Mixing And Mastering Song For Album (with demo)

[kosowar]

Hello,

Right now I'm working on my first album. It's a power metal genre. It would help me much if you would listen to my short demos and tell me what's wrong and what's right with them.

Bellow I give you my first part of one song with NORMAL MODE (just mixed) and MATER MODE (mastered with trax).

http://www.maestroproduction.com/test/test01.mp3

Thank You

[mshilarious]

That is the mix, not the master? Honestly, that is not a finished mix, mastering cannot help. First off, it's practically mono. The guitar sounds is not ballsy enough. A good start would be to double the guitar track and pan the two tracks left and right.

The drums needs help. The kick is too bassy, and I can't barely hear the click. The snare has no crack. The cymbal . . . well, it sounds really fake, like all there is a fast, very bright shimmer, and there is only one cymbal, and it's panned center. Very unrealistic.

[kosowar]

Thnx,

I know it very unrealistic. I just made e 3 hours work on it. First I wantet to get some sugesstions what should I do.

The guitar is panned in two tracks with different EQ for each, but still no good sound :S

What should I do with bass drums and bass guitar, I know I cannot hear them much, but when I turn the volume more, they are too loud. I used EQ for them, but still no good sound.

[pingu]

Whats a mater

[pingu]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

That is the mix, not the master? Honestly, that is not a finished mix, mastering cannot help. First off, it's practically mono. The guitar sounds is not ballsy enough. A good start would be to double the guitar track and pan the two tracks left and right.

The drums needs help. The kick is too bassy, and I can't barely hear the click. The snare has no crack. The cymbal . . . well, it sounds really fake, like all there is a fast, very bright shimmer, and there is only one cymbal, and it's panned center. Very unrealistic.

Go easy on the poor chap.




















A tip

Its all in the tracking.

[Cyanide-Depende]

The Guitar track sound really thin, Did you DI or mic it? if you DI-ed the guitar, don't. If you miced it, try retracking it with the mic in a different spot, try using 2 differenc mics to get a broader pickup pattern, and thicken the sound without making it muddy

the drums, need to be eq-ed and panned. Overlayt the snare with a better snare track that has more snap, so you dont have to re record everything. This will take some time to match it up with the existing track, but once its done, erase the origonal track and you'll have a better snare sound.

comp the kick.

Bring the bass up but use some comression (be tasteful with it) I didnt even know there WAS a bass guitar in the song.

Theres more but im tired right now.... and I cant put it all into words.

-C$

[gcapel]

One thing for sure is that nothing really gets my attention or sounds believably real. What mic and mic methods are you using? What mic pre's are you using?

I'm no expert. I've been what I called recording training (boot camp if you will) for a two years or so. I have a drum kit and amps and what not to test with. I haven't even considered actually recording a band yet though. I want to be ready for the day I record someone for cash. One thing that as helped me is to set goals. For example, I would start by just mastering the art of tracking one instrument at a time. I'm dableing in mixing and mastering now a million miles away from success. I will jump back on drum tracking once I finish the acoustic obsorbtion project in the music room.

[kosowar]

I didn't use any mic for guitar. Here all my equipment:

I used this instruments:

1. Vocal (1 track, recorded with B1 Microphone and used some EQ)
2. Guitar (2 tracks, left and right with different EQ
3. Bass guitar (1 track, used EQ)
4. Drums (1 MIDI track BFD XFL with Pearl Kit)

I used softwares:
CubaseSX for recording
Waves Plugins for EQ,
Voxengo Voxformer for Vocal

I used this hardware:
M-Audio Firewire 1214
Behringer Digital Mixer DDX
V-amp Pro for guitar (and bass as preamp)


How to EQ the Bass and Drums? What should I accept more?

Thank You

[Cyanide-Depende]

Yea, I can tell the guitar wasnt miced. re record the guitar with mic's it will make a HUGE difference, Put the drums on multiple tracks in cubase and eq/compress each drum as needed separatly, and pan them like a real drum it would be.

This would make a HUGE difference

**
EQ Each Drum individually, just set your tom on to repeat one hit over and over again, and do small adjustments until it sounds like a real drum, for toms and kick, drop some of the high end out of it (though you may not need to since theyre sampled drums) and the kick def drop some of your lower frequencey, its way too boomy, try to find a better snare sample if you can, eq-ing snap into a snare is difficult, and even more difficult to explain. Persnally, drumkit frfom hell is IMO the best electronic sampled drum kit I've heard.

flatten out the bass eq and do small adjustments, add some compression to it, if it goes up and down in dynamics more than the music allows, put a limiter and an expander on it, that will flatten out all of the dynamics of the bass guiitar completley. then roll off some of the limiting/expanding untill you get the dynamic sound you like, but best way to fix the bass is to re-record it, if you have that kind of prob w/ dynamics then the executions was not good enough (I can't tell because I couildnt hear it on my headphones here at work) set the tone knob on the bass all the way up, the bass knob just past the middle volume all the way up, if you have a mid/blend knob, set that to the middle, flatten the eq on the board and just use the m-audio as the preamp, skip the berhinger, add effects after. The bass will come out more this way and sound cleaner. (those are the bass setting I use to get a good wide ranging sound, ie Mudvayne)

do this then listen to the vocals, they may sound better.

Hope this helps

[kosowar]

Hello,

I learnend some things, and changed some settings and mixings. What Do you thing about this second mix and mastering?

http://www.maestroproduction.com/test/test02.mp3

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by kosowar

Hello,

I learnend some things, and changed some settings and mixings. What Do you thing about this second mix and mastering?

http://www.maestroproduction.com/test/test02.mp3

It sounds like you rolled off the highs, turned up the bass, and limited it heavily, without addressing the underlying problems.

Go back to the bass and kick drum. I would try a low cut at 30Hz at least on the kick. Compress both until they are punchy. Right now your low end is a tub full o' goo. Those changes should uncover the highs. DO NOT limit it! test01 was plenty loud.