Hellbreak

[TheNightman77]

Hey all,

Been mixing an ep for my band and just finished the first mix of one of the songs. I'm hoping for some feedback from the experts on how to improve it before releasing to the public. It's a hard rock/classic metal type song, though not quite in either category, featuring a singer with a very dynamic range which can be difficult to control at times. My singer seems to think the vocals sound "weird" but that's as far as he elaborated. Any thoughts on that? Any other ideas and suggestions would be welcomed.

Here's "Hellbreak"

https://soundcloud.com/thenightman77/hellbreak-ep-july-24-2014

Enjoy!

 

[TripleM]

Rhythm guitar sounds pretty good. There were a couple of spots where I thought the double tracking could be tighter. The lead guitar in the intro gets almost completely covered up behind the rhythm guit tho.

I think the vocals need to get leveled out a bit. There are spots where a word really jumps out. Need some automation and/or compression. I don't think they sound weird myself. Just overly dynamic. A little better mic technique would make your life easier. We you playing around with reverb? Some parts of the vocal are pretty dry, and some parts sound pretty wet.

The lead vocal might be just a little bit harsh. You might want to cut a small EQ notch in the 2400hz - 2800hz range. Just a thin notch and not a big cut. Otherwise you risk losing too much clarity.

Bass level is sitting about right to my ear. Maybe turn it down a db or so.

Drums are decent. Programmed? Snare is a little muffled and muddy. I'm not hearing much from the cymbals.

Intro to the song is a little bit long. Takes too long for the thing to get going.

 

[TheNightman77]

Hey man,

Thanks for taking the time to listen to it and provide feedback, I appreciate it. To address some of your points and questions, the drums are not programmed, they were recorded live in an untreated room. Not sure whats causing the snare muffle, but it was double mic'd, top and bottom and an aux send to a plate reverb which I also used on the toms. May be the reverb that' causing some of the mud. As far as the cymbals are concerned, I do not usually compress overheads though I noticed at certain spots some of the crashes are a bit louder than others, so I may need to compress just to address the peaks or automate where necessary. Do you normally compress overheads?

Agreed on the harshness of the vocals, thanks for narrowing down the issue for me...I'm having the same issues on the other songs we recorded. I've used plently of both compression and automation, but found that taming the signal with this singer can be very difficult. Unfortunately I have tried to get my singer to use proper mic technique, especially considering at times he goes from a whisper to full belt, but he's really stubborn about it saying it messes with his head when he's trying to sing. It's mostly excuses but I'm not sure what else I can do...problem is he's recorded in pro studios before where he did not use proper mic technique but they were able to tame his vox to sound good, so I'm sure he thinks its not a big deal. Definitely makes my life more difficult. I did intentionally move some of the held notes to a new track and applied far more reverb than on the rest of the song...however the more I think about it, an echo may be more appropriate.

The lead guitar at the beginning is actually intentionally lower...the leads that are panned out wide over the rhythm guitar have a better tone. I had actually cut out that center "lead" that you are hearing before I decided to add back in at the very end. Still not positive if I should keep it or not. I'll see what I can do about cutting down the intro. What you say makes sense...we play it this way live but may be taking away from the studio version.

Thanks again for the input, and any other suggestions would be appreciated!