Advice on a mix

eddyc

Hi whats up, in the final stages of a tune, the problem is its sounding quite muddy at the moment and vox and guitars still have to go down, just wonderin can anyone give us any advice to tighten up the track

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

Cheers

squibs

I found the distortion at the start offputting- I had to check the bitrate as I thought it was encoded at 64kbs or less! Lo-fi is a nice way to bring in the hi-fi, but it shouldn't sound that gnarly and digital.

There's another effecty scratchy thing thats there right from where the drums first kick in - now I'm listening to this quietly at work with a fair bit of ambient noise around, but this effect fizzes away and sounds like distortion.

The ambience on the big beat drums seemed out of place to me - maybe try another reverb?

I would also cut about a minute from the track, if it is remaining as an instrumental (unless it's scorring a piece of film).

The double bass articulation is a little off, and this is noticeable cos it's played in isolation - all but the last note seem like they should be shorter, and some portamento and vibrato wouldn't go amiss.

Having said that, I liked it - good mix of sounds all co-existing nicely. Quite atmospheric.

eddyc

Thanks man greatly appreciated,

Yeah I think distortion is most of the problem there, I compressed the crap out of the drums ,I didnt use any reverb its just direct mics and room ambience mixed together , is there a better way to get the big beat drum sound , I want to keep it in there but not if its gonna sound too muddy, perhaps using a multi band compresser? or should I just tweak around with what I'm doin at the moment

squibs

Camelphat should work well from you - assuming you're working on a P.C.

I didnt use any reverb its just direct mics and room ambience mixed together

This sounds sequenced to me - rather than everything being recorded live. I would be VERY surprised if I'm wrong - so you should be able to re-treat. Big Beat is, in my experience, a matter of being brutal with a gate and then putting a nice ambience on top of a creative compressor.

Actually - the mix sounds a whole lot better in my studio. Sort out the distortion, eq out some mids on the caustic channels, and balance the levels and you're pretty much there.

eddyc

yeah its all sequenced, the drums are the Fxpansion BFD thing, its a little glitchy sometimes hence the horrible cymbal choke at the end of some of the bars, bastards , other than that its pretty nifty.
Cheers for the advice man