mid range eq parts on some of the synths but they just end up sounding a bit off, I was wondering if anyone has any advice on what I can do to make the intro sound a bit better, I heard sidechain or multiband compression can help but I dont have a clue where to start with that stuff.

Any help much appreciated , thanks

http://edwardcostello.googlepages.com/yuy.mp3

Tuitser

Nah, I think that drum sound suits the mix! If I had a muddy synth then I would start by puttin a high pass filter on it before I started cuttin from the drums! It`s always better to cut frequencies than to boost them! The whole mix sounded good in my opinion although when the filter kicks in at around 1:40, I would let that go a little deeper (bassier) before the before ya bring the mix back in with the acoustic!

frobisher

Sounds pretty good to me to be honest. Sidechain or multi band compression wouldn't be the route to take for what you describe you are after. I'm listening only on headphones but it doesn't sound muddy in the bottom end. Perhaps your room are monitors are causing some problems rather than the mix. You wouldn't be the first to have that problem!

From what you are saying I would be more inclined towards cutting the bass on the synths rather than the bass and drums. It's better to have your bottom end coming from there rather than from the sub on synth parts. The bass will have much more energy that way too. I completely agree with Tuitser on going alot deeper into that passage with the filter, it could even end with a one or two beat pause then bang back in with the rest. What's up with the cymbal crash into the acoustic coda? It sounds a little weak and is breaking up, the fade also sounds too quick for my ears on it too. I also think the acoustic part could be played with a firmer right hand. Right now it's just a tad too laid back and is leaning a little too much into sloppy. Playing firmer will still be mellow just more confident. Also try cut a little low mid around 800hz on the acoustic, maybe double it and pan hard left and right too.

Just some thoughts. Please feel free to utterly ignore. Other than that I like the sound! Well done.

Tuitser

Oh yea, I forgot to mention, I love the odd time signature!! Nice work!

mike65

If the opening section is tinny then flesh it out with some low end warm bass rather then attemtping to "fix it in the mix"

Mike.

eddyc

Thanks lads for the replys, I upped the bass a bit more on the drum parts and eased off on the compression they have a bit more punch now and arent rumblin in the background so much, cut the bass on the synth parts and just added a bit of treble so they stand out more in the mix, also added more doubler to the main bass part, sounds a lot better now, oh and good idea on the filter , goes to a lower frequency now, cheers
Oh and frobisher that cymbal cutting out was my computer screaming for more ram , i just needed to freeze that track
On to the rest of the tune, jesus mixing is hard

frobisher

eddyc wrote:

On to the rest of the tune, jesus mixing is hard

Mixing is a motherf*cker! No matter what any says doing it very well is damn tough. But my god is it amazing or what?!

I'd love to hear more of your stuff. Post it. Anyone else out there who has a song should do the same!

eddyc

Cheers dude, Heres a few of my tunes

http://edwardcostello.googlepages.com/Carribean_Blue.mp3

http://edwardcostello.googlepages.com/TheCallingSound.mp3

http://edwardcostello.googlepages.com/Techstep.mp3

http://edwardcostello.googlepages.com/Night.mp3

zero19

Just starting my first proper mix of a five piece band recording i did before christmas today it's gotta be done by next friday for my assessment hehe it's good fun i love doing it!