Mixing Help?

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Plays fine on my OPPO via USB. Hey Mike - first thing I notice, is the bass is pretty muddy and boomy. At least on my system it is...also, if all the other instruments were as crystal clear as the vocals seem to be....it would sound much more balanced. I do like the tune though..... :)
 
Hey, GOS, thanks for listening and for the feedback. The more sets of ears, the better.
What model Oppo? Maybe if I save to USB correctly my Oppo can play files too?
Mine is a BDP-83.

Mine is 103. IIR - the 83 cannot play flac files....is that right? Or maybe it just can't play flac multi-channel...probably flac as a whole.
 
And here it is, a free 5.1 FLAC download in 24bit/48kHz of the song Disturbing the Universe by Mike's band M.O.T.H., mixed by myself ->
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lbpjr9z35ud78cn/M.O.T.H. - Disturbing the Universe 5.1 mix.flac?dl=0

It is a pretty dynamic track (DR 14), so maybe turn it up. The solo voice in the Center channel at the beginning should be at your favourite "normal" listening level.

Although the mix can be considered finished, I still think this could use a bit of tweaking, possibly at mastering. Of course, on some aspects, we are limited by the original recordings. Here the mastering is minimal, just a filtered LFE channel and a slight volume boost (with a little limiting).

All constructive comments, remarks, criticism, insults are welcome (well, maybe not insults). :D

Thanks for this. I like the music very much. First impressions are that the drums sound muddy. I like the lead vocal travelling from speaker to speaker, guitars in rears etc. For me personally I listen to drums first, everything else is secondary to me. I used to be a guitar nut, now it is drums and bass I pay most attention to. I like when drum rolls go to rears then back to front speakers, think SW mix of Birthday song, or parts of LA Woman. If drums are in stereo only of across fronts at least have rolls going from speaker to speaker instead of strictly in center, if you understand what I mean, example Buddy Miles drums on Band of Gypsy Live album. That being said after listening to this I wish you would have mixed Ogre's two Quad albums.

I will listen a few more times and give further thoughts. Cheers.
 
Thanks for this. I like the music very much. First impressions are that the drums sound muddy. I like the lead vocal travelling from speaker to speaker, guitars in rears etc. For me personally I listen to drums first, everything else is secondary to me. I used to be a guitar nut, now it is drums and bass I pay most attention to. I like when drum rolls go to rears then back to front speakers, think SW mix of Birthday song, or parts of LA Woman. If drums are in stereo only of across fronts at least have rolls going from speaker to speaker instead of strictly in center, if you understand what I mean, example Buddy Miles drums on Band of Gypsy Live album. That being said after listening to this I wish you would have mixed Ogre's two Quad albums.

I will listen a few more times and give further thoughts. Cheers.

Hi keenly and thank you very much for your comments.
As I said in the other thread, I usually mix the drums and bass first, make them sound realistic and awesome, and then adapt my mix when I add the rest of the tracks. When heard mixed in isolation, the drums sound very real and 'there', but it is a busy song and the rest tends to muddy the mix, notably the guitars. I didn't retouch them enough because I wanted to keep the 'weight' and punch they have to them, but I guess it's too much of a good thing.
The drums are occupying the whole FL-FR range, and the tom rolls do actually pan from speaker to speaker, but they are pretty quick! And like on a real set, the toms are slightly more inwards than the cymbals, so it might not be apparent enough. They are also too close to each other in timbre. I might have to give a less 'realistic' presentation and pan more to the rears.
 
Plays fine on my OPPO via USB. Hey Mike - first thing I notice, is the bass is pretty muddy and boomy. At least on my system it is...also, if all the other instruments were as crystal clear as the vocals seem to be....it would sound much more balanced. I do like the tune though..... :)

It's funny because the vocals were the worst recorded tracks. I worked a great deal on them to make them sound acceptable; by your account I seem to have succeded. I still find them to be harsh, though.
I agree the general bass is boomy, but it's because a lot of the instruments have boomy tones. I'll have to work on that, maybe at mastering.
 
Love the 360 pans on the vocals.. (sucker for those :eek: ) and they work well here not just a gimmick.. I like the tone and musicality of the guitar work.. personally drums could be crispened, they're very midrangey and leaden and for the most part they seem imaged a bit narrow in the centre would prefer them spread wider across the front but these are niggles (may be setup dependent this end, I'm still not confident about how I have this Mac setup when playing back all the surround stuff, learning all the time).. oh and the LFE is making my sub bottom out (but that could be my REL's fault, it's on its last legs).. excellent work guys! Thanks for the experience and keep it up! Keep tweaking, lets have a whole album of more of the same in 5.1..! I'd gladly pay good money for that :upthumb
 
Finally took some time to listen to this track. A nice song and like the mixing a lot. As said by others the vocals that go around the speakers is nice, as is the bell section. Reading the other comments I realise the sub was not on, so not much boomy bass here :) will give it another try later with sw on.
 
So, I've been experimenting with the raw tracks from a new song, regarding the drum mix. And maybe it will spill over in to the entire mix philosophy.

The idea is that you are the drummer. So, the sounds are from the perspective of the drum throne (kinda - the sounds are coming at you, instead of away from you, of course).
So, snare and kick are dead center. Hi-hats are a bit left. Ride is a bit right. China a little further right. Crashes are far left and right. The toms are quad. Hi tom, rear left. Hi-mid tom front left. Low-mid tom, front right. Low tom, rear right.

I thought about this approach based on some comments lately about the drums being the most important part of a mix, and I tend to agree.

To these ears it sounds very cool. Especially on some of the longer, sweeping tom rolls. I always want them to wrap around the room (around me, that is), but seldom do surround mixes do this. The drum mix still needs some minor tweaks, but the proof of concept shows the idea works, to me.

From here, the plan is main vocals center, additional vocals quad, as appropriate, guitars 1 & 2 kinda 50% left and right, lead guitar center, keys in the rears. I may add some tambourine and/or shaker and those would also sit in the rears, I think.
 
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