Reamping with axe fx, critique?

Nathan1984

New member
Ok so I have been experimenting with Ownhammer impulses with my axe fx ultra lately. I would love to see what everyone thinks of this mix, it's a cover of as I lay dying's nothing left. I reamped guitars with axe fx, reamped the bass with my RBI, and the drums of course were a combo of metal foundry and some samples I have laying around. Hope you enjoy. Any further questions about my approach, just let me know.

 
The guitar kind of takes a seemingly big drop in volume when the drums come in initially and only the left channel is playing. It "comes back" when the right channel rejoins but I find the short perceived dip in volume odd.

Your playing sounds tight. The tones sound pretty good for the genre. They don't sound overly digital and have a nice snarl. You could cut out the silent parts between chugs. There is often a shot "krzk"/scratch sound after you mute your strings. Edit those out.
 
Yeah, edit those palm mutes.

The one thing that really got to me was the kick drum part at 2min. Give the ears a break and open that part up. If it were a real drummer I would give him some downers. That just my personal opinion tho. Take it for whatever.

Solid playing man!

The snare is weak as hell tho. Needs more balls. Try another sample. It just sounds sad. :(
 
I think the guitar sound is really good. Tight playing too. Great job. I will say that the part where it all breaks down around 1:40 sounds pretty rough though with the what is being played on the drums and the guitar sounds between notes. I think you should maybe try a ride bell instead of that hat during that part.
 
The super-fast sound (mostly on the right - is that supposed to be a double-bass? Doesn't sound deep enough.
 
The super-fast sound (mostly on the right - is that supposed to be a double-bass? Doesn't sound deep enough.

Ok, here we go again. What you brought up makes me wonder. I actually hear the kick drum a bit louder on the left side...
 
How do I go about getting more thump in the low end? I get told that often, what I normally do is high pass the bass at around 40-50 hz, and around 45 hz for kick. Should I not do that or something, I don't really like to add anything when I eq, I use almost all subtractive eq typically. Maybe I need to add a sub to my rig, that way I can tell if I'm not getting that low end push.
 
I think this one has an arrangement issue. Or maybe it's a part issue. Well, it's a drum issue. That superfast flutterkick ought to slow down when the intro's done and the song proper starts at 0.22. Just an opinion.
 
I think this is really cool. I'm quite pleased to hear something like this without deep throat vocals as I always find those often take away from a piece.

I think the mix would benefit from approaching it in sections. When everything is playing, it all comes together very nicely and sounds really full. Especially those guitars that are driving this puppy. They sound fantastic to me. They are huge and defined. How does one get such a tight distorted sound? During the sections where the band drops out and you are doing accent hits (which sounds super cool by the way), the snare doesn't work as well as it does otherwise. Needs a big powerful CRACK in these sections. You know that sensation you get where someone is hammering something really loud and it kind of involuntarily forces you to close your eyes because it is almost startling? That's what the snare needs in those sections (in my mind, anyway). The cymbal hits sound very quiet and distant here too. It might be cool to offset those with a nice cutting china on the 2 - 4 or maybe replace it with a ride or simply bring it up.

Pretty awesome overall.
 
Nice to hear some metal here :) Great guitar tone! You should play with either your Axe patch or your technique to get rid of that noise after palm mutes. It's one of the harder things in playing metal guitar. I think editing them is really the last, last option.
 
Not much I can add to what's been said. Really good guitar tone. And very good playing.

I agree that you could probably fine a better snare sample. Something with a little more crack in it.
 
Back
Top