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View Full Version : why my mix sounds flat and thin?


ahbear64
12-12-2012, 09:18 AM
any advice for this?

thank you
d

https://www.box.com/s/i1m7t1y9rbwu2w7f9clv

Sambo Rouge
12-12-2012, 01:25 PM
Hard to know without knowing more technical information.

I guess you're worried about the voice, which could be the mic
you're using.

The bass response sounds good --- acoustic guitar sounds clear and lively.

Give a bit more info and I'm sure someone will be along soon to offer you some good advice.

Nice song.

Cosmic
12-12-2012, 03:39 PM
Vocals are boxy.Scoop out the lower mids a bit.Turn up the bass and make sure to remove the boxy outta that too...a mid size bell somewhere around 300khz I reckon.Use paralel compression on drums.Add some brightness to the guitar.

monolith
12-12-2012, 05:36 PM
I think cosmic got it right. Scoop out some mids and maybe add some saturation to the guitars. FerricTDS is a good tool for that.

ngarjuna
12-12-2012, 06:19 PM
I ran it through 2 stages of warm compressors (where it received essentially no compression but the high-mids/highs got clobbered), a very hot tape program and out through some actual tubes and it got a lot smoother. It needs to be dirtied up. ETA: Link (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4890016/fishremastered2.mp3)

BobM
12-13-2012, 03:19 AM
Sounds like bad room sounds on a lot of the stuff. Is your room treated?

But stay with that "natural" idea though, it suits the song.

BobM

MacFizz
12-13-2012, 08:16 AM
Yep, lots of mids building up.
The stereo of the drumkit sounds a bit narrow (cymbals nearly at the center ?) and the kick could use some compression and/or EQ.
I'd probably send drums and bass into a buss compressor (tape compression could work here) cause the rythmic part seems a bit apart.

But if there one thing to remember is that, very often, you mix will sound no better than you drum sound. Try working on that and maybe ad a bit of ambiance on snare and toms (I said a bit, the 80's are over so don't get too excited there).

Bearcub
12-15-2012, 03:31 AM
Ngarjuna's re-master sounds a lot more lively and organic, that master suits the song much better :)

But it's not just a question of re-mastering the rendered file, it's about how the individual tracks were recorded (the room, the mic and the pre) and how they were processed.

It's very hard for anyone to give exact advice without having access to your daw, and all the individual files. But something to consider:

VOCAL:

The vocal should sound good when you record it, even with no processing. You hear a lot of room in the raw vocal sound? Then it will never end up sounding like you want to, regardless of processing.

The mic is very important. You can get very good cheap mics, but you need to be able to recognize the sonic qualities you want, in order to make the right mic choice in that category. If your ear doesn't like your mic, then you're in trouble. And if a really bad mic is what makes your vocal sound so flat, then no pre or room could ever make it sound great.

The pre IS very important, once you have a quality mic. I went from using a small Behringer mixer and replaced it with a Great River pre, and holy crap. It was a huge piece of the puzzle of how to get a vocal sounding "like a record" as opposed to just another typical in-the-box recorded basement demo.
Not to selfpromote in this thread, but this was the first track where I used the GR preamp for the vocals, and keep in mind that the vocal mic for this song is one of the cheapest condensers you can get on the market:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=177102&songID=7129924


Processing:

Once your basic recorded sounds are good, I find that it's a matter of two things: balancing and enhancement. You balance things volume wise and frequency wise, and you make certain elements pop out a little (can be through effects, volume, eq etc).

Under "processing" comes 'saturation', which is one of the main things Ngarjuna did to the master (the tape, tube thing). On elements that sound thin, digital..whatever, saturation a wonderful tool to have. I'm still impressed by what Satson and Roundtone can do to mix elements, they are great to have in the digital world.

And yes, EQ is key too. Too much in one place and it can mask elements, and you get flatness. You don't need an expensive eq either, the standard reaper eq is more than good enough for your basic tasks. It's just a matter of knowing where to cut, and what to boost, and only our ears can tell us that. We all get better with practice in this area.