Conquering the Throne-Anhur, Slayer of Enemies

[wretchedspawn]

I've been lurking around these parts for a little bit but this is my first post here. I was hoping you guys could point me in the direction of a better mix.

-Guitars were a C-7 Blackjack and Hellraiser through a Spider II(I know, I know. 5150 is not far in the future though) into a Vader 4x12. 4 tracks with a 57 panned 100:80:80:100

-Drums were programmed in FL and then resampled using Drumagog with samples I created from our drummers kit.

-Vocals through a 58. Double tracked and split harmonized +/-5 cents.

-No bass yet.

-Horns were done with Edirol Orchestral.

This isn't the finished product. I just wanted to see if I'm on the right track so far. No eq on anything so far. I don't know exactly how the low end sounds because I don't have any speakers that you can really hear low frequencies on. You'll hear in the slower section where one solo isn't tracked yet. So, let me know what you think.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6084379

 

[Djabthrash]

Drums were programmed in FL and then resampled using Drumagog with samples I created from our drummers kit.

Weird... Why don't you use your drummer's samples directly in FL ???

 

[wretchedspawn]

Because you can't do multisamples in FL. At least not that I'm aware of.

 

[Djabthrash]

Sounds like you're a Nile fan, uh ? (even the title of your track could be a Nile song title...)

Things i've noticed :

-snare is a bit thin, especially compared to the kick drums. Do some EQ-ing (maybe add low-end)/reverb and/or try another snare sample.

-I don't know if it was on purpose but your blast beats are the "Suffocation" blast beat (snare and hihat/ride and kick drum on the same time) and when played slow (like on your song) they sounda kinda lame. I think you should try to program "Pete sandoval blast beats" instead, which are :

1st hit : snare + hat or ridebell

2d hit : kick drum + hat (slight lower velocity than in 1st hit) + ride (slight lower velocity than in 1st hit)

And so on...

It will suit your song better IMO.

Anyway try using different kind of blast beats (like the "Cannibal Corpse blast beat") instead of always the same one. If you listen to bands like Nile, Dying fetus, Hate Eternal, Misery Index, Behemoth, Suffocation, Animosity... drummers are using different kinds of blast beats within the same song...

-guitars are really average. Don't know how to explain but try to mess up more with your amp EQ and your mic placement. You can get a better guitar sound from it i guess. Don't forget that there is a difference between the sound you hear in the room and the sound your 57 will get from your speaker.

 

[Djabthrash]

Because you can't do multisamples in FL. At least not that I'm aware of.

Ok. So you use the FL samples + your drummer's samples to make the drums sound bigger ?

 

[wretchedspawn]

Indeed I am a Nile fan, though the other guitarist in the band wrote this one. Our other material isn't really noticeably Nile influenced.

I'll mess with the snare some. Would parallel compression be worth a shot at beefing it up?

I'll change up some of the blasts as well and see how I like it. I try to get the drummer to program them but he takes ages. I basically go off of what I can see/hear that he is doing at practice.

Micing is definately an artform. I've been experimenting with mic position and this is my best result so far. Mind you I have only been recording for a few months so I still have a lot to learn. But I agree with you about the guitars. I'm not too fond of any of the sounds I get out of my current head either.

I just use FL to program. I don't really like any of the samples that came with it so I resample with 100% of my drummers kit. It's definately not the greatest sounding but I wanna learn how to get there instead of using others samples.

Thanks for the tips. I'll tinker with some stuff and repost it.

I'm still open to suggestions from others as well.

 

[Djabthrash]

Indeed I am a Nile fan, though the other guitarist in the band wrote this one. Our other material isn't really noticeably Nile influenced.

ok

I'll mess with the snare some. Would parallel compression be worth a shot at beefing it up?

Honestly parallel compression won't make your snare sound "huge" all of a sudden. Try having something that kicks ass only with EQ-ing and reverb, and then mess up with parallel compression on the drums (kick drum/snare/toms) to make them sound even better.

I'll change up some of the blasts as well and see how I like it. I try to get the drummer to program them but he takes ages. I basically go off of what I can see/hear that he is doing at practice.

Ok. Anyway programming good drum parts always takes ages but that's always worth it .

Micing is definately an artform. I've been experimenting with mic position and this is my best result so far. Mind you I have only been recording for a few months so I still have a lot to learn. But I agree with you about the guitars. I'm not too fond of any of the sounds I get out of my current head either.

Even if your head is not "the best thing for metal" by tweaking it a bit more you should get a better sound out of it (check the usual advice for amp settings (i.e : not too much gain, keep a good amount of mids, not too much bass, being careful with presence to prevent "fizz") on this forum).
I have a kickass head myself (ENGL SE) and the first time i recorded guitar takes with a SM57 in front of my ENGL V30 cab it sounded decent but not awesome.

After reading for a while on this forum and asking advice from some AE friends i finally changed my settings (a tad less gain, way less presence, a tad less bass, kinda "poweramp bass boost" switched off, more mids, and having 2 different settings for both takes/sides (a reasonable "scooped" setting (EQ : bass: 13 o'clock, treble : 14h30, mids: noon) on one side and a more "mid rangey" setting (EQ : bass: 12 o'clock, treble : 13h30, mids: 15h) on the other side).

Now it sounds better in the room (less fizz, more balls, more definition and clarity, and more mids that will help me cutting through in the mix) and when i listen with my ear close to the speaker (not at full volume for sure , which is the sound the 57 gets, it sounds awesome so the next step for me is to try to have a badass mic placement and play super tight and i think it will sound HUGE.

So try tweaking a better tone from your head and bother with mic placement and stuff (using a lot of volume to have speaker excursion and so on).

I just use FL to program. I don't really like any of the samples that came with it so I resample with 100% of my drummers kit. It's definately not the greatest sounding but I wanna learn how to get there instead of using others samples.

I use FL also and i agree the FL samples are really poor to have good sounding metal drums. I basically load drums samples taken here and there into FL.

 

[wretchedspawn]

Awesome. Thanks for the info. I'll keep experimenting.