How to mix present day metal - Please share helpful links, tips, anything really!

M

Meaty

New member
Hi, hello everybody!
I'm new on the forums, but my intentions are not to join in, and simply ask for free info.
I'd like to contribute and share my knowledge, but currently I don't have any mixing knowledge to share!
I do have a lot of knowledge on guitars themselves though, just haven't really found anyone asking for help on that. :(

Anyway!
Can anyone possibly maybe perhaps share some links with me that'll help me get started?
My problem is.. I set up my recording interface, open up my DAW, load some impulses, EQ some of the fuzz away, then I'm stuck.
Don't know where to go from there.

I've tried Google, but shockingly, I can't find much!

Any helpful links, or maybe your own tips are much appreciated!
Hopefully I can share some of the stuff I learn over the next few days on the forums.
 
Welcome to the forum! I was just wondering how you are recording your guitars, drums, and anything else. I know how finding info on Google can be a pain, most of the useful info I found was through researching bands you want your mix to sound like and see if you find any tips or tricks the bands have used in their recording process. Also another useful way to find things is through youtube. Ive noticed that mixing metal is very subjective to the types of metal your referring to being there are so many kinds of metal out there, plus its very different than other types of music such as rock. Hopefully my small contribution is somewhat helpful and Im sure some more metal fluent people will chime in on this matter. Good luck!
 
apoczen211 said:
Welcome to the forum! I was just wondering how you are recording your guitars, drums, and anything else. I know how finding info on Google can be a pain, most of the useful info I found was through researching bands you want your mix to sound like and see if you find any tips or tricks the bands have used in their recording process. Also another useful way to find things is through youtube. Ive noticed that mixing metal is very subjective to the types of metal your referring to being there are so many kinds of metal out there, plus its very different than other types of music such as rock. Hopefully my small contribution is somewhat helpful and Im sure some more metal fluent people will chime in on this matter. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome, nice meeting you my bro.
Hopefully I'm not looked down on for what I'm using, heh.

Guitars: UX2
Bass: Guitar -> Midi converter -> bass VSTs
Drums: Superior Drummer
 
No one looks down on anyone here for their gear, trust me.. Ok, so your going DI in and using the amp models on the software, as well as virtual drums. So much of your problems are really within the box. I can say for metal, many people suggest recording multiple guitar tracks to create a thick heavy sound and panning these parts left right and even centre for a thick full sound. As for Eq, I would say to search for metal eq paramaters. Here is a sight that constantly amazes me with all the info they share, this should be perfect for you Mixing Metal
 
If there is any fuzz on the guitars, you need to choose another sound or back off the gain. Guitars need to sound crunchy, not fuzzy. You can normally get away with two rhythm tracks panned hard.

You would be much better off with a $50 bass guitar than the bass vst's. But if that's what you have, make sure that the sound you use has enough articulation in the 800hz range and some growl in the 300 hz range. Normally you would compress the crap out of the bass, but the vst's are probably processed within an inch of their lives already.

I normally run all the drums to a stereo buss and compress them as a whole. Sometimes I send the overheads to a separate buss and compress them separately to keep them from pumping with the kick drum. Snare: 200hz is the thunk, 2khz is the crack. EQ to taste. Toms and kick will depend on what sounds you use and the type of drum sound you are trying to get, so there isn't much I can help with there.
 
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