First Brutal Death Roughmix - REAL AMPS, SSD 3.0

[Fragle]

hey guys,

working on a (brutal) death song right now....it's still rather unpolished, but after listening on a few different setups i'm actually starting to like (some) of the imperfections in the mix....fits the music pretty well i think. has that hate eternal/carcass vibe imho.

this was my first try with SSD 3.0 LE....pretty basic stuff going on here.

guitars were tracked with wagner, and then reamped through a 5150 and a sansamp. 2 tracks each. bass was a blend of DI and sansamp psa.

btw, that's actually the project i opened a thread in the production section about, regarding the lower grunt vocals....had a hard time tracking them, see there. i think it turned out OK in the mix though...not spectacular of course.

here's the link:

http://drop.io/unsympathetic

once again, i know this is far from being "perfect" in the sense of a modern polished sound. i already have my little "to do" list regarding the mix, but as said above i do kinda wonder if i shouldn't leave some of the mistakes in there for the sake of sheer impact.
so, any pointers on the real bad ones that NEED to be fixed would be very cool

btw, still uploading, should be online in ~5min

 

[lewbob]

song has an aborted feel to it i think the track is very good

i would say perhaphs personally the vocals could go down ever so slightly

lead tone just kicked in that was nice and smooth

overall i think this mix is really good better than i can do nice and thick and a general good balance !!

PS - screw over polished mixes

 

[Fragle]

hey,

thanks for your comment! appreciated

yes the vocals are quite loud....especially for the genre imho. lotsa death metal stuff (latest origin for example) has the vox real low in the mix...which isn't quite my cup of tea though.

edit: the more i listen to it the more it seems as if i definitely need to ease up on the master bus compression.
i'm also thinking that the bass is too loud (and/or gtrs too quiet), but then again it just seems as if it has a lot of impact this way, and i'm afraid of losing this by swapping the guitar/bass balance around..

any other opinions?

 

[Fragle]

alright, UPDATE TIME

reamped the guitars again, automated some stuff, improved the mastering job and most of all cleaned up the bottom end

same link/drop as posted above.....PLEASE comment on this. i'm *really* enjoying the new one so far, but a reality check can never be a bad thing okay?

ah yeah, different amp this time around....ditched the 5150 and reamped through something else, you'd be surprised....

 

[Pxz]

Man this song is badass ¡¡
I cant identify the misterious amp hmmm........ what is it?

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

Awesome song! I think i like the first one better in some way. It doesn't have that sharp edge the 2nd mix has. I'm liking the lowend in the first one better too but the guitars cut through better in the 2nd one. In my opinion the vocals can come a little down in volume (just a tad) and the drums louder and/or other EQ'ing. It sounds unbalanced in my opinion, toms are cutting through and so are the splashes and china but the rest is getting buried underneath the wall of sound

 

[TravisW]

I really like the second one. But, like the others have said, I'd bring down the vocals a bit. Still, the guitars sound cool.

 

[Fragle]

thanks for your comments!!

shalloweulogy, are you talking about the first or the second mix?

i agree that the first one has a certain raw quality to it that is really cool...never thought that i'd do something like this tbh it's definitely on the muddy/undefined side though, so i agree....wall of sound is quite a fitting term, at least as far as the first mix is concerned.

i tried to balance stuff out while retaining some of the brutality with the second mix....

btw, i won't try to turn this into a guessing game....the second mix features two guitar tracks (the 5150 ones) reamped through a line 6 hd147, set to rectifier (as i don't have a real one lol). i'm kinda surprised how well it recorded, and how well it mixed with the sansamp (the same two tracks as for the first mix btw, just different EQ).
it's not quite as fat as a real one obviously, but the flavour is there imho....

 

[Pxz]

Yeah it sounds nice to me . The sansamp is the rackmount one right?

 

[Fragle]

alright, here's what will likely be the final mix:

http://files.getdropbox.com/u/1296348/Retaliation - Unsympathetic.mp3

im still not exactly satisfied with the guitars, though....right now its a blend of 5150 green channel, sansamp, and line 6 rectifier through framus 212 cab.

btw, yes the sansamp is the rackmount one, the psa-1

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Vocals are way too loud, drums are too quiet and guitars are a bit loud. I'm loving the guitar tone!

 

[Fragle]

thanks for the comment! that was quick

here's an update....upped the drums, lowered the vocals

http://files.getdropbox.com/u/1296348/UNSYMPATHETIC FINAL v2 mp3.mp3


how's it sounding??

 

[Tokyurot]

Sounds great! Couldn't think of any possible changes soundwise

 

[Fragle]

alright, thanks for your input guys!

i uploaded the song based on the V2 version (except for a slightly quieter snare, i felt it was TOO loud on the v2) to myspace, check it out:

www.myspace.com/retaliationdeath


good god, myspace KILLS audio....that used to be a 320kbps mp3 lol

 

[16S]

great gtr sound. Vox still a little over powering. Myspace killled your mix dude! ...but i know what it really sounds like!

 

[KKuff]

The final mix sounds good. I find that most of my mixes sound more like your first mix. What changes did you make to clean up the low end?

 

[Erik Monsonis]

I think the snare was just right on v2, although the kick could have been louder.
Everything else sounds really good!!

 

[Fragle]

well, i guess that's a matter of taste really.....i felt that will all those split time blasts the louder snare didn't really fit in...thanks for the input though

listening back in my car i think i should have automated the guitars in the intro to have more bottom end....it's pretty thin sounding without the bass during that section...but well, so be it lol.


kkuff, that final mix is basically a whole different one - started from scratch.
the guitars are way more midrangey and controlled (albeit a bit thin, but you guys seem to like them lol) now....the first mix was the 5150 pretty loud and raw, with the sansamp blended in for more top end bite. the final one had the line 6 rectifier blended in, and i used a SHITLOAD of post processing on them.
as for the lowend, well, after cleaning up the guitars the bass fit in very well...i only added some sublows with bootsy's nasty LF plug, dipped around the kick range, and after that it was just fine tuning the midrange with the guitars. ah, and compression, although not too much. the reamped tone was pretty good i guess ^^
the kick had a boost around 70hz or something, and hipassed around 40hz i think.
i used a multiband comp on the master bus to control the low mids and sublows.

lots of stuff on the master bus btw....i did a roughmix, added a pseudo mastering chain, and further mixed through that....as a result, the mix without the 2bus plugs sounds like total shit. kinda backwards approach i guess....
i think i had ferox tape saturation plug for added grit and fatness, tessla SE for transient punch, 2bus comp, multiband comp 2 gclip, and w1 limiter on there....

i still kind of enjoy the first mix though....it sounds raw and in your face (albeit too compressed). the final one is processed as fuck....i was shooting for an andy classen (dew scented) meets decapitated meets kronos vibe, so lotsa processing was needed.

 

[zvish]

any possibility to see screenshot of multiband settings? I have no idea how to tame low end with that... lol

 

[KKuff]

Thanks for the info man. The guitars do sound thinner, but they fit in with the mix better, and I've noticed that's usually how it sounds on commercial mixes. The guitars by themselves aren't as full or big, but the mix as a whole sounds big and clearer at the same time.