Finally - First Premix of my first full length album (GH reamp inside!)

Fragle

Member
Jul 27, 2005
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Germany
hey folks,

so, after months of hard work the production of our first full length album is finally about to be finished....at least i hope so ;)

i chose this song for the premix upload as it's the same one i posted the DIs for a few weeks ago, looking for a reamping job.
well, as the title already imposes guitarhack took the job, and i'm really excited about the guitars! but you guys decide...:)

anyways, about the mix: i'm currently working on this song as an album template, so any comments will be greatly appreciated!
personally i'm not quite sold on the drums, as well as the lead guitar tone....might have to reamp them once more (GH did only rhythms btw, bass clean and lead were done by myself). about the drums, well any pointers how to improve them would be cool ;)
btw, i'll have the album mastered in another german studio, but i included my own little fake mastering just for comparisons sake, hence the two files - first one has the mastering chain strapped on it, second one is just the raw mix.

well, enough of the rambling:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1296348/Retaliation - Hope Of Zion (Album Premix).mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1296348/Retaliation - Hope Of Zion (Album Premix no mastering).mp3

i didn't reference in my car yet (always the ultimate test for me haha) so i hope this is actually halfway decent sounding....

ps: files are still uploading but should be finished in a few minutes! just in case the links appear to be invalid or sth....
 
me like it. very dynamic. I like the soloing at the end a lot. great job. Cannot critique the difference between the mastered and not mastered b/c I'm in office with head phones, but first impression was that in the master the low end is lowered a bit.
 
im only on headphones right now, but i feel the vocals seem like they are in a different room than the music, it doesnt really gel with the rest.
i would go for a more direct and dry sound. but thats just me :)

guitars are cool and congrats : pretty cool music you guys make!
 
I'm with Danny on this one. Guitars up, vocals down, or thin out the vocals a bit. They're dominating the rest of the mix.

Guitars sound nice, good job, hack.

I like your choice of drum sounds for this one a lot.

Nice death influences. I would definitely get rid of that blastbeat during the clean part.
 
thanks for the comments guys!

alright, i'll rework the vocals/vocal reverb. personally i like my vocals to be really dominant, but obviously i still want them to gel with the mix, thus the "different room" pointer was quite helpful for me!

any further comments???

btw....about that clean blast part....we were debating about this for a loooong time. when i first heard it i thought it was the dumbest thing i've ever listened to, and i'm still not too proud of it....but the others really liked that "what the fuck???" feeling about the part, and i do see their point i guess.
might automate the drums down for that section....
 
I am not a big fan of death metal but this track is awesome. I agree about the vocals and I think that the overall mix have too much low end and bit of brightness could bring more life to the music. As for the blastbeats in the clean part I really liked, sounds different.
 
alright, after listening back on other systems and also comparing it with the sample master i got from my ME, i found that the kick is definitely overpowering during the fast sections - too much sublows. slate knew it, haha. gtrs also need more upper mid aggression.

i did a remix considering these issues, will post it later!
 
Sounds really good. It is good to hear it with the Lead's. I am a big fan of the Death influenced parts. 5:10 sounds really cool, very airy and a bit BTBAM'ish sounding. I think the Lead sound is great at sitting on top of the rest of the guitars. Can't wait to hear the other 9 songs. Nice job.

@Greg - Cheers Dude. :)
 
I really like this mix a lot. Vocals could come down a hair, but they sound great IMO. Great guitar and drum sound.

Edit: Listening more and I think the vocals levels are okay.
 
thanks guys!

i really think the new version is waaaay better than the previous one....ME confirms that so i'm good to go it seems :)
i'm finishing the mixing today, then another week of listening to everything, and then it's mastering time! i can't wait to hear the finished product really...i've been working on this HARD since around june-ish, and while i'm excited i'm also looking forward to the day i finally have the mastered cd in my hands, so i don't have to listen to it anymore for at least 4 weeks haha.


as for the vocal 2k thing, i tried to mix them really really upfront. i would have prefered a more scooped/airy vocal sound, but every time i had the vocals sound great they just didn't kick you in the face as much, on smaller speakers at least - in my studio everything was fine. i just hope that i found a happy medium between boxy and noticable on smaller speakers....
 
btw, if anyone cares:
guitars are a blend of 5150 and krank (forgot whether it was rev or stein, gh? :D )
bass is sansamp psa for the meat and hipassed/distorted DI.
some psa on additional rhythm overdubs and clean layers
leads and main cleans are line 6 hd 147 direct ;)

oh yes, and drums are slate 3.0, all midi ;)