Mix critiques & advices - reach your mixing goals!

Ruud Reiher

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Jannek Stoldt
Sep 18, 2021
Hi! I'm currently mixing a little jam from my band, but I've heard it to many times at this point. Do you think there's still work to be done on the mix? Would you change something?
Thanks and have a good weekend :)

https://soundcloud.com/user-12614036/die-karawane-mixdown-1/s-MvyN2qlFNxF
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Sin Nias
Sep 18, 2021
to much reeverb in the lows makes it bit muddy and generally too less highs and too much low mids
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Arthur Reich
Sep 18, 2021
i thing i recognize is that the kick is barely hearable when the bass plays, 2 ways to fix it: Sidechained compression and Giving the kick more highs (through saturation/Distortion) Generally it's fun to listen to tho, as it sounds pretty "clean" :)
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Jannek Stoldt
Sep 19, 2021
Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I'll try to clean it up a bit more
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Raymond RUTJES
Sep 19, 2021
Hey there, cool music! Here are a few tweaks I would try.
Organ: When the organ enters it is a bit loud, and should probably be EQed to fit better next to the guitar as well. I think it can go down at least 3db throughout the full song. Maybe you can automate the volume a bit for the organ where it must shine you could raise it bit but when conflicting with the guitars, you need to choose what needs to be listened to, currently we are forced into listening to the organ, but I feel like we should better here guitars and everything else..

Bass: I’d try some compression on the bass, to have it have a bit more attack, 3-6db of gain reduction. Also I would remove Everything under the bass lowest fundamental, there seems to be a lot of rumble down there.

Drums: could probably be raised a notch, I like where the cymbals are sitting though, but kick toms & snare could probably be lifted.

Globally, it’s lacking a bit of dynamics, I think playing more with automation could bring the mix alive.
At the 4:30 region, the rumble in the low end is very distracting, I’d try to control that with EQ if possible.

Let me know what you think.
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Jannek Stoldt
Sep 21, 2021
@Raymond RUTJES Thanks for your detailed input :)

The low end is always my problem.. I definitely need to buy a sub :D
The bass is part of the the organ, its a blend between a leslie mic and the di signal, so the signal itself doesn't have a lot of attack, but I'll try to compress it more and highpass it a bit.
(We're only three people: drums, organ/keys and one guitar played through different amps. Only the shaker is an overdub)
Dynamics is a good point, I'll try to play with it more
Have a good week :)
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Ben Sinclair
Sep 21, 2021
You've got a really tight band, love the vibe/groove! As others have stated, the low end could be carved out a little bit better. In regards to the drums (and the kick & it's relation to the bass/organ) I wouldn't sidechain it, I don't think it will sound natural with this song. Instead I'd try to give the boost to the kick (say at 60hz for example) and dip in the surrounding area. Then with the bass/organ part, dip in the 60hz area but raise the surrounding area (you could shelf up for example). Same idea when you give the kick an attack frequency (1.5K for example), boost there and dip around it, then do the opposite on the other instruments. This way the kick will cut through naturally and I think it will fit stylistically.