Another "What do you think of this mix then?" thread (death metal!)

[Erik]

Hi there! Feel like commenting on this?

http://nw.ath.cx/~erik/end_of_humanity.mp3

Drums are NSkit7free + Andy's kick, snare and toms.

I didn't really spend any time mixing this but I'm quite happy with the guitar sound... I'm not telling you exactly how I made it yet... Also: is this too compressed/limited on the stereo bus do you think?

The vocals don't sit quite right in the mix I feel, but yeah, cheers!

 

[KeithRT99]

the guitars sound bad to me, everything else sounds great, especially the vocals.

 

[JBroll]

I'd say the guitars are too fuzzy, but that's just me.

Are you double tracking? If you're doubling on both sides, I can't tell on first and second listens, which is good - I'd just say more volume, less preamp gain. I still get thrown off by the fact that (1) multiple tracks are better than more gain for heavy stuff and (2) my guitar is always more fuzzy through the mic than in the room, especially when I'm several feet away and above the amp in a carpeted room.

Vocals seem fine to me - almost like the better side of what Lord Worm did at times.

Jeff

 

[Erik]

I'd say the guitars are too fuzzy, but that's just me.

Are you double tracking? If you're doubling on both sides, I can't tell on first and second listens, which is good - I'd just say more volume, less preamp gain. I still get thrown off by the fact that (1) multiple tracks are better than more gain for heavy stuff and (2) my guitar is always more fuzzy through the mic than in the room, especially when I'm several feet away and above the amp in a carpeted room.

Vocals seem fine to me - almost like the better side of what Lord Worm did at times.

Jeff

Nah, there's just one track on each side (panned 80% left/right) -- I wrote this song as I went along and recorded it so I didn't feel like double tracking. It would probably help with the guitar sound though.

The funny thing here that I hoped noone would pick up on is the fact that this was all made with Simulanalog GuitarSuite's DS-1 and JCM900 simulations -- i.e. there were no real amps or effects involved

Thanks for the comments though guys!

 

[JBroll]

I can't get plugins to not sound fuzzy, myself - Amplitube and GS have more fuzz than my teddy bear and I can't stand it. Maybe try tracking them through a speaker sim, or a real amp, but you're not going to pass too many tests with plugins. Double tracking would definitely help, because you can pretty much cut the gain in half and it'll sound even bigger - maybe those two sims would work better at much lower gain levels...

Jeff

 

[cobhc]

I can't get plugins to not sound fuzzy, myself - Amplitube and GS have more fuzz than my teddy bear and I can't stand it. Maybe try tracking them through a speaker sim, or a real amp, but you're not going to pass too many tests with plugins. Double tracking would definitely help, because you can pretty much cut the gain in half and it'll sound even bigger - maybe those two sims would work better at much lower gain levels...

Jeff

you have a teddy bear?!?

 

[Seizure.]

I can't get plugins to not sound fuzzy, myself - Amplitube and GS have more fuzz than my teddy bear and I can't stand it. M
Jeff

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=ECECC7583B1ECE79

this is amplitube, and allthough its no framus or 5150 its not digital fuzz mania either

 

[JBroll]

you have a teddy bear?!?

Not in the conventional sense of the item; it's more a metal mascot - bears are large, have lots of hair, are very territorial, have a menacing growl that they use to warn people of impending danger and/or a foul mood, and maul the fuck out of things that piss them off. The 'teddy' connotation is simply to clarify that it is in fact stuffed and that I don't bring home a quarter-ton of salmon twice a week to feed the thing - that would be overdoing the mascot thing somewhat, in my opinion, but should I buy enough land in the Pacific Northwest or Canada and learn to deal with the way fish smell, it might become an option. That being said, I think bears are suitable representatives given the similarities between them and the typical thrash/death metal scene (excepting the bald guys, who miss one of the criteria but still get all or most of the rest with appreciable consistency). Bloody hell, I knew someone would call that one. This is why I don't like fuzzy tones, for the record (that as well as the sound).

Seizure, I can't get the link working from the university's system. I'm going to mess around with the stuff at home, but I'm not getting my hopes up. By the way, did you use a preamp (or buffered pedal as a preamp) or was it straight from guitar to soundcard?

Jeff

 

[Seizure.]

Normally you would obviously bring the high impedance guitar signal down to line by a d.i.. and i tried that.. but amplitube sounded better just straight into the computer!!

 

[JBroll]

I'm guessing that Amplitube was designed to deal with signal loss and high impedance, perhaps the compensation for treble loss is too high and this is where our fuzz problems are coming from? If that's the case, I'll put a treble cut between the guitar and the computer (I killed all of my guitars' tone controls and bridge pickup volume controls, I just don't like the buggers) and maybe that'll help things somewhat - right now it sounds like putting a Strat through a Rangemaster in front of a broken JC-120.

Jeff

 

[Seizure.]

yeah, indeed.... i have the Fuzz alot more when i record the right way!!
How did you think it sounded overall btw?

 

[JBroll]

I just now got the clip downloaded. First impression is that the reverb isn't bad at all but when the second part comes in it could be cut down a tiny bit. Also, the pick sound is really weird, other than that it's a nice clean sound. The high guitar part in the distorted bit is a little squealy - that's something where I'm used to hearing either cut highs or a neck pickup; the rhythm part's distortion still has the weird kind of fuzz I don't like - the difference between normal amp crunch and Amplitube is that the Amplitube fuzz doesn't seem to go with the notes. The best reference I have is from playing on a friend's Fender 9v micro-amp - when you have it low, it's a clean sound, when you crank it there's a clean sound and a bunch of noise and crackling that sounds vaguely like distortion but doesn't seem to be at all related to the notes being played; granted, it's MUCH less severe here (the practice amp was like hearing a cheap tape recording of a thunderstorm through a megaphone with a flute playing softly about fifteen feet to the left) but for some reason there seems to be a kind of hissing/grating/buzzing noise aspect apart from the actual clipping. That said, I've heard much worse - the song does however seem to deserve a real cranked amp. I'll see how well I can do with that mess later tonight or tomorrow.

Jeff