Mixing suggestions?

The second track seems more balanced - good job!

Some quick notes:

This - and the previous one - sounds a bit washy in the cymbals. It may be due to soundcloud's horrible audio quality, I don't know.

I'd pan the hihat more center.

It seems to me like the drums don't gel together enough - possibly it could do with a bit more room, and/or some buss compression.

The vocals seem a bit disjointed from the vocal delays and the instruments, maybe. Maybe i'd bring down the current "obvious" delays a bit, and possibly filter out some more of the highs and lows, and I'd probably add some early reflections - maybe reverb, maybe a slapback delay - maybe both. Right now it seems to me like there's only the late reflections, which kind of makes an artificial distance between the direct sound and the "space" elements of the vocals. I hope that makes sense. It's both very in your face and very "reflective", but the two elements don't gel together. To me, at least.

Hope you can use some of these notes

Quote from Cederick

Cymbals are washy because of my recording, not possible to do anything about.
I used my biggest Paiste 2002 cymbals for some reason... Should have used my smaller for tighter attack and brighter sound. A variety is good but I dont know why I decided to only use my 2 biggest... Oh well!

But yeah could be something with audio quality too, its a mp3 upload...

I like my hihat and rides panned excesively but this is the most I've done ever, I should not overdo it for my upcoming albums.

And vocal delay... sorry but that is a bad example for vocals, I didn't think of that.
That part alone has WAY more delay than the rest of the album, because I wanted that effect.
On rest of the album its more balanced
But STILL lots of reverb and delay which I like

Sorry I dont wanna come across as a guy looking for advice and then rejecting, but right now I'm very happy with my mix and now I'm sending in this for the label.
I hope I dont have to make a 3rd adjustment because now deadline is creeping closer

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Re. mp3 quality - I think it's usually soundcloud that screws up audio quality - I hear it in my own stuff too, it's really bad on cymbals - and the source mp3 doesn't have the same problem usually

Panning the hihat way to the side is an artistic decision in this case, and of course fine if that's what you want. I wanted to point it out nonetheless

Having lots of delay/verb on the vocal is also an artistic decision, and fits with the genre you're going for. I just thought that it sounded a bit disjointed from the vocal, like the verb/delay and the direct vocal sound didn't connect. I'd just add another layer of SUBTLE space to tie it together.

Best of luck with your release!

IMHO keep the HH off center. It will be really loud in mono if it's in the center. Or least in my amateur mix testing it was. I check my HH level by listening to the mix on a mobile phone.

The new mix sounds really great to me on my Sonos sound system i have (woofer, surround sound via two play 1's, sound bar and play 5 speaker) its a digital high end WIFI sound system, i checked the old mix i can still hear a big difference (to me) , i thought that because its a high end sound system it would make every thing sound good lol, but the new mix is SPOT on.

i played a few of Ced's other albums and yep all sounds crsip and the same quality so far, but thats only a short seg, probably all will sound good like that.

@nakedzen , @Monkey_Man @Cederick@schreckmusic
Mixing on Stereo speakers, headphones and not in a studio environment , you know what that means?
that means you justified me not paying attention in audio engineering school , chasing woman, beer and living life...
I wish you guys were around to shove it in my teachers face

I can always count on you guys to be great!
hahahaha!!

Ash

Here is my opinion on the mix

Original

Cleaned up mud, lows and added some sparkle. My version

@ashtweth I mixed this on 17 year old computer speakers

Since you're not familiar with the A5X (or the room they're in) I would not make any big changes based on that.

I'd take a listen but my upstaris neighbour is drilling himself through the ceiling atm.

Took a listen. Original test3 sounds best. shrecks version has ear piercing highs on my end. (A5X here).

@Cederick new mix lost something in the mids. It sounds worse now imho. Test3 had beautiful guitar tone.

Quote from Cederick

And I have panned the hihat and ride a little more to center
@Michael_dk

This was a wise decision, Ceddy. Obviously I couldn't hear how extreme the panning was through my mono CrapMac™ speaker, but any move towards the centre's gonna help IMHO, mate. Here's how I see it:

Folks are going to listen to your music from centre, left-of-centre, and right-of-centre; that's just how things work in the real world. In order for the hat, which is rhythmically (and sonically) important, not to get smothered in the mix for those sitting on the "wrong" side of it, one has to "put a little back in".

Another way of looking at it:
Vocals, kick, snare and bass (very-nearly) always occupy centre or very close to it, right? That's 'cause they're so important to the mix, and play practically all the time.

The same philosophical criteria apply to the hat IMHO. Centre is unrealistic and unnecessary, but so is too far to one side.

I have the A5X and don't believe all the YouTube reviewers hype. They're nothing special IMO.

Listen to the song on all the normal speakers you do and compare.

Of course my changes are going to create certain issues. You cannot just EQ a mastered track and remaster it without phase issues.

Your track IMHO was focused on the bass. I could hear it more than the guitars. Plus the guitars sounded dull.
I cut certain lows, low-mids, raised certain mids and the highs.

All of this was in comparison to the Manowar example.

I won't be able to listen to your new example until tonight.

The rhythm guitar seems to have become lost and a little distant on my mono CrapMac™ speaker for some reason, Ceddy.

I can't help but feel at this point that you might be sacrificing some mojo and in effect tweaking the life out of the piece. Know what I mean?

I think the mix you posted a few versions back (don't know which one) sounded much better, but of course, that's only on my mono CM™ speaker...

Sounds good to me. The transients on those cymbals on the right channel sort of distract you too much, I'd try a small amount of a transient designer on that part. You can automate it to turn off on everything else, the rest of it sounds fine.

But I think that would go in the way of over producing. I agree with @Monkey_Man that the old mix (test3 I think)sounded best.

You know, I'm reminded of that classic Michael Jackson story, where a certain song was remixed, like, 70+ times or something, and then one day the producer walked in and asked if he could have a listen.

"The mix isn't finished yet", he was told. "Play me what you've done anyway", he said, and immediately picked mix #02.

Quote from Cederick

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What about this?

I have re-done the bass from scratch, also did a lot of stuff with the drums

At 0:30 there's a quite tasty solo

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There is some L1 compression going on with pulsing coming in and out on your mix?

My take on it. I mainly focused on cleaning up all the lows. Guitar does sound pushed back as Nicky said.

I have been listening to these riffs so many times now i am really hanging out for the album aaaar!!

Ash

Quote from Cederick

I have no idea what "L1 compression" is

Something in your mastering chain. A limiter and/or maximizer is causing the low end to pulse. This means you are using too much or your low end needs adjustment. Which is why I EQed the lower frequencies in my example.