Killswitch-inspired Metalcore Band :) Please crit

[NashMuhandes]

Hey guys... this is a band that I'm doing for vocals for, recorded at my project studio...

Before I post the link though, I'll explain some of the limitations/crappiness I had to endure during the recording process.

1) We were pressed on time, promoter wanted to hear 3 songs for a certain local event we want to participate in, so this was SUPER RUSHED. Originally, the drums, guitars and bass were tracked live all at once (off-the-floor). In the same room. So there's massve amounts of guitar and bass leaking into the drum tracks. The idea was to just do a rough live demo, then overdub the other guitar lines and vocals and stuff.

2) We were all busy after the recording so we didn't get to attend to the mix until a few days later. We found out that the tracks were horrible and we were approaching our dateline.

3) Retracking was not an option due to busy schedules, so I had to work with what I had. Had to filter the crap out of the ride/overheads/hihat tracks to remove the guitars and bass. This results in the cymbals sounding really thin. We were willing to compromise with this.

4) The rest were all tracked using a Line 6 Pod X3 Pro. Everything, even the vocals.

5) Drums were replaced with Drumagog, Kick10, a blend of Snare15 + SlateSnare, and the Birch Toms.

6) Mixed with the Waves SSL comp in the master bus.

7) "Mastered" (more like boosted heh) with Slate Digital FG-X.

So anyway, enough talk. Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/bizharo

(You can listen without logging in)

I'm looking forward to all comments and criticism, you can be harsh. I can't go back and re-record this, but I'm looking to pick up tips and suggestions on how to improve future mixes...

Thanks for your time.

 

[JayB]

I actually quite like it man , the mix is nice and clear but still heavy. Nice work !

 

[JayB]

By the way , what did you use on the vocals , both clean and heavy ? They seem to sit really well , what sort of delays and reverbs etc?

 

[RLab]

Yeah the vocals are really nice, is it just the Pod X3 ?
I think the palm-muted guitars are a bit low-gained, they sound kinda weak... But great job !

 

[NashMuhandes]

Hi, thanks for the kind comments.

Regarding vocals:

1) Clean and screaming both tracked using a Studio Projects B1 (the old discontinued version without the pad switch)
2) Tracked by plugging into the Pod X3 (don't laugh ), using the American Vintage preamp model
3) Effects chain on the Pod X3 is basically some EQ and de-essing to tame the harsh sound of the mic
4) Input gain on the Pod X3 was cranked way up for the scream vocals to deliberately distort it. For the clean singing parts, gain turned down.
5) Heavy gating and compression, also on the Pod X3, so that the levels don't jump around because my voice is unstable like that.

So basically, I record the vocals wet with a ton of processing all done on the Pod X3.

In the mix, a Waves R-Vox to further clean up the levels on all of the the individual vocal tracks, and a Voxengo MarquisComp on the master vocals bus using the "Subtle Glue" preset.

With the scream vocals, I sent it to an aux with a doubler/stereo'izer kinda effect so that it's not so centered. I can't remember if I actually used an AVOX Doubler plugin, or just a simple delay with the dry signal 100% left and the delayed signal 100% right (at 20ms). I'm not at my DAW so I can't really check... but anyway this aux is then blended ever-so-slightly.

Clean vocals were sang twice then Melodyned... I actually missed a few out-of-pitch parts because I just got too tired to tweak it. Oh well. It's supposed to be a demo so a little underproduction is fine I think. :/

Not much processing on the clean vocals except a small amount of reverb and a 2x delay (synced to host tempo) on aux buses, blended way back.

As to what delays and reverbs specifically... a combination of the 3: Sonitus Delay and Lexicon Pantheon reverb (both included with Cakewalk Sonar, my DAW), and Kjaerhus Audio (spelling?) Classic Delay.

And thanks for the comment about the guitar. Will try and dial in a beefier tone next time; I was worried that if the tone was too massive, the mix would be difficult to balance so we just settled for the sound you hear in the recording...

Here in Malaysia, top of the line amps and cabinets like the Mesas or the high end Marshalls are very, VERY expensive (about the same price as buying a car) so it's not very common around here...

 

[JayB]

Dude it sounds quite great for a demo , I would say this is pretty much album quality dude. Great work once again

 

[JayB]

Also are the amps digital or real? I'm confused when you said good amps are expensive or whatever

 

[NashMuhandes]

Sorry for the confusion. Guitars all recorded on the Pod X3. I don't have the exact settings at hand now but it's pretty much similar to the "Sturgis" sound kids these days are going crazy over. Except mine has Dual Tone enabled.

And just for the record, I dialed my tone waaay before I ever heard of Joey Sturgis or this forum for that matter. It's basically my "go to" patch that I've been using for about 2 years now. Just saying.

 

[JayB]

I think the guitar sounds pretty damn awesome for being a POD tone. Great work man, I am really impressed with this mix , especially all being recorded into a pod. Awesome man.

 

[NashMuhandes]

Thanks again JayB.

 

[JayB]

No problem man, I've been playing those three songs all day !

 

[JayB]

I sent you a PM by the way