First mix with real drums/re-amped guitars (hard rock content)

[jeid]

Hello all.

Recorded drums in a badass log cabin a week and a half ago. Used a Mapex Saturn with an FVF Custom snare drum. 22" Kick, 12" rack and 14" floor toms. Think the snare is 14" by 7"

Bass was done with a Sansamp and then post processed a fuckload. I'm not overly happy with the performance of the bass player, but he's stupid and he tried his hardest. Nice bass though, USA Fender Precision.

Guitars were Re-amped through my Marshall SL-X into my JCM800 4x12 with V30's. Two 57's Fredman style.

Vocals were done here in my teeny tiny little studio room. Used an AT4033 on all vocals. The main vocalist was also very ill when he recorded this...

Would be interested to hear if anyone had any comments/suggestions etc. Unmastered(if anyone is interested, give me a PM) so you'll need to turn up a bit.

Link Below!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3526809/MIX.mp3


Also, for anyone interested.

snare & kick samples: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3526809/SAMPLES.zip
tom samples http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3526809/MAPEX TOMS.zip


EDIT: Ok, so I've taken on some of the advice given, not been able to get at this song for a couple of week. I worked on the bottom end, sat back a bit from my desk and it was crazy bassy (need moar treatment!), made the snare more cracky, added some delay to the solo although I'm still not sure about the level. The bass is where I'm struggling, I just can't tame it. Halp! Raised the vocal level a bit as well.

I also had Dan Weapon re-amp and do some mastering on the old mix. Sent him the stems and he worked his magic, so I've included it.

Updated mix
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3526809/NEWMIX2.mp3

Dan Weapon Mix/Master (re-amped through a Diezel VH-4 and a Mesa cab... I think it was his Mesa cab)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3526809/05 Retribution [Demo].mp3

 

[jeid]

Anyone wanna give me some sort of feedback?

 

[muckypup1]

The bass seems a bit loud to me, the whole mix has a lot of bass, but a bit of eq'ing should fix that. I would have had a bit more gain on the guitars as well, did you have anything boosting the amp like a tube screamer?

I like the drums, and I've been using the samples with my own stuff

Also, are the cymbals real? or sampled?

 

[Force666]

Hey, just listened. I think it sounds really good. The one thing i don't really like about it is the snare though. Just too "plonky" for my taste. A little more crisp attack and some more "snare (as in wires) i think would do it justice.

 

[NSGUITAR]

Your guitar tone is siiick! Good work dude.

 

[jeid]

The bass seems a bit loud to me, the whole mix has a lot of bass, but a bit of eq'ing should fix that. I would have had a bit more gain on the guitars as well, did you have anything boosting the amp like a tube screamer?

I like the drums, and I've been using the samples with my own stuff

Also, are the cymbals real? or sampled?

Hey man, cheers for listening, glad you're enjoying the samples. If anything, I thought the bass was too quiet. Compared to other mixes I've listened to in my room, it seems lacking bass if anything.

The amp has a Maxon OD-808 boosting it. I never use a lot of gain tbh, I play hard

Hey, just listened. I think it sounds really good. The one thing i don't really like about it is the snare though. Just too "plonky" for my taste. A little more crisp attack and some more "snare (as in wires) i think would do it justice.

Thanks for commenting. If that's the only thing you picked out, I'm reasonably happy. I think snares are like guitar tones, it's very much down to the drummer. He was really happy with the tone of the snare.

Your guitar tone is siiick! Good work dude.

Thanks man. I love the SL-X! I'm offering re-amps on it for next to fuck all if you're ever interested!

 

[Mikaël-ange]

I'm not a huge fan about snare tone but this can change (listening with computer speaker) since whole song and production worth the transfer on my studio computer... So you get a good point

Btw thanks for the sample

 

[P-E]

I'd like some more bottom mic in the snare, smashed to hell.

Seems to me that the mix is a little overpowering in the 200-300hz region (especially in the bass, but not all the time, just at some moments), maybe, and then a bit too scooped. Vocals could get louder for the genre IMO.

In my opinion, the lead guitar could use a tiny bit of reverb and delay in order to stand out a tad more and the overall guitar tone could use a bit more highs. I'm being picky though, cool mix.

I like the overheads btw, they sound great.

 

[jeid]

I'm not a huge fan about snare tone but this can change (listening with computer speaker) since whole song and production worth the transfer on my studio computer... So you get a good point

Btw thanks for the sample

Haha, cheers man Hope you like the samples

I'd like some more bottom mic in the snare, smashed to hell.

Seems to me that the mix is a little overpowering in the 200-300hz region (especially in the bass, but not all the time, just at some moments), maybe, and then a bit too scooped. Vocals could get louder for the genre IMO.

In my opinion, the lead guitar could use a tiny bit of reverb and delay in order to stand out a tad more and the overall guitar tone could use a bit more highs. I'm being picky though, cool mix.

I like the overheads btw, they sound great.

There is no bottom snare mic. Just a Beta 57 on top. This was the first time I'd used a bunch of my new mics and I'm really happy with the results. The overheads were a stereo pair of Oktava MK-012's

Bass is always an issue for me. It's being stem mastered though I think, so hopefully it should clear that up.

There is some delay on the lead guitars, but I didn't wanna go crazy on it.

 

[pipaguapique]

now..THESE ARE real real drumms. (if you know what i mean...hahaha)

I agree with force, about the plonkiness...but dude...you've got it going on with the vocals. nice! also, i think the guitars could have taken a bit more of gain.

but overall i'd say, mucho bueno mix dude.

 

[Morgan C]

Seems to me that the mix is a little overpowering in the 200-300hz region.

This, snare is really tubby, guitars are quite lowmiddy and the bass has excessive lowmids. Move the bass more towards the 50-150hz range, and lose some guitar lowmids. The snare also pops out a lot atm, but I guess it's not mastered so that may get fixed later.

 

[jeid]

I actually had the bass scooped in that frequency in an earlier mix and it seemed too clangy. I think I boosted it around 400Hz and it's brought that boominess in. fml

I scooped some mids out of the guitars around 300Hz and just added a teeny tiny amount at 100Hz sort of region. Then I stuck a mulitband compressor on it to tame teh bottom end on the chuggy stuff.

I know everyone says the snare is a bit plonky, but I really like the snare. I did dial in a lot more top to try and get some fair crack out of it, but it didn't work out.

I appreciate all of the comments. I had to roll with the mix as I had a deadline for last night. It's away for some mastering with Dan from My Minds Weapon (he posts around here from time to time) and he's got all the DI's/Stems, so I'm hoping with different ears, he can take care of any problems.

This is the first time I produced my own band and was actually happy with how it turned out. Usually I sit for months and say to myself "this still totally sucks"

As for the vocals, our vocalist has a great tone in his voice which is easy as hell to EQ. He was rather ill during the tracking for this song, so he's got better in him, but I think the anger that comes in on some of the lines is brilliant. I was going to get him to re-track a lot of parts, but the more I listened, I loved the vibe. I sung all of the harmonies and I did the "don't want them" bridge parts and the bridge after the guitar solo. I'm a horrible singer, hence the autotune vocals and the harmonies to cover my awful tone. On my own, my voice is abysmal, but blended with our vocalists voice, it just... works well. It's like I have no lows/lowmids in my voice... just highs and our vocalist has everything else.

Works well

Still, I hate my voice.

Next time I record our band I'll take note of these comments on this mix, and use it as a basis for comparison.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Bass dominate low end so tame it a bit for make room to your kick. Agree with everyone about snare, need more high boost for add more crack.

Checked everything on my HS80 so check your room reponse
Good luck

 

[jeid]

Yeah, I'm planning on putting some more traps at the back of my desk and the rear of my listening position

 

[jeid]

Original post updated

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

First of all, great work and it's a good song!

Guitarsound is great! Allthough i think the palmmutes could use a little more saturation, Dan Weapon's version has better palm-mutes but the Diezel is more honky sounding to me. Furthermore i think that the high's of the bassguitar could be backed off a little, just to make it blend in a little better. (Slight multiband-compression maybe?)

Are you purposefully not using drumsamples on this one? I think it could sound even better if you used some sample augmentation in there. Snare is indeed too tubby for my tastes, but if that is what you want

 

[jeid]

Even on the new mix the snare is still too tubby? Wow... I think it's a bit thin sounding compared to the original mix.

Yeah, there is a fair bit more honk in the Diezel mix.

Not using samples yeah, just trying to get some real sounds in there instead of the usual SSD (even though I do have these and have used the room samples here and there)

Thanks for the compliments on the song man. OT question... Dutchieland... where abouts?

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

Sorry for the confusion dude, it's not in the frequency range, i just don't really like the sound of the snare drum itself. Matter of taste i guess

Still, i am convinced that the drums would sound fatter if you had a little sample creeping in there, for example you keep the Kick 100% Natural but add like 40/50% of a sample. But that is what i would do probably.

OT Answer : I live in Apeldoorn, it's a mid-sized city in the center/east of the country

 

[jeid]

Ah right, that's fair enough man

I never tried it, but I could give it a blast, I'd need to find the right samples I think.

OT reply: ah sweet. My Girlfriend is moving over to Amsterdam to work for a year in a Science Research place. I'll be popping over every few months. Really looking forward to visiting your country

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

Well even with Steven Slate Samples it could sound awesome. In my opinion those samples aren't the greatest on their own but they are perfect to blend in with something imo.

OT : That's cool dude! Amsterdam is a cool place, only waay too crowded and touristic for my tastes. If you get there, you must grab a couple of pints in The Cave. That's a really cool hard-rock joint with cool dudes working there