my first ¨pro¨ production

[Arsenu,]

so ive joined this forum quite a few years ago and now, finally, i can declare myself somewhat a part of it and present some work that im actually happy with and sounds, to my ears, more than decent.

so here´s the first metal album ive produced (other than my own):

When You Scream

[SOUNDCLOUD]http://soundcloud.com/when-you-scream/sets/the-alchemist/[/SOUNDCLOUD]

vocals are sm7b
guitars are Marshall jvm900 (as far as i can recall) and guitar rig (love it, piss off)
whole lots of stuff on the bass
drums are BFD2 + Slate + andy´s samples

cant say im happy about working with virtual drums but the band insisted

i´ll will be happy to hear any feedback about the mix/master/production! :Smokin:


p.s.
while we´re on it here´s another recent production, this time on real drums and amp

[SOUNDCLOUD]http://soundcloud.com/we-are-noi/sets/ep-2012-mastering/[/SOUNDCLOUD]

soft rock, overdone but always cool.

thanks for any input guys, and for about 70% of everything i know about audio production!

 

[crillemannen]

Sorry to say man but you still have a looong way to go. The editing is fine but the mix isn't that good actually. Just have to keep on working man, trying to improve your mixing skills.
And you should post offtopic.

 

[viralz]

Don't want to be rude but this didn't sound pro at all, quite annoying to be honest.

 

[StefTD]

really disliking the guitar sound in the first sample, the second one is mixed better imho, it sounds more like
the band sucks and the mix sounds a bit strange, but imho that's due to the arrangment of the song-but
the vocals aren't up to par with the rest production wise.

 

[CubanDude]

Yeah, I'm with the others.. Not feeling it, sounds really thin and week. but keep going!

 

[kernelxsanders]

Goodness, dont take this the wrong way... but i can just look at the waveform in the soundcloud link and tell it isnt a good production.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Sorry to say man but you still have a looong way to go. The editing is fine but the mix isn't that good actually. Just have to keep on working man, trying to improve your mixing skills.
And you should post offtopic.

Don't want to be rude but this didn't sound pro at all, quite annoying to be honest.

really disliking the guitar sound in the first sample, the second one is mixed better imho, it sounds more like
the band sucks and the mix sounds a bit strange, but imho that's due to the arrangment of the song-but
the vocals aren't up to par with the rest production wise.

Yeah, I'm with the others.. Not feeling it, sounds really thin and week. but keep going!

You guys are cocksmokers. This might not be the best mix of all time but this guy puts his ass on the line and it's clear he's put a lot of time and effort into this and you throw him in the gutter like that. Fucked up man.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

double post oops lol

 

[StefTD]

it's not like it sucks balls or anything, it's just not professional, I would never use that term with my stuff
(that isn't great at all)-there are many guys around here with a pretty professional approach like Lasse,
Jocke, Ermz and so on, but this isn't professional imho.
There are some nice bits and some bad bits, room to improve and so on and imho critique (as long as it
isn't complete bullshit or really rude) may help him-realizing which parts can be improved and so on.

 

[XxSicRokerxX]

Why is this on the andy sneap front page?

 

[-Noodles-]

You guys are cocksmokers. This might not be the best mix of all time but this guy puts his ass on the line and it's clear he's put a lot of time and effort into this and you throw him in the gutter like that. Fucked up man.

Exactly.
OP- Thanks for sharing your mixes - for a first outside mix, you've got some of the basics down. Keep going man! It's all about practise.

 

[Lon]

why is this throwing him in the gutter? some people here feel that the quality of the mix does not represent the quality of the mixes they expect from someone that labels himself with the therm "pro" ("" included) and they voiced their opinions. You have also take into consideration that some guys here are trying to break into the pro market and therefore this is a very very delicate subject, its basically the same thing as metalnerds bashing pop for being more successful although being percieved musically inferior.

I think the mixes are ok but i for myself would not pay money for them, still a long way to go, but as we all know this way never ends, it just gets steeper.

 

[Arsenu,]

thank for all the input guys!

sometimes i forgot how high the average skill level around here, maybe i should have written "first production done with minimal setup that im actually happy with" instead.
anyway, i know it sounds a bit thin which could be fixed with some master EQ tweaking, but im actually happy with it and would not change it.
obviously real drums would have improved it by a LOT, but that wasnt really my choice...
the second production is all natural and way WAY easier to work on. i think at this point i can start charging a minimal fee for my work, not only because i believe it's worth it (you didnt get to hear the demos did you?) but also because it makes the band put MUCH more effort into their OWN music.

if you have any more input id love to hear it!

 

[StefTD]

sometimes i forgot how high the average skill level around here, maybe i should have written "first production done with minimal setup that im actually happy with" instead.

That's the reason why I almost never post anything around here

Not sure where you're located in Germany but at least in my area there are a few guys running
studios that aren't able to get a sound like you do, at the same time, comparing it with
guys from this board, I still wouldn't call it pro.

I hope you get what I mean-I think I am almost in the same position (just stopped recording
bands because the money I would make isn't worth it for myself).

 

[Arsenu,]

i live in berlin dude, and i know what you mean! that band told me about people charging 500 euro per song for results FAR inferior. if there's one thing i'm really bad at it's self-advertising. im REALLY bad at that!

e.g. i have a friend that can barely play guitar, yet has about 10 students. while at the short period i was trying to teach, i got 2 students and had absolutely no will-power what-so-ever to keep advertising...

 

[jackbraglia]

Giving someone an HONEST critique is NOT "throwing them under the bus". The whole point of posting your mix here is for people to tear it apart, so that you can then improve upon those things. At least thats the way I see it. Any good engineer is their own worst critic....but Arsenu, I think you're not being hard ENOUGH on yourself. There are a lottttt of things wrong with these mixes. Too many things to even begin critiquing. And to be honest, if I was you I'd feel guilty charging people anything at all for these mixes. I'd say the most you should be charging for is tracking, and do the mix for "free".

 

[ShipwreckSoundWorks]

I don't necessarily think putting people down and calling their work annoying is the best route to take. I mean, my productions have improved tremendously over the past year, and no one ever said anything like "this is quite annoying to be honest" when the fact was a lot of my old productions were VERY annoying.
The only advice I have is that your guitars do not have the greatest tone by any means. I would work on getting some more pleasing stuff out of that.
Other than that, I would get over this attitude that real drums are the only drums. There's nothing wrong with fully replacing or at least blending a kick or snare when you just can't get a good sound out of live drums. So in that second mix, I will be honest, those drums need help. They just don't sound too great. I don't think real drums would have improved the first mix at all. It would have made it ridiculously worse. I have a minimal set up as well, but I think with more practice you could put this minimal set up to better use. Keep trying man. I wouldn't post anything around here. No one is a happy camper it seems.

 

[ShipwreckSoundWorks]

I agree very much so with Jack... You need to be harder on yourself. Give yourself credit for what you've accomplished, but if you don't recognize your own flaws then how can you improve on them? "I'm happy with them. And I don't want to change them" doesn't change the fact that you have a paying client that wants to hear a good product. You should strive constantly for a commercial level product, and you and I both know that it doesn't sound like either of these recordings.

 

[Heabow]

I think everything has been said about the sound.
But think that a mix is also about musicality. Try to find what are the good points of the song, you want the listener focuses on them. If you can make the song sound a little bit more interesting/groovy/rememberable/whatever. then you win a battle even without the greatest tone of the year. It's not that easy believe me but it's just my point of view.

 

[Arsenu,]

I think everything has been said about the sound.
But think that a mix is also about musicality. Try to find what are the good points of the song, you want the listener focuses on them. If you can make the song sound a little bit more interesting/groovy/rememberable/whatever. then you win a battle even without the greatest tone of the year. It's not that easy believe me but it's just my point of view.

true.


obviously its not a perfect mix, and it's not commercial level, but i really am happy listening to it. i like it, and i cant think of anything that i did wrong/should have made better.
if any of you think otherwise surely your knowledge as AEs would allow you to speak in audio related terms such as compression, EQ etc'...
"annoying" just doesn't mean anything, especially not when i differ to that.