Me and My Doom/Death (Real Drums, 5150 Guits)

[DanLights]

So this is the same song from this thread I made some time ago: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...ums-real-amps-my-band-but-i-m-not-mixing.html

But it's a completely different mix with re-recorded and reamped guitars, edited drums and bass, re-done keyboards etc. so I decided to make a new thread about it, plus this time I'm mixing this myself and on the other thread it was a guy at the studio we recorded at (guy let us down big time, long story).

So this is supposed to be released as a promo single along with a cover of Anathema's Lost Control (I'll make a separate thread for that one when I have that finished) as a way of promoting the band and hopefully creating some hype for the full length to be released in March 2011 (hopefully, you all know deadlines).

Anyways, I've been working my ass on this mix, and I've already had huge amounts of help from many people on this forum since the beginning both in mixing help/opinions and actual collaboration.

Guitars reamped by Kev Parsons through his 5150, V30 speaker and Sm57, keyboards produced by Jussi (Vespiz), plus millions of useful tips and advice given by Carlos Alvarez (Skinny Viking), Jay (Notuern), Phil Aubry (P-E) amongst many others I've bothered over the last couple of months it's taken me to reach a near final stage to this mix, so thanks to all these guys!

Tell me your thoughts please! So far I feel I'm quite there, would need to do some minor automation on the keyboards and maybe just clean up the whole mix a bit more, what do you think?

Ad Intra - We Aren't Ready to Take Off

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Sounds really good, but there's something strange going on with the vocals. They have so little presence it's hard to make out anything from them, but they still have quite a nasty spike in the sibilance area. Maybe try a totally different approach on EQing and compressing on the vocals? And try to dig out the annoying sibilance out with some surgical EQ and de-essing. Don't take my word as God's truth, though, as my ears are pretty shot due to flu

 

[DanLights]

Sounds really good, but there's something strange going on with the vocals. They have so little presence it's hard to make out anything from them, but they still have quite a nasty spike in the sibilance area. Maybe try a totally different approach on EQing and compressing on the vocals? And try to dig out the annoying sibilance out with some surgical EQ and de-essing. Don't take my word as God's truth, though, as my ears are pretty shot due to flu

Yeah I totally get what you mean, I am not happy with the performance and the chain used to record those vocals, definitely a bad mic choice, I struggled to get them to fit. In fact I've been scared of touching them cause I fear I might mess up the whole mix trying to fix it hahaha but you're right I should try a different approach on them. Thanks for you comment!

 

[P-E]

Yeah, try reworking on those vocals a bit (check out Ermz' approach, it sounds amazing), other than that it's getting pretty good, I think those guitars sound a bit flat though, I'd dig them better with a bit more highs.

The bass is there, but I'd dig it more with ultra scooped mids (for the guitars to sound more defined) and more high end grit. I'm really digging ultrascooped bass sounds lately, like this one : , really easy to carve a mix around.

I'd also prefer if the guitars were panned 100/100, again to gain more space in the mix. Add a nice and clear plate reverb to the snare and a bit of delay on vocals (low pass and high pass so they're still in the background, but don't remove too much highs, whatever works, really).

Apart from that, the snare and kick seem fitting, but once those corrections are made (if you wanna do so), it'll be easier to judge the drums.

 

[Jaymz]

Sounds sweet dude, very old school sounding *in a good way*

Good to hear some real drums also

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Yeah, try reworking on those vocals a bit (check out Ermz' approach, it sounds amazing), other than that it's getting pretty good, I think those guitars sound a bit flat though, I'd dig them better with a bit more highs.

The bass is there, but I'd dig it more with ultra scooped mids (for the guitars to sound more defined) and more high end grit. I'm really digging ultrascooped bass sounds lately, like this one : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0zTTgl4Gk4, really easy to carve a mix around.

I'd also prefer if the guitars were panned 100/100, again to gain more space in the mix. Add a nice and clear plate reverb to the snare and a bit of delay on vocals (low pass and high pass so they're still in the background, but don't remove too much highs, whatever works, really).

Apart from that, the snare and kick seem fitting, but once those corrections are made (if you wanna do so), it'll be easier to judge the drums.

That sounds like a pitch shifted guitar to me dude.

 

[P-E]

Maybe it is.

Whether it is or not doesn't change anything from my point of view on mixing bass guitars, I really dig tones like that.

 

[DanLights]

Sounds sweet dude, very old school sounding *in a good way*

Good to hear some real drums also

Thanks dude, we're definitely into that oldschool sound, it comes mainly from the guitarist's playing style and the guitar used (Gibson SG, stock pickups) although Im not liking the lead tone it gives at all, I do dig the rhythm tones.

Phil, Ill try some of your tips, thanks! Although Im not a fan of scooped out bass guitar, I'm gonna disagree with you on that one if you will

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Maybe it is.

Whether it is or not doesn't change anything from my point of view on mixing bass guitars, I really dig tones like that.

Fair enough.

And Dan... I forgot to even mention: I like the tune man! Sounding good!

 

[DanLights]

Thanks Chris, I appreciate the comment!

 

[Mago]

Hey Dani, I might now be a big help on this one as doom isn't exactly a genre I'm familiar with haha
Instruments work very well imo, your(?) vocals are burried imo, and they have some strange metallic sound going on ( I think? maybe some eq spike or something like that)
If you get the vocals to work it will be a cool mix which also fits the music well
good stuff dude!

 

[DanLights]

updated mix, some slight changes, including vocals which I think are a bit more open and less buried now, but I still can't seem to fix the sibilance for some reason.

Any extra thoughts? Oh and thanks for your comment Marco, I'm working on that haha and yeah those are my vocals