I have a song I wrote and tried to record with Logic many times and am quite happy with the music and words but not with the sound of the mix. I'm wondering if someone with mixing/ mastering experience could give me some pointers - that would be much appreciated. The mp3 link is at: http://www.box.com/s/eqxzkz8tohdi6bldgnzq it's called DOMM (darkness of my mind) Thank-you!

Very nice! What exactly is your goal, cause it seems mixed pretty well to me. What so you want to hear differently?

Hmm... Actually, it sounds better after a night's sleep and reading your post. Last night, it sounded harsh to me - like fingernails on a blackboard. That was after a day of playing with EQs, Compressors and pedal-boards. You lose confidence and objectivity if you know what I mean. The only thing I hear now is I would like the guitar solo to be more aggressive but I think I can take care of that. Thank-you!

Hi Hasdrubal, The mix sounds good. Its good practice to give you ears a bit of a rest after a mix. As you have experienced the mix sounded different to you after a night's sleep. It also lets you be more objective of the mix after giving it sometime before returning to it. For the guitar solo you could look at adjusting the compression settings to let it punch through more in the mix. Try a slightly higher ratio and then adjust the attack and release times to hear what sounds better with the track. You can also do some EQ tricks to make the guitar punch through more. Take a listen and hear what other sounds are competing for the same area in the mix as the guitar solo. Maybe the other guitars are clashing with it. Use an EQ on the guitar solo to find the sweet spot of the guitar solo. pick an EQ band and do a boost with a narrow Q. Sweep across the frequency range until you hear a spot that sits quite nice for the guitar solo. Now drop the gain down on this band and widen the Q so its doesn't sit so drastically in the mix. Now on the other competing tracks. So a slight dip in the EQ at the same spot. This should open up the mix to let that guitar through. Hope this helps.

Gary H, That's brilliant - I will give it a try. Thanks very much!

Great stuff! Also check out some of the tutorials we have available in the Studio & recording Techniques section. There's some great tips and techniques in these tutorials that will really help and improve your mixing skills. And you're getting the advice from well-trained and knowledgable audio engineers/mixers and producers. [url]http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorials/studio+and+recording+techniques-suite[/url]

Hi Hasdrubal, It is a pretty affected mix - which is cool; it has a vibe. But the reverb has its own 'voice' and it has frequencies within it that linger more than others (resonances). Again, "Long Cool Woman" used the reverb as a voice as well. There are a lot of p-pops in the vocal in the first verse that are easily cleaned up. And while a "better" mix is totally subjective, I would be happy to give it a go and send the mix back to you for a listen. If you like it, awesome - then we can compare and talk about what I did, etc. If you don't, then your mix is the mix that makes you happy. Paul Bissell

Hi Paul I would be really interested in that. My understanding is that for this kind of thing you will need the 'unaffected' tracks which I can email to you or put onto my box.com site. Thanks! Hasdrubal

Thanks Gary, I definitely will have a look at those Studio and Recording courses. Hasrdrubal

Yes, I would need all of the tracks. You can give me your entire Logic folder that has the project and the audio files in it. I would actually like to see your session project so I can determine whether the sounds that you got were what was tracked raw from the microphone, or that you added with some kind of effect or processor. My email is my first initial full last name@delmar.edu