tips and opinions for the mix of this heavy cover song

M

MegaGoo

New member
hi all. im doing a Megadeth song for an internet tribute album. nothing too fancy. but heres my take on it.

ive done a couple songs of my own, but for one i've never done live drums for it, always midi. it took about 15 hours to set up these mics and TRY to get a good sound. we ended up having to tape towels on it (i suppose a compressor is supposed to take care of that) -see pictures: drums and more drums ..

anyways, if anyone can give some mixing tips, go ahead lemme know what i can tweak. fyi the drums are all on 1 track. cept for cymbals. so not much i can do with turning up a single part of the drumset w/o re-recording it which would be difficult to do now.

thanks

eddie

Skin O' My Teeth Mp3
 
Eddie,

actualy from the point of view of tone the drums sound OK but I did notice the snare volume tended to drop when the ride cymbal was played. The vocals sound a bit dry. I suggest trying to get your hands on a decent FX unit and a compressor which would imediately improve a lot of these points, it would also have the effect of making the whole thing sound LOUDER. I'm not a big fan of metal but I have noticed that it is generally recorded with a lot of compression. Have a scan through some of the material in MP3 clinic for examples. The thing that was missing was bass I didn't get any feeling that it was there at all.
I don't know what recording facilities you have but you might want to consider recording the bass drum seperately to give yourself a bit more control after the event.
I got a lot of good information on recording bass and drums from this site, I suggest you look at some of the existing threads I'm sure some of the information will be usefull.
I recently got a Johnson J Station, its a good FX capability, a compressor, bass and guitar models. Its also got a digital output. I understand that people have used them for vocals to get a valve sound but you can aso use the compressor. For what you get in one box, they are very good value (I think you'll like the dual rectifier simmulation as well)
 
Cool recording bro...I remember this song. I used to do a cover of "Holy Wars." That was a fun one.

So, the drums sound a bit muffled. There's virtually no kick...This is metal...gimme some kick please. Snare is also a bit bland...needs upper mids?

Gits sound pretty good, but I think the drums are not letting them breathe right. See if you can get a bit more punch from the drums, and I think the gits will shine.

I'm having trouble commenting on the vocals because Mustaine's voice is so whiny and piercing, and yours (?) is not. Doesn't sound bad at all though!

All in all, a very good effort. Keep working on those drums...
 
actually, i own a j-station. i did the guitars and bass through it.

with the drums, i definatly could go back and record just a bass drum track.

i have a subwoofer on my computer speakers so im getting a decent amount of bass guitar and kick drum through it but im gonna burn that version of it on cd and listen to it in the car and other places and see how it sounds.

eddie

EDIT:
just uploaded the new track with some changes. its the same link as above. i upped the bass in the drum track. little more kick, and the mid. made the snare slightly crisper i guess. turned up the bass guitar slightly.

as far as the bass drum goes, i cant put any more thump into it without re-recording, and im thinking it might be hard to sync up the hits with the hits on the current recording, unless i played it perfectly or can at least play it the exact same, which i dunno. but i could always go back and seriously chop up the wave to make it fit. but then i could just take a good bass drum sample hit from the internet and paste it at every hit :)
 
Last edited:
if anyones still reading, the link above is now the current version of the song. i just added a midi kick drum beat at every kick drum beat to give it more punch. i think i may be done with the song.

tell me what you people think

thanks

eddie

Skin O' My Teeth
 
Nice drumming. I think I might hear some intonation issues with the vox. The guitars sound pretty good......maybe a bit thin but that's on my crappy 'puter speakers. I enjoyed this.
 
Dammit, that's fine! That's one helluva great recording!

I cannot, and will not criticize this recording in any way!

Great performance, great arrangement, and great recorded sound. Punchy & clear with great feeling & musicianship all the way around.

Two friggin thumbs up on this one, and if I had more thumbs, they'd be up too! It's definitely something to write home about!

With recordings like this, IMO, you're qualified to lead, not follow.

;)
 
I wanna hear it LOUDER!!! You recorded the guitars the way I like to do it...wide open left and right. METAL UP YOUR ASS!!! and my ass and everyone elses for that matter...cool post!!:mad:
 
thanks for the praise everyone. NOW i think im done with it after playing with it the past few days. i think it sounds its best now. i did put an effect at one part of the song. think it gives it something good. but if anyone doesnt mind downloading it again and checking out this (probably) final version and give me opinions, that'd be cool.

above links will link to updated version

thanks
eddie
 
Wooahh!

that sounds different. This tune drives the vocals are totally transformed from the first listen, the guitar seems clearer and better balanced. The drums sound good, the double kicks in the solo are spot on, sterio balance sounds great. Cant really find anything wrong with it.


Nice one
 
Ahhh... Hey, a familiar face :) In case you didn't recognise me instantly, I'm Krankee from the boards. I'm also in that tribute thing. But... let's get this critique going:

I like the drum mixing. They sound very live. Something about the mixing bothers me, though. I'm not sure what. Maybe the kick drum has too much reverb. At least compared to the original, which had almost zero reverb. The solo guitar is a bit too distant, or quiet at least, but is played VERY well. The guitar tone is just right for the song. I liked the way you used the flanger in the middle part and the pick screeches. The drum playing is steady but I could hear a few parts where the beat wasn't perfectly in time. Didn't bother me that much, though. Very good performance, and the vocals don't suck either.

I was pondering, if I should ask mixing tips for my cover also, but I've not yet asked it here. I want the song to be fresh when it's on the tribute thing.
 
Nice song I hadn't heard that on efor along time... I'm not sure but I think the vocs were kind of dry in original version... am I right?
but still I would add a noch of reverb to your vocals. Good playing guys... :D

Riku

Hanger 18 rules...
 
hey krankee. damn i was hopeing no one from the deth boards would hear it on here :) no biggie yea the drumming was off a tiny bit at some points. im not a real drummer. i was playing our drummers set.

i know what your saying about the reverb on the bass drum. i guess the midi kick had a little much on it. dont know if theres a way to fix that though. but it is on a seperate track so i can play with it

i think the solo is the way it is cause of the patch i was using. all i have is a medium chorus on it. i'll check that out too. i was never 100% happy with the sound.

the vocals aren't perfect. but i had my friend kurt come do them. hes not really a singer, but he is more so than i am (i tried to do the vocals in the beginning but it sounded horrible) haha

thanks guys

eddie
 
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