ICARUS DOWN ep - emopunkrockhardcore MIX????????????????????????

  • Thread starter Thread starter Narayan FM
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Narayan FM

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hi all.

i'm pretty new here. i just started this recording and mixing business, well not really a business for now. some small cash here and there :)

i recorded this band at my home in the living room. drums were recorded in a local music school hall (a large hall) and that's why they sound so.........damn good some say.

please, some coments suggestions for future.

songs are already mastered (in some other studio).

here's the page: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=594202

thanx.

list of equipment used coming up. but first listen!
 
The snare is too prominent in the intro & almost throughout.
the bass sounds good, the chiming guitar in the chorus too. The main riff guitar doesn't sound so good.
I like the drawn out/held note & verb on it. Very reminiscent of Buffalo Tom's tail lights fade as is some of the chord progression - but that's a good thing.
You need to bring the vocal a little forward through a little bit of EQing I think.
The Death Metal vocal REALLY SPOILS the rest of the song. Until then the singing was tunefull & affecting.
Have another run at the mix & post the change.
Well done so far.
 
thanx for the critique.

Well, I the songs are already mastered. Finished. But I will make these minor tweaks for the full lenght album that I will record & mix for them soon. These 3 songs will also be on the album and I will tweek them a bit.
Guitars sound fine to me. The same sound throughout the song except for the hardcore screaming part when another more heavy comes in. The only thing I don't like about them is the stereo image. They're not wide enough. I'll try some tricks to widen them up.
Any suggestion for this?

The snare is very prominent, yes. The drummer bangs the drums quite heavy and he has this unbelievable loud snare. I haven't heard a snare that loud and I've been playing drums for 12 years now. It was allover the overheads and everywhere. And it is also too prominent because the vocals are a bit too much in the music. They really do need to come a bit out. Maybe just 1db. Not really by EQ as they are already pretty heavily EQed.
Guitars could also step ahead 1 db at some points.
Well, in the future.
 
Altough not my type of music (I'm more into real punk and ska etc lol), this sounds pretty darn good :)

Only gripe is the snare sound. Drums sound amazing but the reverb the snare is getting gets old pretty quick.

Good effort :)
 
Thanx.

Thre reverb is all natural. No synthetic reverb added. This is how the drums sound in that particular hall. I wanted this feeling. I don't like synthetic reverbs on drums except maybe some good plate. Ofcourse the reverberation is most obvious on the snare drum as it has most mid frequencies of all the drums and is loud as hell.
What do you mean by "reverb getting old"? I'm not so good at this phrases. I'm from Europe, so... do you mean you have enough of it after a minute or so???
Thought about that once, but no....it's good. The drummer really liked the sound. If you have noticed the snare sounds much better on "Isolated Ice Storm" song. He freshly tuned it and it has more smack and a higher pitch.
On next recording I'll be forcing him to freshly tune the snare for every take! It should be done like that anyway.
 
What snare was he using, sorry nothing useful here, i havnt got time at the mo, possibly later.
 
Ah ok :) will explain further,

By "gets old" I meant that it starts out really cool and I really liked it. But the more the song played I realised that there is a little too much reverb. But it is natural reverb so it does sound pretty good.

It does however give your kick an awesome sound.
 
Actually... the more I listen to it I think the problem is you simply have the snare too loud. I'd try turning it down just a tad.
 
I don't think I'm too hot on recording drums in such a huge, reflective space...The snare's reverb sounds almost like crazy '80s gated stuff. I'm gonna reinforce the 'bring the snare down a bit' sentiment!
 
The mix sounds good. Good song as well. I'm not sure about the snare needing to come down as much as the vocals need to come up. Other than that I think ya got a winner.
Good recording.

Take 'er easy,..
Calwood
 
OK. It's actually like this. Just out of curiosity I did a new mix two days ago.
The snare DOES NOT need to be brought down a bit. If I bring it down 1db it's actually loud as before but looses the punch a bit. As I've mentioned the snare itself is a really loud one and it was allover the overheads. Vox need to be brought up 1-1,5db on SOME parts. Not always and especialy on "Push me and I'll let you". I think they're fine on other two songs. Guitar need to come 1db closer. Especially on "Take 5 more" (i brought them up by 2,5 db and it's much better). I'll do this minor adjustments for the upcoming full-lenght album. For the EP i guess it's ok.

thanx for comments!
 
breeeeza said:
What snare was he using, sorry nothing useful here, i havnt got time at the mo, possibly later.
Click to expand...

He uses Premier Cabria set. The snare is wooden 14x5 or something. Low end stuff. But they actually sound decent. I've always been a fan of low end Premier series. Great bang for a buck! I once owned APK (2nd generation) set and it was awesom for recording. It recorded even better than their high end Signia. I couldn't believe it. They had sort of EQed sound which was good for punk/HC stuff.
 
another note on the snare.

i always firs mix the whole drum set. i'm a drummer so i have an idea how it should sound solo. and if i listen it now in isolation it has just the right propotions. the snare is dominant, yes, but it is not because it is too loud but because of character it has. but the kic/snare ratio is as it should be. I don't like kick being too much upfront for this tipe of music. it has to blend with it unlike in metal stuff. I give snare much more importance here. I also think that this particulas snare plays a major role in defining the bands sound.
 
Last edited:
ok, the equipment used:

RECORDING:

KICK - beyerdynamic OPUS 99 into TOFT ATC-2 (compessed it a bit)
SNARE - shure SM 57 into TOFT ATC - 2 (also compressed it)
OVERHEADS - studioprojects C4 in ORTF into SPL GoldMike mk1 with Flair ON
ROOM - studioprojects C1 into the preamp on EMU 1820m card

I recorded toms and snare bottom separately and used them as samples. I used replacer free plugin for this. I replaces snare bottom dynamicaly. I also sampled the top snare and mixed the sample in a bit for more stable sound.

GUITARS - Vox TONELAB
He used Ibanez hollow body (don't know the model)

BASS - Fender Precision straight to EMU and Guitar Rig. Ampeg sim.

VOX - studioprojects C1 into SPL GoldMike with Flair ON info ATC-2 for compression.
I think vocal recording is still a week link in my setup because C1 is not the best mic for all vocal types. It's good on smoother / gentle sounding vocals but sucks on harsher stuff. And my room is really a mess. Horrible acoustics. I have to build a vocal booth one day. better soon.

The synths stuff is Roland Alpha Juno 1 and Elektron SIDSTATION (intro on Isolated ice storm)

MIX:

I used ATC-2 for room mic compression and EQing as well as for Snare comp and EQ. It's my snare machine! Really gives the smack and slammin'!
Other drum stuff processed with plugins:
Digitalfishphones - Endorphin for drum buss (free plugin)
Digitalfishphones - Blockfish for overheads (free plugin)
Kjaerhus - Golden Peak-pressor for kick
Voxengo - Gliss EQ for overheads
T-racks EQ - for minor cuts

I mostly used Voxengo Gliss EQ for boosting and T-racks EQ for cutting.
For instrument compression I used Blockfish extensively. Great comp. It's free and laughs at comercial comps that sell for $250.

I also used Bionic delay (again free and totaly rules over anything) and Anwida DX reverb (also FREE and good)

that's about it.

Oh, and mixed on Truth 2030A monitors :eek: yup. i don't really have the money to buy something more expensive. maybe in the future.

It was then mastered at my frend's studio with DIY SSL comp, Drawmer 1960 comp, and some other good stuff.

That's it.
 
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