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Help with my mix!


Jordo

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Hey guy! I just can't figure this song out. I have been mixing for weeks now (I mean, not constantly, as I've been busy, but on and off.)

 

Basically I can't find a right balance of frequencies and I also am just struggling with levels...like every time I raise something, everything else feels lost...I want the primary tracks heard to be my voice and the acoustic guitar, with drums and bass second, but I don't know, I'm having trouble nailing it and the whole thing sounds like a mess. I'm going for a kind of "wacky" feel but I want wacky and organized, not wacky and a mess.

 

Tracks involved:

 

Vocal

Harmony vocals in chorus (childlike annoying chanting)

Bass (super trebly)

Subbass

Acoustic guitar

Electric rhythm guitar halfway through song (R ear)

Clav synth bouncing around from beginning to end

Drums (logic drum machine drums)

Organ in bridge

More rocking heavy electric guitars in bridge (L ear)

Synth guitar doing wacky riff during 2nd and 3rd chorus (in L ear)

 

Musical reference points: Think DEVO meets Violent Femmes meets 80s They Might Be Giants

 

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/sallyband/tom-dead-rough-mix-02[/soundcloud]

 

So, any thoughts? Advice? How would you mix this? You can criticize my mix (please do) but just don't criticize my songwriting because then I'll be sad (and cause I like the song a lot.)

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I hear several problems with the relative volume levels. For example, in the last few seconds I hear some musical ornaments that I didn't know were there. (They sounded like outside-noise leaking through the headphones.) In the front section, the strumming guitar parts seemed more forward and in-your-face than the "lead" (sic) vocal. And, I perceived some kind of change in the mix about a third of the way in.

 

I'd suggest making a copy of the project and, in that project, "clear the plate." Pull off the bus-sends and turn off the various filter stages, maybe except EQ. Solo each track one at a time to make sure each one is clean. Now, starting with an empty plate, so to speak, choose what will be the foundations of the piece – bass, drum, say – and decide where in the hall they're going to be. Also choose one "hall" on the output channel: is this a club or a church or Carnegie Hall, etc. Set markers where each transition, e.g. verses, solos, are going to be.

 

Add new "dishes" to your plate one at a time, generally working from low frequencies upward. Be sure to spread the instruments out in the space, left / right as well as front / back. Generally avoid "effects" (other than depth reverb) until you've placed all of the musical elements.

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