I need some fresh ears dawgs! Help a brotha out :D

  • Thread starter Thread starter FoulPhil
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FoulPhil

FoulPhil

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What up guys? The mother board on my freaking computer took a shit on me and I don't have the cash to buy a replacement. 6 months after the warranty expired, just my freakin' luck. I paid $350 for that damn motherboard! Anyway, I had to set all my shit up on my wifes computer and we're back to being a single computer family till I have the money to fix mine LOL...

This is a new track for a new Flatulated DEATH METAL album I'm working on. I'm looking for some input on if there is anything I can do to make it better. If something is just fucked and needs to be fixed let me know. It sounds pretty good on my hs05m, but I could be just trippin...

SoundClick artist: Flatulated - page with MP3 music downloads
 
Hey Brother,

You actually got me to open my mind and check out some death metal. The only thing I found I liked was Psycosocial (Slip knot) which you probably think is cheezy Lol. It has great lyrics with a cool chugging groove, and one of the best videos out there.

Anyway, I think the drums in your tune need help. I cant really make out the kick and I think you need a much tighter snare sound. Otherwise sounds OK and its not really my genre. I think Greg is on an involuntary vacation, I'm sure he could help you with it.
 
PDP said:
Hey Brother,

You actually got me to open my mind and check out some death metal. The only thing I found I liked was Psycosocial (Slip knot) which you probably think is cheezy Lol. It has great lyrics with a cool chugging groove, and one of the best videos out there.

Anyway, I think the drums in your tune need help. I cant really make out the kick and I think you need a much tighter snare sound. Otherwise sounds OK and its not really my genre. I think Greg is on an involuntary vacation, I'm sure he could help you with it.
Click to expand...

I can't say I like Slip Knot a whole lot, but it's more about ethics lol. I don't like when a band is borderline brutal. It's like they are just tame enough to be accepted in the mainstream, but fail to reach the level of extreme brutality. Then you have all these kids thinking they are all hard core listening to shit that's not quite as heavy as they think it is.

I'm working on the drums right now I'm comparing it to other recordings and it's helping a little, but I still just don't know what I'm doing LOL. I'll just keep making mix downs until it sounds like everything is clear as a bell and then I'll listen to it on other systems. I'll take my time over a few weeks experimenting. All tips are welcome though!
 
The mix needs more treble. The bottom end is muddy and it seems like the the bass, vocals and drums are all fighting over the same frequencies. Also the guitars have fizz on the top. I'd either cut the highs somewhere between 1.5khz and 4khz(use your ears), or re-record them and move the mic away from the speaker cone. I'll try to give more detailed advice below.

1). cut the mids from the bass drum and boost the treble, so you can get that click sound while retaining the bass.
2). Cut the bass on the snare and boost the upper mids and treble. The snare needs more attack.
3). boost the hi hat
4). boost some of the treble on the toms.
5). Think about reducing some of the gain on the guitars. They don't sound too band, except for the fizz, but less gain will make the mix more brutal.
 
New mix sounds much better than the earlier one Phil. The first one sounded very flat with no presence, but you got much more going on in the mids now, that's lifted it.

Guitars still sound quite fizzy, but this aint my genre at all, so I don't know how they usually sound for this kind of music. There's also some weird digitally distortion on the cymbals in my left speaker most of the way through - don't know what that is.
 
Thanks I'll keep trying to get it better. I'm giving myself a few weeks to work things out and I'll do everything within my power to make it sound better, but eventually I'll have to call it done even if it could be better. The next album will be on a higher starting point and I'll apply everything I know from the experience I get along the way to greatly improve each release. I will continue to work towards getting better and better at this.

I'll probably just put a high pass filter on the guitars to tame the fizz a little, but the fizz isn't my biggest concern I kind of like it LOL. I'm going to try all the stuff "chandlerhimself" said and see how that goes. It's already better than the last stuff I released. So, the bar has been raised, but don't want to get lazy with it. I'll keep trying over the next few weeks and hopefully don't over kill it :D
 
The last mix is definitely working better. I think the snare needs a bit more snap with the snare and kick pushed out front a bit more. Although when the double kick stuff starts up, it's cutting pretty well. I like the snap on the kick there alot. Guit tones are fine but some tight compression could help give them a bit more definition. I kinda use Austrian Death Machine as my template for this genre.

Good stuff.
 
That reminds me some one made this comment on another forum.

"I would make it to where the higher notes on the guitar as the same volume as the low palm muted notes."

Now is there some kinds of trick to this, because I haven't really noticed any problem here. I'll try some different compressions because I thought I had it pretty tight already. I'll have to see what I can do.

I de-Ess the vocals manually by cutting the ssssss sound into a new track and turning it down a little, it takes a long ass time, but maybe worth doing the same thing on the guitars if that's what it takes to get them sounds even and clear as a bell...
 
It does sound better. The guitar fizz is still bothering me, but the drums sound better. The vocal is getting a little buried in the mix, but it still sounds better than before. IMO you're on the right track and you got rid of some of the muddiness from before. When you have so many instruments occupying the same frequencies like in this song, I don't know how much more you can do. Hopefully someone else will chime in with some tips to balance all the low end without having everything sound muddy
 
I'm actually going to start over because I over mixed and some how made it worse. Next time I'll work on recording less fizz, but a lot of death metal albums have over the top distortion and that sizzle sound. So, I don't mind that so much. It's just how to get everything to sound good and fit in together. I think it's good like it is in that last mix. A huge improvement from the last metal stuff I did. but I have a starting point and will be applying your helpful tips :D

It's the subtle differences from track to track that are throwing me off. Good thing for Studio One 2 and it's bitching project interface :D
 
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