"Flash"

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JohnnyAmato

JohnnyAmato

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Another older song from a few years ago that I decided to redo the drums for. Like I've said before, I've got dozens of these, and I'm just picking random ones here and there to practice mixing with PT, and obviously give them much better drum samples than my old drum machine. It's giving life to my older recordings, so I'm getting addicted to adding new drums to these old songs, instead of working on new ones :facepalm:

On this one, I'm struggling with the track levels of the snare, bass, and lead guitars for some reason. I think I got it, but after three nights with this tune my head is spinning. Time to give it a break. I'm sure there's other issues I'm not even aware of yet.

Thoughts?

Flash (Demo) | Johnny Amato
 
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I don't know much about drum machines. But I think you could humanize them a bit. It sounds like a drum machine.

The playing is excellent as always.

The guitars sound a bit cold to me. Are they amp sims? They have just a bit of a sterile/digital sound to them.

Drums, particularly the snare, are a little far back in the mix. Otherwise the levels sound good.
 
TripleM said:
I don't know much about drum machines. But I think you could humanize them a bit. It sounds like a drum machine.
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Pretty sure he's saying he used drum machines on the older mixes and these mixes, including this one, were rewritten with a vst program.

I'm not hearing anything digital about the guitars; what I am hearing is a chorus/flange on the R guitar, in particular, that might be causing that sense. Maybe that's it.

Levels still seem to be the thing needing work, to my ears. The opening snare can be several db higher. The first tapping solo can be lower. I really, really like the very next guitar lead though, it sounds very cool. Second tapping section can be quieter. Nothing about the drums, besides the opening fill, sounded out of whack level-wise. Think it's mostly getting those lead guitars at a proper level.

You manually moving MIDI notes by hand yet? Humanize doesn't do it well enough, in my opinion.

Very nice otherwise.
 
Thanks for the listen guys.

Andru, just want to clarify which lead parts you're referring to. It starts with the main riff 8x, then goes into that halftime part, then the first lead, which actually is picking. Then the lower register melody part comes in (guess we'll call this part 4) then the lower register tapping/pull-off part after that. Then it repeats the first picking lead again, before the ending which is a repeat of the opening riff. If I'm understanding correctly, it's the two identical picking leads that are too loud?

And the one you said you liked was one of the lower register parts? Either the melody or the low tapping/pull-off section that comes just after?

I'm not thrilled with the tones I chose when I recorded this a few years ago, particularly the right rhythm guitar. Sometimes in the moment, I just grab a tone and go. I don't really want to take the time to re-track it (right guitar), so I'm just going to leave it as is.

I'll do what I can to try to humanize it a little more, but it's hard when it's "after the fact" since all the instrumentation is there already. Slightly behind or ahead of the beat with drum hits won't match with the recorded tracks, so I'm leery to do it too drastically.
 
New mix here and in the OP. Only made a few subtle adjustments; brought the leads down about a half a db, raised the snare about a half a db, and brought the opening roll up a tiny bit. Still not sure if I like the opening roll or not, but without it, the song just starts out too hot. Also brought up the drums as a whole half a db. HP'd the master bus at 32Hz.

Messed around a little bit with the timing of the drums, but was very subtle about it.

Flash (Demo) | Johnny Amato
 
Yngwie is that you??? Great guitar playing. I second the drum machine/sample thing...while they sound great in the mix...they do sound a little stagnant and robotic....I use samples too and its really hard to get them to sound real. To me it just sounds like they don't have much "space" around them and they are more focused center(even though the toms are coming from right to left). However, your playing makes up for all of that since its the main focus.
 
Thanks Bruthish, I think the faster tempo of this particular tune makes it even harder to make the drums sound better; the robotic sound is hard to get rid of. I just want to get it as good as I can and move on, I think I'm about as close as I can get.

Thanks for the listen!
 
JohnnyAmato said:
I'm not thrilled with the tones I chose when I recorded this a few years ago, particularly the right rhythm guitar. Sometimes in the moment, I just grab a tone and go. I don't really want to take the time to re-track it (right guitar), so I'm just going to leave it as is.
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Johnny, you should grab a reamp box for that type of situation.

The mix sounds pretty good. Did you make subtle differences in each drum hit's velocity? That will help get rid of that drum machine sound. The fills sound good, but the kick/snare all sound the same volume to me, giving a robotic feel.

Levels seem good except maybe the snare is a hair low. Also, the effect on the one guitar during the opening (~10 seconds) gives it the illusion of being behind the drums, which is an odd place for a guitar. Same thing happens on the outro guitar around 1:46. It sounds behind the drums.
 
I really enjoyed this piece. I didn't find the guitars digital sounding but I can see how the drums could be perceived as robotic. Maybe I'm not in the most critical mood right now but nothing jumped out at me. Sounds great :)
 
Thanks for the listen Nola, I used my Digitech pedalboard for the guitar sounds, so not sure if re-amping is even an option. I don't even have any amp sim software, always use my board direct in. Not to worried about it with this particular tune, anyway.

Those two short guitar fills that you said were a little behind the drums, I did that on purpose because I kind of wanted a background feel to them, instead of being up-front like a traditional lead. Delay from the board was recorded in with them, so nothing I can do about that. But I could probably bring them up a little.

As far as the drums go, I did tweak the velocities quite a bit actually, maybe still not enough. Tweaked the timings quite a bit also. I'll do it a little more then probably just call it done.
 
This is better. Once the tapping sections settle in, the groove has a nice live feel to it. I'm not getting the robotic sense anywhere other than the 1:40 part that repeats. The rest sounds good, to me. I'd still bring that intro fill up more. :)

Just to re-offer...I'd love to look around at your MIDI drum file. If you ever bounce that MIDI file out, feel free to send it to me. I just want to poke around in there to examine timing and velocity decisions. Up to you.
 
No problems with the drums or guitar tones for me. What I notice is a certain dullness in the mix overall. Like rolling back the "tone" knob on your boombox, back in the day. It rolls off the presence and sparkle and leaves low-mid focused sound. That's what I'm hearing here.

Great playing as always.
 
JohnnyAmato said:
not sure if re-amping is even an option.
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I just meant for future recordings b/c then you can change the tone if you need to rework an old mix.
I own a reamp box but haven't used it yet, so I'm not sure how well it works, but I hear they are great for that situation.
 
Cool riffage-nice precise execution, the tone is good fits in the piece well, though it does sound a little rockman-ish and safe to me. I kind of lost the groove when it cut to half time, i don't think a drummer would play that part that way, they would roll into that halftime to more announce it's coming-so it took a few seconds extra to catch the groove. The 1 handed riffage? around the 1:00-1:15 mark you could grab a sip of beer there and freak everyone out or is that some kind of tapping? Great use of the open strings-i'm a big fan of that kind of stuff-putting the uniqueness of the guitar to work. Sound wise-it has a safe sound, sounds a little dull in the high end though i think this will pretty much sound good anywhere-it's clearly the playing that is the focus and that's coming across very well.
 
Stratomaster said:
The 1 handed riffage? around the 1:00-1:15 mark you could grab a sip of beer there and freak everyone out or is that some kind of tapping?
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Thanks for the input Strat! The part you're asking about was a weird one. It was pull-offs on the "D" string, but what I heard in my head was pulling off to the minor 3rd F and not a D. Tapping it didn't have enough impact, and I didn't want to use a capo, so what I ended up doing was using my thumb from my right picking arm to hold the 3rd fret F, and then did the pull-offs as normal with my left hand.

So no, I couldn't have had a sip of beer, unless I used a straw :thumbs up:
 
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