Metal Metal Metal - I need some advice. Please help :D

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FoulPhil

FoulPhil

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I'm recording my 2ND full length Death Metal Album. I'm trying very hard to make it sound much better than the last one. I have all the music recorded and just need to record vocals, but I caught a little cold yesterday and have a sore throat now.

So, I'm working on just mixing things. My biggest concern is the drums, especially the snare drum. I've tried to get it nice and thick sounding, but I'm afraid I can't tell if I've done any good or not. I can't decide little things like if I want more echo, more punch or do I want more bounce, popping or what ever you call it?

Once I'm on the right track the rest will be down hill. So, am I doing OK so far? Or is it really shitty and what can I do to make it better?

By the way, this is just a mix with no "mastering" effects. You will need to turn it up pretty loud to hear it properly.

 
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The snare's a bit clacky for my liking, lots of top and not much bottom. I'd try to add a little more low end into it
 
This is a tough one to call. For a snare to work on a song like this, it needs to have plenty of attack. You've got that. What you don't seem to have is snare body or dynamics in the snare whacks. I know death metal drums have to sound like a typewriter. I get that during the fast parts. But maybe in the slower break downs use a sample that has more body and ring to it. And maybe "humanize" the kit a little more. Other than that, I think it sounds pretty right on.
 
Bulls Hit said:
The snare's a bit clacky for my liking, lots of top and not much bottom. I'd try to add a little more low end into it
Click to expand...

I was actually going to say that about the kick. When you do the machine gun thing, it's all click.
 
Yeah I'm noticing the same things, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do to make it right. It's actually way more of a challenge because I've been listening and comparing to other songs that sound great and I think I get a nice over all sound, but I don't feel I'm any where close yet. I've been doing this for days lol. A few hours here and there. I guess what ever I can learn from this will make it worth it.
 
Ok so here is a new mix. The main thing I'm focusing on is the drums. This I think is pretty much close to the sound I'm going for. Any input on the other instruments is fine as well. I know some people may not like the super distortion on the guitars, but I want it really raw metal sounding. Really anything to make it sound better would be good advice :D

 
Without having read other comments....

WOW. Are you playing a real kit?? Gold medal! Never heard such a perfect blur. Crikey!

My take on what might make it better...FWIIW:

The blur sections. Thin the rockestra above the drums...like bass and one guitar playing a line matching the drum beat subdivision...like 128th notes? (:^O. The wonder of the kit gets buried by the accumulated noise on top. Some general thinning of the continual phatness would add some interest in texture, beyond what's there. And what's there in the folds could be made more effective with some 'bite' on the guitars, and space to hear the verb and/or delay bouncing. A wee bit more space.

Upwards on the level of the el diablo guitar solos....feature the feature. [almost a parody of metal....all that was missing was the bomb goin' off, like Yankovic's "Eat It"....after the 2X speed Eddie lead spoof.

Toms were hard to hear and appreciate.

Unreal! In a great way. Should be, like crazy, man, when it's done!
 
I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean, but the hard part of this is figuring out how to do the sort of things you're talking about. I spent several hours just trying to get a few things sounding as close as possible to my favorite death metal albums. I spent so much time comparing different drum kit sounds commonly used and tweaking things to "death" lol...

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get it just right. It may be beyond my abilities, but I'm not going to give up yet. I have the time to perfect things I just don't know what to do. As the saying goes I have to play it by ear lol...
 
Tough call - both mixes have their merits... I'll vote #1 as my overall pick. THere's some rumbling of low mids at a lower volume which is overpowering the mix in my headphones. Not sure if that's standard metal fare - remember I'm far from a metal connoissuer I just play one on TV... lol top chops on the instruments BTW....
 
I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean,

I'm not sure I know what I mean, either! But that's a likkedy tune!
 
ido1957 said:
Tough call - both mixes have their merits... I'll vote #1 as my overall pick. THere's some rumbling of low mids at a lower volume which is overpowering the mix in my headphones. Not sure if that's standard metal fare - remember I'm far from a metal connoissuer I just play one on TV... lol top chops on the instruments BTW....
Click to expand...

What would you do to correct that?

Thanks Jeff :D
 
FoulPhil said:
What would you do to correct that?

Thanks Jeff :D
Click to expand...

Hmmm - it's probably a build up of one area of the spectrum. Find that and tweak the eq just a touch... Again, my expertise is very limited but hope I can give you feedback that others might be able to help with...
 
Thanks for the advice. I see if I can learn some new tricks :P
 
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