Feedback on First Pass at a Black Metal style Mix
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Posted on Jun 10, 2010 02:13 pm
RockWood610
John
Member Since: May 06, 2007
Hiya guys,
I am starting the mixing process for a Black/Death metal style mix. The music isn't much death metal style as the vocals are, but the guy recording it has a good grip on what he wants out of the mix.
We used triggered drums through a ToonTrack setup, miced the guitar cab with SM57 (only tracked 2 guitars - no doubling or anything), bass was recorded with somewhat of a crappy bass guitar thorugh Line 6 amp simulation (we did our best on the tone to cover up the bad sounding bass used), and vocals where done with an SM7B mic.
Now, I wanted to make a note here, that his vocals where pretty fun to tackel. He did several tracks (I think a total of 6 or maybe even 8) where we did a lot of panning and what not. The chorus especialy he was going for a big sound with a lot of surrounding power coming from them.
This is our first pass at this mix, and we technicaly have 3 songs we took a shot at, but I know everyone's time is limited, so I'll only post 1 and take suggestions from that one. We can pretty much apply any suggestions from this one to the others for the most part, as the drums, guitars, and Mic settings are all pre-sets we created and saved and used on each song with the ajustments to each song we needed to make.
The guitars I feel in this track need to come up a bit, but I am waiting to here from the guy recording these to get his OK on it. But over all, I am looking for any ideas or suggestions. Thanks in advance.
John
www.speilsplashstudios.bu...on_firstmix.mp3
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Quincysanhttp://www.unitedmusicians.infoContributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007
Jun 10, 2010 08:30 pm Overdubbing screaming vocals is always a good idea. I think if you bring the vox tracks down that will get the mix closer to what I would be shooting for.
I'm not sure because I can't solo the bass track, but I think if you applied additional compression to your bass track in addition to some gentle overdrive it will make your guitars hit harder. Bass plays a big part in what's typically perceived as 'brutal guitar tone' from what I can tell.
I'd bring up the kick drum specifically, but I love big dominant kick drums.
I would also sweep an EQ boost over your guitar tracks to see if you can get them a little crunchier, they sound a little on the muddy side to me. How many layers do you have? Check out Deon's profile to hear what it sounds like to overdub 4 distorted guitars...it's beastly.
Quincysanhttp://www.unitedmusicians.infoContributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007
Jun 10, 2010 08:33 pm The cover of Yer So Bad from your Myspace sounds awesome!
I just got a pair of AT ATH M50's and I'm really appreciating this music :)
I see that your studio monitors are sitting on your mixing desk. You might consider getting stands for them, because sitting them directly on your desk like you are is going to hype your bass freqs. Something like this foam wedge would work if you don't have room for isolation stands...
www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MoPAD/
Jun 10, 2010 11:36 pm Thanks Quincy! I wasn't expecting you to look up my entire page, so thanks for the tips! I am using a pair od Samson 40a Reolvs, and I did have a set of stands I planned on buying for them, but I am stretching the all mighty dollar as it is. I did a lot of the mix with headphones.
Thanks for the feedback on the your so bad cover. That was actually my first real mix job. A lot easier to do then the heavier stuff, I am learning quickly that metal is the hardest to mix for sure.
As far as the guitars go, yea I am not happy with them 100%. But they didn't do any overdubbing on them. They played 2 tracks, and a 3rd one for lead stuff in the other tracks. There are a few things I wanted to do, but I am kinda stuck cause there are a list of things they don't want to have happen.
Thanks for the feedback though! I'll play around with the EQ a bit on the guitars. I don't 100% understand EQ, but I play around with things until they sound better haha. Thanks again man.
Keep 'em comin' guys!
Dematrixhttp://www.reverbnation.com/2ndgMember
Since: Nov 27, 2007
Jun 11, 2010 06:48 am Thanks for the kind words Quince : )
Dunno if its because of my compy speakers, but the vox seem loud, but the sound of them is good eq wise.
The vox seem to overpower everything, i think they just need to be brought in line with the rest of the mix and itll be good.
Maybe whip out a touch of low end on em so they blend better.
Just my opinion on compy speakers though.
Jun 11, 2010 11:41 am Thanks Deon. I had the Vox even louder my very first rough, and brought them down a great deal in this current mix.
You suggest bringin down the lows on the vox? I wasn't sure by the way I read your message I guess. But thanks for the listen and the feedback. I like to get as much feedback as I can before I start the finalizing process.
Jun 11, 2010 01:39 pm I think he meant up the lows on the vox actually... but then again, you never can tell with them ausies :P
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Jun 11, 2010 02:03 pm Did you hear about the prophet from down under, that could learn things by sitting next to them?
They called him Aus-Moses
Oh man, that's a good one =).
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Jun 11, 2010 02:10 pm figured I'd better add in some 'useful' bits too . . .
[quote]Dunno if its because of my compy speakers, but the vox seem loud, but the sound of them is good eq wise.
The vox seem to overpower everything, i think they just need to be brought in line with the rest of the mix and itll be good.
Maybe whip out a touch of low end on em so they blend better.
Just my opinion on compy speakers though.[/quote]
I agree. The vox are a little loud, and i loose other bits because of it. I think I'd expect a little more crack on the snare as well. I can't turn up the speakers loud, as i'm at work, but the guitars seem a little washed out, and not very detailed. A little more detail (not sure where that would be in the EQ spectrum) i think would snap them up a little.
Jun 11, 2010 05:10 pm Hey thanks PJK. I to though the guitars needed tweaked a bit. Like I said, this was our first pass at this. I am just kinda new to EQing. I don't know frequencies well, I just know by looking at a 5 band or 10 band eq plugin that the left side takes care of the lows, the right the highs, and the mids in between. I just play with stuff until it sounds better, or I'll load pre-sets and use them as a base and then tinker from there. So I really don't know where I would go to get a better crunch out of the guitars at this point.
As far as the snare goes, the friend I am doing this for is very specific on what his drum sounds are. Mainly because he is a drummer for the most part. I mean, he structured and wrote everything on this recording himself and just had his cousin come in and revamp the guitar tracksa bit, but for the most part, this whole thing is his own.
He is 100% against snappy snares that is found in a lot of common metal these days. He wanted a deeper sounding snare with more pop then snap. Kind of what Slayer had in the 80s. I am not sure if the settings I have on that track is close to that, but he didn't really want me to change anything on it. And if he is content with it, then so am I.
But, if there is something I can do to get it better towards that, I'll try it out and present it to him.
Jun 11, 2010 05:39 pm Quote:
"I just play with stuff until it sounds better"
Awesome. Never stop doing that, no matter how much you learn.
Dematrixhttp://www.reverbnation.com/2ndgMember
Since: Nov 27, 2007
Jun 11, 2010 08:34 pm Im gonna download this if i can and chuck it on my EMES mons and have a squiz.
I meant lows as in EQ.
Im not gonna comment anymore on it till i listen but the vox seem to me to be just overpowering the band with "body" but its proly just coz they be alot louder and im on these speakers.
Not bad PJK on the Aussie joke.
And Fragy,
you need to learn how to spell Aussie, very, very, naughty!
Ha Ha ha. : )
Youre right though, we be a strange bunch being upside down and all.
