Mixing practice - Raw stems for you to mix and master!

Hey guys, it's time to get mixin'!

Here are the raw stems for a song off of my debut record. Though there is no real incentive - like a price or anything - I will give you my honest, in depth feedback on the mix, and hopefully both of us can come out of the experience as better mixing engineers.

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Here are the stems:
CLICK HERE FOR STEMS

Here's the drum midi (forgot to include it in the .zip above):
CLICK HERE FOR DRUM MID

Tempo is 108BPM.

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Here's mine:



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If you dig the song, you can listen to more on Spotify, YouTube and pretty much every major platform. The album is called "Shift" and artist is "Joel Lindfors". I would also be thrilled if you considered "Liking" my Facebook page!

MY FACEBOOK PAGE

Leave yours as a comment below!

 

Thanks a lot guys! If you dig the song, please consider liking my Facebook page. There's also a whole album of this on Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, Apple Music and pretty much any platform you would use.

BandCamp link:

Also, I will give detailed feedback on every mix here later today. I really, really appreciate everyone of you having interest on my song and mixing it!

 

Here we go!

First I'd like to mention that no criticism in a subject such as music is absolute. I believe there are two types of criticism, the one that tries to embody and convey what's common and what you did against the norm (in the context of say, modern metal music production) and the one that's subjective - what I would've done differently. I will include both types in a uniform mess that you have to read and get what you want from it. I will literally go with whatever comes in mind and possibly get you some fixes to at least consider trying:

• In case you're using the raw drums I provided, the snare bong you're talking about is most probably caused by the two channels being out of phase. In case it's not, try scooping at around 2kHz. Most of the stick hit lies around that area. You can make the lost treble up at around 6kHz for some proper crack.
  
• Bass is a tad too loud, guitars a tad too quiet! That's a really common thing that happens if you don't do another session on a track with a break.
  
• Toms too loud! About 3dB. Also at the ending you can hear how the low tom has way too much sustain/low freq content in it.
• Synths are good, if anything just a tad quiet.
• The tones for everything are balanced and good, the biggest issues seem to be in gain staging. That's not major either. Just tiny things here and there.

So good job! Hope this helps in the future!

 

• Too much bottom mic on snare! Either tune down the compression or turn the volume down by a lot. A good quick trick to make bottom snare mic more tamed is to have a low pass filter rather low. You only really want stuff below 8khz on there.
• Great work on guitars. Don't know if you did much processing, but the levels are spot on! The guitar solo could be just a tiny hint louder. Or maybe not. That's probably just my preference.
  
• Same goes for synth levels. Good shit.
• Good toms, too. I'd see if there were some mids to scoop out, though.
  
• Cymbals could come a tad lower. Overhead mic specifically.
• No complaints on bass guitar or kick level.

That's about it!

 

Thanks! Here's what I thought of your mix!

• Really solid low end here. Some subs could come down, but just enough to get it to a commercial level just not to ruin anything.
• Good drums overall. I'd maybe turn some snare wires down just a hint.
• Honestly I'm short on feedback here. Some synth levels were a tad off and the low end was too overbearing, but overall you did a really good job.

Thanks again! That was great.

 

Thank you!

• I like what you did with the center channel guitar at the beginning. If anything, it's just a tad too loud.
• Toms are barely audible! Especially the floor ones.
• Too many snare wires! That seems to be common for some reason. You guys should also check the phase for drums every once a while, EQ'ing stuff with multiple sources (like snare with top and bottom mics and additional samples) can really mess phase up.
• Good bass level, I hear some resonant frequency in the upper range - at around 2-3khz.

Hope that helps!

E: I should mention good stuff with the guitars! Level was good and the tone was good!

 

Hi! No problem!

Great mix, here's my feedback:

• There's a bit too much sustain on some of the drums - toms namely. Seems to me that the ambience track might be too loud and it's causing that.
• Absolutely love the guitar/bass section. Good work balancing those.
• Overheads could do with some high-shelf action. Everything over 10khz could come a tad up. Could also be a matter of lowering the ambience track and driving the overhead track a little.
• Good stuff with the synth. I would've put the pizzicato lower and the synths higher though.

Overall really good. Most of my feedback is really subjective here, which shows that you've done a good job on nailing the fundamentals.

 

Good question! I just like how some saturation plugins work at low levels. They have this almost a low shelf boost type of quality to them when you drive at low levels. Makes stuff more 'solid' (for a lack of a better term).

• Your drum kit sounds a tad small (read: not compressed lol) for the purpose, could work for something like thrash or speed metal better!
• Kick is like 3dB too loud! Good tone though, one of the most fitting things in your drum mix.
• Guitar and bass are good. Bass could come down a tad, like 2dB.
• Good levels on synths! Nothing to add there.

Good stuff! Some things that would've been a better fit for another type of metal, but that's all fine - partly up to preference for sure.