Mix With Free LePou Sim

[jeremyk23]

Hey guys,

Curious what your thoughts were on this mix. The other day a guy gave a review of this album I mixed and mastered saying he liked the "raw", "not over-produced" sound of this mix. That's great that he likes it but I was kind of going for the opposite of raw, and very produced sound.

 

[nervirasme]

The first (and currently only) thing that seems off is the snare - I think it just needs more high end because it sounds kinda burried... Other than that, everything else seems to sit quite well...
Maybe add some high end on cymbals too?

Cheerz

 

[infectdsniper]

im sure he ment the fact it doesnt sound like a strugis/chango band. i like it

 

[jeremyk23]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The first thing that seems off is the snare - I think it just needs more high end because it sounds kinda burried...

Yes, that was a last minute mistake. I decided at the very end that the papery sound the bottom mic was giving me from SD2.0 was annoying and I cut all of it. I didn't adjust my EQ accordingly afterwards. If you do any mixing I'm curious what high frequencies you like to boost on your snare. Whenever I just put a high shelf on this snare, it just seemed to clash too much with the guitars and vocals.

im sure he ment the fact it doesnt sound like a strugis/chango band. i like it

Thanks! Ha, I'm pretty sure if I had the skills of those guys I would probably end up making it sound like that. I definitely set my mastering chain and vocal chains based off of advice Joey Sturgis gave in this forum.

 

[abaga129]

The vocals are sick! So much power!
Care to share the vocal chain?

 

[oroinvictus]

im sure he ment the fact it doesnt sound like a strugis/chango band. i like it

Cause they're the only producers ever known to overproduce! :Spin: On topic though, any points I would have made have already been said.

 

[jeremyk23]

The vocals are sick! So much power!
Care to share the vocal chain?

Sure Thing, (although I have to admit this wasn't the most efficient or greatest use of the plugins).

First the vocals were recorded through a Shure SM7. I (unfortunately) recorded without the presence boost so a lot of my mixing was sucking out low end mud.

Plugins:

-EQ with steep highpass at 80hz and a 3 db cut at 290hz
-Compressor (Logic's Platinum Comp) with attack at 0.0ms and release at 5.0ms and ratio of 5:8:1 just to catch any spiky levels.
-Compressor (logic's FET Comp) with attack at 16.5 and release at 8.9ms and ratio of 7:4:1

That then goes into a bus with all the other vocal overdubs which has
-EQ cut from 490 to 600 of about 3 db
-A multiband compressor which is only acting on the low end with a really fast attack (There were a few spots where the vocalist blew into the mic and caused some nasty plosives) ((I wasn't the one recording)).
-An overdrive plugin adding just a slight bit of distortion
-EQ boost at 6500hz
-VCA compressor with attack at 45ms, release at 20ms, ratio of about 1:7.

Finally I put a utility gain plugin at the end so that I could adjust the level of all of the vocals without having to mess with any of my automation.

At key parts of the song I also automated in delay sends. Those delays were also being sent to a medium hall reverb.

 

[DistractMe]

I don't think this mix sounds raw, but I don't think it's overproduced either. Honestly I think if this song sounded like a Sturgis or Chango mix, it wouldn't be as cool. And I actually dig the sound of the snare because it's different. Great mix and I like the song a lot too.

 

[jeremyk23]

Great mix and I like the song a lot too.

Thanks a lot man! I appreciate the feedback. While by no means is the mix where I want it to be, I definitely had a personal crisis when I heard that they thought it sounded raw.

 

[P-E]

I really dig the mix, to me it sounds exactly how it should from an aesthetic standpoint. Technically the snare could use a bit less lows, a bit more mids and highs, and the cymbals could come up, but it does the job just fine.

I love how raw it sounds, even if you don't like the term. It just sounds like people playing music instead of an overpolished mechanical boyfest.

 

[blue_fAng]

I dont think it sounds raw, but it has a nice high dynamic feel, not overcompressed and I love them both the mix and songs. jeremyk23 could you share information for guitar and bass chains, I saw in the studio video there was a focusrite involved, I think I saw an XLR plugged in maybe for DI box? And the guitar looks like a schecter. Any info on this would be really appreciated. Thanks for the awesome music!

 

[jeremyk23]

...could you share information for guitar and bass chains, I saw in the studio video there was a focusrite involved, I think I saw an XLR plugged in maybe for DI box? And the guitar looks like a schecter. Any info on this would be really appreciated. Thanks for the awesome music!

Thanks for the kind words man!
Yep, about half the songs on the album were tracked through a focusrite saffire pro 24. I bought it as a portable budget interface but I actually have been really impressed with how it sounds. The other half of the album including this song was tracked through a presonus firestudio.

The guitars were a Schecter Hellraiser C-7 and I think an Ibanez RG927. I decided the sound of the preamps in the Focusrite were plenty good enough so I just went straight into them with no DI box. The XLR was just there because we were recording some vocals on the same day and I just hadn't taken the mic out.

So these DI guitar tracks went into the free Ignite Amps tubescreamer emulation plugin, the TS-999. This is adding about half the gain and the LePou Legion amp sim is adding the other half. LePou's plugins are free and for metal seriously sound better than anything I've found in Guitar Rig, Amplitude, or Revalver. This then went into Redwirez free Cabinet impulses, I think it was an SM57 2 inches away from the cone/cap boundary. So the entire amp chain is completely free; looking at this you might expect I am a really cheap bastard. This is not the case, I have spent money on other amp sims, and even have a Krankenstein laying around that I could use, but I found these plugins really the best and most versatile option.

All the clean tones are Guitar Rig 5. This is really a piece of shit software, UNLESS, you replace their cabinet impulses with some higher quality ones like Redwirez or some of the other stuff that has been posted in this forum. Than you can really get some cool sounds. I am really particular to the Tweedman amp and most of the clean sounds are this amp.

 

[trianglebutt]

This is ridiculously cool man. I think the mix fits the music perfectly.

EDIT: Also congrats, you just gain this band a fan haha. These guys are great.

 

[blue_fAng]

Thanks for the kind words man!
Yep, about half the songs on the album were tracked through a focusrite saffire pro 24. I bought it as a portable budget interface but I actually have been really impressed with how it sounds. The other half of the album including this song was tracked through a presonus firestudio.

The guitars were a Schecter Hellraiser C-7 and I think an Ibanez RG927. I decided the sound of the preamps in the Focusrite were plenty good enough so I just went straight into them with no DI box. The XLR was just there because we were recording some vocals on the same day and I just hadn't taken the mic out.

So these DI guitar tracks went into the free Ignite Amps tubescreamer emulation plugin, the TS-999. This is adding about half the gain and the LePou Legion amp sim is adding the other half. LePou's plugins are free and for metal seriously sound better than anything I've found in Guitar Rig, Amplitude, or Revalver. This then went into Redwirez free Cabinet impulses, I think it was an SM57 2 inches away from the cone/cap boundary. So the entire amp chain is completely free; looking at this you might expect I am a really cheap bastard. This is not the case, I have spent money on other amp sims, and even have a Krankenstein laying around that I could use, but I found these plugins really the best and most versatile option.

All the clean tones are Guitar Rig 5. This is really a piece of shit software, UNLESS, you replace their cabinet impulses with some higher quality ones like Redwirez or some of the other stuff that has been posted in this forum. Than you can really get some cool sounds. I am really particular to the Tweedman amp and most of the clean sounds are this amp.

Thanks for the info! I totally agree with you about free software, you can't even tell if you used real amps and cabs or sims these days and it doesn't matter if you don't spend a lot of money for studio stuff, it's the talent that really matters and making your way through with what you have.

Which bass did you use and what plugins did you use for this?

 

[jeremyk23]

Also congrats, you just gain this band a fan haha. These guys are great.

Haha, thanks, I'll let them know. These guys are the most ridiculously talented dudes I've ever worked with.

Which bass did you use and what plugins did you use for this?

So for this we just used the bassists old Cort Curbow 6-string bass. Simply just buying new strings and setting the active pickups to a max bass, almost zero mid, and call it a treble of 7.5 EQ pattern, made the bass sound amazing. But the biggest thing for the bass tone is that it was played by the guitarist who used the pick and hit the strings HARD.

The amp was again an amp simulator. It was first run into Guitar Rig 5. Here is the screenshot.

Screen Shot 2012-12-29 at 4.43.43 PM by jeremy2024, on Flickr

There is a fast acting compressor right after this chain, then a slower compressor probably doing a combined ratio of about 10:1.

 

[blue_fAng]

Thank you very much! You know what you are doing, and you told me that the guitars were straight into the interfaces, I asked "did you use a DI box or direct into the focusrite, also what model is that white guitar?" before you answered my question here and they just replied to me: "We used a DI box. An the guitar is a Schecter hellraiser 7 string"

here: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa8DIi6h_Pk&lc=ydQGnR88Zq2dU1uhs_uEowSsm0iWMwYigEyIFHdgVto[/ame]

see in the comments section

lol, maybe they just assumed? Oh and I'm a fan of the band now.

 

[kaomao]

Very cool song, the musicianship of this band is superb.
I think the mix is perfect for this kind of music. Yeah the snare could have some more high end to it, but it's not really all that bad

 

[Ericlingus]

which redwirez IRs did you use specifically? I havent really gotten that great results with those IRs but I always hear people saying great things about them.

 

[jeremyk23]

Thank you very much! You know what you are doing, and you told me that the guitars were straight into the interfaces, I asked "did you use a DI box or direct into the focusrite, also what model is that white guitar?" before you answered my question here and they just replied to me: "We used a DI box. An the guitar is a Schecter hellraiser 7 string"
lol, maybe they just assumed? Oh and I'm a fan of the band now.

Ha, yeah, I think they just assumed. I wasn't there for the entire recording of the guitars; however when we were using the Focusrite I know for a fact that we went just straight into the interface. The Firestudio, I'm about 90% sure they also went just straight in; I was not there when they they recorded with that.

I'm glad you like the music man!

 

[jeremyk23]

Very cool song, the musicianship of this band is superb.
I think the mix is perfect for this kind of music. Yeah the snare could have some more high end to it, but it's not really all that bad

Thanks, I'll let them know that you said that. Ha, what musician isn't secretly a fiend for compliments?

Now that I listen to this, knowing it's been released, that snare sticks out like a sore thumb. I try to console myself by believing that with less high end, the snare sounds less like Superior Drummer, but I realize that I am wrong on both accounts. The snare still needs more high end and these still sound like Superior Drummer.