Ghost "Ritual" cover, Axe FXII guitars

[DanLights]

Hey dudes, I did a cover with a couple of friends for mixing practice and fun, but also to have some more material to advertise my "backing track" service, so I tried to humanize the drums the best I could. The mix is still lacking keyboards, but the rest is there, this is my first "pre"mix after a couple hours of mixing from scratch. I still have doubts about things like the kick click or cymbals, or probably could use some volume automation on the snare, but I'm going to take a break now and would like to see if any of you lovely fellows have some ideas/hints/opinions on the whole thing.

I think the vocals are the thing that's lacking the most, but it's not the singer's fault, I'd scheduled to borrow a Rode NT-2A from a good friend who runs a sound company, but at last minute my friend's recording session got delayed and he needed it for that day, and the singer lives on the other side of the country and it was the last day to record before he left, so I had no choice but to use one of my super cheap Thomann dynamic mics that I have for rehearsals and scratch tracks/preproduction, and it's hard to get good clarity without sounding like Karaoke with this mic. You might also notice the "Spanish" accent on the vocals, I tried to coach him on specific things like the correct pronunciation of "ritual" but I gave up after a point, it's still cool and I won't make a big fuss out of it.

Guitars are AxeFX II, recorded by my buddy Fenris from Bloodhunter, he gave me his processed files and DI tracks, but I didn't use the DI. I don't know what he used, I think the Orange model because he was trying to imitate the original.

Bass is recorded DI, with TSE BOD on the high-end track, and additional processing. I was too lazy to bring out the M80 to reamp with it, and I didn't think it would fit that well for this song anyways.

Drums are programmed by ear to the original and humanized by me, cymbals are Superior Drummer 2.0, shells are samples I've collected over the years, Toms are the famous chimaira toms (only two toms here, imitating the drummer of Ghost who only uses one rack and one floor tom).

Listen and enjoy!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/954292/Music samples-stems/Ghost Ritual Preliminary Mix.mp3

 

[slaytah]

That's pretty fucking good man! Very nicely mixed. Great bass, I agree with you that it doesn't need to be re-amped.

The weakest point is definitely the singer. He's got a good voice, but his performance isn't strong enough. It sounds like he's not put enough effort into it. You should get him to re-record it. And about the accent - to me that adds character. And you don't wanna have to think too hard about slipping up on things when you're recording a vocal.

Nice programming, very true to the original.

 

[DanLights]

That's pretty fucking good man! Very nicely mixed. Great bass, I agree with you that it doesn't need to be re-amped.

The weakest point is definitely the singer. He's got a good voice, but his performance isn't strong enough. It sounds like he's not put enough effort into it. You should get him to re-record it. And about the accent - to me that adds character. And you don't wanna have to think too hard about slipping up on things when you're recording a vocal.

Nice programming, very true to the original.

Thanks dude! Honestly, it's not the singer's fault, we actually kept him restrained on purpose, he's a heavy metal guy, he could've sung his balls out (and we let him at the end of the song), but we wanted to try to keep it similar to the original, and part of Ghost's trademark is Papa's very straightforward vocal delivery, it's supposed to sound a bit dull. But I do see your point.

The guitar tones are close but sound thin and don't have the same fat midrange that Ghost have on their record. A fatter sounding guitar or rolling back the tone would've worked. Maybe try and add some beef by reamping them through something with a very thick midrange?
The drums tones don't really work, too modern sounding.
Try finding samples of more 70ies-style drums or use a sampler with a Ludwig/Gretsch kit or something.

Yeah, you're totally right about the drums, listening now after a day's break. I like the snare yesterday, but it's way too modern and upfront for this song, and toms need taming. I'll try to find some samples that will suit it better. About the guitar, I'll talk to the guitarist to see what he thinks, maybe he'll reamp them to something more fitting with his Axe, or I can just try some Eq to make it fit better.

Thanks for your thoughts guys!

 

[Mago]

Sounds pretty nice man!

I think you went a tiny bit too far with the drum humanizing on the timing in some spots though...it's a bit bumpy at times.
You're right about the kick I think...both kick and snare sound a bit tiny, not really digging the snare "ssht" at the end...don't know if it comes from the bottom or too much hi-end.

Vocals sound pretty good considering what you told about the recording process!

 

[El_Gato]

Sounds pretty nice man!

I think you went a tiny bit too far with the drum humanizing on the timing in some spots though...it's a bit bumpy at times.

Agree with this. The guitars need some balls when played, too. And the drums some more processing. But sounds pretty good overall.

 

[Taylord]

I loved it man!

 

[Deathprayer82]

Very nice! I like it!

 

[DanLights]

Sounds pretty nice man!

I think you went a tiny bit too far with the drum humanizing on the timing in some spots though...it's a bit bumpy at times.
You're right about the kick I think...both kick and snare sound a bit tiny, not really digging the snare "ssht" at the end...don't know if it comes from the bottom or too much hi-end.

Vocals sound pretty good considering what you told about the recording process!

Yes, I'm aware, and will work it out, there's a couple spots where it sounds sloppy.

Agree with this. The guitars need some balls when played, too. And the drums some more processing. But sounds pretty good overall.

I'm still working on the drums, I just have to take time out of preproduction of my band to keep working on this.

I loved it man!

Very nice! I like it!

Thanks Taylord and Deathprayer, glad you like it so far!

And thanks for all the constructive comments! I'll have an updated mix soon, but I doubt it'll be this weekend cause I'm busy with drum recording and rehearsals for a birthday party show next week.