Recorded a track and tried to master it. What do you think?

[BillMurray]

This is the gear I used.
. Line 6 Spider 4 (Guitar head into the Toneport)
. Toneport GX
. Clark Kent Impulses
. Cubase
. Gibson (Not very good pickups)
. Superior Drummer 2.0

Criticism welcome and appreciated

LINK TO THE SONG: Track 3 by BillMurray on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[in-pursuit]

Do you mean mix or master? I thought mastering was more to do with volume levels and what not for multiple tracks on an album or EP etc. I may be wrong though.

As far as the mix goes I'd probably try and work on the kick a little, theres way too much click and not much body to it for my tastes. Maybe bring the reverb on the snare down a fair bit as well, it's swimming a little. Everything is pretty well defined which is good, needs a bass track though

[niffnoff]

For a start your snare drum sounds lost to me, like I hear it under everything, like no crack at all. Your kick is very clicky but I think it's almost too much in the high register not enough punch. Compression and some raising of the lows (not the sub range more like 100hz-200hz) The toms sound like they are dead, no boominess or punch at all in those either. With your cymbals all I am hearing is hiss. Too much high frequencies aren't helping.

Your guitars are audible, very trebly and not cutting through as much. Give it a bit more low end and lose some treble in my opinion.

[niffnoff]

You almost ninja'd me dude ;_;

[mlabonte]

Kick is far too clicky. Hardly resembles a kick haha. Turn off the reverb on the snare track or turn it WAY down. Its hiding the snare majorly. Drums in general need a ton of work. EQ compression limit, etc. Guitars are too trebly and they don't cut through. Theyre just weak man. Keep working on it!

[BillMurray]

Thank you for the feedback. I should of said this was my first attempt at mixing drums. I will take the criticism into consideration. And as far as mastering goes, I only said that because I used Ozone 5 and a Limiter etc. Which I believe are mastering tools?

Bill.

[shnizzle]

i think the kick has been cover pretty good. the snare sounds like it´s just reverb but no actual snare hit. i think you focused too much on making it loud in the room mics.
yes, ozone 5 and limiter are mastering tools. but don´t do mastering when your mix isn´t finished.
to clarify the difference, think of mixing as putting all the ingredients together for a cake. they have to be at the right ratios to make the cake have any chance of tasting good in the end. mastering is like putting it in the oven and making sure it doesn´t catch fire. if the mix is bad the oven can´t help it. if the mix is good but you burned the thing you can through it in the trash as well. in musical terms, you use filters, compression and EQ (basics for mixing) to put each instrument at it´s place in the audible frequency range from 20Hz-20kHz. in mastering you use compression, limiting and EQ on the whole mix (not on individual tracks) to refine the mix and make it louder without squashing it to death.

[BillMurray]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback.

[niffnoff]

Originally Posted by BillMurray

And as far as mastering goes, I only said that because I used Ozone 5 and a Limiter etc. Which I believe are mastering tools?

Bill.

Mastering should NEVER be done while you are still mixing.

[mlabonte]

Originally Posted by niffnoff

Mastering should NEVER be done while you are still mixing.

That's an incorrect statement. You can master in your mix perfectly and I know those who do and they're mixes are fantastic. The main reason they say to stay away from it is because you'll start tweaking your mix to adjust for the master, not vice versa. If you leave the mix and master internally then there isn't a problem.

[niffnoff]

Originally Posted by mlabonte

That's an incorrect statement. You can master in your mix perfectly and I know those who do and they're mixes are fantastic. The main reason they say to stay away from it is because you'll start tweaking your mix to adjust for the master, not vice versa. If you leave the mix and master internally then there isn't a problem.

Eh I've been warned by 3 professional producers from it, but all to their own I guess. I've always been told to do it at the end of the mixing stage when you're finally happy with the mix.

[nosgulstic]

I master while I mix. No point in mastering after and then finding out your snare gets lost when you're done. Though it also helps to get someone else to master it for an outside perspective on it.