Dat drum punch .......

meanmrmustad said:
Your guitar tone really...how would peter griffin put it? oh yeah, your guitar tone really grinds my gears.

It makes the guitars sound really fake, have you tried the screamer from
Waves GTR solo? It sounds more natural

You're not using EMG HZs are you?

Or maybe it's just me, I can't use pencils because they make that scratchy
sound too.

Messing around with pedals i found that most of the software TS make amp sims sound more "Digital", i tried TSE's R47 as a screamer, that thing makes amp sims sound SS :devil:

Lately i found that using the old simulanalog JCM900 clean chanel as a preamp
with treble and high al the way up gives amps this nasty tone that makes them sound a tiny bit more real.
Click to expand...

WHAT.

No
EMG 81

and

what.
 
Ermz said:
Mix isn't that bad mate, just might need some expansion across the spectrum. Make the punch lower, make the air higher, get rid of the useless mids. Let the whole thing breathe a little more. Get more clean low-end in there. It just sounds a little flat at the moment.
Click to expand...

+1 to this.

This is all that's wrong. You're very close. Nothing drastic needs to be done. I think if you do this, all the problems you're concerned about will be cleared up.
 
Thanks a ton guys! Really means a lot to actually get feedback from you!

I'll mess around with your suggestions and try to get another version up maybe tomorrow.
 
I've got a great tip for you that's been working wonders for me lately

Don't be afraid to let your mixes be shitty, sometimes if you go with the mindset that you're just gonna do what you can
it ends up being better than if you picture a kick ass mix in your head.

I just remembered that andy said that he thinks his mixes suck in some interview ages ago
 
I'm surprised no ones brought this up yet... but when eq fails you stereo widening and spacing play a big role. Your guitars don't sound very wide and when you throw the vocals in the mix they sound like they're sitting on top of yer gits clouding it up. Throw an S1 on your guitar bus to push your guitars outside of your vocals and see the difference it makes. This way you don't have to smash into your vocals by pushing your volume fader up everytime to hear them better. You want a more "3D" sounding mix and to acheive that you need to space your instruments better so you can properly hear their depth. Seperation, seperation, seperation. Hope this helps.


EDIT: Also same thing concerning the leads. It sounds like they're sitting dead <C>. I like to tightly double track leads and space them anywhere from 50-90L/R. It opens up more room for your centered instruments, primarily kick and snare which is where your punch and hardest initial transient information lies. That's how you get your BIG drum sounds and BIG vocals with clear cutting guitars. The bass is a whole 'nother quest but these are surefast ways to start improving your mixes and making them sound more commercial. If you only have single tracks of your leads send it to a stereo verb bus and saturate the hell out of it and bring it up to taste, same thing with solos. Hope that helps as well.
 
S1 is the waves stereo imaging tool. It uses magic to make things sound even wider than being panned 100% left and right. A touch of it is quite useful in metal for guitars.
 
S1 = magic. Some people leave all the stereo imaging for the mastering stage, but if it's what's keeping your mix from sounding the way you want it to then by all means use it as a mixing tool. I use it on guitars almost 100% of the time if the goal is to achieve a loud, aggressive mix. You have to figure that guitars eat up the most amount of frequency real-estate in the overall spectrum of your mix. It saves you from notching out a ton of different bands that you might wanna keep that make the guitars sound more "alive".
 
Hmmmm, thanks. Anything free or cheap that compares to S1? I've only purchased 1 plugin my whole life and it was $20. :lol:

Do I have to buy bundles or can I get single plugins from Waves?

Straight up honesty - a few years back I got a hold of a Waves bundle, tried out a few plugs, but deleted it because it was illegal and made me feel very guilty. I did quite like the SSL Comp though. Never knew how to really use anything else.

*awaits to get torn to pieces* :(
 
bryan_kilco said:
Hmmmm, thanks. Anything free or cheap that compares to S1? I've only purchased 1 plugin my whole life and it was $20. :lol:

Do I have to buy bundles or can I get single plugins from Waves?

Straight up honesty - a few years back I got a hold of a Waves bundle, tried out a few plugs, but deleted it because it was illegal and made me feel very guilty. I did quite like the SSL Comp though. Never knew how to really use anything else.

*awaits to get torn to pieces* :(
Click to expand...

Plug in alliance off four free plug is and one of them is a stereo widener. Check it out. Will your DAW not have one of these tools? I tried this very trick the other day and it does work, I just wonder about phasing caused by doing this because isn't this an EQ effect.
 
Well mixing with only 1 plug in may also be the reason your mixes don't sound as big as you want them. And yes too much S1 can cause some undesirable artifacts with phasing/anti-phasing but you don't need to max it out, not even close. As far as how it works, google is pretty good about finding out that kind of stuff for you, if you don't beleive in magic :err:
 
Balance, yo. De-ess your vocal tracks and find the attack areas in your drums. cut those attack areas in guitars/vox, whatever. If you're relying on phase-wideners, you're doing it wrong and/or need to revise your moitoring setup.
 
Thanks. I've only played with de-essers once or twice but never really felt it made a huge improvement. I'm not relying on phase-wideners, but others have brought that topic up in this thread because apparently my guitars are too "centered". I've been using stock Reaper plugins for years now and feel like since I got real monitors, my mixes are finally taking a leap forward but I still feel I get stuck when dealing with low end and high mids. Never ending battle, I guess.
 
Yeah, I'll second the S1 widening topic. It made a huge difference with instrument placement and clarity when I first messed around with it. I use ozone though for the extra widening, usually send guitar tracks out to a bus and use the stereo imager. It kind of cleans out the center space just a little bit more to leave more room for kick, snare, vocals, etc.

Boosting certain frequencies in some instruments while notching out those same ones in others helps. Also side-chain compression, especially for drums.
 
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