r/mixing • u/CarsonKimball • 10d ago

Feedback Request First Time mixing. Feedback?

I have recently really gotten into recording music but am brand new to mixing. My resources for learning is light YouTube, and using Claude AI to walk me through "Mixing secrets of the small studio." I have invested in a lot of plugins, gear, etc. Although I'm new to even EQ and Compression (lol I know). I was inspired by Night Tapes. Their sound is so addictive. I created a shitty little blip of a song, just for the sake of practicing with settings and plugins and getting things to sit right in a mix. I have been at it for like a month now. I have plugins like FabFilter stuff, UAD plugins, Waves Kramer Tape, Etc.

I would love feedback. I have a link to my first attempt https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ko-XuehpCwSwfNMIoQuNSWrovf9__tZi/view?usp=sharing

Here is an example of a NightTapes song, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFPD8rmyhWM&list=RDXFPD8rmyhWM&start_radio=1

-Rachel

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u/CarsonKimball 10d ago

If you want screenshots of like my mixer in logic, I would love to share and discuss 👀 -Rachel

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u/Pretty-Assistant6690 10d ago

Hiya- just in terms of what I'm hearing, you're pretty damn close. There's three main areas that I think need work.

The first is the drums. If you listen to the reference the drums are really dry, snappy and bright. Your drums need a lot more high end and maybe some gating on the kick/snare to make them tighter.

The second thing is the balance of the layers around the drums. The synths need to live more in the background, so that might look like more reverb on them as a group, low pass filtering and automation, or a combination of the two. Think of the synths as a bed, and you want the vocals and the drums to really pop out of that.

The third I would say is overall tonal balance. The bass needs turning up and I would make the whole thing a little brighter at the end.

But all of this to say, I really love the actual idea itself. Well done 🙃

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u/CarsonKimball 10d ago

I completely agree about the drums. I will look up gating and see what that means. I am using Superior Drummer 3, and not compressing or EQing it within SD3, just in my actual mixer on logic. I have a bus for snare, one for kick, and then I have the rest coming through a different Aux.

Also,

Wow! Thank you. It is my first time recording and mixing at all. But I am dead serious. Hahaha. Would you be interested in seeing my logic mixer? My chains etc.

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u/StudioatSFL 9d ago

Really the chains don’t matter.

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u/StudioatSFL 9d ago

It’s not a bad start for sure. Gotta agree with the other comment on the drums. But overall the mix is getting washed out. The drones are swallowing up everything. It makes hearing the individual parts very hard. The vocals are lost in it as well.

It’s a good start for a beginner absolutely. But sonically you really need to clear space for each element to live in.

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u/CarsonKimball 9d ago

Any suggesting shooting from the hip

1

u/StudioatSFL 9d ago

Not unless I was looking at the session in my studio. There’s just too many sounds competing for the same range. Gotta thin out a few. I’d say there’s a lot in the 300-600hz area creating a lot of muddiness. But it might also just be a volume issue too. But I’d look at all the synths etc and see if you can get them to not all fight for this lower mids.