Happy(?) metal

[ahjteam]

Comments and questions please

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338211/ahjteam/ahjteam_comrad_v02.mp3

the lead melody in the verse is a placeholder for vocal melody, but that will come later.



and more demo songs for my album:

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/ahjteam/sets/debut-album[/soundcloud]

 

[P-E]

That sounds really weird. Like you all crammed everything really wide on the same line, but there was nothing up or down.

Lead guitars are really muddy and should really be replayed/edited. The cymbals are somewhat pumping. Rhythm guitar tone is not really good either, lacks balls. Is there stereo imaging stuff? Some rhythm guitars sounds really to the far left and right of the spectrum, unnaturally so. Bass really lacks balls and power in the subs too.

Snare doesn't sound natural enough, is it the same sample all the way?

To be honest you should probably remix the whole thing, and maybe retrack parts of it.

(I just realized the song I commented was Late Night Mistery and not Comrad, which sounds a bit better, but could be improved nonetheless.)

edit: I hope this doesn't come across as harsh or anything, I'm just willing to help.

 

[ahjteam]

Like you all crammed everything really wide on the same line, but there was nothing up or down.

Thanks for the comments, no stereowidening or stuff like that, but could you elaborate a bit on that comment above, I didn't quite understand it?

 

[P-E]

Usually when I listen to a good mix, I'll hear the cymbals like they were up, and the bass like it was down, the guitars to the side, the snare to the center, the kick to the center, but down, etc.

However, everything seems like it's on the same line on that mix, weirdly making it sound mono but more on the up-down scale than on the stereo field.

 

[ahjteam]

I don't hear sound in 3d on stereo fields, so I have hard time understanding what you mean. I hear just the x and z axels. I don't hear the vertical axel at all.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

You have to hear the vertical axis. It's just a matter of an instrument fundamental being within the lows, mids, or highs for example. So what P-E is saying is, cymbals should sound higher than a kick since the fundamentals of cymbals will be on the high-mids/highs, the fundamentals of a kick will obviously be lower so, just even when you solo kick and snare, although both are in the centre you should hear the snare more or less in the middle while the kick being "below it" in terms of "height", I can tell those axis even on my headphones. It's pretty obvious imo, if a sound has more highs it will be more repesented through the tweeter, while a more bassier sound will come through the woofer or regular cone on your speaker, hence extolling that invisibile vertical line.

 

[JeffTD]

Sounds kinda like the intro to an NFL talk-show or something, maybe a montage about someone winning a pageant?

Not much to comment on with the mix, I assume this is rough tracking, scratch drums, etc?

 

[ahjteam]

You have to hear the vertical axis. It's just a matter of an instrument fundamental being within the lows, mids, or highs for example. So what P-E is saying is, cymbals should sound higher than a kick since the fundamentals of cymbals will be on the high-mids/highs, the fundamentals of a kick will obviously be lower so, just even when you solo kick and snare, although both are in the centre you should hear the snare more or less in the middle while the kick being "below it" in terms of "height", I can tell those axis even on my headphones. It's pretty obvious imo, if a sound has more highs it will be more repesented through the tweeter, while a more bassier sound will come through the woofer or regular cone on your speaker, hence extolling that invisibile vertical line.

ah, you guys mean the spectral balance as the vertical axis. Gotcha.

Sounds kinda like the intro to an NFL talk-show or something, maybe a montage about someone winning a pageant?

Yeah, a friend of mine has been saying that a lot of my stuff sounds like sports montage music, I think at least from like 7 songs or something btw, earlier when I was asking on the forum why the chorus melody sounds so familiar, someone pointed out this (from 1:30 forward)



Totally co-incident, but it's a very basic melody, so it's no wonder it's been used before.

Not much to comment on with the mix, I assume this is rough tracking, scratch drums, etc?

Yeah, I will re-track everything except the synths for the album. Just mainly writing down ideas and stuff.