"Metalcore" Demo

C

Crwaite

New member
Hey guys! I have been spending the last few months dabbling in some home recording. I just wanted to get any advice/ tips on improvements ect. the drum samples are Chango samples and I know there are many people out there who do not really like that sort of sound so if you don't then apologies for that. Also this mix only has some awful sounding midi bass in at the beginning as finding a decent bass tone from the gear I have was proving to be very difficult.

If you want to know what im using gear wise-
-Cubase 5
-Tascam US-122
-Alesis M1 Active USB monitors
-Lepou guitar plugins and Impulse Cab
-Chango drum samples

So yeah and tips, advice or feedback on the recording would be fantastic! (oh and im aware the playing isnt spot on, theres alot of noise and slips as the song was recorded fast just to get it down)

Thanks for your time guys
 

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  • Demo 1.mp3
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It sounds great man! I want to know how did you do those insane bass drops, I've heard them way too often, share the secret! ;) Well, I can't compare this to a professional recording, but what it needs is some mastering IMO, it lacks some of the punch you get from "real studios n shit". Pretty nice tone in guitars too. I can hear the slips n such, but hey, all in the name of a demo. Great work.
 
Thank you very much! And thank you for the feedback it's much appreciated. Yea that track isnt mastered properly at all, all I did was put some eq a multiband compressor and and limiter. But I not really competent with mastering so it does definately lack a punch! And the sub drops in that song is a joey sturgis sub, I just altered it with eq to how I wanted it. You can purchase the sample for about £5 pounds on his website. Or there are loads of ways making your own, I think there are quite a few YouTube vids that show you how! Thanks again!
 
Were these guitar tracks copied and panned? It sounds like something is out of phase, like there's a hole in the mix, and copy/paste/shift guitar tracks are usually the culprit. Not a pleasing listen at all to me.
 
No both guitars were recorded individually and the only bits copied and pasted are the sections. (choruses, verses etc) I never do one take on one track and copy it to the other if that's what you mean. But yes they are panned, and the bass would sit in the middle once record it, so that may fill the void in the centre that you mention? The phasing may be down to the guitar work not being tight in complete sync?
 
Perhaps no bass being in there is the problem. The guitars not being completely 100% in sync is a good thing. That won't cause what I'm hearing.

The next thing I'm gonna tell you is the same thing that I pretty much tell everyone that uses fake guitars and drums - humanize the sound. None of it sounds real. Maybe you don't want it to and that's fine. The guitars sound thin and direct and the drums sound like a robot is playing them. Not a big deal really for this genre, but you can make it better. I don't know what kind of cab impulses you're using, but look for more depth. The guitars sound paper thin and two-dimensional. They lack the chunk of a real mic'd speaker. The drums....they're just too monotonous. Every hit and cymbal crash sounds the same and there's no variation. Like I said, it's robotic. That's usually okay for this stuff, but you can do more with it. The drum sounds are good, they just need more humanizing.

And for the record, I'm no fan of metalcore, or really any modern insert-cool-name-core, so maybe this is exactly how it's supposed to sound. I dunno. I'm just saying what I hear and hopefully it helps you in some way..
 
Greg_L said:
Perhaps no bass being in there is the problem. The guitars not being completely 100% in sync is a good thing. That won't cause what I'm hearing.

The next thing I'm gonna tell you is the same thing that I pretty much tell everyone that uses fake guitars and drums - humanize the sound. None of it sounds real. Maybe you don't want it to and that's fine. The guitars sound thin and direct and the drums sound like a robot is playing them. Not a big deal really for this genre, but you can make it better. I don't know what kind of cab impulses you're using, but look for more depth. The guitars sound paper thin and two-dimensional. They lack the chunk of a real mic'd speaker. The drums....they're just too monotonous. Every hit and cymbal crash sounds the same and there's no variation. Like I said, it's robotic. That's usually okay for this stuff, but you can do more with it. The drum sounds are good, they just need more humanizing.

And for the record, I'm no fan of metalcore, or really any modern insert-cool-name-core, so maybe this is exactly how it's supposed to sound. I dunno. I'm just saying what I hear and hopefully it helps you in some way..
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Overall, you're on to something good here, but I agree with Greg--it's a bit robotic. Spend some time tweaking those drums. And the guits need some "oomph." Definitely re-post with the bass--that'll make a big difference.
 
The phasing is definitely something I will have a look into then!

Yeah totally get what you mean about the robitcness of the whole thing. I had a very hard time with the cymbals in particular That sort of sound pretty standard in that genre but I think as you said I can try to do more to reduce that somewhat.

The impulses were a download called Sperimental Pack, I believe I used a Oversized Mesaboogie cab with SM57 and I mixed in a NT5 room mic lower in volume too. I was trying to get as much clarity as I could from the guitars, so maybe a boost in the low end might give them a bit beef?

Its good to have someone who isn't really into the genre to have a listen and give opinions and advice on things so I really appreciate that. Ill definitely take the advice on board and see what I can do!

And I be sure to re-post it when if done a load more tweeks and recorded the bass to see if you think its an improvement!
 
I think the guitar playing is real good.

I agree that the guitars sound a little thin. In addition, they sounded a little "warbly" in the mids - like somewhere around 1K. I'd take Greg's advice and do some more experimenting with sounds.

I think you're OK on phase. I collapsed the thing to mono and it didn't seem to cause any more problems than it does on a pro mix.

Agree on the drums too. But they may be OK for this genre - not sure. Just a personal preference thing.
 
TripleM said:
I think the guitar playing is real good.

I agree that the guitars sound a little thin. In addition, they sounded a little "warbly" in the mids - like somewhere around 1K. I'd take Greg's advice and do some more experimenting with sounds.

I think you're OK on phase. I collapsed the thing to mono and it didn't seem to cause any more problems than it does on a pro mix.

Agree on the drums too. But they may be OK for this genre - not sure. Just a personal preference thing.
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Yeah I agree, after taking a break a listening back the guitars definitely lack that nice thick tone somewhat. I think its down to the EQ. I may open the gate up a bit as well as it might be taking some of the tone away? and thanks about the playing, there is still a lot a want to go back re-do. I may buy some thicker strings and re-record the lot. :)
 
I suspect some of the weirdness may be from over-compression. I think I heard the volume of individual sounds phasing pretty severely with the volume of the song.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I suspect some of the weirdness may be from over-compression. I think I heard the volume of individual sounds phasing pretty severely with the volume of the song.
Click to expand...

yeah i used a free limiter plugin called Classic Limiter on the "master setting" just to bump the volume, so it being a free limiter probably means its quality is pretty poor and making it sound odd?
 
I think it sounds pretty good man! as far as it sounding "robotic" .... that really is kind of the style of the genre... everything extremely fast and extremely tight.. no real swing

Guitars sound a bit flat, cool editing!
 
CMB Studios said:
I think it sounds pretty good man! as far as it sounding "robotic" .... that really is kind of the style of the genre... everything extremely fast and extremely tight.. no real swing

Guitars sound a bit flat, cool editing!
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HugoRibeiro.Com said:
Everything has been said already.. hehe.. so I'll just say that the riffs are kick-ass!

cheers
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Thanks guys! glad you enjoyed it! I will work on the guitars some more and repost the demo when iv done all the changes and the bass!
 
The thing I really liked about this is there`s no growler or screacher on it. I would love this type of music if it was always Instrumental.
 
Crwaite said:
yeah i used a free limiter plugin called Classic Limiter on the "master setting" just to bump the volume, so it being a free limiter probably means its quality is pretty poor and making it sound odd?
Click to expand...

Free plugins can give you decent results. I'm not sure about that one. But you do still need to use them correctly. If you're applying too much compression, even a really good limiter is going to sound bad.
So yeah, try easing back the limiter and see if that helps.
 
Hey guys its been a while but here is an update with Bass guitar and a different tone for the guitars! :) Let me know what you think!
 

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  • VIDEO SONG 2 MP3.mp3
    3.6 MB · Views: 4
Much better. The drums still sound pretty robotic, but this is pretty standard for the genre. The guitars seem pretty good.
 
Cheers Greg :) Yeah for sure. I'm still not happy with the toms really, I think out of all the drum parts they sound the most robotic. so I may find some new samples for that.
 
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