Metal band im tracking : Song 3

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wireneck
  • Start date Start date
This is a pretty good mix overall Wireneck! Personally, I think it's a bit scooped sounding though. I'd like to hear more midrange in the guitars, and I think you'll find the drums sit better when the guitars have more presence. The bass guitar could also use some more defintion (it's got good low end, but I'd like to hear the notes a little more). You also might consider spreading the mix out a bit...everything (except the guitars) is very mono sounding. Get the toms panned a bit, if the overheads are as "stereo" as possible, maybe try some psuedo-stereo processing on them. The reverb sounds mono as well. (?)

Nice work!! :)
 
Mix 3 is sounding pretty damn good.

The only thing I could nit pick you on now is the drum levels. There's a few spots where they're a bit hot. Are you sending this out for mastering or doing it yourself? If your sending it to another enigineer/s it might be a good idea to talk to 'em about what they want in a mix. It might be better to leave the drums a bit hot. It's easier to push 'em back with compression/limiting than it is to bring 'em up if they're too low.
 
thanks

Looney tunez- i appreciate the listen. The toms are panned around 2 and 10 oclock , the overheads are at 3 and 9 oclock and the guitars are hard left and hard right. Ive tried a wider spread before but it sounded too open for our style in my opinion. The reverb was mono as well i believe. Im not even sure how a stereo reverb would work through the aux bus lol?
M. Brane- thanks as always for the time you put into helping me with my mixes. I suppose I will be doing the "mastering" myself. We aren't getting very many shows these days so were probably going to be struggling to get some cds pressed as it is. I don't even have a clue as to what mastering would cost. So assuming a professional is not doing the mastering, what places were hot sounding drumwise, i know theres a few rimshots that stick out? is it bad enough to warrant another remix? thanks as always

chris
 
One of my favorite tricks for mixing 'verb is to bus the 'verb to the opposite side i.e. L guitar 'verb on the R. Adds space without extreme panning, and tends to keep things from getting muddy.

If your mastering this yourself just think about what you want the finished product to sound like, and get as close as you can in the mix. That means less tweaking in the final stage. Just remember what I said about the drums applies to the whole mix. You can always limit/compress more, but once you've gone too far your sunk unless you keep copies of everything so you can go back. I believe it's better to compress things a little at each stage rather than all at once. The final sound is more transparent that way.

Are you mixing this in the box, or on an actual mixer?
 
everything was recorded on

two alesis adats. Im mixing on an alesis studio 32 16 channel mixer at the moment into an alesis masterlink. All outboard gear, nothing is software or "in the box" at this point.
I know this is probably kind of dumb but im not really sure what i should expect after mastering. I know things are usually louder, maybe smoothed out with some compression and limiting.
I think this 3rd mix is pretty close to what im looking for sound wise.
 
No, not dumb!

Dumb means you can't learn.

Ignorant maybe. That means you just don't know. No shame in that.

The basic idea behind mastering is to get the mix to translate well into the real world. The better the ears & gear, the better the result. It's also a good idea to get another set of experienced ears on a project. It helps to keep things in perspective.

At the bare minimum I would not try to master things in the same space that you mixed in. Room acoustics can mask EQ problems, and screw with your sence of space.

Don't confuse mastering with making a master disk. I got screwed on this one once myself. I (well, the band) was charged several $100 for "mastering services". I think all they did was normalize, trim a few things that should have stayed, and burn a red-book disk for duping. The hyped bottom on the mix (that could have been fixed) remained intact. Live & learn.

You may want to at least get in touch with a few mastering engineers. Any with integrity should be able to tell you what they can do for you, and how much by listening to a sample of your work. you may even be able to pick up some free tips.;)
 
3RD MIX SOUNDS BADDASS!! I thinkn it is better sounding. Your stuff kicks ass. I am working on a couple of In Flames tunes. Ordinary Story off of Colony, and Pinball Map from Clayman. Keep posting. later
 
m.brane- i see what your saying. That sucks that you got screwed with the master disk thing. I could burn a redbook and normalize with my masterlink. Maybe i should start a master disk service? Jk
Thanks for all the help and advice man, looks like i need to start reading up in the mastering section of the site.
Analytical man-once again, thanks for all the kind words. We will be starting the last set of drum tracks (i think) this sunday , so i should have some more stuff up in the next two weeks. Those are some killer In flames song. Any chance your going to do anything off Jester Race?
 
I might try some stuff of of Jester, i'd have to take some time and sit down and learn those songs. I have never played them before on guitar or drums. Can't wait to hear your next tune. You should put your band in BW&BK magazine. it is a metal magazine that has a cd sampler with signed and unsigned bands. They charge but the magazine gos everywhere. Later
 
Finally got rid of a pesky virus. Good mix. I really cant find too much wrong with this mix. Maybe a you could put a bit of reverb on the toms? They sound good, its just the only thing that struck me really.

I got the first Middleground song up and posted. Give it a listen if you'd like.

Beez
 
analytical-is there anywhere on the net that i could get info about that mag? Im not familar with it, metal and anything to do with it is non-existant in our town.
Beezoboy- was it the microsoft virus thingy? My brothers laptop got it, i just happened to see a post about it in the dragon cave and realized what was going on lol. I appreciate you taking the time to listen. Ill go now and check out the middleground song.
 
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