How would you mix this?

horse

I'm doing a little collaboration with @victorludorum ; - I'm aiming for a bit of an OTT 80's goth rock vibe, and there'll be a "dramatic" Sisters of Mercy type vocal to go with it. I've not done much in terms of the mix other than a bit of panning and a bit of compression & reverb on the drums.

I think I need to eq to make the low end less muddy (not sure what to cut yet - quite like the deep piano tone), and I'm planning on adjusting the piano so that the right hand parts don't move so much in the stereo field. Also thinking of layering in another snare to make that fatter. Think the piano needs some compression to even it out a bit.

I'm mainly looking for reverb tips. Usually if I'm trying to make something sound like a band I'd have a reverb shared by everything to try and make it sound like things are in the same room, but I'm not sure that's needed for something like this - maybe I should just be thinking about individual reverb treatments for each element and none shared overall? I think I'd like to have more of a tail on the snare, and maybe push the piano back with a bit of reverb in the bridge.

Also just interested in any other thoughts as to how you might take this and make it sound a bit more epic 80s goth rock? Broadly speaking, what would you do with it if you were mixing it from here?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xfjtkim3w1pvdl/Goth1.mp3?dl=0

Stuckfast

I think you probably need to rethink the drum programming a bit. Are you aiming for something that sounds like a real drummer? Or a powerful 80s style drum machine? I don't think that what you have at the moment quite achieves either. It's a bit too empty. The hi-hat is either absent completely or doesn't really gel with the kick and snare, and it all gets quite repetitive.

I think it needs a meatier bass guitar sound. At the moment, the only thing in the mix with any real low end is the kick drum and that isn't enough to drive the song forward. The bass guitar is operating purely in the midrange and so it's fighting with other elements without anchoring the bottom end at all.

On the piano front, you've got that effect where the piano is 100 foot wide and everything else is quite central. To my mind that makes everything sound weird and out of scale. Try making the piano mono or nearly mono, that should make it much easier to get a good level for it and will also allow other things to sound 'big'.

horse

Stuckfast said:

I think you probably need to rethink the drum programming a bit. Are you aiming for something that sounds like a real drummer? Or a powerful 80s style drum machine? I don't think that what you have at the moment quite achieves either. It's a bit too empty. The hi-hat is either absent completely or doesn't really gel with the kick and snare, and it all gets quite repetitive.

I think it needs a meatier bass guitar sound. At the moment, the only thing in the mix with any real low end is the kick drum and that isn't enough to drive the song forward. The bass guitar is operating purely in the midrange and so it's fighting with other elements without anchoring the bottom end at all.

On the piano front, you've got that effect where the piano is 100 foot wide and everything else is quite central. To my mind that makes everything sound weird and out of scale. Try making the piano mono or nearly mono, that should make it much easier to get a good level for it and will also allow other things to sound 'big'.

 Ta - on the drums I was going for basic big sounding drum machine - in my head having that quite basic pattern fits with the genre, but I'll relisten to some of that stuff again tonsee. Similar with the bass - I was deliberately higher up - bit like the cure might do, but agree with the clash with the low mids.

Piano, I quite like the panning on the left / lower notes - was thinking of splitting out the right hand part and narrowing the range on that - might well sound even odder though!