Mixing music

[Peder 🚀]

I am trying to mix my album at the moment but I feel there is something I doing wrong .

Here is one of the songs:
http://www.austkrigar.info/MP3/Austkrigar%20-%20saar....%20III.mp3


I would appreciate any suggestions (MIXING).

Thanks,
Peder Johnsen.

[Nikolas]

Peder! This sounds really interesting! Well done!

I have little experience (read: no experience) to this kind of music, so here goes (random thoughts as they come, while listening, right?):

i. The guitar at the begining seems to have some kind of hesitation or error at the very begining. (0:16). also while the sound is nice (the chorus I mean), probably a little EQ to take out some middle could work. since you are later dividing left and right, start out immediately from that. Just some ideas...

ii. Heavy distorted guitars, while they are left and right, as should, maybe they are panned too much? dunno really. But they do sound a tad empty. I have a hunch that it's not the guitars that are to blame though (look at iii)

iii. Bass is missing heavily. At least my feeling. Same goes for the kick drum. And the hihat is a bit loud. At least for me.

iv. Bass: Does it have compression? If not, do it!

v. Drums: More compression, a tad more reverb? Just heard the ending. There is a lot of reverb already... okay

vi. The melody at 1:40 is fantastic actually. But I can't listen to it clearly enough with my headphones. It could use some gain, but then again, there could be a reason why you didn't do it. Maybe the reverb, although it is VERY NICE, it is adding to the loss of the essence in the voices? Maybe add the reverb to a bus instead to strengthen and tighten the whole thing?

vii. 3:14 the melodies in the guitar need little bringing up as well...

viii. Emptying at 3:34 is very very nice indeed! (maybe bring it to the center?) But I get a small feeling that you lose the tempo slightly!

ix. Brilliant return to the begining!

Now keep in mind that, as I said in the begining, I know extremely little to this kind of music and mixing, so all the above could potentially be bolox... Still it could be worth a shot. Do wait for other people to show up and speak their mind (Geoffkhan, Helm, etc) who certainly will have more to say...

[Peder 🚀]

Thanks for feedback Nikolas.

i. yeah, its a fault by me, but it was so minimal that I did not really think it was that important, and really, most people that listen to my music wont notice! lol . Unless their musicians to .

ii. how do you mean panned to much? As it seems you understood I recorded the left guitar then the right one.
Do you think they should be more towards the center?

iii. Bass is missing maybe because it has been hard for me to get it right, I been putting it up and then its suddently to loud on some speakers, but then again its low on others. About the kick drum, yeah, its my feet! lol, the whole drumkit is record into 2 tracks (left and right) and not 1 track for each drum. And this is due to there aint enough tracks on the harddisc recorder I used to record it! So I cant really do much about it with my knownledge, and yeah its because I end up kicking with less power etc.

iv. To be honest I got no idea what you mean with compression .
I am self learned and I got no idea what all those things mean really....

v. see above...

vi. Reverb is needed for my vox! without it my vox sounds to tame! And the reverb was added WHILE recording, so if I wanted to do something about it I would have to record it again. (I dont remember if I used more reverb later in the mix but I dont think so...)

vii. bringing up?

ix. hehe thanks!

I will!
And thanks for the reply!!

[Nikolas]

Ok!

1. If you are using a computer to mix it (which I guess you are), just bounce/export to audio, only the first part (up to 0:16), and play a little bit with the time strecth (less than 0.1%) and EQ, to differnetiate 2 versions of the guitar, and pan them left and right. Alternatviely just record a new guitar on top of that and pan them.

2. Yes, more to the center, not all the way to the left and right.

3. Bass, needs somehow to be there. Mix it and fix the sound, by soloing the bass track alone, to creat consistency, and then, by all means, bring it up..

3.5 The kick (drums in generall). Maybe take out a little reverb (contrary to what I said earlier), and EQ it to bring a bit the bass up, and the hihats down (so bring the low frequencies up and the high down)

4 and 5 (and 3). Normalise: When you bring up everything so that the higher (louder) point reaches (usually) 0db. This way the dynamics are retained.
Compression: Normalise and then bring higher. In order not to clip and distort, the compression will remain at 0db at any point above that, by crushing eveyrhting above 0db to 0db. It is used very much at rock and heavy metal music, as it creates a much solid feeling and louder export in total. Go to www.kvraudio.com and download a free compressor to toy with it a little while. But I would expect your DAW to have a compression (VST, RTAS? something) already on.

6. Never add reverb while recording. Now you can't undo it. I would honestly suggest there to rerecord your voice and add the reverb later. If you want add the reverb at the master, so that, you will be listening the reverbed version through the headphones, but it won't be recorded, itself. and then add it. It is one of the imopotant things indeed. I will repeat that I like the sound, but fear that it is hiding the voices because it's too much...

7. Louder...

9. No problem

[j-Hed]

I like it!
It sounds like older Enslaved/Ulver. The acustic intro could have some chorus or echo added in my opinion to make it feel more floating but it's all up to your vision of the sound. The drums are very well played I like them, they sound a little "in-a-box" to me (especially the snare drum) they may need som EQ to rise the mid frequencies and maybe in the highs too.
The vocals in my opinion would get a wider feel if more reverb is added and more volume.

Looking forward to hear more!

[Peder 🚀]

Thanks for the replies .

Ive tried to fix some of the "issues"
Not sure if its alot better or better at all.

http://www.austkrigar.info/MP3/austkrigarsaarIIInewmix.mp3

If anyone wants to maybe give it a try at mixing it go ahead, I got all the original wav files on my computer...

[Gregjazz]

If anyone wants to maybe give it a try at mixing it go ahead, I got all the original wav files on my computer...

I'll try mixing it if you want, this has promise! Just make sure the original wav files are as dry (the original ones, uneffected) as possible.

[Peder 🚀]

Id love that Greg!

How to get in touch? .
Also as far as I remember the original wavs are pretty much dry, except the vocals...

[Gregjazz]

PM sent.