first post and first mixdown!

[jrx10]

Hey everyone,

Just recently discovered the possibility of amp and cab simulation and have been inspired by some of the results forum users have posted up to have a go myself. I come from an electronic music production background so do have experience with audio software etc but have never attempted to record guitar based music before, let alone metal!

Anyway would greatly appreciate any feedback on this first attempt, the music is a bit generic i'm afraid as I am primarily a bass player and don't have much in the way of guitar (or drum) chops but I guess i'm more interested in technical feedback anyway!

mixdown practice

I think the drums are probably the weakest part of the mix, especially musically as I'm still very much studying metal drum patterns etc and haven't got the hang of how to make them sound real; i'm so used to doing the complete opposite when producing d'n'b/dubstep!

 

[shogger]

Hi there,

it sounds rather thin. Thin guitars, thin bass, thin kick. Everything sounds highpassed too much. Try this: Let the bass extend the guitars downwards. Let them blend into each other. Make sure that the mix of both doesn't sounds boxy or woofy. Now mute the bass and bring in the kick. Make it smack. now slowly bring up the bass again. Listen to the point where the kick get's lost. Cut the low kick frequencies in the bass a little to bring up the lows of the kick again. Got it? To get good at it is massive amount of training. On your way you'll find and develop other concepts. This is only for starters. Good luck.

Shogger

 

[Unavailable]

Work on the tuning of the guitars too, all the chords sound really out of tune.

 

[jrx10]

Work on the tuning of the guitars too, all the chords sound really out of tune.

Woah they are as well, thats kinda embarrassing, guess i was rushing a bit with all this new software and stuff and forgot the basics

Thanks for the feedback anyway, guess I need to go back to the drawing board on this, probably should work on my actual guitar playing before I try tracking again anyway and try and thicken up the tone too.

 

[ChrisWBD]

Where's the low end? Shogger has some great advice, the only thing I'd add is when you start getting the mix really nice and thick, look into parallel compression so the bass and kick don't have to compete for sub-space.

 

[jrx10]

Where's the low end? Shogger has some great advice, the only thing I'd add is when you start getting the mix really nice and thick, look into parallel compression so the bass and kick don't have to compete for sub-space.

Ok have been fiddling with the guitar tone and can already tell how much I was missing from the low end, cheers for the tips guys!

Do you mean sidechain compression rather than parallel? I've used parallel compression on bass and kicks in the past (electronic music) but never for frequency clashing issues, normally id use it to retain some attack on a heavily compressed sound?? Will give it a try anyway if I do run into problems with space in the low end.

 

[jrx10]

Sorry to double post but I had another go today at mixing, this time I decided to go completely back to basics and play something really simple just to try and get a better guitar tone down and this time make sure the guitar was actually properly in tune Ended up being a bit of a bland hardcore style track, hope it doesnt offend too much!

mixdown practice 2

I completely changed guitar tone, whacking the bass up to near full and ditching the scooped sound which I think made a big difference in the mix; thickening up the tone. I also tried to get the guitar and bass to blend better as Shogger suggested by moving the guitar hipass lower down to just a tad higher than the prominent bass frequency.

The drum pattern is still rubbish and sounds mechanical but I think the kick sits a lot better in the mix now, also messed about with the reverb to try and stop the snare from sounding so dead.

I think this mix is a lot better than the first one but I think the guitar tone still lacks punchiness, its a bit woolly. I also definitely need to get round to learning some drum programming techniques!

Anyways, any feedback would be great cheers!

 

[shogger]

Yeah, much better. Now you have a basis to work on.

Shogger

 

[John_C]

pan the hats. There's a nasty frequency in the upper mids of the guitars that needs dealing with. compress the bass guitar more, it's not very even

 

[Unavailable]

Tuning still isn't great, but it's better. Are you using a tubescreamer or anything on those guits?

 

[jrx10]

Tuning still isn't great, but it's better. Are you using a tubescreamer or anything on those guits?

Yeah the chords never sound perfectly in tune even when the guitar is, I'm pretty sure it's because the intonation on my guitar is out of wack. Have tried to set it myself but turning the saddle screws seems to have no effect whatsoever. Probably needs to be set up properly but would rather put the money towards a new guitar as this one is the most budget epiphone you can get and only cost me like £100 new, had to fix it myself the other day because of the crappy solder work on the electronics!

Not using a tubescreamer but might try out that TSS plugin, not exactly sure what it's meant to do though, seemed to just add a load of fizz when I played with it before.

skeksis268, your right the bass definitely needed the levels looking at, thought I had compression on already but realised I didn't even have any in the signal chain! Manually edited some levels in the DI signal and then slapped a compressor in and it actually made a massive difference in tightening up the low end; made the kick punch through the mix more too!

Feel like I'm actually getting somewhere now, apart from the drums still:

Mixdown practice 3

Thanks for all the feedback!