Help needed with muddy/dark tone

[reg3n]

Hey guys how's it going.

I think this one is a preety good example of how most of my mixes sound right now, i don't have the ultimate gear or even monitors, i just do stuff on AKG headphones, and not precisely high end, but i think it's lame blaming the gear when it's not shit, and there's people that does better stuff with less.

SO,

here's a short clip, gtrs are not edited at all, just removed the silence between some notes just that, not aligned no nothing, 2 takes (of each riff), and the chain is GTR > Distressor > TSS > EQ (hp/lp, nothing else) and IR's, there's a slight EQ after this too, for the main guitar buss, i always complain about the boominess i get all the time, maybe this is not as boomy but it sounds damn dead and i dunno... dark maybe, and it's not intended to sound like that

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/799706/zsdff.mp3

It's a short clip, but you'll get what i mean

 

[paladin shredder]

yeah, try cutting a little out of the 200-500hz region where you feel it needs it, but be subtle. honestly the main thing i notice with the mix is the mastering compression is pumping to hard. try using gclip or something to cut out the really sharp transients and then use whatever you are using with lighter settings, so you don't really "hear" it working, just just kind of making everything jell together better.

 

[reg3n]

thanks, it sounds better now in comparison, i actually never used a clipper on the master buss except for the limiter that i thought it was already doing that job, but i see what you mean, here's the clip

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/799706/zsdff-2.mp3

but hell, it still sounds dead ;_;

/edit/ here's the thing with some Ozone's on it to reach some high end on guitars and drums, but now it kind'a sounds like... clouded, lots of noise, that's what i'm trying to avoid here, but how can i boost my high end without this ammount of noise? if there's a way...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/799706/zsdffa.mp3

 

[drdan]

The clipper makes it sound so much better in the newer clips. Either way, I didn't think your stuff was all that dark sounding, really.

 

[ahjteam]

how can i boost my high end without this ammount of noise?

drop the low end with shelving type eq and worry about loudness later in the mastering?

edit: and you're doing it wrong.... put the tubescreamer BEFORE the amp. Try the greg-method; get it right at the source. Just tss > ampsim (preamp > ir) > highpass at 80hz and lowpass at 12khz, nothing else.

 

[reg3n]

thanks guys, actually, i'm not even using a tubescreamer, my mistake on the initials sorry, it's just TSE and it's even got low gain on the input and mid drive, but you're right i should worry about the loudness later, i've changed the guitar tone a lot now with more high mids and even less gain, but now the bass sounds like a sub-bass... and you know what, with this mix i'm trying to mix the way you describe on your approach to mixing , so now that you're here, thanks for that

 

[Sam Bottner]

you should try using a tubescreamer on guitars, makes everything sound better

where did you lowpass the bass if it's sounding like only subs?

 

[lolzgreg]

The first issue is, your mix is squashed and pumping like an oil well. You should not be using any master bus compression if you don't even have a solid mix going on.

You own a Distressor? Don't track DIs with it. Guitar-DI box->Preamp. Done.

I would say sell that thing and buy a good amp and learn how to mic it up.

 

[reg3n]

The first issue is, your mix is squashed and pumping like an oil well. You should not be using any master bus compression if you don't even have a solid mix going on.

You own a Distressor? Don't track DIs with it. Guitar-DI box->Preamp. Done.

I would say sell that thing and buy a good amp and learn how to mic it up.

I hear ya. I'll get rid of the compressors and limiters and shit till i get a decent sound going on, i kind'a felt the distressor made the DI's sound a bit more clear but i don't normally use one anyway, the thing is, i don't own a preamp, but the DI box output looks healthy, this was in the back of my head for like forever, i've seen one of my mates getting great sounds without preamps but, should that be the first of my gear upgrades?... i own the Toneport UX2 if that helps in any way.

Thank you all for your answers

/*edit*/ btw, i use the +18db boost for the clean output, i'm guessing it's using some sort of hardware signal preamp, that's why i didn't worry about this for the DI's, i might be completely worng on this so, who's gonna spread some light =D

 

[reg3n]

ok, taking some advice and actually working on Reaper (i'm hating cubase glitches, might be a particular case who knows but, i'm hating it) i think the sound got a lot more natural and clear... if you think it does sound better, the gtrs at least, i'll draw my conclusions so you can laugh. (something funny happened, well, funny for someone else at least )

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/799706/song2.mp3 (don't waste yer times on crits on my shitty playing on this, or the repetitive stuff)

 

[Slammer88]

ok, taking some advice and actually working on Reaper (i'm hating cubase glitches, might be a particular case who knows but, i'm hating it) i think the sound got a lot more natural and clear... if you think it does sound better, the gtrs at least, i'll draw my conclusions so you can laugh. (something funny happened, well, funny for someone else at least )

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/799706/song2.mp3 (don't waste yer times on crits on my shitty playing on this, or the repetitive stuff)

you are right mate, this latest record sounds way better than the old ones, more stereo, more perceivable guitars and so on

 

[reg3n]

OK, so, i had my axe plugged to the "pad" input on my toneport, please someone come here, and spread some light! wtf is up with the pad thing? the signal is not the same in my spectrum analyzer, but what's the deal?

 

[ahjteam]

pad drops the volume by 10 to 20dB

 

[reg3n]

pad drops the volume by 10 to 20dB

excellent, that's why i found myself boosting everything the fuck up, i've done this for a whole fucking year (maybe a lot more, anyaway it can't get more embarrasing) so, for me, those little icons there on the inputs, i swear i always saw a bass and a guitar, and i didn't even ask myself why, i just thought "ok, it's because of some like... technical shit i don't care". Silly me. Things are getting better, i can hear it.

Thanks a lot for your priceless help. To everyone.