Hey dudes, thank you for all the kindness and positive replies! I haven't written until now because I knew it would take me a bunch of time, haha...
I've been tweaking it a bunch over the last few days and I think I'm pretty settled on the mix now. I guess I'm still just trying to decide how bright I want it to sound... Mixes like "Resurrection" and "The End of Heartache" sound slightly on the darker side (and sound fantastic), while "This Godless Endeavor" and "Doomsday Machine" are a little brighter and sound equally fantastic. The brightness of the kick drum attack and of the guitars varies a lot from album to album and from mixer to mixer, but there really is no right or wrong way to do it, so I just have to make up my mind which sound best suits the project. I've darkened the kick and snare just a little from the initial mix I posted, removed just a bit of 200hz fatness from the snare, but gave the guitars a 1dB boost around 8k and I like things a little better now...although I may end up darkening the guitars too, haha. It's hard to make up my mind with the guitar brightness. I also messed with the bass low-end a bit. I could post the new mix if anyone is interested, although I don't know how noticeable the differences will be on Soundclick...
Whew, now on to the replies and details-
The kick drum is two samples of my 22" birch Pearl Master's Studio. Very loose batter head/wooden beater. Mics were a D6 for the low end and an SM91 for the attack. EQ to taste and some pretty heavy compression on the actual samples themselves, which made them sound very punchy.
The snare is actually just three samples of the drummer's snare drum...I believe it was a Pearl, maybe a 14", vented, and pretty shallow actually. Mic was an i5. EQ to taste and a good smack coming from a compressor. I did one pass of the whole track with the "level mod" set pretty low on apTrigga, then went back and printed the rolls and faster snare parts again with the "level mod" set significantly higher so that they sounded natural. It's also being clipped (on it's own track) as much as I can afford without negatively affecting the sound too much, about 3dB I think. I'm using the Stillwell Event Horizon for that...
Toms are samples from the drummer's kit as well; three per tom with the "level mod" accurately representing the dynamics of the actual performance. MD421s on the top three and a RE20 on the floor. I would have liked to use the mic'd sounds, but we didn't spend enough time tuning the drums between songs (we tracked ten songs), so samples were the best way to go for consistency...plus the samples sound good anyway, so who cares!
The rhythm guitars are a 5150 blockletter (Maxon OD808 in front) > 2x12 v30 cab without the grill (
http://www.lopoline.com/catalog/item/4254823/4171492.htm, it's a great cab) > single SM57 > Chameleon Labs 7602 > Digi002. I spent about two hours nailing down the tone, I think I adjusted the mic about four or five times and messed with the 7602 EQ each time before finally getting the mic in the right place and finding that all of a sudden it sounded great without any EQ at all (only a hi-pass at 80Hz). In the mix there's a C4 hitting the low mids on the chugs just a little bit, a low-pass at about 14k, an a few moderately wide cuts in the 700-1k-ish range, no more than -1.5dB. There's also a limiter (post-C4) flattening things out just a bit (2dB at most), which I think helps a bit with the mastering but doesn't really change the tone much. 95% of the tone you hear is just a 57 in the right place...
Leads are a Krankenstein (Maxon in front again) > same cab > i5 > 7602. There's not a ton of EQing going on, but definitely a bit of mid-range scooping and some high-end boosting, and some pretty strong compression/limiting to smash it into dynamic obedience.
Bass guitar was some kind of Spector bass with Bartolini pickups, and the waveform on the DI track was kind of half-way squared-off looking, which sounded perfectly fine and I assume had to do with the hotness of the preamp or pickups in the bass. The DI track of that bass just sounded beastly... I did however roll off much of the high end to get rid of the fret clickiness, and then I reamped the 300-1000Hz range through the SansAmp RB-1, which added some really awesome burly grit into the tone. There's some independent EQing on each track, and then a bit more EQ and some heavy compression/limiting on the bass bus.
The main vocals are an SM7 > Presonus Digimax. I rolled off around 120hz if I remember right, scooped out big chunk of muffled midrange-y crap, and actually had the C4 clamping down on this bad sounding low mid resonance that was too loud, only during the low growls. From there I finally busted out the Distressor and smashed things about 17-18dB, and I have to say- that thing is RIDICULOUSLY cool. I always hear about the Distressor being very colorful and non-transparent, which may be true of sending clean vocals or something very pristine sounding through it, but with screaming and growling, that thing levels things VERY nicely and you can get away with ridiculous amounts of compression without even hearing any negative artifacts. I don't have a lot of experience with the Distressor yet, but my first real experience using it in mixing was extremely positive. Makes me feel good about the $1,100 I spent on it...haha!
For mastering, I really like Andy's method of getting a good mix going, and then mixing through the Finalizer to see how it sounds. After adjusting the mix based on what the Finalizer sounds like, then turning off the Finalizer, the raw mix definitely ends up sounding better in my experience. With the Mac Pro I have way more than enough power to run the full mastering chain in the actual mix session, and in this case it goes something like Linear Phase Lowband rolling off at 43Hz > Broadband hi-pass rolling off slowly from around 15k to 20k > C4 on the Opto mastering preset (I want to get the Chameleon labs 7802 or 7720 to use in place of the C4, although I can't decide which one) > Event Horizon clipping off maybe 1 dB at most > then (yes Kev!) the Oxford Inflator I got for Christmas. I like the Inflator...it kind of feels like a limiter, but it doesn't eat anything. The only downside is that it brightens things just a little, which I am compensating for by beginning the HF roll off at 14k. After those plugs it's out to the Finalizer, which I actually enjoy the sound of when it's not pushed too hard. After the Finalizer I'm sitting at about -10dB average, and I don't hear any clipping or nastiness going on, and the mix sounds pretty fat and ready to my ears. I compared this mix/master to "Holographic Universe" quite a bit, and that master sits more around -7dB, but doesn't really sound significantly louder than my song, so...? No need to squish my mix any more than necessary, and it's in a perfectly competitive volume range right now anyhow.
One question I have for you guys though- do you think the snare is too loud? I love Andy's and Colin's mixes and have never felt that their snares are too quiet (maybe Colin's sometimes, actually), but in comparing my mix to many of theirs, my snare cuts a lot more, and I'm wondering if anyone sees this as a bad thing... Mine don't sound too loud to me, but my reference mixes don't sound wrong either, so...? Haha... I think it just falls in to the category of there being no right or wrong way to do it. Do you guys have a preference?
Give up the grocery store! You are wasting your great ear, I actually really enjoy listening to your work!
Just want more of it!
Keep in work and you are going to be in demand by labels, no question.
That's both very kind and very encouraging...! Thank you. I would love to leave the grocery store behind. My main goal this year is to buy a house. If the house happens (I don't see why it won't), then it will mean I found one that will suit a studio. At that point the plan will be to ease away from full time grocery store management/part time recording, into full time recording/part time grocery store cashier on the weekends...and, if I am blessed with a consistently booked recording schedule, then the grocery store will be a thing of the past (although the health care is nice, so we'll see).
just listened to your antics and glee song and i loved the snare sound even if it was a pre-production...any details would be great! thx
That's actually a snare from a project I did about three years ago. I don't really know what details you're after, and I can't recall the detail of the snare drum itself, but I treat all my snares very similarly- EQ to taste (scoop low mids, usually boost around 200hz a bit, maybe boost some high frequencies with a shelf, and I almost always notch out a few ringing frequencies that don't sound good to my preferences), compress to get that smack (fast release, slower attack), and then judiciously EQ the crap out of the reverb send until it sounds right.
Your beard strikes fear into the hearts of lesser beards
It has grown! And there's a 'stache. My band mates' cat seems to think it's a furry creature and attacks it with her claws.
Anyway, thank you again for all the positive replies. There are so many details about a mix to give, so if I missed a point of interest, don't be afraid to ask something more specific to ensure you get an answer!
