https://soundcloud.com/randy-nasworthy/the-beginning-extended

Tell me how I could make this better from a mix stand point. I still need to clean it up a little, but other than that, I'm not sure where to go from here. Also, how can I make it more interesting? I've always thought that the guitars should carry the song and I'm not sure if they do that here. Help!

The guitars are stomping on the mix with big muddy boots. You need to spend some time with EQ to leave room for the bass, and back them into the mix to become part of it - cut some lows and look for some of the those resonances in the mids that are cheapening the sound. Apart from the guitars and the kick drum, the rest of the arrangement is getting lost.

Have a look at the timings in the guitar track too. For this type of music to work the instrumentation needs to be absolutely pin-sharp in time. The fact that the guitars are so overbearingly loud is drawing attention to every slight timing error.

HTH

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

+1 to all that. The guitars are WAY too high in the mix. This not only draws attention to the timing issues, but also cramps all the foundations of the track in the drums and bass, which really need to be able to drive this thing along. It's hard to hear the drums properly, but I sense the kick is a bit full and sluggish sounding in contrast to the rest of the kit. The snare, which is crucial to this sort of groove, is getting lost. Ditto the cymbals. I'd think about 'hollowing' the guitars out a bit in terms of the stereo field, so that you have some space down the centre for drums and bass. Ditto play around with high-passing the guitars. I realise you want a big, full-sounding guitar wall of sound here, but simply having them loud isn't the right way to achieve that on a record. I sense that some of these criticisms are due to inadequacies in the mixing system (speakers, room treatment...) but mostly I sense that your main instrument is guitar and you see the rest as being in support of that... rather than everything working together.

Thanks guys, taking notes. I want you all to rip this thing to shreds. Btw, I'm using Mackie MR8 MK2's for monitoring on auralex pads. No real room treatment so that could be a limiting factor. More advice is welcome!

First impressions with fresh ears:

Guitars sound great

Sounds like big guitars, and some other stuff in the background

Why did the bass go away half way through the song?

Song does not build musically. Just big guitars all the time. But they do sound good.

Drums sound thin.

Lack of balance between instruments robs the intensity of the music. Because, well its just big guitars, that sound good, forever... That's boring I guess...

Lol I guess I need to turn guitars down. I just got the Pod Farm Platinum 2.5. To me it sounds bad, idk I guess just comparing it to my old amp. I've had a hard time finding a good tone with it. It sounds alright when you do multiple tracks, but not the clarity I wanted. I'm not sure if its something I'm doing or my guitar that's robbing it of the clarity. It sounds good through my Line 6 though. I was hoping to get more tones and have more flexibility with it.

The reason the guitars sound so big is I just cranked the volume up on the Pod. I'm used to having to do all sorts of things to make everything sound bigger with my old set up. I think it was just the computer I was using. Now I have to turn everything down lol.

Another thing that's weird with the balancing I've dealt with is, when I bounce to mp3 and listen to it on other computers the drums are way higher than it sounded on my monitors. So I turned them down a lot to compensate. Maybe I turned them down too much.