New Monitors, New Mix, Tony, Todd, and anyone else willing to help Options

[The Uncreator]

http://soundcloud.com/lascailles-shroud/pr...dreams-of-earth

I got some new monitors and this is the first mix I have done with them. For the time being I only used the monitors as reference so I can know what I need to get used to, I am sure I am doing something like over accentuating or under accentuating, so if you all could take a listen and let me know how it feels.

Its a shorter 'Synthstrumental', only 04:12 long so its nothing to overbearing like I usually do. It's based off an evolving chord progression, and I just keep layering it basically, simple effect that I like

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[Saoirse O'Shea]

OK here's my 2 cents:

Nice track that reminds me a bit of Tangerine Dream circa 'Tangram' and 'Fire Starter' and also of Michael Garrison's 'In the region of the Sun's return'.

Mix wise - I think that the overall mix is dominated by the bass. This results in a mix that to me is a both bit muddy and also has some boomy low end. To me it sounds like the bass is putting out a fundamental @ 45 Hz along with a much more dominant harmonic at @ 90 (althugh you can argue it's a fundamental at 90 and a sub harmonic at 45...). I'd be inclined to attenuate the bass end quite a bit and probably HPF it from 50 ish or shelf it from @75. There also seems to be a synth drone that is filling up a lot of the low mid in the 90-220 Hz end.

These low end synths, to me, are getting in the way of the drums. The drums sound rather recessed and a bit artificial/processed and hollow. Drums rolls, to me, are really rather lost in the mix. This might be a deliberate production decision but if it isn't I'd look at carving out a bit more space for the drums maybe by gating some of the low synths so that they dip when the kick drum and drum rolls trigger? The level of the various drum parts doesn't seem consistent from start to finish. I'd also look at increasing the level of the drum stem/group to bring them forward in the mix. Cymbals sound a bit tizzy and I kind of wonder if there is some (possibly deliberate) clipping and shearing here to get level? A lot of the synth sounds seem to rely heavily on producing a lot of harmonics (and some distortion). These are filling up the mix quite a lot and you might want to consider how this also impacts on the drums.

Intro section, and some other regions, to me relies a lot on ping ponging. Again this is a production decision but personally I think that if there is too much it can rapidly become just an over used effect. Similarly a lot of the synth lines seem to rely on quite a bit of modulation and when the mix gets quite dense you might wnt to think about reducing/changing this to create a bit more space.

Lead synth seems to shift tonality at @1:20 onwards compared with the earlier section.

Low end synth from 3:05 on to me lacks impact. The echo/reverb doesn't decay naturally to silence before the next synth hit and this, to me, robs the following synth note of impact. Again maybe a production decision but maybe consider increasing the level of the first hit and then using a more pronounced decay on the repeat echoes?

Tail cuts off rather sharply at @4:11 instead of decaying naturally.

Overall it's a nice track and the mix isn't bad but IMO could benefit from a careful look at the low end and at how the drums sit in the mix.

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