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i've been working on a recording of my band doing a blues cover (love in vain johnson/stones). the basic tracks (drums, bass, 2 guitars - except the bass mic didn't print for some reason) were recorded live in my garage/live room. i had a dude i know through the local open mic scene overdub slide, and i'm going to have another dude that fancies himself a blues singer overdub the vocals. i'll have to re-record the bass, possibly keyboard, maybe something else, but probably just the bass and it'll be done enough.i have an idea for a longer term project where i just get local people i know together to record covers. i'd like this track to be able to sit well on local and blues radio shows. it's never going to be a joe banamassa track (thank god, but i think you know what i mean) but i'd like some tips on making it sound more like a legit blues track.

If you're going for a straight up idiomatic genre mix, find a track that has similar or identical instrumentation that you like the sound of and bring it into your DAW as a reference. You can flip back and forth between your mix and the reference mix to try to get yours close.You'll be at a number of disadvantages trying to match a mix like this, as almost anything you reference will have been commercially recorded and mixed by a professional, and it will be mastered already. You will almost certainly have to bring the reference mix's level down considerably so you aren't tempted to bring your tracks up way too high in your mix where you will risk clipping everything. But nonetheless, this can be a useful exercise in ear training and can help you get closer to the thing you like.

I don't listen to any modern blues except for when I go to get a haircut.I think your drums are way too reverberant to fit the modern sound. The guitars too fuzzed out. Same goes for the vocal. Also, the mix is a little unbalanced with the right guitar being louder.Musically, I don't think this sounds like the type of blues you hear on the radio. Definitely not the guitar solos.

thanks tmoney. after thinking about it, i actually had a hard time finding contemporary blues that i could stomach. i couldn't make it 30 seconds into a kenny wayne shepherd song. i did find a few examples, white stripes, black keys, though they were still in the 'alternative' spectrum (which this track will inevitably be as well). i kind of like gary clark jr. so i was sort of using his first ep as a casual reference. this is a tape based project and i'm mixing out of the box into reaper. i'm sure theres a way to get one of his tracks into reaper so i can a/b that way, but i'm not that smart. so i'm just listening to both on my laptop.i got the vocals done. still need to do bass, though it's there in the drum overheads somewhat. i have a mix going where i am trying to give it a sort of by the book rock eq treatment. lots of attack on the kick, reverb on the snare, vocals way up front.i was squashing the vocals like crazy but we kind of liked the effect so we went with it.here's a link to the mix i have going. i welcome any feedback.https://soundcloud.com/user-39165224/livmix1

I think the kick and snare could be tighter and louder, and the vocal could come down a hair, but of course it's going to sound different with the bass on.The main thing that makes it not sound "professional" or "radio friendly" are the guitar intro which is shaky and unconfident and has some clanging open strings and other noises which sound mistakey, and the drummer makes quite a few fairly obvious timing fumbles. It sounds like your drummer isn't comfortable playing in 6/8 and that's apparent in the first 4 bars. It gets off to a bit of a rough start.The vocals sound great though, and everything works better once the whole mess is colliding together. I think you could pull this off, but you guys just need to practice playing blues a bit more because it sounds like it's your first go. I know it IS your first go but they won't play you on blues radio shows if it sounds like it. You gotta get the feel right. Work on that guitar intro and lock your drummer in the garage and don't let them out until they can play that beat consistently.Or simplify it; do less, avoid the problems, just make sure that backbeat arrives on time.

thanks for taking the time to listen and reply eliya. i really appreciate the feedback.i am by no means trying to create a modern blues hit. it's more an exercise in doing things a bit more traditionally in order to make it more easily digested by the masses rather than more esoteric which has been my tendency.the basic tracks were done in a kind of a hurry and without much forethought as to what we were doing with it and we were also having fun trying out different distortion tones. i had toned the snare down a bit with less high, more low-mid thump, and with more top mic, but the drummer wanted it snarey-er. i'm adding some reverb to the snare but i'm not in love with it. i had not noticed the balance issue, and i hadn't checked the mix on headphones, but you are right, right side guitar should come down.again, i'm not shooting for some sort of promotion to mainstream blues radio, but theres not much going on in maine, my hope is that if it gets played on some local and blues college radio shows that the mix would sit well next to other stuff that is likely to get played next to it.

https://soundcloud.com/user-39165224/love-in-vainhere's the latest / probably final mix with bass. i could write a whole aside about the constraints of recording at home, using analog gear in a home studio, and balancing early parenthood with music life, but not right now.i did try and tighten up the snare, while still appeasing the drummer who likes it snarey) and brought the kick up as well. i was being pretty tongue in cheek when i titled this thread, but my intention was to focus on mix issues. the performance stuff is another conversation altogether. i don't think it's in 6/8 but that would be rad if it was as i don't think i've ever played in something other than 4/4 without being aware of it.

Absolutely it's in 6/8. ONE-ta-ta-TWO-ta-ta.

numberthirty wrote:Huh. That is squarely "12/8' in my head. More like "Blueberry Hill" than "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".That said, it does get murky.

one and a two and a three and a four and a. is that 6? doesn't matter, nor does a mix engineer's personal feeling towards a track. sloppy, rocking blues band "um, hi. will you mix our song?" ea forum: "GO BACK TO THE GARAGE!"