First time on metal, tips and hints would be appreciated

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Since my band just split up, but we recently did record some stuff, the rest asked me to do the mixing, because they don't want to spend any more money on it, but do want to have these tracks as a souvenir of the past couple of years. Up until now I've only had experience mixing samplebased and electronic music (and actualy kinda suck at it too ), so this metalgenre is quite new to me. I've been reading a while on this forum now, wich has been helpfull, but now I'd like some of your opinions on it. Any tips or advise would be appreciated as well.

http://home.planet.nl/~fels0006/Slumber6.mp3

 

[professorlamp]

couple of things....
That snare sounds odd, really dark and not very good (try getting some better samples, are they samples? )
the tone is quite fizzy (fix that and also lo pass the gaytars)
the tempo change is uncomfortable (work on it)
oh another thing i picked up the vocalist goes out of tune for a tiny bit

but if you got rid of them it'd be alot better
im sure theres more problems but thats what i picked at
The arrangement and stuff is fine thoguh

crit mine?

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/rate-my-mix-tone-threads/575501-my-mix-poo-i-need-your-help.html

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Can't do much about the snare, there is a lot (and I mean A LOT) of bleed in the snare wich makes it impossible for me to boost higher frequencies, since all I would be doing is adding more hi-hat and when I try replacing it with samples I either get snares all over the place or only half of the snare being replaced (and then still a couple of snares in places where they shouldn't be). So I just have to leave it at that.

Did the lo pass thing on the guitars, and it did make them sound a little bit less fizzy, to much made them sound real dark, too much for my taste.

The out of tune singing is something we already know and I've been doing a lot of pitch correction on that, to the point that I already find it artificial sounding.

The easiest thing would be re-recording, but that is not going to happen (since the band split up, like I said before).

Newer version: http://home.planet.nl/~fels0006/Slumber7.mp3 Any new comments?

 

[ahjteam]

- Universal Truth #1: The vocals can never be too loud, even Elvis knows that. So turn the vocals louder. If you run out of headroom, use a compressor to squeeze it down a bit.
- Universal Truth #2: Bass has always too much dynamic range. Compress the bass a lot, I usually have something like 10-15dB gain reduction on it.
- EQ rule of thumb #1: narrow cuts, wide boosts
- EQ rule of thumb #2: Highpass everything from atleast 100hz that doesn't belong in the subs. In metalmusic that usually means everything except bass, kick and subdrops.
- EQ rule of thumb #3: Watch out for the equal loudness curve hotspots and their harmonics (666hz = evil, 330hz = even more evil as it can totally mask the low end), especially the ~4khz on guitars can KILL, it's like sticking a knife in your ear if it's too loud (google for "Fletcher-Munson curve" for the graph)
- Fix the snare, it sounds like ass. If the bleed on the snare is a big problem, try using a noisegate.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

- Universal Truth #1: The vocals can never be too loud, even Elvis knows that. So turn the vocals louder. If you run out of headroom, use a compressor to squeeze it down a bit.

The band wanted me to turn them down that much, at first I had them a lot louder. Now I actually think it is way to soft, but they like it...

- Universal Truth #2: Bass has always too much dynamic range. Compress the bass a lot, I usually have something like 10-15dB gain reduction on it.

Wow... That much? I always was told never to get more then 3 dB reduction while compressing. Maybe they just meant the master channel or something and didn't tell me... Done that now

- EQ rule of thumb #1: narrow cuts, wide boosts

Know that, done it.

- EQ rule of thumb #2: Highpass everything from atleast 100hz that doesn't belong in the subs. In metalmusic that usually means everything except bass, kick and subdrops.

Already did that from the start.

- EQ rule of thumb #3: Watch out for the equal loudness curve hotspots and their harmonics (666hz = evil, 330hz = even more evil as it can totally mask the low end), especially the ~4khz on guitars can KILL, it's like sticking a knife in your ear if it's too loud (google for "Fletcher-Munson curve" for the graph)

So, I actually did a tiny bit of a boost there just to get the guitars to sound more upfront, because at first they sounded like they were way back in the mix, but that's wrong?

- Fix the snare, it sounds like ass. If the bleed on the snare is a big problem, try using a noisegate.

I did some A/B checks and found out that a compressor I used on the snare actually did a lot of colouring, so I took that one out. Did use a noise gate, but still hihats are cutting through at every snarehit and also hihats and toms are cutting through at other points. Setting a higher threshold makes some of the snarehits dissapear. Any other ideas that aren't too time consuming, since I have to keep that in mind as well? (maybe later on I will do that for practice-sak on one track, but not just right now)

New version: http://home.planet.nl/~fels0006/Slumber8.mp3 Keep the comments coming please.

 

[ahjteam]

Wow... That much? I always was told never to get more then 3 dB reduction while compressing. Maybe they just meant the master channel or something and didn't tell me... Done that now

Chris Lord-Alge is one of the most respected mixers in the world and he does massive amounts of compression too, so why shouldn't I? In the Waves CLA demos there is 8db reduction on acoustic guitars, 10dB gain reduction on the vocals, 15dB gain reduction on the electric guitar and 20dB on the drum room mic.

So, I actually did a tiny bit of a boost there just to get the guitars to sound more upfront, because at first they sounded like they were way back in the mix, but that's wrong?

Why not just bring up the volume? It sounds a lot more natural than EQing.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Because bringing up the volume just made it louder and not more in your face, if you get what I'm saying.

By the way: thank you for your time and replies. It's appreciated.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Did a different aproach on compressing the bass now (as there were some nasty ass transients clipping the last time wich I didn't notice at first) and removed the 4k boost from the guitars and brought up the volume.

http://home.planet.nl/~fels0006/Slumber9.mp3