Metal? I thought I would throw myself to the wolves

Ralis

New member
I bought the Killer Home Recording ebook a few years ago and in spare time, here and there put a small home studio together to record my band when time allows. I work crazy hours.

I am using ProTools 11

an MBoxPro interface

For the Bass I did two tracks I used a sans amp DI and a Peavey XXX head on the clean channel going into a mesa 4x12 loaded with Black Shadow speakers. It was mic'd with an SM57 and a Sure Beta52A Kick Mic blended in a small Berhinger mixer then into the MBox pro

For the Guitar I did 4 tracks. All through the Peavey XXX into the Mesa 4x12 Mic'd with a SM57 towards the edge of the speaker and a Beta58 in the center of the speaker, blended the mics in a small Berhinger mixer. Two guitar tracks were scooped and two are mid heavey

The Drums, I built an electronic 5 piece kit. It was an old DDrum set I got used then soldered up the piezo's and made my own triggers. I took the old broken heads and cut the mylar off then sewed on 1 layer of fabric and two layers of window screen to make my own mesh heads. I bought used Roland cymbals off ebay and replaced the piezos to the cymbals that needed it.
I got a used Roland TD-11 off ebay with the wiring harness and plugged it all in. It took a few days to get the settings right and then once the real drummer got behind the kit it took about 2 hours to dial it in as he plays an acoustic set. I just don't have the gear or situation to record acoustic drums yet. He took to it well as I built the kit to match his own.
The Roland module went into the MboxPro as an audio signal and a midi track. The audio was for reference and during the mix I replaced it with the midi track going into Addictive drums 2. I had to manually move the hihat to the correct sound and the ride bell as the midi mapping was not perfect.

For the Keys I played a used MAudio Oxygen midi controller into the protools plugins Air Xpand!2 and Air Structure Free

For the vocals I did three tracks. The main, a double and a low. All recorded with a Rode NT-1 then into a small Art MP Studio pre-amp then into the MBox Pro.

The song is called "Hell on Earth" and the band is Gothic industry.

it is not mastered as I do not know how to do that yet
 

Attachments

  • HellOnEarth101318.mp3
    10 MB · Views: 32
Not too bad for Goth kind of feel. The vocals seem a bit on top/dry and the snare is just yucky...

Wait, what is your question here? :)
 
Just looking for feed back/constructive criticism.
By On top do you mean too loud? and dry, perhaps some reverb?
 
For some reason I am not getting the rim shots in Addictive drummer2 he hit them and they were tracked but thty did not come through
 
Just looking for feed back/constructive criticism.
By On top do you mean too loud? and dry, perhaps some reverb?

Cool.

Yeah, On Top meaning loud. Creating a bit of space with the vocals always helps. Sometimes a subtle reverb and or delay so that it isn't so 'in your face' raw.

Who is 'He' in regards to Addictive Drummer?

I just think the snare sample does not fit the song at all. But that is just my opinion...
 
Thank for the input on the vocals

"He" is our drummer I recorded his performance om my home built ekit
 
Vocals are the least of the issues IMO. That snare it not good. Change that. :)

I think both really need to be addressed. The snare needs more crack, the vox are way too loud for the genre. Plus, "goth" is gonna mean some reverb or delay on the vox.

The synths and guitars are good. Bass is pretty indistinct, but that flies in metal.
 
I think both really need to be addressed. The snare needs more crack, the vox are way too loud for the genre. Plus, "goth" is gonna mean some reverb or delay on the vox.

The synths and guitars are good. Bass is pretty indistinct, but that flies in metal.

Agreed. Was just saying the vocals were the least important to start with. I wasn't clear...
 
Thanks for sharing. Gotta admit this is not my usual kind of genre, but the riff is cool and clearly well thought out.

Agree that the snare (and kit in general) sounds a little "flat" to me. For the snare, I'd actually try something with a bit more "thickness" to it. Agree that it could do with some crack, but I think it needs some body too. The kick doesn't do much for me, but that might be a genre thing?

The vox performance is great (makes me think of Christopher Lee's metal offerings!) but some kinda effect might give them sound a little less direct.

Good luck!
 
In my experience with the basic Addictive Drums samples, they need more work to push through a mix. You may have decent samples, but as with all drum sample programs, they need some massaging with compression and verb to make them really fit a song. Maybe more than one sample at a time. No one sample fits right out of the box...


I like it enough that I am willing to help if you want it.
 
I took the advice given,

and did a second pass on the mix

I switched out the AD2 Snare sample with 2 layered samples and tweaked the effects on the kit just so slightly

I dialed back the vocals and added some reverb and a hint of delay

I took off the low pass filter I had on the bass this really brought the presence back to the bass, he is a finger player and i was worried about pick-up/fret noise but I actually like it in there.

The kicks do not sound good on my laptop but are great on my monitors
 

Attachments

  • HellOnEarth101518.mp3
    10 MB · Views: 7
"You might get a better response posting in the original thread.

It'll at least help the rest of us remember what was happening in the previous mix better!

The snare is better. Vocals are sitting better in the mix.

Overall, it seems quiet (not necessarily a bad thing at this phase; you can master later). Did you adjust overall volume up to compensate for the vox? "

I moved this to the original post Thanks for the information.

Yay! two things better.

No, I did not adjust to overall volume.

I am researching mastering, I looked into Landr and I am not sold on that. I am just getting into it.
 
I think the general consensus among most of us is that if you're looking at one of those automated mastering services, you'd be better off learning to do it yourself. Anything an algorithm can do, you can also do cheaper.
 
I think the general consensus among most of us is that if you're looking at one of those automated mastering services, you'd be better off learning to do it yourself. Anything an algorithm can do, you can also do cheaper.

+1^^

Yeah man, don't do that...
 
The space you have everything in is what throws this for me (listening to both the first version and the later one).

The hats are dry and out of place with the other elements of the drumset. The vocals sound like they are in a room, but a completely different one than the snare, which is also in a room but not in the same one the hats are in (which is none).

This sounds like a bunch of stuff thrown together that doesn't exactly belong together.

Even in metal, I strongly feel that a sense of space on the drums is important. Your drums sound like a bunch of individual drum pieces instead of a drumkit as one instrument.
 
The space you have everything in is what throws this for me (listening to both the first version and the later one).

The hats are dry and out of place with the other elements of the drumset. The vocals sound like they are in a room, but a completely different one than the snare, which is also in a room but not in the same one the hats are in (which is none).

This sounds like a bunch of stuff thrown together that doesn't exactly belong together.

Even in metal, I strongly feel that a sense of space on the drums is important. Your drums sound like a bunch of individual drum pieces instead of a drumkit as one instrument.

I totally agree...
 
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