making mini songs to practice mixinng (metal)

[Mr. Cachi]

Hey guys, I usually make very short instrumental songs to practice my mixing. Really been trying to improve the drums sound (superior drummer 2 in this case). If you could give me some tips, it would be greatly appreciated!

Random Metal Riff & Solo by Ezequiel Cachi | Free Listening on SoundCloud

 

[Ujn Hunter]

So I've only got small speakers here at work, so I can't give you much technical advice... but I can say that if you want better drums sound... you should turn down your guitars a bit... I guess it's obvious you're a guitar player... which is why the guitars are so loud in the mix... but you need to step away from that point of view if you want a more balanced mix. So yeah, my small advice would be to turn down the guitars a bit as they over power the drums especially towards the end when the solo parts are blazing full speed ahead.

 

[Bulls Hit]

The drums do get slightly buried towards the end but it's not too bad. You might be able to carve some 180ish Hz out of the guitars to make room for the snare. You could also try parallel compression on the drum bus. Fine balancing act between loud enough and too loud

 

[mcmac74]

The drums do get a wee bit drowned out behind guitars but they've got good energy and you've done a good job based on that small section.

Mark