Corpse Lord - Classic Metal/Hard Rock Feel

[TheNightman77]

Hey all,

I've been working on my band's EP for some time now which will be the first thing I've ever mixed entirely by myself and released to the public. I'm hoping to release it at our show on Friday, but would appreciate any last minute advice regarding this mix. It sounds decent on my monitors, but when I listen on other sources it sounds like the vocal may be a bit harsh and could use some high end EQ cut. Does anyone else notice this?

https://soundcloud.com/thenightman77/corpselord-aug18-2014

Thanks in advance for any and all responses, I would definitely appreciate any help and feedback that I can get!

 

[WhiteStrat]

I've got three sets of monitors that kinda run the gamut, and the vocals sounded fine to me on all of them. There's an edge to the vocals, but it seems to be part of the sound of his voice, so it worked for me.

I know you're trying to get this out quickly, so it might be too late for this, but I thought the drums were the weak point. They sounded boxy and a bit distant relative to the other elements. Not horrible, but noticeable to me.

 

[TripleM]

Good musicianship.

I thought the bass was lacking a bit of low midrange. Same for the kick. It was all deep lows - and a bit boomy.

Guitars sounded pretty good. Maybe a bit muffled, but not bad.

The vocal was much dryer than anything else. It definitely seemed out of place compared to the rest of the tracks. The vocal level seems to drop at about the 2:30 mark.

I think you could turn up the snare a little bit.

 

[FoulPhil]

The vocals could actually be turned down a bit and then send them to a bus channel with some delay. You can really hear the overdubbed vocals (off time) on some parts. And there is an especially annoying part at 2:03 where he yells SON in a high pitched girl like scream. Not very flattering at all LOL. It's not that bad, but it could be mixed and edited much better. Sounds like a pretty decent demo.

 

[TheNightman77]

Guys thanks very much for taking the time to listen and provide feedback. I'm going to give it another shot tomorrow and post the revised version to see if it's any better. I'm only going to roll it out on Friday if it's ready to go so if it needs more time then so be it, I'd rather make it sound as good as I can than rush it out. I'm mixing and recording in an untreated concrete basement so there have been plenty of growing pains along the way. Unfortunately I rent so until I have my own home I can't do a lot of the sound treatment that I would like to do.

My drummer actually loved the low frequency content of the kick drum so I may keep that but I definitely see what you're saying on the boxiness of the toms. I'll certainly focus on fixing that and the lack of low-frequency on the bass.

Thanks for the tips on the vocals. My singer just told me it "sounded like shit" so obviously there's more work to do (that's the type of feedback we all hope for right?). His style is in the same realm as Geoff Tate, Midnight, Bruce Dickinson, etc so when he does stuff thats in a "high pitch girl like scream", its just his style. He absolutely kills it live but maybe that type of thing translates better live than in studio. At the end of the day I'm not going to tell him he cant do that kind of thing on the recording though bc it wont go over well...he's very steadfast in what he does and plus we're trying to have fun as a band rather than "make it" so things would go downhill quickly if I started stifling him. Anyway I'll try adding some delay, which will hopefully improve the width of the vocals. I'll work on aligning the backing vocals to where it sounds better. I would say we probably need to re-record some of them. I'll also work on improving the reverb, I also didn't feel like the vocals sat as well as they should with the rest of the tracks.

Thanks again, will post a hopefully improved version tomorrow.

 

[FoulPhil]

Guys thanks very much for taking the time to listen and provide feedback. I'm going to give it another shot tomorrow and post the revised version to see if it's any better. I'm only going to roll it out on Friday if it's ready to go so if it needs more time then so be it, I'd rather make it sound as good as I can than rush it out. I'm mixing and recording in an untreated concrete basement so there have been plenty of growing pains along the way. Unfortunately I rent so until I have my own home I can't do a lot of the sound treatment that I would like to do.

My drummer actually loved the low frequency content of the kick drum so I may keep that but I definitely see what you're saying on the boxiness of the toms. I'll certainly focus on fixing that and the lack of low-frequency on the bass.

Thanks for the tips on the vocals. My singer just told me it "sounded like shit" so obviously there's more work to do (that's the type of feedback we all hope for right?). His style is in the same realm as Geoff Tate, Midnight, Bruce Dickinson, etc so when he does stuff thats in a "high pitch girl like scream", its just his style. He absolutely kills it live but maybe that type of thing translates better live than in studio. At the end of the day I'm not going to tell him he cant do that kind of thing on the recording though bc it wont go over well...he's very steadfast in what he does and plus we're trying to have fun as a band rather than "make it" so things would go downhill quickly if I started stifling him. Anyway I'll try adding some delay, which will hopefully improve the width of the vocals. I'll work on aligning the backing vocals to where it sounds better. I would say we probably need to re-record some of them. I'll also work on improving the reverb, I also didn't feel like the vocals sat as well as they should with the rest of the tracks.

Thanks again, will post a hopefully improved version tomorrow.

Even though you rent if you have the money you could set up some sound absorbers and bass traps that you'll be able to take with you if you move. Renting doesn't matter as long as you set it up so that it's easy to take it all down if you need to.

The drums can be improved with some effects like compression and EQ. It's best to go gentle with everything. Experiment.

The girly high scream wasn't captured properly, but the good news is you can easily tame it down a bit. Don't use reverb on the vocals. Just use a bit of delay in a buss channel so you can control how much of the vocals are sent to the delay. You don't want it to be overbearing.

Anyway, good luck to you