Karnivool - tone match

[RandomAwesome]

I heard from someone that this forum is into Karnivool. Makes perfect sense, as Sound Awake is, IMHO, one of the best sounding rock records I've ever heard.

That said, I tried my hand at the intro to Goliath. Granted, I'm nowhere near the drummer that Steve Judd is, but the guitars were super simple at least, haha.

I get the feeling after studying the Sound Awake tones that there are definitely samples layered under the drums. Being the purist that I am, I gave it a go with no sampling, layering, or quantizing.

http://soundcloud.com/randomawesome/karnivool-cover-goliath-intro

Thoughs, opinions, suggestions, criticisms?

 

[AllanD]

Great work as always, Josh. How are you handling drum bleed?

 

[RandomAwesome]

Shit... drum bleed is always a massive pain when doing all live drums. I dunno, I just try to play it right, haha. Making sure that everything sounds good in the drum room is the most important piece in my drum chain.

Too many drummers, ESPECIALLY in metal, don't know jack about playing dynamically. I'm for sure not a technical drummer, but I know good dynamics, which are always more pleasing to listen to, especially for non-musicians. Tuning and mic placement go a long way, and I'm finding more and more than the less EQing I need to do in post, the better my drums end up sounding. Again, going back to the "make sure it sounds good in the drum room" approach.

 

[digitaldeath]

You'll need to do a lot more work on the snare to match their tone. Also, the bass seems very weak to me. Karnivool's bass always reminds me of Tool, which is a lot more than just a distorted bass - it's got serious balls to it too.

 

[RandomAwesome]

Yeah, I knew I wouldn't get the same exact snare sound, because my snare head is a bit old, way too dry, and it was tuned for a different recording, haha. I was pretty happy with the bass tone, maybe not to everyone's taste but I might have to argue against it being "weak" sounding. Any suggestions/tips to help me improve it other than just snarky criticism?