Metal song, needs some mixing advice!

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FadeToMuffins

New member
Hey guys, this is an unfinished track from my band's upcoming album. Now, it's a long way from being done, but it's called "To the One Who Holds the Key" and it's basically a giant metaphor for being an unsigned band and trying to gain recognition. On this particular recording, I handled all the rhythm guitars, all the lead guitars except for the first solo and all the wonderfully eerie squealies during the outro, the bass tracks, and the vocals. Our other guitarist was supposed to lay down his rhythm tracks yesterday, but I guess he got a little too drunk and stoned and wanted to go home, so I just...did it for him...don't tell him please ;)

-guitars are all my Jackson DKMG
-Amps Left side are Peavey 6505+ through Crate cab
-Amps Right side are Crate BV300 through Crate cab
-bass is DI
-vocals are recorded through my Behringer B-2 condensor
-snare, tom, and kick are replaced using steven slate samples, overheads are unedited.

So yeah, that about covers it. I would describe our sound as a giant amalgamation of In Flames, Metallica, Arch Enemy, Slayer, Children of Bodom, etc.
On this recording, the rhythm guitars still aren't quite perfect. They're a little quiet. Some lead parts need to come up, and the outro squealies need to go down a little in the mix to make them more atmospheric.

I hope you guys enjoy, and I would love any feedback you guys have to improve this.

 
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WOW! I can't wait to here the finished version if this isn't it. That is pretty damn good dude. I might add to your list of bands it sounds like being Avenged Sevenfold with that tight ass guitar playin. Awesome song dude.

Trump
 
Thanks for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed it! You know, it's funny that you mention Avenged Sevenfold. Our other guitarist hates practically every other vocal take that I do because he thinks I sound too much like M. Shadows haha.
 
Can't really judge at the moment, I'm on headphones, but:

Bass could be brought up a couple of hairs.

Vocals stuck out a bit too much to me - blend em back in a bit.

Snare could be brought up a few dB.

The guitar at the very start was slightly off timing (before everything else comes in).

Everything else sounds fuckin kickin dude. Awesome guitar playing :)
 
Not bad. Needs more bass guitar for sure. I'm frikkin sick of metal mixes with no bass. A little more snare would be good too. The rest sounds pretty good. The growling at 4:30 is pretty gay. It sounds very Avenged Sevenfold-ish. I don't know if that's good or bad. I'm not into this kind of modern radio metal. The song is about 2 minutes longer than it needs to be. All that squealing noise at the end is pointless and just wankery. Pretty good mix overall though. More bass, more snare, good to go.
 
Greg_L said:
Not bad. Needs more bass guitar for sure. I'm frikkin sick of metal mixes with no bass. A little more snare would be good too. The rest sounds pretty good. The growling at 4:30 is pretty gay. It sounds very Avenged Sevenfold-ish. I don't know if that's good or bad. I'm not into this kind of modern radio metal. The song is about 2 minutes longer than it needs to be. All that squealing noise at the end is pointless and just wankery. Pretty good mix overall though. More bass, more snare, good to go.
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As far as the growls go, they aren't my forte, and I'm working on them. The squealing at the end is supposed to be lower in the mix and more atmospheric. The focus is just supposed to be the riff there. We wrote it to be a mosh section. I do agree that the bass and the snare could be louder.

I had no idea that this was radio metal. Why would you classify it as that? Clean vocals? Clear since of melody and harmony? Just because it's not constant grating dissonance doesn't mean it's pop-tastic radio metal. I guess it's just not TROO KVLT enough.
 
FadeToMuffins said:
Why would you classify it as that? .
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Because it sounds like any other mid-to-late 00's "metal". Just because you throw a few "fucks" in there doesn't mean it's hardcore. It's not a bad thing, just do what you do. It sounds very A7X like, and they get played on the radio. That's all.
 
Greg_L said:
Because it sounds like any other mid-to-late 00's "metal". Just because you throw a few "fucks" in there doesn't mean it's hardcore. It's not a bad thing, just do what you do. It sounds very A7X like, and they get played on the radio. That's all.
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Ehh, I can see this debate going in circles. You are definitely entitled to your opinion, with which I respectfully disagree. With the exception of bands like Five Finger Death Punch and Lamb of God, most modern commercial metal is some god-awful "-core" genre. I would say we have stronger thrash influences than most modern metal bands, although they don't really shine through in this song.
 
FadeToMuffins said:
Ehh, I can see this debate going in circles. You are definitely entitled to your opinion, with which I respectfully disagree. With the exception of bands like Five Finger Death Punch and Lamb of God, most modern commercial metal is some god-awful "-core" genre. I would say we have stronger thrash influences than most modern metal bands, although they don't really shine through in this song.
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Well that's certainly fine. Everyone likes to think that what they're doing is unique or edgy. Being "radio metal" isn't a bad thing for a band trying to gain recognition, which I assumed is what you want based on your first post. You're not re-inventing the wheel with this music, so if you're gonna sound like someone else, you just gotta do it better. As long as you enjoy it, rock on! :)
 
I think your voice sounds decent. Besides the growls, I think it's actually a rather "punk" voice for metal. (Modern post-pop-punk, not the Ramones-style stuff that Gerg does.)

The hi-hat that you have going during the verses really got on my nerves. It took me a minute to figure out that it wasn't just noise in the vocal track.

The growled vocals are very clearly enunciated. I"m not sure if that's a good, bad, or neutral thing.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I think your voice sounds decent. Besides the growls, I think it's actually a rather "punk" voice for metal. (Modern post-pop-punk, not the Ramones-style stuff that Gerg does.)

The hi-hat that you have going during the verses really got on my nerves. It took me a minute to figure out that it wasn't just noise in the vocal track.

The growled vocals are very clearly enunciated. I"m not sure if that's a good, bad, or neutral thing.
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Haha, just make fun of my 20 year old voice. Kick me in my sensitive spot why don't ya ;)

JK, JK, thanks, I'm glad you liked them. I'm not going for punk vocals, but that seems to be the voice that God blessed me with. I'm hoping in another 4 years or so when my balls drop a little bit more, I'll be closer to a Corey Taylor or M. Shadows.

As for the hi-hat, I'm kinda restricted to what I can do to fix that. My overheads were two Shure PG-81's, no seperate hi hat mic, so I don't have too many options there.
 
Hey! Nothing wrong with an unconventional voice. I often find I prefer music that blends genres a little. (I saw a band once that sounded like two melodic death metal guitarists (a la Arch Enemy) had wandered into a crust/hardcore punk band. It was pretty awesome.)
 
I use steven slate samples on some of my metal projects too but god I can't stand hearing fake drums....I am a drummer and recording my own bands metal album and I was going to program my own kit with steven slate and hearing this made me think twice...

Maybe it's just me but I need to hear a real snare drum at least. 9 times out of 10 it won't *sound* nearly as good but atleast it sounds real. I'm not sure if non-drummers can tell or care about this...I'd like to know.

Here's a little clip of a project I recently did, the kick and toms are steven slate and the snare is real. The snare is really mushy (I forgot compression :( ). This mix is a bit bass-light.



I would say heres some things I hear in your mix..


1. Guitar needs to be louder. Guitar *tone* is subjective but it does sound on the amateur side. :) I would recommend blending two mics together on different speakers of the cab for each track. I would also recommend keeping it more consistant for both sides and use the same amp for both tracks, thats just me.

2. Wheres da bass? (I am listening at home on little computer speakers by the way but I should still hear the bass guitar) bass guitar cuts good around 1k and some of that nice slappy presence sound around 8k and the meat and bones around 100hz.

4. Whole mix could be louder either with soft clipping or limiting.
 
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recordman said:
I use steven slate samples on some of my metal projects too but god I can't stand hearing fake drums....I am a drummer and recording my own bands metal album and I was going to trigger my own drums and hearing this made me think twice...
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Atta boy! :D
 
Greg_L said:
Atta boy! :D
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You a drummer too? Not to get too off topic but I'm so pathetic that yesterday I was actually considering not even playing drums on our album and just programming them. I'm like "I can make it sound real" haha!! The next day I realized I was nuts. It's going to take me 2 weeks to track 8 songs though literally. I can only stand going in and playing drums for a few hours then I'm fried, everything has to be perfect.
 
Oh I do have a tip for making fake drums sound more real though....compression with a really fast attack about 2ms and about 100ms release....4:1 or so...and about 6-12dB reduction. Will get you a nice snappy sound and take away some of the fakeness. Great part is it sounds consistent because the fake drums have no dynamics...well unless you want them to.

On another note if you ever want to come out to Ohio and work with me I'm a cheap whore. I have a album I did coming out world wide distributed by universal records. :cool:

:spank:
 
recordman said:
You a drummer too? Not to get too off topic but I'm so pathetic that yesterday I was actually considering not even playing drums on our album and just programming them. I'm like "I can make it sound real" haha!! The next day I realized I was nuts. It's going to take me 2 weeks to track 8 songs though literally. I can only stand going in and playing drums for a few hours then I'm fried, everything has to be perfect.
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Yeah, I drum a little.

I'd personally rather hear less-then-perfect real drums played by a real person over programmed, perfect sounding drums any day.
 
I think the bass also needs compression and maybe EQ. Most of the time its not heard but here and there suddenly appears some undefined boomy sound.
 
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