Chemical Fire - cheesy metal song - final mix (???)

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BassyBassyBass

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I know none of you have slept since my last posting, so I want to relieve you of your troubles. Here's (I hope) the final mix of my cheestastic "Chemical Fire".

I finally got my friend to come over and record the short spoken vox for the bridge.

Song idea came to me while at work, when my client said he was stuck in traffic because of a truck on fire. . .a CHEMICAL FIRE. In his words "you know what happens with a chemical fire don't you? You put it out, and it just starts burning again" (or something like that). I thought to myself "that's a godawful metal lyric if I ever heard one." And here we are.




Nothing's changed since v2 for those of you who've heard it, except the addition of the spoken vox in the bridge. For that one guy who keeps telling me I should squeal better. . .yeah, I wish I could buddy.
 
Cheesy indeed. I might take some upper mids out of the guitars, sounds good though.
 
I'm still green in a lot of ways. Upper mids being defined as which freqs?
 
I'm away from my monitors right now, but from what I am remembering, I want to say somewhere between 800 and 2k. Take that with a grain of salt though, I'm pretty green myself.
 
Played around a little with it, didn't like what it was doing. Can you be more specific in terms of how much reduction, what span of freqs (I know you said 800-2000, but did you mean to cut in that range or just that that's what's considered upper mids?) you might recommend? I actually have a couple aggressive parametric dips in that area already, one at 1200 and one at 2400, fairly narrow. That's on the guitars under vox/lead guitars. The short rhythm interludes with no vox or lead guitar over them are treated slightly differently.
 
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In that case maybe just make the 'Q' a little less narrow on the cuts that you already have, or maybe do a 1-3db dip with a wide Q at around 1k. BUT if you're playing with it and you don't like what's happening, don't listen to me, try something else. Follow your ears
 
Auto tune? IDK, to my ears, guits sound like a stock amp sim, drums sound like like midi samples, vox are, well, just not good at all, lyrics are bad.

Not sure how serious of a project this, maybe I am being too critical. For that I apologize. But just wanted to be honest and honestly, not much about it sounded good. But I suck at recording and mixing, and it IS a long learning process, so take my opinion lightly.

Having said all that, I see a lot of potential in your recording and bet the next one you do will be markedly better.....looking forward to hearing the next one.
 
Ouch. Guitars were recorded using a PODx3 with a heavily modified version of one of its presets, drums are fake yes.

Vox. . .I've acknowledged I can't sing. It's okay.

Lyrical badness is intentional.
 
The vocals sound really crappy. Not that the singer totally sucks or anything. It just sounds so whiny and not really the best possible job that could of been done. Maybe some singing lessons need to be had. I can hear the potential, but it just sounds so stupid it kills the song hahahah. Coka-a-doodle doooooo!

A good trick is to put a loaded gun with a hair trigger to the singers head and make him sing like if his life depended on it. It sounds like he's slacking off and doing a half-assed job or holding back...

If that's his best job get a new singer... :laughings:
 
Hey man, I honestly did not mean to shit in your picnic basket. Don't want to sound like a dick, not my intention. I guess what I meant, when I play a song for someone, I want them to tell me exactly whats wrong with what I've done, and what sounds really good(if anything) I have done. I just shot from my hip as to what I thought when I heard it, one CRITICAL pass.

If I was using amp sim's and hoping for a "real" amp sound, I would want someone to call bullshit if it sounded fake and same with drums. I just meant that it they sounded slightly unnatural to me, if that's what you were shooting for....groovy. If you were hoping for a more organic feel to the song, you fell short of that mark. Those things sounded very digital/sterile/blah/(insert what ever word you would use) and that was my first impression along with the vox being pretty much all over the place. I didn't mean to come down too hard, just saying that was things that stuck out to me and I am NOWHERE near as good at this craft as some of the other cats on this forum......

Keep going, its gets easier and better all the time with practice, practice being the key, you have to keep trying new things make small improvement on things like processing order and mic placement and all those little things we beginners wanna jump past and get to making hits!

I seriously think your next project is gonna sound better, and remember, I am just a novice myself, so it is just my humble opinion.
 
i thought it sounded pretty good, but the lyrics dude, if your gunna rite a metal song about a chick you better be killing her dude, thats just the way it goes. its just the rong topic for metal. but i figure it was half a spoof cause of your topic. very mustainish vocals, with a bit more power behind them,, they could turn into something. trust in yourself.

peace dude.

edit: the what meter?
 
Maybe "metal" is the wrong word. What do we call poison/motley crue/etc.? Glam? Pop Metal?
 
Hair Metal?
or glam.
-
False Metal, lies, deceit, noise pollution?

shrugs
i like a bit of crue.
 
Yeah, I caught the hair metal thing right away. The lyrics made me smile. They were cheesy, but in a good way.

I think the thing with satirizing/reviving hair metal in 2010 is that you have to sell it like it's 1987. The whole thing sounds like you're not taking it seriously. In order for this sort of thing to work, you have to sound like you really mean it. You have to honestly thing that you'll get ladies back into the dressing room by telling them that you'll be the burning cock to their smoldering hens. (btw, that sounds like you should get that looked at by a doctor! :D )
If you're singing these lyrics out of one side of your mouth and laughing at how cheesy they are out of the other, no one will give it a second glance.

A good example of making this work is the Darkness. They're super-cheesy and over-the-top, but they never let on during their show. As far as their stage personas are concerned, they are brilliant musicians who play relevant and awesome music.

As to specific things with the mix, the drums seemed kind of low energy. There was a lot of empty space sonically (multi-track those guitars a few more times).

You've got potential here, but there's a ways to go.
 
There are certain limitations built into this.

I did EVERYTHING myself. Yeah, my voice sucks, no it couldn't be better. I can't tell you how many takes it took (I could only do about half a verse at a time) to get to THIS point. If I could sing like Justin whathisname from Darkness, I"d be all over it. Whatever it is I did here's the best I can do with what I was genetically given.

Sorry if the guitars sound fake. . as I said it's a POD preset, heavily modified to get it as big as is possible in my opinion. I recorded, tweaked, recorded again, etc. to get to the sound i have. It's an SM57 miking a fender deville (WHAt??? Yes that's the amp I have) from about six inches away for rhythm and two for lead. I did record the rhythm parts twice and pan one left and one right. IF someone has recording tricks I'm open.

Drums are another limitation. There's only one rock kit in logic express and this is what it sounds like. Also, I'm feeling out the drums as I go. . .I'm not a drummer and I just have do what seems right. I'd like to get the EZ drummer plugin but don't feel like spending the money right now.
 
The thing with the vocals is that you sound like you're not taking them seriously. The weird tone you have, are you doing that on purpose? Try just singing in your normal voice, but belting it out enthusiastically.
The pitchiness, isn't really a big deal. With cheesy metal, it's more about attitude than doing a good job. :D

I think if you add more stuff to the drums and turn up the volume (at least on the kick and snare), they'll sound more energetic.

The lead guitar actually sounds OK.

A trick I've heard that you could try with the rhythm is to turn down the distortion and then layer it more times. i.e. 3 or 4 times per stereo channel. With the lower distortion level, it will still sound big, but won't get too muddy.

It's hard to tell tone from text alone, but your last post sounded like my previous one might have upset you a little? Just in case, please know, that I mean no offense. I am trying to help.
 
I do appreciate the critique. I just didn't realize there was that much wrong with it aside from the vox. I mean, I realize it's not anywhere close to studio/pro quality, and I realize now of course that I'm on a board where many are trying to do this professionally (I'm not) or become experts (I'm not) and that's where the criticism comes from.

Anyway. The vox. I'm not sure what you mean about weird tone? I tried several "metal voices" out---the Vince Neil screech, and. . .well this one. As bad as this one sounds, it's the best "metal voice" I can do. I don't ask this attitudinally. . .I really don't know what you mean. It's supposed to have an "accent" to it ("brokay-in" instead of broken). Seems like it should have some grit to it. I sang them as best as I could. . .I swear. I was going for attitude (this guy, the lead singer of a band presumably called "Panther Musk", thinks he's badass and that this song is hot). Almost like an actor acting, but singing.

I probably shouldn't, but here's me singing in what's much closer to my "true" voice, this is still a little bit of a put-on (supposed to be a song that would have been at home on the "Juno" soundtrack) but I'd say it's 90% me. If you guys think this would fit Chemical Fire, I may revisit it at a later date :



With the guitars. . .is it possibly all the processing that makes them. . .lacking as opposed to the recording? It thought I backed way off on the distortion, personally, but maybe not enough?

I can mess with the drums some. I'd make 'em big ol Def Leppard drums if I could.

Thanks all!
 
BassyBassyBass said:
I do appreciate the critique. I just didn't realize there was that much wrong with it aside from the vox. I mean, I realize it's not anywhere close to studio/pro quality, and I realize now of course that I'm on a board where many are trying to do this professionally (I'm not) or become experts (I'm not) and that's where the criticism comes from.
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Ok, thats why I threw in the part about wondering how serious of a project it was! It is done with tongue planted firmly in cheek!

For a starting out point, it shows a lot of potential.

I also posted a track for you to pick apart, dont hold back.
Click to expand...
 
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