Hey new guys, come in this thread!

[ahjteam]

There is no such thing as a "'standard' good tone", and each album's tone is going to look different than the next on an analyzer. My advice would be to toss the analyzer and use your ears.

and actually with higain tones the analyzers are pretty useless because they even look really similiar on the spectrum analyzer even if you cut 10dB it doesn't change much because of the massive amounts of compression, but it should look something like /¯¯¯¯\

 

[lolzgreg]

Hi and thanks for creating this thread!

I'll probably come back and ask more questions, but one buggin me since saturday is concerning latency. So, my computer tells me that my interface has an input latency of 5ms. Does this mean that I have a constant delay of 5ms in all my recordings, or is it more varying between 0 and 5ms depending on what is recorded?

...I was wondering, cause I tried slip-editing drums, and all shifts were below 5ms.

The latency mentioned is the approximate time difference between you hearing the recorded input material from the time that you actually played it. It is really only something to worry about when tracking. When you are mixing and using several plugins, increase the latency to allow your computer to allot more processing power for those processes.

i have a question about guitar panning while mixing.

i have a song with 2 guitars where on one part both are playing rythem and on another it's one rythem and the other a lead part

if i pan:
100L GTR 1
70L GTR 1
70R GTR 2
100R GTR 2

the first part is fine but the melodic one is awkward (one side rythen the other lead)

and if i pan:
100L GTR 1
70L GTR 2
70R GTR 2
100R GTR 1

then i lose the effect of 2 different guitars and end up with both guitars sounding like one guitar on identical parts

how do you pan? sould i automate?

This is a little confusing, so let me try to make sense of it.

What I would do, if I were you, is quad track the rhythm at all times, and then have that later lead part as an overdub either in the center, or panned to the right a little. You could volume automate your inner rhythms down when this lead comes in, but it is a matter of personal preference. Whatever sounds best is best.

I would pan 100 and 80 percent, also, with the inner tracks lesser in volume than the outers.

this thread is gonna be on fire preety soon i'm affraid!

My question:

How does a spectrum analyzer look when a "standard" good tone is achieved? i don't mean "gimme the preset" i know the bass has a huge influence, i guess i'm just trying to figure out the "dont's".

Thanks for the time you take for this!

Aaron gave you a pretty straightforward answer on this one, but I'll tell you that it's all about context.

For example:

If you have a bright lead vocal, you're going to want a snare drum that is equally bright. Your guitar amp of choice should have a high/high-mid centered tone depending on where the vocalists presence sits. For example, if a vocalist is more of a low mid/presence centered vocalist, I would use a British flavored amp. If their voice is more of a high-mid centered voice, I would use a Rectifier or 5150.

 

[reg3n]

amazing tips from you guys, it's greatly appreciated! again, thanks for the time y'all take, i was asking in terms of like, always using a hp and a lp, or never letting the lows go a lot higher than the mids or stuff like that, lately i'm getting the "feel" of the context on mixes and reading a lot about perception, the practical examples here are awesome thanks lolzerg, ahjteam and Aaron!

 

[lolzgreg]

i was asking in terms of like, always using a hp and a lp,

HP and LP depends on the key of your song. If you're playing in B, you definitely don't want to HP at 80hz, because you're losing the fundamental.

 

[Sam Bottner]

HP and LP depends on the key of your song. If you're playing in B, you definitely don't want to HP at 80hz, because you're losing the fundamental.

I disagree, I find that with lower tunings, my tone gets "too" big/bassy for the mix. I like to treat lower tuned guitars the same as guitars in standard tuning as far as highpassing goes (90-175 hz depending on bass tone). To each his own, and I'm sure you get better guitar tones than me, but I'm just sharing what my experience has been.

 

[lolzgreg]

If you find yourself with that issue, HP an octave above the fundamental. Depends on the tone of course, but it really makes sense to have it where the lowest note in that song is.

 

[Tim HLAH]

Do you have any tips for tracking an album that will be mixed/mastered in another studio? I'll also be responsible for drum editing. Im mostly asking for do's/dont's of preparing tracks for someone else to mix.

 

[reg3n]

HP and LP depends on the key of your song. If you're playing in B, you definitely don't want to HP at 80hz, because you're losing the fundamental.

that's exactly what i'm doing

i say when we should start compiling this tips, for the very first post of the thread

 

[amarshism]

Take notes of everything. I get a few mixes to recover from other studios and their notes are always terrible. What mics were used, pres, gtrs, drums. Don't record a 5150 in podfarm and say you micd it up. It happens, and your mix engineer will be annoyed at your lies. Some people like all songs in one session, some like James Murphy prefer one song/per session, but he's certainly at a more professional level, so maybe that's better. Or more common with top level *guys. Ask the mixer.*

Keep your session clean and organized.*

Don't put an L1 on every track. Make nice clean edits if you're meant to. If there's edits you're not sure of don't commit them. You're mixer can't undo them. Cymbal transients come to mind.*

Don't overly treat on the way in unless you're mixer is ok with it.*

Cosolidate your files and clean out the session. If you'd like your mixer to choose alternate takes, mute the alternate regions and let him know in your notes. Communication is key, remember your mix engineer is exactly that. There to mix. Not to read your mind and clean up after you, unless they want to do all their own editing.

Make notes of fx you would like when and where. Provide a good rough.*

These are just the things I'd like to be receiving from other studios whose mixes I often get given to fix.*

 

[amarshism]

OMG just remembered one from a mix I got handed last week. DON'T GATE EVERYTHING TO FUCK! I swear the snare and
vocal were run through a hardware gate that chopped of transients and sustain left, right and centre.

 

[lolzgreg]

Do you have any tips for tracking an album that will be mixed/mastered in another studio? I'll also be responsible for drum editing. Im mostly asking for do's/dont's of preparing tracks for someone else to mix.

Don't do any processing on the way in unless it's a light comp on vocals, or a light comp on bass.

Track DIs for bass and guitar, period.

Tune after every few takes. Ask the guitarist/bassist to play a chord every once and a while between takes to check tuning.

Read Glenn Fricker's guide to acoustic drums under the production tips forum.

Organize things well, as it's been said before. Clearly label everything.

Do your best work. It will help you in the future.

Send all track unadulterated to the mixing engineer.

 

[rispsira]

Thanks for doing this Greg! Been reading and some really cool stuff in this thread.

I do have one noob question!

My drummer and i are setting up "homes studios" in parallel which is relly cool being neighbours, to get some ideas to the band. Unfortunatelly its still new to both of us.

A problem we currently have is a weird latency issue with midi.
For instance when we play on a keyboard controller to trigger sample in real time we get NO noticable latency whish is great. So i gues sthat would mean we have no monitoring latency. Only problem is when you hit record - say we put a metronome with precount click - the recording starts a bit late and you can see the midi being shifted forward- though while recording and listening at the same time it seems we are playing with no latency.

On the other hand when we do the same thing with electronic drums tiggering drum samples with midi, which should be basically the same concept, the recording starts right at the beggining.

We could fix the keyboard problem by cutting the empty begging on the track and shifting it to the beggining of the song, but surelly there must be some logical explanation?

I didnt go into the whole whats your PC specs and OS and what interface and what drivers etc since there is no monitoring latency and the same problem does not apply to the dm5, expecting there must be something im missing.

Sorry for the long post Greg, and if you dont find the time to answer dont worry about it still plenty of great info here!

 

[Tim HLAH]

thanks so much for the tips guys, i need to get my hands on a di box.

 

[lolzgreg]

Thanks for doing this Greg! Been reading and some really cool stuff in this thread.

I do have one noob question!

My drummer and i are setting up "homes studios" in parallel which is relly cool being neighbours, to get some ideas to the band. Unfortunatelly its still new to both of us.

A problem we currently have is a weird latency issue with midi.
For instance when we play on a keyboard controller to trigger sample in real time we get NO noticable latency whish is great. So i gues sthat would mean we have no monitoring latency. Only problem is when you hit record - say we put a metronome with precount click - the recording starts a bit late and you can see the midi being shifted forward- though while recording and listening at the same time it seems we are playing with no latency.

On the other hand when we do the same thing with electronic drums tiggering drum samples with midi, which should be basically the same concept, the recording starts right at the beggining.

We could fix the keyboard problem by cutting the empty begging on the track and shifting it to the beggining of the song, but surelly there must be some logical explanation?

I didnt go into the whole whats your PC specs and OS and what interface and what drivers etc since there is no monitoring latency and the same problem does not apply to the dm5, expecting there must be something im missing.

Sorry for the long post Greg, and if you dont find the time to answer dont worry about it still plenty of great info here!

I honestly don't know why this would happen only with the keyboard and only when you hit record. Try a different keyboard and see if it happens? Maybe it's an issue with sustained notes?

 

[DanLights]

It's just my opinion, but I think this thread should be about questions about recording/mixing techniques and the like, but not about technical help on gear not working right, it could get way too cluttered with lots of "my interface ain't recording" questions and I think that's what the equipment section is for (or the actual manual and FAQs of the specific gear), after all this is the production tips forum and that's what this thread should be about, clearing doubts on production tips.

Anyway just my two cents

 

[Trevoire520]

I'll agree with that. This isn't a technical support forum. There's other places on the internet for this stuff (the website of whoever makes your DAW or equipment) and it's just going to clutter up what could be a good resource.

 

[rispsira]

You guys have a great point. I agree. Apologise for the post makes sense i shouldve thought about it. Thanks Greg for the reply though!

Great thread!

 

[lolzgreg]

Thanks.

Any more questions? I plan on checking daily, so you'll get an answer (that may or may not help you ) within a day or two at most.

 

[reg3n]

Here i go;

Which are the "bad" frequencies you always take out? like, i always take away the low end of the kicks or i end up with a silly kick eating all my headroom, and stuff like that for the bass, axes and drumkit! i find this key for a clean and easy to understand sound, and that's what i lack.

 

[lolzgreg]

The word "always" applies to nothing aside from the 400-500hz range These are the dreaded "wooly" and "boxy" frequencies.

Guitars you notch out nasty peaking frequencies depending on the cabinet and speaker. You can actually usually find out where you might need to without using a spectrum analyzer thanks to Celestions's website, as they have a response curve of all their speakers. The cabinet matters as well, but that's the "dummies" version.

Bass, almost anything above 6khz for metal in most cases is useless.

I generally HP high toms starting at 120hz on the tiny ones, all the way down to 60hz on some floor toms.

I LP room microphones at 8khz with a gentle slope.

I generally boost around 250hz on drums.

Your mix really depends on the instrument you want to make most prominent. Your guitar tone choice will dictate the HF content in your cymbals and your vocal, as well as the bass tone you go for. I'd say guitar tone may be one of the most important parts of a metal mix. It can easily make or break it.