First Attempt at mixing - original metal song

A

AntWise

New member
Hi guys!

this is my first post on here! I am just looking for some feedback on my mix, good or bad, i wanna hear it! i have been reading through tons of forums trying to get tips and how-tos on mixing and mastering and have given it my first shot!

I have added an mp3 of the song to this post!

I recorded the guitars using my peavey valveking 212 pre amp through a bad monkey into my focusrite saphire interface with impulses in logic. The drums are addictive drums with blended kick and snare and bass is direct.

any help would be awesome, this is as good as i could get! and with regards to 'mastering' all i did was adda limiter to raiser the volume. what sort of things should i be looking to do while mastering?

feel free to post a link if you think my opinion is worth anything!!

\m/
 

Attachments

  • Forsake me - Final MP3.mp3
    4.3 MB · Views: 31
There are some cool things going on here guitar wise...but then the vocals come in and make this song sound like EVERY OTHER METAL SONG EVER. Sorry dude, just my opinion, and I'm sorry if it's mean, but I can't lie to you.

Now, on to the mix itself. This sounds like it was mixed on laptop speakers, or bad headphones. The mix needs some serious balancing in the low end. The kick drum needs a presence boost around 3.5k to make it more "clicky", it needs a high pass badly around 40 - 50hz, and it probably could stand to come down in the mix once you give it that presence boost because at its current level it's causing your mix to clip and distort badly whenever there are any kind of double bass runs. On the plus side the guitars sound good, so good job there. On the down side, I have no idea what you are saying and listening to those vocals is making my throat hurt. In your efforts to sound like Attack Attack, don't forget to at least learn proper screaming technique, or even singing technique for that matter. It will help you because honestly, the quality of the vocal performance is the number one most important thing that determines how well it sits in the mix.

Lastly, you limited the mix too harshly overall, because it's distorting pretty badly like I mentioned.

Again, not trying to sound mean dude, and I'm actually a huge metal fan. I'm just giving you my first honest-to-god reaction to the song from the second I played it.
 
hi mate!

thanks a lot for the honest post, i read a lot of posts just commenting for comments sake and not really saying anything specific!

"This sounds like it was mixed on laptop speakers, or bad headphones" - you were right in a way, i do not have monitors so i used my senheiser hd280 monitoring headphones, might be why it sounded a bit off.

sorry for the nooby question but what do you mean by 'balancing the low end'?

im not a big fan of the ultra clicky kicks but i get what you mean about the clipping so i will lower that. i will also add a high pass, i did not add one the kick at all!

thanks for the positives on the guitars, just need to tighten up the playing a bit.

the vocalist is very keen to learn and is working on his clarity at the moment so i will pass on your comments, he says he has pretty decent technique in the way he doesnt hurt his throat. Not so sure he will thank you for the attack attack reference though haha :p



Lastly, you limited the mix too harshly overall' - thanks for that, i am still getting to grips with how to use the limiter properly! what else do you do during the mastering stage?

thanks for the honest reply dude, totally appreciate it!
 
AntWise said:
hi mate!

thanks a lot for the honest post, i read a lot of posts just commenting for comments sake and not really saying anything specific!

"This sounds like it was mixed on laptop speakers, or bad headphones" - you were right in a way, i do not have monitors so i used my senheiser hd280 monitoring headphones, might be why it sounded a bit off.

sorry for the nooby question but what do you mean by 'balancing the low end'?

im not a big fan of the ultra clicky kicks but i get what you mean about the clipping so i will lower that. i will also add a high pass, i did not add one the kick at all!

thanks for the positives on the guitars, just need to tighten up the playing a bit.

the vocalist is very keen to learn and is working on his clarity at the moment so i will pass on your comments, he says he has pretty decent technique in the way he doesnt hurt his throat. Not so sure he will thank you for the attack attack reference though haha :p



Lastly, you limited the mix too harshly overall' - thanks for that, i am still getting to grips with how to use the limiter properly! what else do you do during the mastering stage?

thanks for the honest reply dude, totally appreciate it!
Click to expand...

Commenting on my droid so I apologize for the grammar and structure here.

So think of sound waves in terms of frequencies. Higher frequency means shorter wavelength, where as lower frequency means longer wavelength. Now, think about it in terms of this. 1 second of a solid 6khz sound vs. 1 second of a
solid 100hz sound. Which one do you think moves more air? Which one do you think generates more sound pressure? The answer is obviously the lower frequency. Because of this, you really need to reserve the low frequency space in your mix for the most important low frequency generating instruments in order to prevent a massive buildup of sound which, as is the case with your mix, can cause your limiters and compressors to clip very easily. In most metal mixes, nothing generates any noise beneath 100hz except for the kick drum and the bass guitar, and maybe the toms. When it comes to guitars, I never boost anything below 1.5k - any adjustments I am making in that region from 100hz to 1.5khz are always narroe q notch cuts, or wide and shallow scoops to the low mid region. The guitars just don't need to be making much noise in that region, period. Conversely, I almost always have wide scoops in my kick drum from about 250hzyou to 2kthe or so, since all that frequency space is valuable real estate for the guitars and the bass to get to know each other. I add the high shelf, and then a frequency boost around 80 or 90hz so I can then turn the kick down in the mix but have it still retain both it's prominence and oomph that is necessary to drive the rhythm of the song. Lastly, try to think of the guitar/bass relationship as a christmas tree. The bass guitar is the tree, and the rhythm guitars are the ornaments that go on top. When your ear really starts to develop, you'll be surprised by how much of what you think is the guitar tone is actually coming from the bass guitar. That analogy applies both to frequency space as well as the volumes I mix the tracks at.
 
I think the proper term of this music because of the vocals is hard core. It's not so metalish and the vocals don't have much originality sound wise. You might want to try experimenting a little more with your voice until you sound like YOU and not your favorite hard core bands. It seems really squashed as well. The clean singing needs a lot of work or at least some overdubbing. Good start thought. Sounds better than my first mixes did :D
 
FoulPhil said:
I think the proper term of this music because of the vocals is hard core. It's not so metalish and the vocals don't have much originality sound wise. You might want to try experimenting a little more with your voice until you sound like YOU and not your favorite hard core bands. It seems really squashed as well. The clean singing needs a lot of work or at least some overdubbing. Good start thought. Sounds better than my first mixes did :D
Click to expand...

Thank for the comments,

Yea there are so many different genres there's days I thought I'd stick to the simple 'metal'!

I will pass on your comments to the vocalist, he is trying to improve as much as possible.

By squashed do you mean there is too much compression on the track or are there things you need to do with EQ to improve that?

I'll get the clean vocalist to lay off the green!ha!
 
I like the guitar playing. I thought the screamo vocals were good. How many takes can you do before the throat gives out? :) Great energy on the song.

To me the guitars need a little more upper midrange. And/or some cuts in the lower midrange. They sound too muffled to my ear. I think the guitars are also covering the bass. It sound to me like too much space below 160hz or so is given to the guitar and not enough to the bass.

Am I hearing some clipping or other type of distortion on the toms? Something "staticy" is on them. I thought the snare was a little on the dull side. I'd like a bit more snap out of it.
 
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