New metal track from my band, let me know what you think!

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veritaspast

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Hey everyone,

My band has been working on releasing an album for a while now, we are almost done recording. We only have a few vocal tracks left to do in a couple songs, everything else has been recorded.

The album was completely recorded at home with Protools digi002 rack, FMR RNP preamp. SM57 mic for guitars using a fender twin reverb, Bluebird mic for vocals, direct in for bass, and drums were done with an electric kit called "2box drumit 5mkii". I've spent a lot of time trying to get the best mix out of the tracks I recorded and I am happy with what I have so far because compared to my old bands tracks that I recorded in Cubase years ago, there's a night and day difference in quality, tone and overall feel of a professional recording..

I'd love to hear what you guys think of the recording and the song and any suggestions you might have of how to improve it. We listen to a lot of As I Lay Dying and All That Remains music, so even though we sound a bit different, that's the kind of music I referenced when mixing.

I tried to upload the song using the attachments button, but I couldn't get it to work so please check the link in my signature.


Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks!

Will
 
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The ability to post links and attachments is based on post count. Post a few more times, and you'll be able to add 'em.

You've got some potential here. It sounds pretty muddy though. Especially the vox. They're pretty buried.
The goal is that each instrument should have it's own space in the eq spectrum. The problem being that vocals and guitars naturally occupy the same space. So big, beefy guitars will bury your vocals pretty quickly.

Welcome to the boards!
 
Can't get to MySpace at work. Yeah bump up your post count and post some music. Or put it on SoundCloud or something and put a text URL in that we can copy and paste.
 
Thank you for the suggestions. Here's the link to soundcloud:


VomitHatSteve, thanks for the input. Do you have any suggestions as to how to go about fixing the muddy sound? (Great name by the way haha)

I have every track bussed to a "submix" aux track and then the aux track sent to the master fader track. On the master fader track I have my L3 limiter, would I dial out some mud around the 400hz mark on the L3 limiter?

Also, I am using vocal rider on the vocals to do my automation work and keep things even. That's about the only thing that I have on the vocal tracks other than a deesser. After listening to my mix, do you recommend I add anything else to the vocal tracks?

Thanks!
 
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I think you should look more towards getting rid of the mud on the individual tracks before you start playing with the master EQ. The guitars sound like they could do with some subtractive EQ around the 200-500Hz mark. Don't quote me on that specifically!

And when the overheads are laid bare in parts of the track, it sounds like they could do with a bit more high end.

The breakdown section sounds nice, the guitars burying the vocals once again though. The harmony vocals could do with a little autotune on this part.

Good tune though. If you can fix the guitar/vocal battle for space then you are going in the right direction.
 
Tons of energy. Very well performed.

Like steveig11 mentioned, there is a lot of mud. The bass and guitars all sound muddy. They also seem to be missing a bit of high end, like 4K and up.

The vocals and guitars sound like they're in different places. Vocals are much dryer than the guitars. Vocals and drums are buried. It's all guitars and bass.

Real good guitar work.
 
Wow, thanks for the quick replies and helpful suggestions :)

I will reduce the bass guitar's volume a bit, as well as the overall 'bassy' feel of the guitars. Then I'll try and reduce some mud sound in the guitars at the 200-500Hz that Stevieg11 suggested and also lift the bass and guitars at 4k and up as suggested by TripleM.

Stevieg11, would you be able to point me in a direction as to how to autotune the vocals? I have never autotuned anything.. so which plugin to use, or any videos on how to go about doing it would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you all for the kind words and helpful input! If you guys have more tips/suggestions, keep em coming!! :)
 
I'd look up a couple of different EQ tutorials and cheat sheets to figure out what will specifically improve your mixes. Generally, EQ should be applied on a track-by-track basis (or at least an instrument-by-instrument one).

200-400 Hz and 2-3 kHz are generally the important mud and clarity areas for guitars and vocals.
 
Definitely a little bit muddy but far from being a bad mix. Drums come through fairly decently. Vocals could do with some brightening up and perhaps some better timing between the lead and backup vocals. Sounds like your guitar players can shred some leads!
 
Guitars have this weird quality to them, that sounds like they were miced at an awkward position or were dual-miced out of phase or something. Although I think there is a lot that could be done just by cleaning up the bass/guitar balance. Guitars could use a boost around 1.5k, a cut around 200 - 250, and a boost around 5k - 6k. The bass needs a shallow but decently wide cut around 200, and a gentle boost around 100hz. As for vocals, try boosting around 12k to add some presense and air. Lastly, there should be a freq around 300 - 400hz in the vocals that a slight boost will add some more size to. Once you find this spot and boost it, make a narrow but deep notch cut of the exact same frequency in the rhythm guitars. This will help the vocals to sit in front of the guitars better.

Lastly, I would reccomend bussing everything in your mix to one track, and then use some volume automation/enveloping to add some dynamics. So for example, it would get quieter during the guitar break, and then have the volume explode back to 0 dbfs right around 3:32 when the drums and everything comes back in.
 
Brave lads trying this style of music with that amp - you did well given the constraints.
You do need to go back and have a listen to individaly tracks - you may find that you've a bit of mud in the set up of the mic which would compound big time after a few takes are stacked up.
DON'T autotune if you can avoid it - try retracking if poss.
You've some good stuff to work with - be pateint and keep at it.
 
Ok, that all sounds great and is very informative! Thank you! I really like the volume automation/enveloping suggestion to give the ending a stronger feel. Thank you for giving some numbers as to which frequencies need adjusting. I'll mess around with all of these and give an updated bounce soon,

Thank you!!
 
Fixed your link. :)

Vocal tuning is a way to save time, and get things right now. You can spend the time getting it correct, but that is not always the quickest way. When the performance is good, but a bit out of pitch, you can quickly fix it. I also subscribe to the way of getting it right in tracking, but I also am quite experienced with pitch correction, as a way to get it done quicker. Sometimes, you just have to make do with what you got....

Melodyne is best. 'Assistant' version is $250. You can fix pitch issues, without anyone ever hearing that you used it. The pitch correction (Variaudio) included with C5 and up, is good for a few minor shifts, but way less natural sounding than Melodyne. Much less effective on 'growly' vocals. I haven't used Anteres 'Auto Tune' in years, so do not know how that program has evolved. Some have good things to say about Waves-tune, But I have not messed with that either, as Melodyne and VariAudio does everything I would ever need.

By the way, some really good playing on the track. I look forward to seeing how your record progresses.
 
If autotune isn't something you would normally use, I suggest downloading a demo version to use once in your project and bounce the tuned version. Good way to save you that $250 if you don't think you'll need it again.

+1 on melodyne. I've tried that and Waves Tune in uni before and much preferred melodyne.
 
"When the performance is good, but a bit out of pitch,..." Jimmy69
I'd suggest that this is on the way to becoming a classic oxymoron.
 
rayc said:
"When the performance is good, but a bit out of pitch,..." Jimmy69
I'd suggest that this is on the way to becoming a classic oxymoron.
Click to expand...

Jumbo shrimp! lol!

I meant more the emotion of a track. It is a common thing, to have financially stressed sessions, and the vocal track sounded like it was a winner, but later realize (once the mix is more in place), that the track had some pitch issues. I can fix that in seconds. I cannot bring the singer back in on my dime, recreate the recording setup, nor his particular mood the day the original tracks were recorded. I would likely have to re-record the whole song. A bit of pitch correction saves everyone a bunch of time. And me some quality time with my baby. My jumbo sized shrimp! :)
 
Thank for you fixing the link and for sharing the info about autotune!
 
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Also, I looked into Melodyne and it seems promising! I'm waiting on a bounce out of the latest mix, I'll post soon.
 
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Didn't get a chance to test out any autotune, but here's the latest mix based on the suggestions I got here.

Almost at 10 posts haha. You'll have to copy paste the following:
soundcloud.com/veritaspast/veritas-past-nancy-april-in-1
 
Or if you want a comparison of my original mix that I posted here and my most recent one. Go here:

soundcloud.com/veritaspast
 
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