This is a metal mix i did for a group from Iowa, no samples or amp models.

N

Nathan1984

New member


Amps were an engl powerball on one side, and a maxon boosted 6505+ on the other, kick was a beta 91 on the inside, and a beta 52 in the port of the kick, snare was one sm57 on top, some ev tom mics, and Samson co2 pencil's are the overheads. sm7b for vocals and I used a Tech 21 Sansamp RBI for the bass. No samples were used on the drums these are the real deal, I have only had about an hour or two into mixing this so far, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
Kudos for keeping it real. Those drums need work though. It's all kick click, a few tom rolls, and some trashy sounding cymbals. Where's the snare? Ah, there it is.....2 minutes later. What happened there? Where's the body of the kick drum? It seems to me, like most "metal" mixes, all the focus went to the guitars and stupid vocals. Not cool IMO. Give the drums their due. That drummer is playing the shit out of those drums. Let them be heard.
 
I tried to bring that snare up with compression, but when the drummer was blasting, he was hitting that snare super weak. I haven't had any chance to reference this, and go back. I found that the guitars are, as you said, to loud, and the vocals and cymbals are sizzly as hell. I will fix these issues, do you have any pointers on what you hear that needs to be fixed with the drums? I thought about throwing some sample reinforcement to the kick and snare to get them pushing through alittle better, but I wanna try getting there without first.
 
I would say first off the guitars are a bit on top of everything. The kick drum is way weak. You can get that fullness of the kick in there without making it muddy.

I understand the need to have the snare sound like it does with this genre, and kudos for the drummer not being a puss when he blasts that shit out fast, but it seems to need a bit more depth as well.
 
Nathan1984 said:
I tried to bring that snare up with compression, but when the drummer was blasting, he was hitting that snare super weak. I haven't had any chance to reference this, and go back. I found that the guitars are, as you said, to loud, and the vocals and cymbals are sizzly as hell. I will fix these issues, do you have any pointers on what you hear that needs to be fixed with the drums? I thought about throwing some sample reinforcement to the kick and snare to get them pushing through alittle better, but I wanna try getting there without first.
Click to expand...

Just remix the thing. Bring everything down. Never lose the snare drum. Compressing the snare can even it out, but you can lose it in a full mix if the snare is too compressed and everything else is stomping all over it. Let the kicks and snare be your guide. Never lose the snare.
 
Nathan1984 said:
I tried to bring that snare up with compression, but when the drummer was blasting, he was hitting that snare super weak. I haven't had any chance to reference this, and go back. I found that the guitars are, as you said, to loud, and the vocals and cymbals are sizzly as hell. I will fix these issues, do you have any pointers on what you hear that needs to be fixed with the drums? I thought about throwing some sample reinforcement to the kick and snare to get them pushing through alittle better, but I wanna try getting there without first.
Click to expand...

Aw, so that was you who made the drummer seem blastistic. lol

Before I would squash the hell out of the snare for weak hits, I would automate or adjust volume during the blast parts. Try not to make the snare on the whole tune suffer just to have easy way to level the snare.

I am actually surprised how well you have gotten this without samples. Impressive actually.
 
Yes agreed. Those metal typewriter drums are tough to do all natural, and you've done a decent job, it just needs some tweaking.
 
I wish I would have read this before I went back over to my studio, but I did figure it out. I have been recording for like 5 or 6 years and didn't know what automation was till tonight, I guess I would have figured that out from you guys apparently lol. I just was playing with things, and seen this button called automation write, and so I looked it up on the help topics in sonar, and the game just changed for me. Now I know why all my mixes are crushed to shit, because I crush the shit out of them to compensate for not knowing what automation was/is. Well, I figured that out lol. Here is an updated version, I need to put some more work into it, because I need to quantize the drums still, which is something I learned here recently as well lol.

 
well after listening to it, the guitars are still to loud, but I will get back on top of everything. I have had a pretty productive week or two learned so much that it's ridiculous. I learned how to quantize and how to use automation, that's a good thing to know. Thanks guys for the kind words, it wasn't easy to get these drums tracked lol. The drummer isn't a noob though, he is in a metalblade records band and the guitarist is in a nuclear blast records band as well, I spent a lot of time on it for good reason lol. I spent an hour tuning his drums for him lol. I wanted to impress these guys so I could stir up some business in my little studio.
 
I'm listening to the latest version.

I think the mix could use a little more low end. I'm having trouble hearing a bass. I think the kick could be a little stronger too.

And yeah I think the guitars are a little too strong. They're pushing the vocal back. The vocal is definitely not present enough. In addition to adjusting the guitar/vocal balance, you might need to boost the high mids on the vocal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top