Mix practice: Thrash metal song w/ heavy female vocals

[eyes of wrath]

Hey everyone,
Like the title states, here is a thrash metal song with female vocals to mix. The drums are a hybrid of live/acoustic cymbals and midi drums for kick, snare and toms. A tempo track is included. The drums are not 100% grid aligned, but I feel that this helps with creating a more natural sounding drum track, since the drums were played by a drummer and not programmed. There are 4 vocal tracks, a bass di, as well as guitar di's. I can upload processed guitar tracks as well if needed. All of the vocal parts are doubled, but you may find that certain parts don't need it. Feel free to throw any questions, comments or concerns my way. Enjoy!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8648912/Blood Driven.zip

EDIT:
Here is a VERY rough mix of the song.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8648912/Blood Driven Rough mix.mp3

Midi drum shells - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8648912/Blood Driven Drums.mid

 

[szymon]

Thank you for tracks!
Downloading it now, and i'll give away the results in a copule of days.

btw.
I guess its in the midi files, but whats the tempo of the song?

and it would be nice of you to post a reference mix just to let people know what they will be mixing

 

[eyes of wrath]

There are a couple changes in the tempo, which is why I included the tempo track. I will post a mix soon, I just haven't had a chance to get a good mix done yet. Can't wait to hear what you guys do!

 

[szymon]

Can you post the tempo track in midi, not .smt? I don't use cubase, and cannot open it (neither my DAW does lol )

 

[eyes of wrath]

I was able to load the drums into both cubase and pro tools and it was able to use the tempo map in the midi track without issue. What software are you using?

 

[szymon]

Its Reaper. Am i doing something wrong?

 

[eyes of wrath]

This may be a stupid question, but when you imported the midi drum track did you select the "merge source tempo map to project" option? If this is selected it should read the temp map off of the midi drum file and you will be all set

 

[eyes of wrath]

Updated the mix, I didn't realize some of the processing was bypassed.....
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8648912/Blood Driven Rough mix.mp3

 

[Mago]

Thanks for the upload, has been a while since I got to work with at least real overheads!

Had some issues with the files, the guitars didnt want to align right when loaded into the session, altho bass and vocals were well going with the drums. I moved them around until it sounded good as well as edited the guitar Dis by eye at some parts...guess something went wrong during exporting or at some editing spots at your end.
also tightened the midi drums up a bit, they were off too much at some parts imo


anyway, here's what I came up with
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3961577/Mixes/Mago_BloodDrivenmix.mp3

made with pretty fucked ears tho, so my guess is that the high end isnt right and theres a chance of overdone mastering

 

[eyes of wrath]

Mago, your mix sounds really good! Thank you for the heads up on the guitar tracks. I'm not sure what happened during export, but they were off for sure. I went back and fixed the DI's so you should be able to drop them into the mix without issue now. Sounds like you did just fine anyways, haha. I would love to hear the rest of the mix if you feel like posting it.

 

[LeSedna]

Fuck i love those vocals !! I'm so impressed, reminds me so much of angela gossow !

Mago your mix sounds ace already. I dig those drums, any info on snare/toms I love their "wetness" ? Also, how do you manage to have those guitars so upfront without burying the vocals ? It's often my weakest point.

 

[eyes of wrath]

Glad you're liking the vocals, she's a pretty damn good singer. She actually hated her performance on that track, believe it or not. I personally think they sound fine, at least for a demo anyways. That aside, her range is pretty wide, and she can sing melodies pretty well, even though she doesn't like to do it.

 

[LeSedna]

Do they have a myspace or something ? I like the song overall

 

[eyes of wrath]

This is actually my own band's stuff. We don't have much in the way of a myspace page or any other websites right now. Our singer quit around last November and we've only had this new one for about 2 months. We've just started working on some demo tracks and will eventually put up some sort of website. Glad you like the music though!

 

[MetalMiller]

My shot:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/929252/Blood Driven.mp3

Don´t found the time to did the solo guitars and alt. vox...

 

[drope934]

could someone give me a copy of the tempo track in another format than .smt? I'm mixing with Studio One and it seems to not support this format.

 

[XnaySaturo]

Cool song, thanks for the stems!

 

[Joshnano]

*sigh*...

Why? Why do people persist on having female vocals in metal? They don't belong!

/rant

 

[eyes of wrath]

@Joshnano - We never expected to have a female vocalist. We actually had worked with 4 male vocalists before her. She just happens to be the most hard working and dedicated singer that I have ever worked with, so we have decided to keep going with her. Although the metal industry is very male dominated, I think it's ok for women to contribute as well, and I know there are other bands that agree with me.

@MetalMiller - Nice mix, I'm liking the toms in yours a lot. Guitars are a little fizzy for my taste, but otherwise pretty well rounded. Thanks for taking the time to post your mix

 

[Mago]

Mago, your mix sounds really good! Thank you for the heads up on the guitar tracks. I'm not sure what happened during export, but they were off for sure. I went back and fixed the DI's so you should be able to drop them into the mix without issue now. Sounds like you did just fine anyways, haha. I would love to hear the rest of the mix if you feel like posting it.

Thanks man glad you like it...downloaded the files again, but I dont think Ill drop them in again as I have the guitars printed allready...
Im maybe posting a full mix if I have time to work on it a bit more...wouldnt sound finished for me yet, snare has some "shh" going on that I dont like too much ect...

Mago your mix sounds ace already. I dig those drums, any info on snare/toms I love their "wetness" ? Also, how do you manage to have those guitars so upfront without burying the vocals ? It's often my weakest point.

snare was a SD2 I didnt use so far...dunno which one it was a high cracky one, but not the usual suspects (piccolo, black beauty or nir z)...maybe the rogers?
anyway that tweakead a bit with comp and eq in SD2, and then Trigger about 70% with slate 13 and the new svartsot snare from lasse.
no SSD room or verb on the snare. wetness on snare is from a seperate midi track for SD2 room sound that is eq'ed a bit.
toms are gated quite a lot (MF toms btw) and then a pretty loud reverb on them.
Guitars and vocals...I think I carved out some space for the vocals in the guitars in the high mids/highs and then tried to boost a bit on the vocals in the same region. but not much EQ going on in the vocals in general, they allready sounded quite good after the highpass!
hope that helps!

*sigh*...

Why? Why do people persist on having female vocals in metal? They don't belong!

/rant

such a dumb statement man...