Metalcore mix, good or bad?

ecz

ecz

Member
Feb 16, 2011
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Frankfurt/Main Germany
Been mixing this band the last couple of days, I'm not shure if I should be satisfied or not. It's not quite finished but let me know what you think about it so far!

Drums are real (with Trigger samples blended in), Bass is Trilian, Guitars are 5150 -> Mesa Box -> SM57+SM7b

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16585626/ATM - 02 - A MX2.mp3

edit:
new version: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16585626/ATM - 02 - A MX6.mp3
newer version: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16585626/ATM - 02 - A MX8.mp3
newer https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16585626/ATM - 02 - A MX11.mp3
newer: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16585626/ATM - 02 - A MX16.mp3
newer: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16585626/ATM - 02 - A MX31.mp3

FINAL:
 
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It's a very decent mix imho but the guitars should be say 1-2db louder and drums about 1 db quiteter, and the bass isn't quite present enough you might want to increase the attack of your bass if possible and what kind of chain do you have on the vocals? or is it simply a recording and thats it? your going to want some compression it, possibly layer some lower pitched copies of the track VERY subtly into the background and possible some automated reverb if you feel its necessary

one other thing, the drums don't have that kind of BAM sound that your going to wanna go for the snare could be more "acute" and the kick could be more "precise" or clickier but not too clicky

other than that you have a pretty good mix going

depending on whether your on a budget or not, or you double track ALL vocals except for background repeats (like WCAR does with a single line, the vocalist growls it and double tracks it, but then yells it again in the background shortly afterwards, you cud check out some of their songs and see what I mean) but then simply use VocALign to align the two takes as tightly as possible

it creates a very center panned stereo feel and it works very well for these types of vocals, which u might want to bring more upfront to sit better

i might be wrong on a few points so seek out a few others opinions as well
 
UnownLegendary said:
It's a very decent mix imho but the guitars should be say 1-2db louder and drums about 1 db quiteter, and the bass isn't quite present enough you might want to increase the attack of your bass if possible and what kind of chain do you have on the vocals? or is it simply a recording and thats it? your going to want some compression it, possibly layer some lower pitched copies of the track VERY subtly into the background and possible some automated reverb if you feel its necessary

one other thing, the drums don't have that kind of BAM sound that your going to wanna go for the snare could be more "acute" and the kick could be more "precise" or clickier but not too clicky

other than that you have a pretty good mix going

depending on whether your on a budget or not, or you double track ALL vocals except for background repeats (like WCAR does with a single line, the vocalist growls it and double tracks it, but then yells it again in the background shortly afterwards, you cud check out some of their songs and see what I mean) but then simply use VocALign to align the two takes as tightly as possible

it creates a very center panned stereo feel and it works very well for these types of vocals, which u might want to bring more upfront to sit better

i might be wrong on a few points so seek out a few others opinions as well
Click to expand...

Thanks so far for your opinion!
The vocals are already compressed, distorted and tracked 3-5 times (one in the center, two 50% L/R and on some parts two more tracks 100%L/R). I already tried vocalign in a demo (I think it was revoice pro), but didn't like the workflow and I thought it was TOO accurate, so that the desired effect gets lost (and it's too expensive :p). So I prefer to cut the vocals manually, even though it's more time consuming.
Never tried to layer the vocals with pitched down copies, maybe I'll try this.
 
does this have pitched down vocal copies in it? some parts sound like it has some lower parts or is it that just vocalign? im not sure if i remember hearing that or not lol

but one thing that can help if u dont want to vocalign it you can simply create a copy of the vocal track and decrease the pitch by like 0.5 semitones and you can somewhat closely simulate the effect by panning the original to left or right then the copy to the other direction, the similiarities will cause it to feel centerpanned but the pitch difference will make you think its stereo lol its hard to explain, but the similarities are what make it feel centerpanned and not stereo

the whole mix feels like it got dusted off a bit so thats good

lol keep working on it its very good so far
 
@JayB, you were right, vocals were too loud. I don't use anything special for the snare reverb: some snare plate and some overall room reverb for the whole drum bus (except kick). I'll listen to you mix later :)

@UnownLegendary: yes I tried the pitched down vocal trick, but it's very low in the mix so I'm not sure if you really heard it ;)
For the vocals I will record another track for the center in the next session, to beef them up even more.
In the chorus of the song there will be gangshouts in the backround (parkway drive - home is for the heartless, if you know what I mean).

Anyway, here's my newest version. More definition in the lowend, better vocal EQ and some other stuff I forgot :)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16585626/ATM - 02 - A MX8.mp3

Let me know what you think :)
 
Everything's really nice and clear sounding. I would probably take some of the "click" out of the kick drum though. Focus a bit more on the thump of it.
 
lol the vocals sound different what did u do with them? also reduce the attack on the kick drum just a *bit* it seems too... "acute" to fit in with the heavier components but it certainly is a good kick sound the toms seem to melt into the mix much better than the previous sounds they don't stick out nearly as much which is good lol everything has its own range now which is good, now you can willingly listen to a certain instrument instead of ignore other instruments just trying to focus on one sound, which is a what a good mix is all about :D

and ur right its getting alot better than it used to be, lol this forum is like the best place to get positive feedback for a mix in the world, thats what people love about this place lol

snare cud seem less "poppy", it kinda has the sound of a muffled balloon when it pops it seems too harsh in other words but everything else is sitting rather well in the mix good work man keep it up :)
 
Maybe you're right, with the guitars I struggle the most in this mix. It's strange how much lowmid content the 5150 has. I had the mid poti at 1/10 and I cut like 9 db @450hz and it's still very mid focused...

edit: @UnownLegendary: I didn't change anything on the vocal tracks, maybe they are different in volume compared to rest.
Anyway new mix with other (hopefully) better guitar sound coming soon..
 
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