Metalcore mix! Please Critique

[JamesNorman]

Guitar bus, try not to do major EQ edits on the master bus.

Its not like your a mastering house doing this from a bounced stereo track.

go back to every track and re do the song, bearing in mind about not cutting the mids as much, and the low end bom you have.

This i more than likley from scooping mids for headroom...... good idea but to much, especailly in the highs will cause a weak mix.

And then from boosting low end in the kick and bass and guitars, low end takes up mire energy than highs and boosting the same frequenicies in the low ed will make it boom and be loose, try cuting around 130-160 in the kick, the bas guitar cut at around 80hz, and boost the lows in the guitars slightly from there. This is were alt of cabinet thump is.

Doing mulitple mixes of a song is a good idea, becuase on will stand out tones over the rest then use that one.

 

[Laneismusic]

Guitar bus, try not to do major EQ edits on the master bus.

Its not like your a mastering house doing this from a bounced stereo track.

go back to every track and re do the song, bearing in mind about not cutting the mids as much, and the low end bom you have.

This i more than likley from scooping mids for headroom...... good idea but to much, especailly in the highs will cause a weak mix.

And then from boosting low end in the kick and bass and guitars, low end takes up mire energy than highs and boosting the same frequenicies in the low ed will make it boom and be loose, try cuting around 130-160 in the kick, the bas guitar cut at around 80hz, and boost the lows in the guitars slightly from there. This is were alt of cabinet thump is.

Doing mulitple mixes of a song is a good idea, becuase on will stand out tones over the rest then use that one.

Hey thanks man, I appreciate the help.

But I do have a few stupid questions.. Or, more like things that i'm unsure of.

When everyone here says "cut 130-160". Is that the low cut filter? or high cut?

I don't understand the Cuts, and boosts. Even though I have them on both guitar tracks, which leads me to my next question.

My SC for guitar is PODfarm>EQ>high cut>low cut>limiter.

and they don't go to a bus, i dont fully understand how a bus works, i know it effects whatever is being sent to it. but should i just apply my high and low cuts on the bus instead? and just have my guitar chain be:

PODfarm>EQ>BUSsend

????
and how much of the "signal" should i send to the bus?

thanks! -Lane

 

[mstone564]

Hey thanks man, I appreciate the help.

But I do have a few stupid questions.. Or, more like things that i'm unsure of.

When everyone here says "cut 130-160". Is that the low cut filter? or high cut?

I don't understand the Cuts, and boosts. Even though I have them on both guitar tracks, which leads me to my next question.

My SC for guitar is PODfarm>EQ>high cut>low cut>limiter.

and they don't go to a bus, i dont fully understand how a bus works, i know it effects whatever is being sent to it. but should i just apply my high and low cuts on the bus instead? and just have my guitar chain be:

PODfarm>EQ>BUSsend

????
and how much of the "signal" should i send to the bus?

thanks! -Lane

Making a guitar bus will make it ten times easier for you to EQ your guitars because it does it on both sides. It also saves CPU, too. If you're dual tracking, pan them both 100 left and right and send them to a blank track. (Make sure that the guitars are going JUST to the guitar bus and not the master. The only thing that should be going to your master with guitars is the bus.)

Hopefully this helped?

 

[chrisrivalry]

ok, first an equalizer does not only apply to low pass, high pass, there's a whole multitude of frequencies that you can cut and boost. You do this by using the "bell" feature of your equalizer. So what you want to do first is select a band on your equalizer, and set it to bell, the symbol for this will look like _-_ or something to that effect. Then you want to set the Q (bandwidth) which represents how wide of a bell, or how many frequencies will be affected by how much gain is applied or subtracted; to a very high number which will create a very narrow bandwidth so only a few frequencies will be heard. Then just pull up on that band about 20db's (db is short for decibel, 1/10 of a bel, which in this case of audio represents the sound pressure level emitted from a source) so that can really here what is going on in a certain frequency range. Then what you want to do is move this band back and forth and listen... use your ears and brain and REALLY listen carefully to each and every frequency. Find out what sounds good, find out what sounds like garbage. Then, once you find something you do like, lower the gain back down to about 2-3db's and lower the q to a much more natural sounding slope, 1 is a good starting point, once again use your ears to find out what sounds good to YOU. Then when you find something you don't like, such as mud, you're going to "cut" that frequency range out by lowering the gain past 0db's on your equalizer. Once you figure this out you'll be able to control your mix a lot better.

 

[chrisrivalry]

depending on what DAW you're using you need to figure out how to setup a bus, or group track channel.

 

[Laneismusic]

Making a guitar bus will make it ten times easier for you to EQ your guitars because it does it on both sides. It also saves CPU, too. If you're dual tracking, pan them both 100 left and right and send them to a blank track. (Make sure that the guitars are going JUST to the guitar bus and not the master. The only thing that should be going to your master with guitars is the bus.)

Hopefully this helped?

ok, first an equalizer does not only apply to low pass, high pass, there's a whole multitude of frequencies that you can cut and boost. You do this by using the "bell" feature of your equalizer. So what you want to do first is select a band on your equalizer, and set it to bell, the symbol for this will look like _-_ or something to that effect. Then you want to set the Q (bandwidth) which represents how wide of a bell, or how many frequencies will be affected by how much gain is applied or subtracted; to a very high number which will create a very narrow bandwidth so only a few frequencies will be heard. Then just pull up on that band about 20db's (db is short for decibel, 1/10 of a bel, which in this case of audio represents the sound pressure level emitted from a source) so that can really here what is going on in a certain frequency range. Then what you want to do is move this band back and forth and listen... use your ears and brain and REALLY listen carefully to each and every frequency. Find out what sounds good, find out what sounds like garbage. Then, once you find something you do like, lower the gain back down to about 2-3db's and lower the q to a much more natural sounding slope, 1 is a good starting point, once again use your ears to find out what sounds good to YOU. Then when you find something you don't like, such as mud, you're going to "cut" that frequency range out by lowering the gain past 0db's on your equalizer. Once you figure this out you'll be able to control your mix a lot better.

Ok I think I have the busses figured out. There's my left and right guitar. It was sending them both to the Stereo output, but i sent it to a bus instead. And on the bus, is where I should apply all of my EQ and what not?

Btw if you can't tell already from the picture I use Logic 9 Pro.

Thanks for you guys' help. Like for real.

 

[chrisrivalry]

looks like you got it, you can eq the individual guitar tracks as well.