Critique and help required - metal!

schismatic

New member
Hey guys, I realise that this song is early in production, i've basically done hardly anything to it except record. I am looking for a large, in-your-face sort of sound. I'm covering Hand of Blood by Bullet For My Valentine (feel free to check it out to compare mine to the original), and I would like some advice on how to mix it better. I'm completely new to mixing, and unfortunately am not using great monitors to do it. When I listen to what I've done so far, I feel that my guitars sound a bit muddy and not bright enough even though they're meant to be heavy and chugging. I would also like some help on drum levels and in particular the cymbals and hi-hats - have no idea how i should be placing these within a mix. My drums are drumkit from hell samples through battery and the guitars and bass are me. I suppose I'd just like some opinions and pointers about how to settle everything into the mix better.
You can find my very unmixed version so far at: Hand Of Blood (Un-mixed)

Thanks!

Tom
 
I think... there's some cymbal (china?) a bit too up and kick and snare a tad low. Guitarsound was ok to me. Haven't heard the original...though..
 
thanks for having a listen, I appreciate it! I'll try doing what you suggest and see if i get a good result. I still think those guitars could be brighter and more 'together' if you get me, I'm a bit clueless about how to make this happen though - eqing to get them a bit brighter? How would I know which frequencies?? Is there some sort of analyser I can use?
 
Its really hard to tell whats going on or give any advice on what to do at this point. List what you have mic'd on the drum kit, because all I can really hear is the cymbals. I posted a metal song in here and only got one or two comments on it, I don't know if it's because of the genre or if there just isn't a high response in general in this forum. They were really nice and helpful but even the people that did comment on it said it's totally not their style of music. I hope you get acccomplished what you want.
 
The intro's use of the cymbal sounds like it might be the soundtrack to a Kung Fu action flick. Nix or reduce that cymbal mate - it's torture.
It's hard to comment further as the sample was so small I couldn't get any development or satisfaction - just a long intro.
Where's the bass drum? Where's the bass for that matter? Too many elements seem to have been sacrificed for the guitar & cymbal tones.
A really big drum roll sounds like a sausage roll it's so far back - it should be presaging a change not hinting that it exists.
Start from mono & do some EQ'ing until you get definition in each instrument then set reasonable levels & THEN pan.
 
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