I know I know, another rate my mix...

bradlykins

New Metal Member
Dec 21, 2011
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Rhode Island
I know everyone posts these, but I just upgraded to Cubase 5 and PodFarm 2 so any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Fairly new to the site so give it to me good.

Thanks guys,
Brad

 
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hm... where to begin?

there is almost no approach here. there is no depth, the drums are completely indistinguishable as drums. the snare sounds like a marble hitting a teflon pan (and not in a "good" way).

the guitars don't even sound like guitars. the entire tone has been consumed by distortion. the lead parts (although busy) are very sloppy and incomprehensible.

i would say, start over... back to square one: refine the guitar tone without approaching anything as a mix. focus on the tone of the guitars and the musical arrangement. then edit them properly. the stereo image in a song is almost 50% of what makes a great mix. concentrate on delivering an unparalleled performance first, then operate as if there is actually something to "mix".

find better drum samples or track the drums with mics. ie. slate, superior, ezdrummer, addictive or even some free samples out there will improve the arrangement. don't skimp on shit that is necessary. if you are recording/mixing metal there are two instruments that must ALWAYS sound the best they can; guitars and drums.

i can't really say anything about the bass except that it lacks any support for the guitars. i would give you a bunch of technical suggestions but i am assuming, based on this mix, you wouldn't know what i was talking about and it wouldn't be prudent at this juncture to explain the nuances of digital audio, subtractive/additive equalization, dynamic range, gain staging, phase coherence and so on, if you haven't even learned the basic principles of signal flow and audio recording.


my intention isn't to discourage you... it's to agknowledge your failure at an attempt to bring out the best in a song's musicality. where i come from, failure is just another brick in the road to success.
 
Ok then, let's start with the snare:
I'm using Superior Drummer. I have a low pass filter and an eq with an 8dB cut around 400hz and a 4dB boost around 700-800hz and a slight raise at 5k for air. I agree that there's something wrong with the snare (you can hear it in the beginning where its supposed to roll) but i'm not sure what to do from there.

The bass is lacking because there is no bass (I forgot to mention that). I understand the importance of the bass in the overall mix.

As far as the guitar tone, the rhythm is: screamer (Drive at 3oclock, Gain at 3oclock, Tone at 11oclock), the treadplate head (Drive 2oclock, bass 3oclock, mid 4oclock, treb 2oclock, presence 5oclock, volume 12oclock), and matching cab (57 on axis with 30% room). This is his live settings. If we were to lower the gain on either the screamer and/or head and cut a little bass and presence off the amp that could increase the clarity of the rhythm right? I also have a slight compressor after the cab and a low pass filter to 170hz, a 2dB raise at 1k, and a hi pass filter at 9k.

Believe it or not I sort of know what I'm doing hahaha. But these problems have been following me since I started using plugins for everything and more information would really help me out.

Thanks,
Brad
 
I think that the problem of your drums starts with the velocities. They seem to be really low (I guess you exported them from guitar pro..). Open your midi file inside your Daw and raise all your velocities,115-120 is good. Plus the snare sounds like it's the "snare rim" in superior. Change it to "snare hard" or "snare center" (I can't remember you it's called right now) and you should be fine for a starting point.

As for the guitar,a sound that works good in a live situation, doesn't mean that could work in a recording situation. Your low pass is really high. Create a new guitar tone and low pass around 60-80hz.

Post another clip to see how things go
 
*high pass cuts the lows and let's the highs pass.

*low pass cuts the highs and lets the lows pass.

what you meant to say is high pass filter around 60-80hz.


and tbh... you can high pass all the way to around 200hz without sacrificing the low end of a guitar (unless you are using a ridiculous amp with TONS of bass -which is pointless if you intend on applying a bass guitar).

and because most cabs have a frequency response of around 7k, you can low pass to about 7.5k while allowing for some air to come in.

limiting the guitars will help improve the attack as well since limiters have a much faster response time.