@gastric_bass: i recently mixed a “maqueta” (sort of a low quality demo in spanish), recorded live with 8 microphones (using a BR1600 Boss, exported the audio files to Ardour and processed everything from A3 alpha 4), the band plays trash metal and i’ve been using some songs they tell me for somewhat tuning the sound of the finished product, i got a sound that i like (although quite far from pro) i’ll be sharing one song soon here for you guys comment on that sound.
from this recent experience and the mastering of that audio, i find the kick drum a bit absent from the mix, dont really know if thats the intention on it, the guitars sound very good, stereo sounds good, but the drums in general seem quite under guitars/voice mix, volumes of all instruments seems to me very stable which is very good, voice sounds good, cant comment on bass since my earphones don’t allow me to listen to it good.
about the final volume on master, its pretty loud, you can actually “see clipping happening in totems visualization”, if you check your files with audacity you’ll see that the tracks seem a big blue block, when you zoom in you will see a lot of clipping which will sound to your ears as mix distortion and little dynamic range, lowering the overall quality of the mix, i dont know if thats the intention of this mix/master, just pointing that out…
i’ve been using invada’s tube distortion at gain 2 more or less to get a little soft clipping even after calf’s multiband compressor to prepare the mix for the limiter (all tools available too withing JAMin), i tend also to compare the master im exporting with other songs of the genre in audacity, that gets me an idea about volumes, instruments mixing etc.
i hope that helps, at the end audio/music is very subjective and im not by all means an expert mixer, editor nor producer, im actually very fond of the “try & fail and eventually succeed after learning from your own mistakes” path.
Greetings from Caracas.
Edit:
Here is one of the songs i recorded @ 8 track, and mixed - mastered in ardour: hope you find it helpful, any ideas or comments on this mix will be greatly appreciated so i can improve my methods and techniques.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=15G5O1SN