My first death metal mix...(and first post!)

[Lucidcut]

Hi guys,

Been mixing my first death metal band this weekend and was wondering if any of you guys can help point me in the direction of any flaws in this mix...

Drums are Superior 2.0

Bass is a mix of DI/ 58 and D112 on bass cab and a distorted copy of DI.

Guitars are ENGL amps through vader cabs - recorded with a 57, middle of the right cone of a 2x12.

Vocals is a mix of Sontronics STC2 and a distorted 58.


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http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7228153

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Any help whatsoever would be massively appreciated as this is my first mix of a band so heavy so even though i dont normally listen to bands this heavy, its been a good learning curve!

Cheers,

Stu

 

[Erkan]

Hate having to wait to download something... screw Mega Upload, go for something that has no wait time SoundClick is used by many people f.ex.

Anyway, I just downloaded it and before going deeper into details I must point out that the guitars are very muddy and they sound like they are in a big box. I think you could look into how you can improve it by using EQ, and use a spectrum meter to learn what this particular guitar sound looks like in the frequency image, so you'll know it in the future.

I don't think it's going to be hard to fix, you will probably be able to get a nice and much clearer sound once you clean up the areas around 300-400 hz. If you haven't high passed the guitars, you should probably look into doing that also, around 100-150 hz (depends on taste and style, some go up to 200).

When the guitars are fixed, you can look into the drums if you want... that kick drum didn't impress me that much to be honest, and I think your whole mix would sound a lot better with a different kick. I have no idea how to describe it but I think the kick is "sterile", it could be fatter somehow. Also experiment with the klicky frequency in the kick, sweep it up and down and see what fits the best. When I got into recording drums and stuff, I most of the times spiked up some frequency at around 6khz and thought this is the way it's supposed to be. Lately, I've become a big fan of a click that is much lower, maybe around 3khz... just experiment

That's it for now. The music and playing was good I think, this should turn out good man!

Edit: And welcome to the forum!

 

[Lucidcut]

thanks for your reply and insight dude, will definitely give all those things a try!

on the kick ive done exactly what you said - exaggerated on 6k, will move down to around 3, maybe add more of the sub mic.

also - theres a couple of stop-times in the track - i really want to make it sound like the guitars EXPLODE when it all kicks back in, really give it some punch - but am a bit lost as to know how to do such a thing?

any thoughts on the vocals - im finding it quite hard to get them to sit well atm

thanks again!

 

[CarlBlomqvist]

First of all, as gojira_ said, the kick is way to clicky, and it could use some punchy bottom.

The Guitars are kind of muddy, and you should cut more low, and get some higher frequencies in there to brighten up a little. not too much though.

The snare need a little bit of volume, and maybe some processing. Try to experiment in some drum-replacement if you're not experienced in such things. Listen to other such bands snare. Job for a Cowboy's "Genesis" (produced by Andy) and Whitechapel's "This is Exile" are probably two good snares to listen to

If you want a nice explode after a pause, make sure the pause is REALLY silent. Then make sure that every instrument starts at the same time and that it's really tight. Then you can, as I hear you did, add some bass drops

Good luck, and I hope you found some of what I said useful!

/ Carl

 

[Lucidcut]

Ok, so have had a god play with the mix and have got to a point where i think ive sorted out the above issues and wondered if anyone can spare any thoughts on (what im hoping) is the final cut...


Track is "aortic dissection"

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=911234

Thanks