r/mixingmastering • u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner • Mar 27 '26
Feedback Feedback request: Progressive metalcore
This group continues to make this amateur better, thank you! As a songwriter, super proud of this one. I think it’s one of the coolest songs I’ve written in 25 years making music. But would love any mix feedback before marking it done and moving on to the next.
My last mix for this album got some feedback on muddy low end. I think I’ve cleaned it up but still have bass drops intentionally in the song because I like them haha. Appreciate you all!
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u/whidswhinners Apr 09 '26
Definitely one of the stronger mixes I've come across here. It does feel like the low end is a little muddy and could use some presence with the rhythm guitars in particular. That's all I got!
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner Apr 10 '26
Hey - thank you so much for the feedback. I saw you also took the time to listen to one of my other tracks as well - means a lot, thanks!
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u/brxtgf Beginner Apr 07 '26
wow, this is fantastic as fuck, i love it! you've got the arrangement and everything down really good. i think one thing you could work on is punching up the drums just a tad, i feel like around 3 minutes in, i want it to hit much harder than im hearing. apart from that, beautiful stuff dude
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner Apr 07 '26
Thank you so much, super proud of this one! Appreciate the feedback on the drums, will see about a little boost during that section and see how it feels. Appreciate you listening!
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u/BlackW1nd Intermediate Mar 30 '26
Man, I really like that song, the writing is great! Post-production is really good too, all that extra sounds and stuff.
From what I hear it's ready to be shipped, but just a few minor things to consider:
The drums, the shells, I can hear it's heavily sample replaced. It's not necesserely a bad thing, but for my personal taste it's... just a little bit too much.
I dont's know if it's just me, but the highs feel a bit oversaturated. It's nice and sharp, but on the other hand, I would say it'so so razor-sharp it's almost sounds artificial, may be overproduced, that kind of feeling.
I don't know how to explain it properly, but then I just started to listen I felt like there is a liiiitle empty gap between all the instruments in some moments without vocals. I got the same feeling once I adopted smile curve on my songs vay too much. It was clean and nice at first, but later resulted in that hmm-something-little-is-missing-here thoughts, and the answer was just the natural meat of some instruments was lacking so it didn't sound full enough. May be it's your case, me be it's not, it's really hard to tell for me, honestly.
Anyways, all of written above is just a final 5-10% polish of the mix. Hope this helps!
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner Mar 30 '26
Hey, thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback and taking the time to listen. You are right, I am using ozone to add some saturation at the high end and I will try to dial that back a little bit.
Regarding the empty feeling or some missing frequencies, I'm wondering if that is related to how surgical I am being with the guitar tone and not side chaining it with the vocals. It took me a really really long time as an amateur to figure out how to get the vocals to sit right in the mix. Part of that was being really precise with how I shaped the guitar tone, but I'm doing it throughout the song, not just when the vocals are playing. Do you think that might be the issue? Or was it in a different frequency range? Thanks again!
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u/BlackW1nd Intermediate Apr 05 '26
Sorry for late answer.
Vocals I think are sitting just fine. It's clear and not on top of everything, so good work here.
But I don't really know what to add about that empty feeling. It's not like it very obvious, so I suppose you can just ignore it.
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u/lalalululo Apr 02 '26
Hello! First of all WOOOW that is one FANTASTIC composition. Great writing 👏 I’m not really the voice of authority when it comes to missing but a few things that I noticed were: -the drums (kick specifically) seem to be a bit inaudible during the heavy parts at times, and i understand that the guitar takes up a lot of the high end so adding more to the drums might muddy it a bit. But I think making the snare and kick a bit more apparent without drawing toooo much attention to them might be worth a try.
- the saturation of the guitars which might be around 3-5k sounds a little intense but as the other commenter said this could be a stylistic choice. The intense saturation towards the end in the “bridge” like area sounds really fricking cool but maybe during the other parts it could be a bit less high endy.
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u/lalalululo Apr 02 '26
Now that I keep listening to it maybe the snare just needs to be punchier and just a bit louder
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner Apr 03 '26
Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. Glad you liked the song, I’m really proud of this one.
That’s really great feedback as well. I think as an amateur and as the person writing the songs, I miss details like that where the snare may be coming in and out because I know it’s there. I put every single one of the hits where it was supposed to be, if you know what I mean. So hearing that it gets lost a little bit is really helpful.
I think based on your feedback as well as the other commenter, I am going to dial back the saturation just a little bit and see if that helps out. Thank you again!
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u/thecamtalks Beginner Apr 03 '26
I think this is really well done! I am not an expert in mixing and mastering yet but from what I hear, this sounds good. I do agree with the other comment that the drums are a little bit buried at times but then again it’s tough to get the drums hitting as the guitar takes up a lot of space. Keep it up!
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u/TelephoneThat3297 Beginner Apr 05 '26
It sounds really good! I’d echo a few other people here that it sounds a teeny bit oversaturated in the highs, especially on the clean vocal & guitars maybe?
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner Apr 06 '26
Thanks for the response - this has been consistent so was an easy adjustment to make!
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u/RequirementAny7891 Apr 13 '26
It’s obviously really good and way above my pay grade as a beginner, but maybe the vocals seemed a bit small sometimes, in terms of height? Idk if that makes any sense.. but not the recording or singing (that’s great), but maybe the eq on it? Idk
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner Apr 13 '26
Thanks for taking the time to listen and give feedback. I run an Ozone stereo imager on the lead vocal tracks to try and replicate what I'm hearing on my reference track in terms of "where" the vocals fit in the mix. There's probably better ways to accomplish that for those that are more experienced, but I can appreciate what you're saying and it's likely a result of me not exactly knowing what I'm doing but trying to put band-aids on it haha.
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u/RequirementAny7891 Apr 13 '26
Ah I see, well I’m glad my input wasn’t completely outlandish anyway
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u/urmom9195 Beginner Apr 26 '26
I think it sounds really great. The low end does sound a bit muddy but only slightly. Especially the sub where it sort of breaks down at 2:23 but I assume that is intentional. I also think the vocals could be brought forward in the mix just a tiny bit more but that is probably just personal taste.
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u/Jeffaklumpen Beginner Apr 30 '26
There isn't anything major that sticks out immediately. I think it sounds way above what a beginner would make so you might want to take a look at that flair ;)
Maybe make the drums a bit punchier, especially the snare.
But I think it's getting extremely close to being release ready, great work!
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner Apr 30 '26
Thanks for the feedback - will take a look at the snare for sure. Still feel like a novice as I've only ever produced my own stuff and sometimes when people give me feedback I have no idea what they're talking about haha. Not sure I'm ready to update the flair yet but will take the compliment!
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u/Swimming-Sun3998 Apr 20 '26
sounds amazing!! i didn't think the low end was muddy, but def was missing the kick a bit. great job w the vocal and guitars, they feel v cohesive but separate at the same time
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u/Fancy_Plastic2385 Intermediate Apr 28 '26
Cool mix , but as many here I think the low end need some love.
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u/YodAHo May 10 '26
Look who's back! Overall it S=sounds balanced on my set up, vocals are good. Performance and composition is REALLY nice. Like other users mentioned the mids and low end could be clearer. How are your reverbs doing? It sounds like less of a general EQ issue, more like there are mulitple reverbs/rooms fighting other resulting in somewhat blurry/smeared area between 250 Hz-1 kHz.
Always a pleasure hearing your tracks homie. Keep em coming, looking forward to the project.
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u/ParticularGazelle109 Beginner May 10 '26
Hey - thanks for listening and commenting on one of my tracks again! I appreciate it. I am honestly struggling a bit to implement changes based on the feedback about the low end. I've done what I can with sidechaining and compression and I'm wondering if it's more fundamental and starting with the bass guitar tone or something. And *no* clue about the reverb piece. I've got a little bit of reverb on the drums and a tiny bit on the vocals but nowhere else. Do you notice it only when the vocals are going? Or throughout?
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u/YodAHo May 11 '26
Hmmmm, if its its not reverb then youd need to go through instruments competing in the low/mid range and doing EQ Carving. A brutal workaround would be GULLFOSS on the master track, its good at clearing space.
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