New Metal Band, Need mixing help

E

emergencyexit

New member
Been recording this one for four days.

Drums:

2 Kel HM-1s for overheads no particular placement technique besides being measured equally to the bass drum and snare. 57 on snare about 3 inches up and one inch back faced towards the center. Beta 52 1 inch into the whole of the bass drum, and one 57 on the batter side 2 inches from the batter faced right at the center of the drum. 2 MXL 603s on rack toms 2 inches up and 1 back faced towards the center. Shure KSM 27 2 inches up and 2 back from the floor tom faced towards the center. Drum set was a Tama Rockstar stage custom with remo ambassader resos and Evans G2 batters. Bass drum had an aquarian reso and an Evans Emad 2 batter. Snare was a Joey Jordison signature.

Guitars:

Guibson Les Paul into a compressor/gate into a Peavy Valve King into an Avatar 4x12 with the grill taken off. One speaker was miced with a 57 about 4 inches from the cone. The other speaker was miced with a KSM 27 3-4 inches from the cone faced towards the center. We also ran a DI from the head.

Bass:

Some Ibanez into a gate/compressor into a some old Peavy bass head, into a 2x15 miced with a Beta 52 3" from the cone. We also ran a DI from the head.


Everything was recorded into M-Audio Octane Pre-Amps which went to A Motu 828 mkII interface into a G5 running logic 7. There are two guitar parts, and two tracks of overdubbed squeals and chugging/sustaining chord parts. There is a snare trigger backing the snare track, and a bass drum trigger backing the two bass drum tracks. Snare, bass drums and toms are EQed and bass drums and snares (including triggers) are sent to a compression bus. Bass is sent to this same buss. Guitars are completely dry, besides being panned. There are no vocals yet, but they will come soon.

This is a pretty rough mix, but bash away because I feel like it sounds better than most of what I record.

Also, I posted this on an other forum, and didn't get any feedback at all after 2 days, so I'm really begging you guys for help.




Ben
 
This has potential, but you are lacking pretty much all low end. On my monitors, I hear virtually nothing below 250 Hz. It sounds as if I were listening to your mix on a systems with small 4" monitors and a subwoofer...except the subwoofer went out. There is just no bass or low end at all. I'd address that before anything else.
 
HA HA HA HA!!!! You know what? I WAS listening to your mix on small speakers and my subwoofer WAS turned off.....good Lord, I am retarded. Sorry man...
 
No thats completely alright, honest mistake, but could you listen to it now and give me some other critique. Also, I don't think you are too far off, the mix doesn't have much bass in it, but the guitars I fealt made up for that.

Keep in mind that this is a recording of only two people.

Ben
 
This sounds a bit like Amon Amarth. The mix isn't too bad, good tones, just a bit on the muddy side. I would make the bass guitar have more presence in the mix so the guitars could utilize more of the high frequencies without it becoming thin sounding.. the guitar should not cover up the bass very much ideally.. The snare I feel sounds too covered up, although it has a nice body to it, I just like it to have a bit more slap.. the metal mixes I've been hearing on this site lately either have too much high end, or not enough.. yours falls into the latter category.
 
Too your credit I can hear everything with the exception of the bass. Thats ok though because I am guessing in this style, he is not doing much outside of the guitars. The drums sound like they could use some more processing. They are a little boxy right now. The overheads sound pretty dull for a metal recording as well. Are you hi-passing the guitars? Might help getting the kick/bass to poke through a little better. Reminds me of lamb of god.

wireneck
 
Wireneck: That is the second time I've heard that it reminds someone of lamb of god. No I don't have a hi-pass on the guitars in fact the guitars don't have anything on them yet. I'm thinking I should suck a little bit out of the low mids to get rid of some of the muddiness in them and make some room for the bass. I do agree about the dryness of the drums. The reverb plug-in I'm using souds nice alone, but can't be heard in the mix. What other kind of processing would you suggest for the drums?

Mistral: I feel like the only thing making the mix muddy is the guitars, maybe the drums a little too. Like I said I will go back and try sucking some low mids out of the guitars, and maybe adding something around 3khz. I agree that the mix is a tad too dark. I have this problem with the majority of the mixes I make.

I'll try some stuff out and re-post.

Ben
 
Nice tune, I guess I could pick up a little Amon Amarth vibe, and musically maybe a little "All that Remains" too. Pretty cool stuff...

Something weird happens with the guitars at 1:19. Not sure if it was intentional or not. It sounds like EQ automation or panning or something. Anyway, the guitar tone changes noticably.

Compared to Amon Amarth or even Lamb of God, I think the guitars are lacking some high end "bite", and have a lot of midrange - unless you are intentionally going for a more old school sound - again not sure if that is what you are going for.
 
I really love the guitar tone. Question, you said you ran DI from the head also, did you run a clean signal and use an Amp Modeler, or what? I'm really curious cause I love the guitar tone you came up with. Details!

Besides that, the drums sound a little weak too me. The kick needs to be fucking in your face, ya know? I would also try to deaden the snare a little, get rid of the little ring it has, and make it sound a little more punchier. Also, for metal, I like the overheads to be kind of low in the mix, brings out the guitars more. This is just my opinion but it's definitely a sweet mix, when you get vocals post that.

Thanks dude, good shit. =]
 
DI from the head most likely means it was the same sound as the distortion going into the cab, but with speaker simulation.
 
the song is pretty rad, but i feel that the mix doesn't quite do it justice

the lead tone on the guitars is pretty sweet, but i don't like it much for the rythym - i would attribute that to the amp myself...i recorded a valveking head a little while back, and it sounded a lot like what you have here, which neither myself nor the band was happy with. that project has since been put on hold until the guitarists obtain a mesa triple recti...which i think actually just happened this last weekend

the drums sound ok, but i would bring the kick out a bit, and do something with the snare...for whatever reason it's just bugging me throughout the track...a pure guess would be that the sample is giving it the funny quality, but who knows. cymbals sound pretty good...toms could stick out a little more i guess as well
 
The DI went from the head into a DI box into an m-audio octane pre-amp. It was using the distortion from the head like Mistral said. It was a technique someone recomended to me for "heavy guitars". This was the first time I had tried it and personally I'm not too much of a fan. It definatly adds a fizzy side to the recording, but I feel like I could fatten up the tone better if I DI a clean signal into the guitaramp plug in on logic 7. I have it turned wayyy down in the mix.

The guitar change was because they were on two seperate tracks. The left side 57 guitar track had an EQ on it until 1:19. The guitarist did this in two takes so when it switches takes, it switches tracks because he overlapped himself a little bit, and any track cutting sounds unnatural. So the effect is no longer there when the takes switch.

I also feel like the drums are lacking a bit. First of all the overheads snare and toms need to be sent to a bigger sounding reverb. They are being sent to one but I think the output is turned down way too much. I just got these KRK Rock-it 8s and it seems like all the effects I apply are much more prominent on them.

There is actually an EQ boost on the real snare track on that ring frequency with pretty narrow Q. The drummer asked me to make the ring in his snare louder. Its like a 5db boost so I'll take it down to 2 or 3 and see what that does. There is also a boost in the low mids (must be around 500-700Hz) with a wide Q about 8db. The snare was pretty thin sounding so I tried to add these low mids to help it get some body.

Ben
 
Overheads sound so roomy. Less ambient is good for metal. You want really tight sounds. Not spacious sounds.

Guits can be dealt with as can the bass, just by eq an a proper cocktail of plugins.

Drums are the hardest thing to record IMO.
Match that with the fact that they are even harder to produce properly in this genre.

First thing id do is gate the drums individually with a plug in gate.
Then pull some 350 out of each drum (Minus 2-5 db).
Then add 2-5 db of 10khz to each drum.

(these are very vauge ideas on purpose, use your ears! if it sounds better to boost at 9k then DO THAT)

Then go get drummagog. and mix in some samples with your kick and snare.

Here are some great ones to get started with.

http://www.drumagog.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=18

Once youve done the drum thing hit me back.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top