"I would forward this track if the mix sounded better"

[UncleJesse]

Hey,

I love TAXI so much but occasionally get totally stumped by a critique.

I got a return today for a song that wasn't mixed well enough. This was quite a surprise to me as I've had 5 forwards with this song previously and never had anyone comment on the mix. I would really appreciate anyone else's input. This has really thrown me a little. I always thought my drum production was not bad.

The screener kind of ripped into this mix. They also made reference to a synth part, however no synths were used in this recording. Also they comment that there is a noise over the track which you can distinctly hear at the start and finish. That is actually the guitar amp modeler before the guitars are played. That noise doesn't actually exist throughout the track, It's only when the guitars aren't being played.. I agree I should have muted the noise though.


The song is here -
https://soundcloud.com/jesse-marantz/do ... strumental



The screener's comments were -

Hello, Jesse. This track has really cool guitars, cool synth line responding to the guitar chords. So why do the drums sound not as good? The guitars are full, the synth is full. But recordings only sound as good as the worst instrument in the mix. I would forward this track if the mix sounded better. There is also a noise over the track, which you can hear distinctly at the very beginning of the track as well as when the track ends. You've got some great ideas here - find someone who can help you mix, or possibly find an earlier, less-generations-down version of this mix. Too much noise, too squashed, not enough air - there is a really cool track buried under a bad mix here.

[andygabrys]

i dunno,

sounded okay over here. better on monitors than cans, but not bad on cans.

sounds like some screener had pretty tired ears.

as you say, the noise from the amp sim def doesn't need to be there, I would noise gate that out.

[RonKujawa]

Sounds like a well crafted track to me overall with some interesting parts. The balance between instruments sounds good to my ears, however I'm hearing the noise referenced and there seems to be a lack of clarity on the overall mix. I would definitely gate out the guitar amp when it's not playing, or if you're using a DAW, just cut those parts out. Probably not a great first impression for any listener when that's the very first thing they hear. As far as clarity on the whole mix, it almost sounds to me like this is an mp3 exported from another mp3. Maybe double check your output settings? I would not have called it a "bad mix". Drums sounds pretty good to me, but that haze on the mix might be influencing what he heard on drums more than anything else. The snare especially. Lastly, maybe you could clean things up a bit by carving out EQ space for each instrument if you aren't already doing so. Or maybe make those adjustments a little bit more assertive.

Ron

[Russell Landwehr]

LOL Jesse! (I'm not laughing at you... I'm laughing with you...) you can see the humor in the "synth" comment, right? your post: http://forums.taxi.com/topic126665.html ... rty%20rock Was it by any chance the same screener?

I agree that the noise at the beginning and end is bad bad bad. But very easy to fix. Just an automated fader move at the beginning and end. The drums bring the song in and the drums have the tail so the fader will fix the noise from the guitar(s).

This mix sounds fine to me (except for that godawful guitar amp noise at the beginning and end )
Drums sound good.

Edit: just saw Ron's comments. I can't refute them as I am only listening on high quality desktop speakers with a subwoofer.

Russell

[Len911]

The cymbals sounded really washy to me. Maybe that is giving the squashed and not enough air comments?? I much prefer really crisp sounding cymbals, I have a time with cymbals or hi hats in getting it, and I have heard many a 'washy cymbals' so perhaps it's more preference than a necessity, though it seems maybe the screener has that preference also??

Sometimes I think mp3's have a difficult time processing the cymbals and if an mp3 is necessary, the highest quality mp3's should be used. 320kps??

Also the crash is such a dominant element in your drum track for this song and it draws more attention.

[UncleJesse]

Hey thanks so much for the replies!! I really appreciate all of your help!

In response to 2 things that were brought up in the replies - 'clarity on the whole mix' and 'cymbals sounded really washy'.
I strongly feel that both of those elements are heavily affected by having to upload our tracks in mp3 at only 192kbps.

Also, the noise at the start of the track is definitely bad but the screener initially referenced that noise as "there is a noise over the track" and only used the noise at the start as an example - "which you can hear distinctly at the very beginning of the track". This is actually not the case as the noise doesn't exist over the track but only at the start for less than a second when the guitars aren't being played.

I agree this track wasn't my greatest mix but I always put a lot of work into mixing and producing all elements of my music. This return was a bit of a bummer I guess.. how good do mixes need to be these days to get a forward?!?!

oh and Russell this wasn't the same screener as that other time.. lol crazy huh. cheers for the message mate!

Jesse

[JonBHC]

Hey Jesse

I know this post is old, but i thought I would chime in. I thought your track sounded fine, except for the guitar noise at the beginning and end. I've had lots of returns from Taxi, I tend to write in a lot of styles. I would not expect consistency from the critiques, really just deal with it and write more. I just got 16 tracks into an Australian library, all had been previously returned on Taxi. We had got into that library with 2 dubstep tracks. The 16 tracks they picked up were chill, acoustic, ambient, and world.

Last year I complained about a return, and Casey said it best, "some of these go direct to supervisor, and they don't know what they want until they hear it".

jb

[Nick2012]

As a synth player I can see how the lead guitar riff could be easily mistaken for a synth. It's just enough in the background that there is not enough "guitar" presence. Either bring it more up front (with adjusted eq), or do some occasional bends or pull offs. You're simply playing those licks too precise lol.