Like A Stone - Deathmetal cover

[escapethewolf]

Did this cover a couple of weeks back and wanted your opinions and maybe some pointers, mainly on getting the WOOF(super technical term, I know) out of the guitars without killing the low end and how to make the vocals a bit wider and bigger sounding.

 

[RedStone]

It's interesting. There's not a lot of beef in the mix overall.
try hi-passing the guitars to about 80hz. that might take care of interference in the very low end. The guitars might be masking the kick, which is almost not even there below 80hz. Had to boost like 20db before I could hear the thump of the kick.

Vocals are getting buried, and the snare needs a bit of a nudge up in the 150-200hz region I think.
I would keep vocals dry and up the center. Works for the style anyway. Try a bit of stereo delay to get some spread?

Overall needs more clarity. Buss EQ can bring that in if everything is balanced with itself in the mix.

Try this: switch to mono and adjust the faders until you can hear every element of the mix in balance. If anything is getting lost (like the kick or snare or vocal), try using some compression to poke it out of the mix. See how that works.

 

[JDOD]

The main problem here is that is doesn't sound heavy.
I think there's too much gain on the guitars and they are too scooped so they just disappear in the mix, those heavy palm mutes should really stand out. What sim are you using? When the guitars are solo at 3:46 you can really hear the tone on its own and its quite fizzy.

How was your throat after that one?

 

[VomitHatSteve]

The main problem here is that is doesn't sound heavy.

'struth

I think there's too much gain on the guitars and they are too scooped so they just disappear in the mix

I think that's a big part of it. For the big, mid-rangey instruments (rhythm guitar and vocals mostly), what you usually want to do is have less gain/distortion and multi-track it a bunch of times.
The vocals especially sound thin and weak to me. Layering it up a few times would help, especially if you could adjust your tone per take: one deep growled take, one mid growled/screamed take, one sung clean, etc.
You could also probably cut back on the 'verb a bit. Reverb acts as a compressing and cluttering effect and can make it really hard to get definition and clarity. It's easy to turn your whole mix into mid to upper-mid mush.

 

[JDOD]

Following on from what Steve just said, check out the guitar tone on Edgecrusher. That's heavy as fuck. It's also not too scoopy, and thickly layered, a lot of gain, not silly amounts and really accurate rhythm playing.

 

[gregoryg]

The high register guitar noodle part (hope that makes sense) is right up the middle with the vocal and it is pretty high in the mix creating too much competition for that space (to my ears). Maybe turn it down a bit and pull it over to one side slightly. Also, is that scratching noise at the beginning of the song intentional? If not, there is a scratching noise at the beginning of the track.

 

[TripleM]

The doubling on the guitars is nice and tight.

I think they have too much gain dialed in. They're kind of mushy and lack punch.

I think the vocal is buried a little bit. It's dominated by the rhythm guitars.

The bass is lacking a little punch as well. I'd like a little more defined attack in the notes.

edit - the LP crackles at the beginning don't do anything for me. It seems like an excuse to use some effect.