My attempt at old school death metal drum mixing

[guitar123daniel]

I know this isn't the right section but no one is answering me over at the Rate My Mix bit.

Ok everyone, about 2 weeks ago I was here and got some advice from you all and this is what I've came up with.

It's just a drum sample to show my mix with a kind of thrash beat at the start leading into some tom work with a blast section at the end just to get a wide spectrum of sounds (kinda haha).

The kind of sound I'm after is the old school death metal metal sound (late 80's early 90's), think Morbid Angel - Blessed are the Sick, Deicide - Dead at Dawn etc etc.

I used EzDrummer going into Cubase 4. I used the vintage kit to try and sound 'older'.

Any tips on how to achieve that old school sound are welcome and do you guys think I'm close with this mix?

http://soundcloud.com/daniel_3006/dr...rst-rough-mix2

 

[Mm1066]

Didn't you post this before in another thread and get opinions already? If you wanted more people to take notice, you should bump your old thread instead of creating a new one.

 

[guitar123daniel]

Nope. I took your guys advice and this is the new mix with the tips added in.

 

[Mm1066]

Oh cool. I can't listen right now as I'm away from my monitors, and the soundcloud link doesn't work on my phone. Is it just the drums on their own? If so, it really is useless to mix them by themselves, you need the rest of the instruments. I'm pretty sure there are some Death Metal stems free on this forum to mix from so you can get a more hands on experience with mixing drums.

 

[006]

It didn't work for me either.

DANIEL: Use this link instead: http://snd.sc/nmJEB1 the one you posted has "..." in it instead of the full link, for whatever reason.

 

[The Unavoidable]

I like it, sounds cool! Now the trick is to add everything else (guitars/bass/vocals) and still have it sounding killer.

 

[ahjteam]

I'm 90% sure that it won't cut thru in a mix

 

[guitar123daniel]

Thanks for getting a proper link!

Yeah I would say it's gonna sound different once guitars etc are added to the mix but I was just using this as a base for the type of sound I'm looking to achieve.

What makes you say it won't cut through? I'm new to the whole mixing process (I primarily record black metal haha) so any tips on how to get it to cut through?

 

[bryan_kilco]

Well, for starters, it sounds just....sloppy. Go in and edit some of those beats a bit.

 

[zirkonflex]

I think its Midi anyways, but he wanted it oldschool, drunk drummer and no editing style.
Sounds like a completely untouched kit with ambiance to me, no way this will ever work in a mix.

/ Cut through = will be heared.
Your drums are very subtle in puch and high frequencies so they will get buried under guitars and especially bass in a full song.

 

[Greyanaroth]

Sorry bro, but these drums will die in a dense mix! And you always need guitars and bass to make a project judgement call. Otherwise you're just wasting your own time!!!!

And what's with the drunk hits?

 

[guitar123daniel]

Drunk hits? I have no idea what that means haha.
Would I just need to turn up each piece of the kit to get it to cut through? Bare in mind I'm going the total opposite direction of this loudness war bullshit.

 

[zirkonflex]

Oldschool =!= badly produced.

Listen to Suffocations self titled, those are some awesome natural DM drums, anything else is just unreasonable, your songs will loose power and definition.

/This has nothing to do with loudness as the loudness war refers to master limiting, and that is applied to all instruments after the mix is done.

 

[guitar123daniel]

As much as I love Suffocation I find their new material over produced for my personal tastes. I really love the old school 'bad' production sounds haha think Death's Leprosy. Awesome sounds.