First Metal Band Tracking..

[-Noodles-]

The four studio tracks..
The drums were recorded at my uni's studio, as well as the bass.
The guitars and vocals were tracked in 3 other places (due to time and other factors)...

http://www.freewebs.com/sevenindustries/lost.mp3
http://www.freewebs.com/sevenindustries/nmo.mp3
http://www.freewebs.com/sevenindustries/Trust.mp3
http://www.freewebs.com/sevenindustries/ThroughYourEyes.mp3

This a live video that I tracked the audio for..




The band's myspace are www.myspace.com/centuriescryuk
(Note, all the recordings aren't mine.. this is just to let you guys see / hear their old stuff).

Critique on all or any of it would be greatly appreciated.
[I've been a long time lurker, and picked up many tips.. hopefully some of them have made a difference! Just moved this topic from the main page..]

 

[ichorus]

Ah Centuries Cry, We played with them that night. Supporting SpeedTheory.
Was a good night!

Live Video is good.
Unfortunately i think those links aint working... or at least not for me. Keeps opening this page.

 

[-Noodles-]

If you copy and paste them into the browser, then they work
Sorry about that being a PITA... was working for me fine last night!

 

[-Noodles-]

Thanks for the 60 odd people who've checked out the post, at least!

 

[Keessi]

Sounds a bit uneven ja not panned enough. Sounds like there is 1 guitar in the center... Try double tracking the rhytm guitars and then pannin' 'em to the sides 100/100. The snare seems to have too much of the undermic and like no processing what so ever. vocals jump out the mix WAY too much. sounds really small and mono... demo-ish. Just suck information out of this forum and you'll learn a lot!

 

[-Noodles-]

thanks for your comments.

There are two guitars panned 30/30.. So I'll widen them.
there is a small amount of compression on the snare (top / bottom)..
but, there is a lot of the bottom mic (again, I'll address that!)

 

[Unavailable]

Pan the guitars at least 80/80. More compression on the snare as well as a boost around 250-400. Possibly less of the bottom mic. The kick is inaudible. Bring it up a lot and compress it.

 

[-Noodles-]

I've got the kick compressed as much as i can take it, and the fader is sitting at 0, running to about -1.

there's almost no low end thump on the kick, and I can't think of a way to introduce it (without sampling) .. as adding a boost of 6+ below 200 seems to do nothing!

Any idea of how to introduce it into the mix (without sampling)?

All the guitars are now running at 80/80 (in logic they're around 50/50..64 being extreme L/R)..

Thanks for the low end boost on the snare, I've also brought the btm mic down a lot.

 

[Keessi]

well.... telling us where you have the fader of the bd track tells us nothing. you can only trust your ears dude! it might be that all the other tracks are so much louder than the BD. If you have a lot of compression on the bd already and you don't get any low end, I'd suggest you taking the compression off. If you think it's really necessary(to have a compressor on the bd), then try a compressor with a long attack. that will keep the low end. You've propably cut all the low end with the compressor. (too fast attack time takes away low end). with long I mean something like 30ms. try that!

ps. you might even have too much of something in the 400hz region, try cutting that a bit and boost at 60-90hz

 

[-Noodles-]

No, i guess it doesn't (re; fader) but it's just so that you can understand that I physically can't make it any louder before it clips!..
so just turning it up isn't really an option (and everything else is really low as well, so down isn't either!).. I've tried a little last night to get it to have that uber thump and presence in the mix but still no luck.

Thanks for the compression attack / release. I'd never heard of a fast attack eating the low end,.. I'll go over that this afternoon !
I do like using fast comp settings, so i might have went a little too far.

thanks guys.

 

[Keessi]

dude, you can go lower with the other faders! don't be afraid of having 'em at like -15. doesn't really make a difference in soundquality what so ever.(you're propably thinking that it'll make the signal/noise ratio worse?)

edit: Having the fader at unity(0) doesn't mean it's gonna clip! the recorded material could be peaking only at like -6db so you could have some headroom left still

 

[-Noodles-]

the kick is sitting at Odb, but if i moved it up (or added 1db of gain) it would start off the clip meter on Logic's channel strip.. I'm not too worried about s/n ratio, and i know i'm not going to run out of head room unless I try and get more gain onto the signal.

[edit; screen shot of the track .. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v513/-Noodles-/kick.jpg ]

The rest of the help has been awesome though, the guitars are now wider panned - and really have helped the image. Unfortunately (!) they're pretty tight, and remain the same throughout most of the song,.. but it's definately adding something that was missing.
The toms have been panned really wide too, since they're not really used much - but it's definately more noticable when they are played.

I've added a nice verb and stereo delay on to the vocals, and seriously backed them off (tip I found on page 5 - solo guitars and just put the vocals slightly above them).. now they fit a lot better in the mix [imo].


I've still to check out the comp settings on the bass and kick though, to see if the low end is being eaten away.
Thanks again!

 

[-Noodles-]

just uploaded a new version of trust..
http://www.freewebs.com/sevenindustries/TrustII.mp3

am i going in the right direction?

 

[Unavailable]

Better, but now the snare AND the kick are inaudible.

 

[-Noodles-]

Better, but now the snare AND the kick are inaudible.

What system are you listening on ?
I can hear everything on my monitors, MBPs speakers and on my home stereo..

Just wondered!

Thanks for your input.

 

[Unavailable]

BX8a's. They aren't completely inaudible, but they are buried under everything else. Try doing some A-Bing with your mix and professional mixes. Usually in metal the snare and kick are right up front smacking you in the face.

 

[-Noodles-]

Okay, cool thanks.

I'm finding it hard to find something that's similar to that stuff..

you recommend some In Flames to AB with?

 

[Unavailable]

Depends on what you and the band want to sound like. Just pick a production that you like the sound of.

 

[-Noodles-]

Thanks dude.. I've always thought they sounded a lot like In Flames in terms of writing production..

Anyway, thanks to everyone so far!