Noob here. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong

D

dboyer87

New member
okay, so I'm fairly new to recording and mixing and I had this metal band come in and record. Well we did the whole project and I hate it, I can't seem to get that big stereo sound, everything sounds muffled ( and I eq'ed the hell out of it trying to get rid of that)

Dude didn't have a hole punched into his bass drum the kick sounds muffled and I eq'ed it the best I can.

Can someone take a listen and give me some sort of suggestion on what I should do to fix this mess?

http://www.myspace.com/thewayofthegunmusic

here's their myspace, the music is on there. ( its in wave)


Thanks
 
I haven't listened, but if it sounds as bad as you say, you might consider triggering samples.

As for the hole in the kick drum, there's these things called scissors ; ).
 
If you're "fairly new to recording" then that's 90% of the issue. If you've been doing this for a decade or two and everything sounds like that, there's a problem.

That said - I'd bet dollar that's pretty much what the band sounds like. The guitar sounds are terrible, the drums sound like crap, the vocalist doesn't exactly have a particularly pleasant tone. They don't have a handle on their own sound. Recording it isn't going to change that.

"EQ'ing the hell out of everything" is the first sign -- If the core sounds aren't 90% "there" right off the bat, fix the source. Nothing is going to change it. EQ is for tailoring - Not for construction.

If a 6' tall 275# guy walks into a Men's shop looking for a navy blue suit, the tailor is going to have to pull out maybe a 52 or a 54 in the right fabric, in the right color, just to get going. A burgundy 42 isn't going to cut it.
 
Did not listen to the song yet but I just had a word of advice for you, make it sound as good as you can without adding all the eq's and things. If it doesn't sound good to start with, you won't get it to sound good in the end.
 
So, this is great advice, but i still need to fix this mess.

is it pretty much a lost cause unless we re-record it and make it sound better? or is there anything you all think I could do to the current recordings to improve them?
 
To begin with they arent even in time on the first track.

To help, maybe try:

I thought that there was a little too much reverb on his guitar and perhaps there is too much on the bass drum. Maybe keeping these clean would make things more crisp and less muffled.

EQ'ing the hell out of it will likely do more damage than help as it will make it sound artificial. Are you able to stick the mix through a graphic EQ? A little more mid range on the bass drum, say 160 - 400Hz boost may improve things a tad.

The panning on the drums is really good, the cymbals sound pretty good too but decay a bit quickly. And them not having a bass player doesnt help giving the guitar a bit more substance.
 
I sat in on a metal session last summer.. This guy recorded mostly metal.. and said the secret is to use sound replacement as so many metal bands are not really acheiving a good source sound to begin with.. His primary go to plugins were drumagog and ozone.. They made a huge difference.. I would absolutely replace the drums with drumagog.. it sounds great! That's about as much as i'll add to this.. I'm not a metal guy at all, just had the opportunity to sit in on that session and this guy was having the same trouble.. Hope this was somewhat helpful. Best of luck.
 
Ugh. I'm pretty much setting myself up for a similar mess in a couple of weeks. A local band wants me to record a 4 track EP for them. I went to see them play. This is going to be a lot of work.

I'm just wondering how they're going to respond to me trying to change "their sound" to get a decent product. I haven't done much work for people that I don't know well thus far.
 
michaelSHK said:
Ugh. I'm pretty much setting myself up for a similar mess in a couple of weeks. A local band wants me to record a 4 track EP for them. I went to see them play. This is going to be a lot of work.

I'm just wondering how they're going to respond to me trying to change "their sound" to get a decent product. I haven't done much work for people that I don't know well thus far.
Click to expand...

The trick is not to tell them you're replacing the sound.. if you choose the right sound to replace it with.. maybe even the exact same drum for example.. it will just be a better source sample of the same thing.. so to them it will just sound like you've made their performance with their equipment sound better.. They'll thank you for making their crap sound like sugar.. when they try to reproduce the sound live.. they'll probably be the next band that only sounds good on CD and not the same live.. but hey.. that's pretty common these days.
 
Yeah, I'm at work so can't listen but I've been in your shoes. :rolleyes:
Ya just can't polish a turd but ya can make it smell a little better. ;)

If you can retrack it....you'll be better off. Pay close attention to the sound at the source. Get the kick as good as you can with tuning and mic placement. Same with all the drums and mics, actually.

With the guitars for metal, I back off the gain. My gain on the amp is quite a bit lower when I'm recording than when I'm live. Play around with yer mic placement and find that sweet spot and poke yer mic there. I'm thinkin there's a sweet spot for every speaker/source.

These days, I spend a bit more time with mic placement than I used to.

fwiw...
good luck
 
the worst are the black and death metal bands, in my experience. They tend to have the gain all the way up; have the guitars tuned to bass guitar levels; and are eq'd with all of the mids scooped. Metal guitar players are, typically, married to their setups and settings. What you might want to try is setting up a small mixer and run one line to their amps and one directly to your interface. Mic the amps and do what you can with that sound. When that inevitably gets chucked, use the direct signal and re-amp using a decent sounding amp with reasonable settings when they aren't around. Flexibility goes a long way with certain bands

Drums can be replaced in your computer with good results but shitty cymbals can't.
 
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