Mixing Advice- New Death Metal Song

C

comprehensive

New member
Hey everyone, I am working on the mix of the first song for my new death metal project (it doesn't have the vocals on it yet). I want the mix to ultimately have a very suffocation, cannibal corpse, cattle decapitation feel production wise. I play drums and I do not want to use triggers, nor do I feel that I need to in order to achieve the sound I want. It would be awesome of you guys would give her a listen and let me know what your advice is. BTW if your advice is harsh, don't apologize, I am asking for you guys to listen to it so that I can make it better no so that I can feel better about it. Just let me know what you think is wrong with it, and how you would go about trying to fix it. If you legitimately do like it, let me know specifically why so that I can improve upon the better aspects of it.

Here is the file- http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=6afa3a555a965b641bee9a6e9edd9c76e04e75f6e8ebb871
 
Well, I'm not even really sure where to start. I guess it would help if you explained your goals with this. Is it a demo to get shows? Something somewhat more polished? Or, are you looking to match the production of the bands you listed?


You need to get control of you monitoring environment before you go much farther - or at least learn it so you can compensate for it. You've got a ton of really lowend swinging around wildly, and the parts lack much definition.
 
For the time being this is a rough mix of a song that will later be remixed on monitors (unfortunately my stereo amp broke a few weeks so I can't use my monitors again until I get a new one) instead of the shit headphones I have been working with. But yeah, its way bass heavy right now.

The goal is to make an EP of mid-era cannibal corpse production value.
 
This isn't gonna work until you deal with that low-end. The kick is booming along instead of thumping and clicking and it's overpowering everything else. Which is a shame, 'cos the track and the playing is pretty good. I can't make the bass guitar out, which is what should be driving it. I suggest a low cut for the kick around 80 hz. Hope this helps.

Joe :)
 
1. Noise
First off, you got serious clipping issues. I hear undesirable distortion coming here and there and maybe the reason is the abuse of the compressor. remember, your music should have dynamic, differences between the soft and the loud parts. Leave the volume to the mastering stage. When mixing, try to make it sound good and balanced, it's nice to have some headroom to work with. Well, to make this thing more clear, I took a snapshot of your waves and compared with the band that is a reference for your music.

This is how your soundwave looks.

balls_deep_wave.png



This how your soundwave should look

Devoured by vermin by Cannibal Corpse (1996)
devoured_wave.png


And this is how your sample should sound, this is your goal:
Devoured by vermin (Cannibal Corpse)

So, bring down all your faders and start mixing fromz ero. First go for the drums, then add the bass. Then bring up the guitars until you find every instrument has its own space in the mix.


2. Kick
Leave the "I-don't need-triggers" attitude. if you want to sound like a mid-era Cannibal Corpse record you should consider layering a nice kick sample under your basket ball sounding kick. Sorry to be that honest but that's how your kick sound, horrible.


3. Snare
Need more attack. here how the snare in Devoured by vermin sound. Hear it with a lot of attention. it has a devilsish span and a great resonace. Death metal needs a great snare to shine. In this case you're being too shy with the volume and with the dynamic. Hit it harder. BTW, a layered snare sample is a great option.


4. Guitars
The weakest part of your music. Guitars are the soul of death metal. In cannibal Corpse you have vicious distorted guitars that instantly capture your attention. They're distorted to hell but yet you can "understand" the lines. Remember to record using high quality instruments. A cheap strato with a single coil will never sound like a custom made BC Rich with EMG active pickups thru a Triple Rectifier Mesa Boogie head and a 4x12 Mesa cabinet.


Well, my advice is to re record the drums, then mix your song by A/Bing your music with a CC track.

Good luck, and stay DEATH!
 
Ok, I did another mix of the song. I'm getting logic pro tomorrow, I'm finished with this cubase le bullshit. If you are so inclined, go ahead and listen to the song and give me advice. I started doing the production side of my music about 3 months ago and I've improved a lot but I'm still not great at it. Thanks in advance to whoever pays attention and helps, you rule.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=6afa3a555a965b641bee9a6e9edd9c76e04e75f6e8ebb871
 
Definately your best mix so far mate. The guitars are sounding much crisper but more importantly(from a mix improvement point of view), your drums are starting to come through now...I still want more snare/toms though, although I'm not really too familiar with this genre so hope I ain't just insulted ya there.:)

I'm not experienced enough to comment much more on the production as I'm still new to this myself but one thing dude...an headphone mix will sound awesome to only one person, the person mixing with them. They'll lie their little ass off to ya. But keep at it mate cause IMO, that mix is much improved.

Mart.
 
Mart, new mix shows improvments but tehre's still clipping issues. remener that the loud thing will come in the mastering not in the mixing process.

Well now, try to bring up the snare, now it's hidden behind the guitar wall. Kick sounds differente but still nedds that death metal snap. Try boostin the 5kHz frequencies a bit and play around until you find the right spot.

The solo part sounds weird, I have a guitar to the right and nothing to the left. The lead guitar can be louder, add some reverb to stick it together.

One last advice, when you put vocals on your track I'm pretty sure you're gonna have to adjust a lot because of the new mid-range frequencies collapsing with the mids of your guitars.

You're on the right path.
 
I just downloaded a bunch of plugins for cubase le and those are helping alot with the mix im working on, my only problem is that as far as I know, you can only use two plug ins per track in le, which sucks. I need new shit.
 
comprehensive said:
I just downloaded a bunch of plugins for cubase le and those are helping alot with the mix im working on, my only problem is that as far as I know, you can only use two plug ins per track in le, which sucks. I need new shit.
Click to expand...

Go get reaper, it's free but don't get put off by that cause it's awesome and competes easily with cubase/cakewalk etc. Plugin's are much easier to use IMO. Just import your 'wavs'...drop a plugin onto the same strip and mix away. Here's a link:-
http://www.cockos.com/reaper/download.php
 
I use Cubase LE, but if you find yourself limited because you can't use more than 2 plugs, then you should re-evaluate other aspects of the process.

If I ever need to use 3-4 plugs on a track (such as vocals) then use sends, or go with bouncing.
 
Plugins... *sigh*

Listen to me, plugins are not gonna fix incorrect tracking, cheap instruments or bad playing. Think of plugins as tools to help you, not to do the dirty work. It's the same with spices, rotten poultry will never taste good for much salt you pour into it. Makes sense, right? Tracking is the key to have a great mix.

Once again, I will quote the recording mantra: You can't polish a turd.
So, if you're not ina a hurry, try to record agian what is not working on your mix: the kick and the snare. You can work from there.
 
I got several pop-up ads, and blocks, on the mediafire page with the song mixes.
just fyi.

never got to hear it as there were too many ads bombarding me.
 
I understand the importance of good tracking. Unfortunately, the studio space we rent out and record in right now is not actually a good studio space, its just all thats available in santa cruz, we're building a studio into a house in august when the next school year starts and everyone gets back from summer, for now, we're just making a little 3 song ep demo thingy. Anyway, I got the same shit from mediafire suddenly yesterday too so I put it on a different site where you don't have to download it, just play it.

http://www.fandalism.com/index.cfm?songid=231353

I like the sounds from the kick and snare a lot more now, though I'm having trouble getting the toms to sound as full as I'd like them to without getting too boomy and the kick needs more punch. This version is quieter to make room for a master later, as you suggested pixel, is it alright if I call you pixel or would you prefer killnow, its just weird to type killthepixelnow when addressing someone. My name is Ian btw.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who is helping me with their advice, I will most likely be retracking the drums tomorrow, pulling the back head off, taping some old gift cards on the beater pad and micing the snare better, maybe tuning it to sound fatter too.
 
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No problem man, a lot of people her call me pixel. It's easier, uh?

Well, concerning your new mix, guitars sound pretty well. I think that's the best part of your song. Now, if you're planning to re record your drums I'd advice to put a pair of mics in the kick and in the snare. Why? I'll explain:

Snare
Top: Will give you attack
Bottom: Will give you resonace and ring

Kick
Inside mic (beater) Will give you the snap
Ouside mic (hole) Will give you the oomph!

It's better to have those tracks in order to achieve the sound you want. For death metal it's nice to hear a lot of top snare and beater kick but... that's only a part of the sound, when you hear a live performance you hear all THE whole kit. Thunk about it when remixing your kit.

Good luck!
 
I would say it sounds like way too much room sound in the mix. This genre calls for a very upfront sound. Close mic all the amps, run a DI and reamp or put it through an amp simulator. The drums sound like most of the sound is coming from mic's that are a 10 feet away when this style of music is very close miked sounds on drums.

The playing is good on some parts but you guys are not tight. Sounds like great players but you guys should play it tighter at a slower tempo. The drummer sounds like he's playing catch up on the blast beats and the guitarist sounds like he's not listening to the drummer on the fast leads. Practice playing it slower and feel the music with each other. It will all happen a lot more nicely.

Some people like to use samples on drums. It sounds like you got all of the drums miked up unless it's just the overheads got good stereo separation. But if you have everything miked up, you can trigger samples with a program like Drumagog if retracking is not an option. And let me say, retracking should be your first option. Listen to pixel, retrack and figure out whats working or not working with that music. You'll figure something out.

I'm sorry I haven't made any direct suggestions. I haven't read your set up and how you tracked it. This is some tough music to record, there is A LOT to know about all the things going on in the mix. Especially things this busy.

Read this 3 or 4 times as if it may have been your religious duty. You'll hopefully be able to improve some things by the time you're retracking. Good luck with it! :)Eric
http://badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html
 
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Erockrazor said:
This is some tough music to record, there is A LOT to know about all the things going on in the mix. Especially things this busy.
Click to expand...

Hell yeah, I've been struggling with that problem too. I've been mixing my band's CD for about a year! Death metal calls for good tracking and accurate mixing. And good playing, of course.

PS: Things will complicate a bit more when you add a vocalist :)
 
killthepixelnow said:
Hell yeah, I've been struggling with that problem too. I've been mixing my band's CD for about a year! Death metal calls for good tracking and accurate mixing. And good playing, of course.
Click to expand...

Everything needs to go right. It's times like these that I'm relieved that I only play in pop rock bands.

Now it's time's like these that I feel poorly that I can't even mix pop rock well :eek:

Eric
 
Yeah, the guitars are playing a little bit of catch up, but I have enough takes that I can very easily fix that, the blast beats are on but its hard to tell which is off when listening to it. I'll make sure everything is tighter and I'm rerecording some of our bass parts. I'll put a mic on the bottom of the snare for sure, but for the kick sound I think I'll go with triggering a second sample track to fatten it up as I think it will sound punchier to take the back head off completely given the acoustics of the room and I only have 8 inputs so 9 mics isn't an option. I'll put it up in a few days once its redone.
 
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