mesa dual, marshall, metal song please tear this apart

[Manicompression]

Hey dudes, im working on doing a semi quick demo for my band. We just want to post some tunes to find an adequate singer locally, but ive spent a decent amount of time on this and would like to have you peeps rip it to shreds so maybe i can improve a bit. one of my proper bx8a monitors took a shit so ive been mixing this through headphones and sony 4in stereo speakers. Also Im comparing the ssl to the api buss comps to see which i like better, so weigh in a bit there if you would like. I tried to set them up simularly. i have ozone doing a smidge of eq, smidge of tape sat, multi dyn proccesing, and limiting.

Guitars are mesa dual, through recto cab, 57, hard panned, waves api eq. Marshall 6100lm tucked in a bit, same cab, same mic into firepod.

Bass is DI and output from ampeg head, drums were live, now are gogd to death minus overheads.

posted as s4 ssl and s4 api


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=793731&content=music

 

[Martin Linda]

sound pretty good to me. Guitars and bass are great. Some minor issues: Drums could be a bit fatter and bigger imho. More wood and body to snare, kick could be overall louder, or at least with more lowend. Overheads could have more higher midrange, now they are a bit thin. Wll, now I listen to ssl version and i like it more then api (and I hope it is not only because it is louder SSL version has more and better midrange and is much more in my face. It has overall better drive. And snare has better body and hit in ssl version.

 

[Metaltastic]

Yo dude, listening to the API one, it's sounding pretty sweet, so congrats! Guitars fit really nicely and have a really nice midrange grit that I like a lot, and holy shit, I love this Immortal-esque trem-picking break the music just went into, nice Yeah, overall this feels like a pretty solid mix man, the kick could definitely come up and the snare feels like it could use a bit of a cut at 700hz to get rid of the semi-nasal sound I hear (though that's probably just the character of the drum - it also feels like it needs a bit more body though, so boosting around 200 Hz would probably help that, possibly as well as 1k for more "pop"). Really diggin' the bass tone too, it works nicely. The only thing about the guitars, though, is they seem to have a bit of a weird "washy" character about the top-end, as if this is something that's been repeatedly encoded into mp3 and has a fair amount of artificats. If there's none of that going on though, then just call me crazy and carry on, cuz besides that it's pretty badass!

OOoOoooohh, but you may want to re-track that solo

EDIT: Actually, listening again, it's only that end sweep that needs re-recording IMO, the rest is well-played enough (though I have to admit I find it pretty boring mostly, though that harmonized fast-tapping part was pretty sweet - maybe cut that section in half for the sake of the song though?)

 

[Manicompression]

Big thanks for the feedback dudes, ive been driving myself crazy mixing this thing on improper speakers, and frankly this is the first real in the box mix ive done from micing to mixing to ghetto mastering so i cant get enough feedback. i almost feel like listening back today the guitars could be a smidge brighter.......

Martin, your correct on the ssl one being a bit louder, I actually tweaked the ozone master boy to that comp, i think i may have not done enough make up volume on the api one to get all the harmonic exiters and stuffs to react properly, so dont make any significant judgments about the api comp on my shabby attempts at ghetto mastering lol, also good call on those overheads, i really dont know what to do though, but they have been the biggest pisser of my whole mix.

Marcus, word bro, thanks for the very specific snare suggestions, they will be tried and more than likely applied momentarily. If you get a chance take a listen to the ssl version, i think im liking it better in general in terms of the way the guitars sound. Since you and Martin both had qualms about the drums aside from some minor eq tweaks i think i may try to set up a parallel comp buss just to fattten em up a bit. In terms of the solo, both your compliment and critique are mine, lol, I might rerecord it, because your right something about my flow is just a smidge not relaxed enough and def not to the absolute top of my abilitys, in terms of the sweep, i was going for the broken robot kind of thing, and it has been driving me nuts, i could def do it better but i think it just flat out might be a bad soloing decision direction-wise, lmao.
Im going to go back to the drawing board for a day or so and post a newer mix, i will bump this when i feel ive improved something substantial and i would love for you dudes to check it then.