My most recent project (hardcore band), need opinions!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Henningsgard
  • Start date Start date
Steve Henningsgard

Steve Henningsgard

New member
This is the first mix I've given the band for their listening purposes. I "quick-mastered" it for them (some eq w/ 1 db mid dip, .7db high boost, 1db low boost & massey limiter): it will be sent out for mastering once the mix is to their liking.

Please let me know what yall think! :D

 
I'm no expert here....

I hear tons of digital clipping, especially in the intro when drums, bass, et al come in. Then throughout the remainder of the song. Probably not an issue if you send it off for mastering, though.

To me, the drums do not fit with the rest of the band. Honestly, I can't put my finger on it, but they don't sit right. I might be too old school and looking for more space or room sound. I don't know, I don't listen to this genre very often, so I'm no expert here.... (said that once already) But if you had concerns along those lines, maybe my comments validated them.

I do like the big breath full of distortion at 2:14. Very cool.

Cheers,
 
Chili said:
I'm no expert here....

I hear tons of digital clipping, especially in the intro when drums, bass, et al come in. Then throughout the remainder of the song. Probably not an issue if you send it off for mastering, though.

To me, the drums do not fit with the rest of the band. Honestly, I can't put my finger on it, but they don't sit right. I might be too old school and looking for more space or room sound. I don't know, I don't listen to this genre very often, so I'm no expert here.... (said that once already) But if you had concerns along those lines, maybe my comments validated them.

I do like the big breath full of distortion at 2:14. Very cool.

Cheers,
Click to expand...
Agreed on the clipping: I didn't want the band to complain about it not being loud enough when they were testing out the mix, so I smashed the bejesus out of it! The original mix is clipless :p

The more I've been listening to it, the more I'm thinking the same thing as you about the drums. I feel like the snare is too poppy, and maybe they're not "roomy" enough for the genre?

Thanks for the advice thus far, keep 'em coming! :)
 
I would put more verb on the snare or something, but besides that I think the drums are good. I think the guitar sounds a little processed or something, I don't know exactly what it is, it just sounds kinda weird. And the vocals are a bit loud, but sound really good and crisp, without lacking fullness. Sounds good though. I'm jealous.
 
The left and right guitars and the kick aren't always lining up with each other. Mostly during the "machine gun" guitar parts where they really should be.That would explain the "looseness" of the drums. I actually think it's more the guitars than the drums. The vocs sound spot on for this style. Really nice job mixing.
 
AMcB said:
I would put more verb on the snare or something, but besides that I think the drums are good. I think the guitar sounds a little processed or something, I don't know exactly what it is, it just sounds kinda weird. And the vocals are a bit loud, but sound really good and crisp, without lacking fullness. Sounds good though. I'm jealous.
Click to expand...
Thanks man! I think the EQ I'm using for the guitars is pretty un-musical, and with the 2-3db boost they've got in the 2-4k range, I can definitely hear what you're hearing. I think some more mids might thicken them up a bit. Totally agree on the snare too: I'm thinking of sound-replacing it, or at least enhancing it, as it really is too poppy for the genre the more I hear it.

bryantx512 said:
The left and right guitars and the kick aren't always lining up with each other. Mostly during the "machine gun" guitar parts where they really should be.That would explain the "looseness" of the drums. I actually think it's more the guitars than the drums. The vocs sound spot on for this style. Really nice job mixing.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the 'hardcore' genre doesn't generally attract the most skilled instrumentalists, particularly the guitar/bass players. I did my best lining them up, but ultimately it was in the hands of the guitar players. I'm hoping it's not too too noticeable to the casual listener, as re-tracking the guitars definitely isn't in the cards.

Thanks again for the feedback, positive and negative/constructive! I really do appreciate it :)
 
Update! The band got back to me and said they loved the guitars, but thought the drums could use some more 'oomph' - we discussed samples and they liked the idea. They also thought the vocals could come up a bit: a stylistic opinion to be sure, but I like the vocals to seem like part of the music, vs. the main focus. I am, however, a guitar player, and thus might be a little biased :p

What would you guys suggest to add some more 'oomph' to the drums? Samples? Or just plain louder?

Also, how do you think the overheads sound? I never know exactly what to do with them... :/

Thanks again for all of the participation! :)
 
Clipping aside.
I couldn't stand this if the vox were louder. they are in their space now.
Drums - does he suffer fatigue with the bass pedal? - it seems to be out on occasion. Less bass drum and more snap to the snare & a little more in the cymbals?
Man, if those vox were louder they'd become laughable - don't do it.
 
rayc said:
Clipping aside.
I couldn't stand this if the vox were louder. they are in their space now...Man, if those vox were louder they'd become laughable - don't do it.
Click to expand...
That's what I'm sayin'! They must be listening on a system that over-hypes some other frequencies that I've failed to manage properly (how's the bass/sub-bass doin'?)


rayc said:
Drums - does he suffer fatigue with the bass pedal? - it seems to be out on occasion. Less bass drum and more snap to the snare & a little more in the cymbals?
Click to expand...
Actually yes: the dude's over 6 feet tall and weighs over 300lbs... and he's 18! He suffered some sort of injury playing football and his legs start to hurt in a very short amount of time during faster parts. Dude's the king of all troopers though: we tracked most of the drums in one day!

Would properly triggered samples help with that do you think? I can't imagine they wouldn't.
 
Sounds pretty good to me. There are a few smaller issues as already mentioned, but the biggest one is the drummer. Don't mean to sound harsh, but he really can't play this kind of music. From :54 to 1:40 he get's really bad, and again when he starts on the doubles. It sounds like it switches takes in there several times (going off his drumming, not the mixing).

The guitars have a nice meatiness to them, but it sounds a bit phasey. Not sure if that's something that can be fixed or not.
 
that snare needs to sound bigger. it's sounding thin for the style. no complaints anywhere else really. vocals in this style tend to be really upfront so that's spot on. maybe add just a little bottom end boom to the kick. but bring the snare up a tad, and throw some reverb on it, MAYBE mix it with a sample.
 
UPDATED MIX!! I beefed up the snare & kick with some samples, and generally gave the mix more balls:



Again, comments very much appreciated!
 
Sounds good, and BD is a better, but I can´t barely hear the snare...
Drums should be (imho) much more in your face...

If they agreed to use samples, use something like Steven Slate´s samples and the whole mix will be much more ballsy and aggressive!

Good work! Guitars sound indeed really good! (would you mind sharing the signal chain?) :)
 
Yeah, I really didn't have much in the way of snare samples to choose from :/ I don't have Pro Tools HD or the Expansion Pack, so I don't have sound replacer at home. I used my buddy's HD rig, and thought he had much more in the way of samples than he did.

The band doesn't have the budget for me to go back, so hopefully I can eq the snare a bit more to get some more beef out of it!
 
JuliánFernández said:
What about those guitars?! :D
Click to expand...

Hah I missed that part! For guitars, the players weren't very experienced in the ways of the studio, and thus weren't super-consistent, so we decided on one "take" for each guitarist: 2 total.

Amps used were a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier, and a Peavy 6505+ (essentially a slightly refined 5150). I used 3 mic's (SM57, KSM27, and a Sennheiser vocal mic of some sort) to add thickness to the single-take method, and put each on a different speaker. For a preamp, I used a Presonus DigiMAX LT.

As for post-processing, I used a trick I learned from Slipperman and boosted the high end semi-sharply AFTER the low-pass filter, dipped some out of the nasty 200-400 mids, high-passed at around 100, and boosted around 2.5k. That's about it!
 
coming from a fan of hardcore, i think this is certainly a competent mix with the other bands out there. i think the levels are all genre-appropriate. kudos.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top