New Metal Track Mix - Please help to make it sound heavy...

  • Thread starter Thread starter stivens1991
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stivens1991

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Hi guys,

Recently I'm working on my new metal track, and because I'm pretty much new to music production I have some problems with making it sound BIG.
First of all I know that drums are too loud comparing to guitars. I will fix it today for sure, but this is not the case :)

Currently I think I have quite heavy guitar sound, but I still have some problems to settle down the bass guitar, and kick drum in the mix. I tried some different EQ settings on the bass guitar and kick, but no luck, still not the sound that I'm looking for. I think the song is also pretty muddy, and that I should cut some extra low frequencies to fix it. That's why I'm asking for help from you guys. Maybe some of you can give me some advices, ideas, etc. to make it sound clearer, heavier?

I used

Ibanez guitar trough Guitar Cube DI,
Some cheap bass guitar trough same DI,
Addictive Drums 2 VST

Best regards,
Przemek.

View attachment guitar cube 5.mp3
 
Have you tried boosting around 1.5k? It sounds really scooped in the mids so that's a big reason why you aren't getting bigger, clearer sound.
 
wtfuhz said:
Have you tried boosting around 1.5k? It sounds really scooped in the mids so that's a big reason why you aren't getting bigger, clearer sound.
Click to expand...

And you're talking about bass or guitars? Indeed i cut the guitars mids quite radically, maybe too much, so they are muddy.
 
Sounds like it needs a lot of low end to me. That'll make it heavy. Maybe try different speakers or headphones too, it seems like you're cutting a lot of the low end.
 
Personally I think it sounds pretty good the way you have it. It's a little light on the bass, not very distinct but this genre doesn't really require it to be. What kit and beats are you using through AD2?
 
Bruthish said:
Personally I think it sounds pretty good the way you have it. It's a little light on the bass, not very distinct but this genre doesn't really require it to be. What kit and beats are you using through AD2?
Click to expand...


Thanks! I will add some low range to this, also set guitar mids a little, and see what I will get.

I'm using "Room Overdrive" kit from "Diabolic" ADPack, but I modified kick to fit my taste. And I modified cymbals a little.
 
I like it. I agree with the comments about the guitar, needs more low end. Are you using an amp sim? If so you may want to just adjust the settings on the amp sim itself.
 
Likewise, not enough bass. The guitars aren't connecting with the bass. That's why it's not sounding heavy. I'd turn the guitars down and the bass up.
 
Ex3vious said:
I like it. I agree with the comments about the guitar, needs more low end. Are you using an amp sim? If so you may want to just adjust the settings on the amp sim itself.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I've already adjusted some EQ's on guitars and indeed it's starting to sound more deep and heavy. I'm using some awesome free amp sims in this - Krankenstein VST and LeGion from LePou. Then some IR's in Poulin LeCab and Tube Sim from Ignite Amps to give the sound more presence and punch.
 
not sure if you changed the file, but i am hearing a lot of sizzle somewhere..of the piercing quality. guitars don't actually sound that bad. if i was working on this, this is what I would do: mute the guitars. start working on the bass and kick together and get them sounding how you want it first. then slowly add in snare and toms and some guitars, then overheads and more guitars. i've been trying to work with the main rhythms first lately...builds a better foundation, i believe. again, guitars don't sound bad to me at all. the umph you want is probably going to be generated from the bass and kick anyways.
 
I'll add to the chorus that it needs more low end. It might not need much more low end from the guitar, but it needs a lot more bass guitar.

The amount of gain might be appropriate for the genre. But for me it was too much. It made for a bit of a mushy guitar sound.

Playing was real good BTW.
 
Sound pretty nice already :)
Here are my thoughts:
- The drums doesn't fit the rest of the mix so well, they need eq to make them fit better with the guitar tone (or maybe just replacing the samples with heavier ones), and they need more compression to make them punchy and consistent.
- The guitars sound nice but they're a bit too thin, maybe because the mids are a bit too scooped
- But the biggest problem I hear in this mix is the volume balance, guitars are too quiet, snare is too loud, kick is too quiet etc...
I highly suggest mixing in mono when you're doing eq/volume/compression, you wont be "fooled" by the stereo field.
Now, I dont mean panning every track dead center, what I mean is finding a button on your DAW or a simple plugin that will flip your entire mix to mono (without changing anything on your faders/pans).
It will make you mixing decisions much much better, trust me.

I hope this helps
Cheers
 
stivens1991 said:
Hi guys,

Many thanks for all your help. I did some changes in the track. Added more bass, changed tone of drums. How do you like the track now? Better? :)

https://soundcloud.com/s_t_i/guitar-cube-6
Click to expand...
I took a listen with just my iPhone's speaker, so I can't really judge, but the drums really rock now, and the guitars have much better volume. Good job!
I'll give it a full listen when I get home.

EDIT:
Heard it on my monitors now.
- Like I said, the drums are much better now, and suite the genre and the mix more naturally.
Try to add some reverb/ambience/depth to the drums.
I also recommend EQing the cymbals to get a warmer/fatter sound, and less thin and harsh, but that may be just me.
- Bass guitar is also a lot better now, good volume.
- The guitars are in good volume now but I think that I liked their tone on the original version better.
I feel like you added some mids that don't really please my ear, but again, that could be just me.

Cheers
 
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I think it's a cool guitar sound. I think if you get some more low end content eq'd in it will make the guitar sound much heavier
 
IMO:

Roll off everything on the guitars above 16kHz, there is some frequency in the guitar that is driving me nuts and competeing to much against the cymbals.

Put new bass strings on that cheap bass and have another go. Good metal bass tone is like 90% strings. I recommend some pro steels.

Example:



Once you get a better (IMO) bass track, boost it against the kick but not in the same frequency. So for example if the body of the kick is at 80hz, boost the bass around 60hz. In fact if it's still muddy (fast double bass parts for example) you can even cut where the bass is primarily hitting the hardest. I personally roll off the sub low end at like 30hz though. YMMV

Also, cheap bass isn't likely the issue. Here is an example of my $150 (new price) bass in use (pay no mind to that horrid guitar tone though, it's pretty bad as line 6 is junk):
https://db.tt/zwjR0nbg
 
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I didn't read what everyone else said, but I have a little Metal experience. Humanize the drums more. If your DAW has a midi editor there should be a way to select all the midi and then apply the humanize function. Sometimes you'll have to manually adjust the midi to get a smoother sound, but the one built into you midi editor is a great start. You'll probably have to google how to do it with your DAW :D

I think the guitar sounds good, hard to tell. You didn't say how you're doing it. Hopefully I'm not telling you what you already know lol. Normally to get a huge guitar sound most people will record at least 4 rhythm guitar tracks and pan them left and right. It sounds to me like the bass has the room it needs to pump out the low end. You don't want to suck all the low end out of the guitars, but you want to suck enough for the bass to fill in that gap. And try to get the bass to be heard as clearly as the guitars without it going ape shit in the low end LOL. I think it could use some more bass.

I think just those few things will help it along quite a bit :D
 
That sounds nasty, and not in a good way. I'm hearing a lot of clipping. The guitar tone is terrible. You're on a wild goose chase, trying to get the track to sound "big" and "heavy" by turning up the guitars. People have given you good advice but you're not hearing it.
 
Multi tracking rhythm guitars really helps getting a think sound also allows you to not use a heavy distortion keeping things cleaner
 
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