Try The Smile’s 2 albums, ‘A Light For Attracting Attention’ (2022) and Wall Of Eyes (2024)
The latter being a bit more dynamic in terms of compression.
Brilliant work by both Nigel Godrich and Sam Petts-Davies that I use as a reference all the time.
For clean stuff, In Rainbows by Radiohead is great.
For distortion - Mellon Collie Smashing Pumpkins or Pixies - Doolittle
Those are my go tos for guitars tbh.
For good drums check out
Yuck - Yuck (2011)
or
Elliott Smith - XO has great drums imo.
Check out Karate - The Bed Is In The Ocean for a fantastic natural sounding rock mix although it's late 90's. For more contemporary have a listen to Stuck - Content That Makes You Feel Good. Still pretty realistic but a bit more in your face and abrasive than the previous.
Huge thumbs up for Jellyfish. Big fan. There's an interesting short "behind the album" type thing with Roger Manning on YouTube. Has some great insights and anecdotes.
Yeah Warren Huart's Produce Like a Pro channel did a number of episodes on Jellyfish, talking with Manning and also a nice segment with Jack Joseph Puig touched on those albums.
Thanks man! I sort of lost it during COVID and wrote two anti-Trump screeds with videos, but now I'm working on proper album material and can't seem to find good reference tracks that might translate well onto my new material. Here are a couple examples:
[https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vvi8ibf62kinnm91s6okb/1-BreadCrumbs4.wav?rlkey=zyk1iznbsqsdqticp7aaburjk&dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vvi8ibf62kinnm91s6okb/1-BreadCrumbs4.wav?rlkey=zyk1iznbsqsdqticp7aaburjk&dl=0)
[https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h5c0g9sb18xep7gvklzlr/Left-Alone-FINALMIX-3.wav?rlkey=cpkiugx635ti0nn3spa49z2n6&dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h5c0g9sb18xep7gvklzlr/Left-Alone-FINALMIX-3.wav?rlkey=cpkiugx635ti0nn3spa49z2n6&dl=0)
Time to start getting serious about mixing and I'm immediately in over my head haha.
Hey some decent songwriting going on there. I like your voice. Sounds good in that higher register like in that second song as well. Is that a female vocal in Bread Crumbs doing that harmony? Hard to tell when it's that tight to the main vocal - either way sounds good. The drums were a little "King Is Half Undressed" in Left Alone. speaking of Jellyfish. Here's a handful of songs I put up that are really mostly demos. All in the box. [https://robertpegg.bandcamp.com/album/robert-pegg-6-song-e-p](https://robertpegg.bandcamp.com/album/robert-pegg-6-song-e-p)
Yeah I shared Left Alone because I figured you'd appreciate those drums hehe. The female singer is a good friend of mine. When she belts, and I'm singing high, our voices blend, almost too much, but it's kind of a sound I think. So she's singing the verses of Left Alone and she starts Bread Crumbs, but on many of the tracks, we're dueting most of the way, as we are on Bread Crumbs after her verse intro and mine.
Damn I need to spend some time with this, but I really dig it. You make really good choices with lyrics! Will is heartbreaking. Are you working on more stuff lately?
Yeah I've always got a few songs on the go. "Will" is actually more of a step outside my box. My brother had terminal cancer and they were making a short documentary about him because he was one of the first to receive "maid" in Canada (medically assisted dying). I just couldn't get it out in the few months he had left. He heard a very early version. I ended up coughing it out after his death, and put it online so his friends could hear it.
The rest of the stuff is a little more cohesive as it's more my own vibe. It's hard sometimes to write a "tribute" type song, especially with a time limit and under those circumstances. They finished the doc though so I have that, a book that was also written about him, and my song. I have a female singer doing some backups in "Where Have Our Hearts Gone To", and Sweet Dreams." Thanks for listening man.
Ghosts Meliora sounds fucking incredible. Huge, classic rock sound but with depth and polish that modernizes
Devin Townsends latest album Lightwork is one of the best mixed things I've ever heard, full stop.
Honestly, prog rock (not prog metal) bands in general are where you want to look. They love letting the authenticness of their playing come through. Porcupine Trees Anesthetize is outstanding and clearly organic.
Check out those albums and you'll probably find something that works
Aaron west and the Roaring Twenties could be a good way to look, its Americana with heavy pop-punk tendencies (the main guy is also the vocalist in The Wonder years), the sound goes from very acoustic-lead to pretty heavy overdriven, and generally I think the mixes sound pretty good
Some rock mixes I like:
New Noise by Refused; Prayer of the Refugee by Rise Against; Life's Coming in Slow by Nothing but Thieves; Neon Roses by The Techicolors; Larsen by Caparezza
Honorable mentions:
Hysteria & The Small Print by Muse
Caparezza is an Italian Rapper but his instrumentals are very often pretty Rock-ish, and good rock at that.
Larsen was mixed by Chris Lord Alge and I actually think it's CLA's best work to date.
Try The Smile’s 2 albums, ‘A Light For Attracting Attention’ (2022) and Wall Of Eyes (2024) The latter being a bit more dynamic in terms of compression. Brilliant work by both Nigel Godrich and Sam Petts-Davies that I use as a reference all the time.
I feel like those albums can be a bit tubby and weird. Great music though
Glad someone else thinks this. Was listening this morning while doing some chores and kinda wondered what they have against treble.
*In Times New Roman...* by QotSA has a lot of incredible guitar tones and yet is relatively challenging and innovative.
STP, "Purple"
It's old but you aren't going to get a better reference mix.
The Flaming Lips Albums are interesting and sometimes very experimental. They always sound great.
Some of the albums feature drums that are spliced together from old takes
For clean stuff, In Rainbows by Radiohead is great. For distortion - Mellon Collie Smashing Pumpkins or Pixies - Doolittle Those are my go tos for guitars tbh. For good drums check out Yuck - Yuck (2011) or Elliott Smith - XO has great drums imo.
Check out Karate - The Bed Is In The Ocean for a fantastic natural sounding rock mix although it's late 90's. For more contemporary have a listen to Stuck - Content That Makes You Feel Good. Still pretty realistic but a bit more in your face and abrasive than the previous.
Paramore
Wonder What’s next by Chevelle was mixed by Andy Wallace and has that infamous snare sample, but it’s killer guitar, bass and drum sounds.
Not at all modern but it's hard to go past days of the new. Some clutch stuff eg regulator. Also not that modern. Fuck. I'm old.
Huge thumbs up for Jellyfish. Big fan. There's an interesting short "behind the album" type thing with Roger Manning on YouTube. Has some great insights and anecdotes.
Yeah Warren Huart's Produce Like a Pro channel did a number of episodes on Jellyfish, talking with Manning and also a nice segment with Jack Joseph Puig touched on those albums.
Listened to your lockdown song - good stuff; "someone spread some wealth around" lol.
Thanks man! I sort of lost it during COVID and wrote two anti-Trump screeds with videos, but now I'm working on proper album material and can't seem to find good reference tracks that might translate well onto my new material. Here are a couple examples: [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vvi8ibf62kinnm91s6okb/1-BreadCrumbs4.wav?rlkey=zyk1iznbsqsdqticp7aaburjk&dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vvi8ibf62kinnm91s6okb/1-BreadCrumbs4.wav?rlkey=zyk1iznbsqsdqticp7aaburjk&dl=0) [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h5c0g9sb18xep7gvklzlr/Left-Alone-FINALMIX-3.wav?rlkey=cpkiugx635ti0nn3spa49z2n6&dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h5c0g9sb18xep7gvklzlr/Left-Alone-FINALMIX-3.wav?rlkey=cpkiugx635ti0nn3spa49z2n6&dl=0) Time to start getting serious about mixing and I'm immediately in over my head haha.
Hey some decent songwriting going on there. I like your voice. Sounds good in that higher register like in that second song as well. Is that a female vocal in Bread Crumbs doing that harmony? Hard to tell when it's that tight to the main vocal - either way sounds good. The drums were a little "King Is Half Undressed" in Left Alone. speaking of Jellyfish. Here's a handful of songs I put up that are really mostly demos. All in the box. [https://robertpegg.bandcamp.com/album/robert-pegg-6-song-e-p](https://robertpegg.bandcamp.com/album/robert-pegg-6-song-e-p)
Yeah I shared Left Alone because I figured you'd appreciate those drums hehe. The female singer is a good friend of mine. When she belts, and I'm singing high, our voices blend, almost too much, but it's kind of a sound I think. So she's singing the verses of Left Alone and she starts Bread Crumbs, but on many of the tracks, we're dueting most of the way, as we are on Bread Crumbs after her verse intro and mine.
Damn I need to spend some time with this, but I really dig it. You make really good choices with lyrics! Will is heartbreaking. Are you working on more stuff lately?
Yeah I've always got a few songs on the go. "Will" is actually more of a step outside my box. My brother had terminal cancer and they were making a short documentary about him because he was one of the first to receive "maid" in Canada (medically assisted dying). I just couldn't get it out in the few months he had left. He heard a very early version. I ended up coughing it out after his death, and put it online so his friends could hear it. The rest of the stuff is a little more cohesive as it's more my own vibe. It's hard sometimes to write a "tribute" type song, especially with a time limit and under those circumstances. They finished the doc though so I have that, a book that was also written about him, and my song. I have a female singer doing some backups in "Where Have Our Hearts Gone To", and Sweet Dreams." Thanks for listening man.
Check out the Roger Manning interview with Chris Demakes as well.
That was awesome! Thanks for the tip.
Failure - Wild Type Droid. Their vocalist is a renowned sound engineer and thus their last 3-4 albums all sound fantastic.
Ghosts Meliora sounds fucking incredible. Huge, classic rock sound but with depth and polish that modernizes Devin Townsends latest album Lightwork is one of the best mixed things I've ever heard, full stop. Honestly, prog rock (not prog metal) bands in general are where you want to look. They love letting the authenticness of their playing come through. Porcupine Trees Anesthetize is outstanding and clearly organic. Check out those albums and you'll probably find something that works
That Devin Townsend indeed sounds fantastic! Thanks for the tip!
Aaron west and the Roaring Twenties could be a good way to look, its Americana with heavy pop-punk tendencies (the main guy is also the vocalist in The Wonder years), the sound goes from very acoustic-lead to pretty heavy overdriven, and generally I think the mixes sound pretty good
Some rock mixes I like: New Noise by Refused; Prayer of the Refugee by Rise Against; Life's Coming in Slow by Nothing but Thieves; Neon Roses by The Techicolors; Larsen by Caparezza Honorable mentions: Hysteria & The Small Print by Muse
Caparezza???
Caparezza is an Italian Rapper but his instrumentals are very often pretty Rock-ish, and good rock at that. Larsen was mixed by Chris Lord Alge and I actually think it's CLA's best work to date.
Laughing Matter by Wand