Is this as bad as I think it is?

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Murdersgalore

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I have been messing with this for hours and it just seems to sound worse to me. I dont know if I'm that tired or if it just sucks. So I will let you guys pick it apart. Only thing Ive done to the file is normalize it for level and it is unmastered so there is a bit of silence at the beginning so you may wanna give it a 10 second nudge if you're impatient. Thanx.

track2.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage
 
It's not one bit bad, james....I've heard worse stuff from Metallica.
It's beautifully performed, well-arranged and the mix sounds great to me. Once again your voice sounds great!
I know how hard it is to view your own work objectively, you will always find something you think you should change but I think this works fine as it is.
 
Thanks Joey. It is very hard to be objective. Sometimes I need to have the patience to sit back and just put it away for a while and come back later. I guess I dont have a whole lot of experience recording vocals and that has always been my Achilles heal. I appreciate the comment and I'm glad you liked it.
 
Not bad. The guitars have that metal "chug". I'm listening and in a few places I've heard the mix "duck". At first I thought it was a peak limiter pumping but now I'm not sure. Still, it's nice and crunchy.
 
I dont have any kind of compression on the master track. It could be an artifact of the crude normalization I used to bring it up to a listenable level. The mixdown straight from the DAW is actually really low (-17dbs rms) so I just gave it a crude bump. I'll keep my ear held to it though. You may be hearing something I'm not that will bite my ass later. Thanks.
 
I listened to it again. Listen at 1:05, 1:13, 2:00 mark. There are more spots but it seems dramatic there. I bet you're right about a nomalizing artifact.
 
This might not be appropriate feedback. If not - sorry. To me, the overall sound was too monochromatic. Possibly that was what the idea is, but more high end in the lead guitar and push it a bit more above the mix?
 
Very good James! That guitar is brutal :D. Your voice sounds great too. How many guitar tracks did you do on that main guitar? The drums got pretty good beef to 'em too. There's a lot going on here and you've done a good juggling act.
 
It's quad tracked. 2 panned hard left and 2 hard right. The drums are Addictive Drums using a preset that I have been working on seemingly forever and am just now getting the sound I almost want. :)
 
This is a pretty awesome song. The intro was especially cool as hell. I particuarly liked Joey's comment. LOL. Have you thought about doing any Megadeth covers. Lol. You almost got Mustane nailed there. This is a bad ass song dude.
 
I'm not picking up the 'ducking', the bass drops out for a beat but that's all I get.
When I listened to it, I didn't really know it had started because the intro is so quiet!! I see what you're going for with the gentle fade it, and I really like the thin tone you've got there, but the whole thing needs to fade much quicker to a higher level. It doesn't need to be quite up to the full tone level after it, but it needs to be comparable.
For the record, I am NOT saying get rid of the dynamics, just they need to be more audible.

You need to trim off the first 9 seconds as I can't find anything there at all

The next 30 seconds of fade should happen in nearly half that time in my opinion, because you listen to the fade rather than the music.

Finally, the intro needs to reach maybe another 5dB before the main kick in at 50secs.

I'd say that was the only negative I've got, and is probably because you know the fade so well, you're prepared for it and it's tempting to make it more subtle, but other people with "fresh ears" won't hear it like that.

Other than that, nice job, in particular the vocals which I really REALLY liked. The tone and the delay really work well together. Thumbs UP!
 
Haven't read any comments, so, this is unbiased. Your hi-hat sounds a bit brittle, and pretty high in the mix. I'd lower it 1 or 2 dB. Your cymbals also sound pretty wimpy. Lower the high-end freqs (10-14K) and get rid of any scooping of the lower-hi freqs. That might help. The rest of your drums sound great. Guitars sound brutal, and the balance between guitars and bass is darned-near perfect. I love it.

Vocals sit well in the mix, too. Pretty good stuff, man!
 
Drop the hats. They're too loud. The whole mix has a hollow, scooped sound to it. It's all lows or highs. No mids. The vocals are pretty terrible. Are you singing into a shoebox? Very boxy and distant sounding. I'm not a fan of the guitar tone, but it sounds right. Very metal. They chug nicely. Good bass presence too. The whole thing just needs more fullness and better vocal processing.
 
There's something missing...like transient attack. Maybe that's the result of mid-scoop, like Sensei Gerg mentioned? The guits and bass sound good, but there's not much definition in the bass...no punch on the initial pluck; and the chug is there, but not effective....not loud enough..like it was compressed at tracking... to a fault?? Other than than, the guits are creamy and warm. Sound great. One thing I notice is that stuff is ringing on the stops...like that cool-sounding floor tom ring. A nice deviation from the norm.

Someone mentioned 'monochromatic'. Yep. The riffs carry on so long that interest falls of. The change ups...like to the verse or the solo [which is really great and brief enough to leave me wanting more]...are a rescue mission instead of a turn on the road. Some editing?

I think it's really good. More transient in the strings. More scenery changing....or cut and paste steff into the longish, repetitive sections....might be good. Like, the tune is a 'march'. A battle scene...with some whacked-out cords and some hack and slash buildup...then a resolution back to the dirge, would be really interesting.

The vocal is good. But not brutal and gutsy...like a lot of metal is. It's just the timbre of your voice.....not warrior-like.....sincerely crazed and angry. Kinda tame, for the intensity I think you're trying to create.

Ad that to the lack of attack and the too-long riff parts, and I think you're getting only a 5 or 6 on the intensity scale of 0-10.

I always rate metal by thinking about what the soldiers in the Middle East play in their tanks while rolling over the desert. There are videos. Their tastes are for raw, punchy, exciting, crazy-intense screamery in the music. Pump-it-up stuff. Get ready to fight soundtrack. I can't imagine this one among the top 100. Close. No cigar.
 
Really cool, I love the harmony, as well as the riff at 1:12. Groovy.
 
The vocals need some guts - it sounds like someone trying to RJD with a high pass on their vocals.
The music is pretty well recorded & the bass + guitar sound combo is well done. The riff doesn't quite bludgeon - try listening to Helmet's Betty LP for really brutal without being death or insert appropriate subgenre metal.
I considered norm'ing a track the other day, then I thought about compression & then I though I'd be dangerous & radical so I went back in & lifted the levels on the individual instruments - funnily enough it did what I needed to do.
 
I like the riff, but am not into vocals (just my personal prefs)

IMO, would really be cool as a guitar instrumental.

The guitar riff kills
Me likey!
 
Nope - the vocals are fine - maybe not everyone's taste but I hear the 80's rockin hard in this one. Sounds pro. I also think if you up the mids you'll start losing definition and everything will squash together. Drums are great, no issues from me. Metal you can actually enjoy....
 
I'd say do a parametric sweep on those high hats from 8Khz upwards, identify the hissing frequency and just notch it down 3 or 4db, perhaps lower the volume on them a little too.

Also if you have a spectrum analyzer, insert on the master track and have a look at your overall mix, If it's scooped in the middle you'd need to fill the mids out about more, you probably could achieve this at the mastering stage if you don't want to go back and start EQ'ing the individual tracks again
 
Dude this is freaking sweet and original! I'm glad I listened and thanks for posting it!
 
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