My first generic Deathcore mix! (Lots of outboard)

[Ermz]

Just want to thank pifos_2 for providing these files. It was done as part of the 'free mix offer' I posted about a month and a half back on the 'For sale' board.

Thanks also to JeffTD for reamping the bass with a rectumfrier and also the leads and overdubs later in the song.

A few notes:

• Using a Distressor in the mix on the snare for the first time.
• The vocals all have outboard compression on them, and the lead 'screams' have Millennia EQ as well.
• The vocals have very mismatched tonality, and since I'm lazy I sort of left them as they are, instead of automating EQ.
• I remixed the guitars many times on this one. They're still not quite 100%, but I think possibly passable.
• I tried to make the vox in the back half of the song as 'Top 40s' as I could.

Updated link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Cecile-20.mp3

Cheers!
Ermin.

PS. It's also unmastered. I just slapped a maximizer on it and set to 'go!'.

 

[Melb_shredder]

if i wasn't so hateful on the music, I'd fapstibate I like this mix a lot. That snare is huge, I love it. I'm not 100% sold on the guitar tone though. But hey, it's not bad by any means!

 

[decadawn]

Sounds good man! can't wait to hear your magic over my stuff!

 

[pipaguapique]

snare is pretty rad...i've always said distressor and snare are a perfect combination. did you get your 160 yet??

the mix is pretty sweet man...the only thing that pops out to me are the mismatching vocals like you said. but i love the way the clean part at the end came out.

 

[Mago]

autotuned vocals?
Did Jeff also reamp the rhythms, and am I the only one hearing distortion or clipping at some parts? Could be because it's only mastered for volume though.
I like a lot of things about this mix, kick snare and bass sound awesome.
Guitars are cool too, vocals stick out as you said, but the second half is quite awesome mixed,they're just a bit loud.
Overall very good job man, I like to hear that you have a very unique sound going on!

 

[Soundlurker]

Sounds sweet man and I love the snare compression on the single hits (on the tremolos it sounds strange) but the kick is pretty quiet, imo.

 

[Charles J]

HERE IT IS!

I think this sounds fucking awesome. What amp did you run the into the impulses?

I had great luck doing that with my Fireball. Never tried with a 6505 or the like, yet.

Fucking bass is AWESOME!!!!!!!! So massive. Nothing better than running bass through a Recto dude, NOTHING. =D

 

[kaomao]

It just sounds great!
nothing to complain! I love the tightness of guitars.
Drums sound huge!!! what did you use for augmentation? slate samples?

 

[pifos_2]

Nice job man, the band likes it too.

Di were tracked with my Schecter C7 baritone.
Bass was an old yahama john myung. The reamps are indeed awesome!
They play in drop a, and the bass string gauge was way too thick. Melodyne helped to improved the pitches.

All vocals are an ADK A51 in a Focusrite Trakmaster (the first edition).
All into a fireface UC.

 

[Ermz]

Thanks for your feedback guys.

The general consensus seems to be that the vox are a bit too loud so I'll take a look at that when I print off the finals today. What would you guys say about me putting up just the mix, for everyone to try their hand at mastering?

@pipaguapique: Yeah I did get the 160. It's with the tech at the moment, getting converted to Oz voltage. I have to call him today and see if it's done.

@mago: The rhythm guitar are my 6505 into Ryan's Pres8 impulse, as usual. I've been considering to go back in the mix and swap the leads over too.

@Shadow_Walker: Cool man. The compression on the 'roll snare' isn't actually Distressor. I think it's just the way I did it, makes it sound a bit weird. Still experimenting with Trigger's dynamics feature there.

@CJ: Thanks dude! I ran it into Ryan's Pres8. Still the best impulse I've heard for high-gain stuff.

@kao: Drums are a few things layered. The snare is a combination of about 5 different samples, but only one of them is slate. Similar deal with the kick. I think 4 samples there, and two of them were Slate. There is actually also a decent amount of real, raw snare in there too. And I fucked up on the kick, the dynamics vary too much because I didn't set Trigger right, haha, so it loses punch (but sounds less mechanical).

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback.

 

[NSGUITAR]

Waait. What was used for bass? Could've sworn you said a mesa rect??!

 

[AllanD]

I feel like the guitars aren't loud enough in the mix honestly. The other instruments sound great though.

 

[wibi08]

the bass really cut through!

 

[ahjteam]

I like the song. What is the band?

 

[lolzgreg]

Hi hat and ride is too loud; seems to be a trend in most of your recent mixes. The rest of the cymbals are nice and balanced. Hi end on the cymbals rock.

A bit too much ambience on the vocals in general; the need that special spot, and they're not there just yet.

Guitars could another decibel or two.

The snare and toms could use a tiny bit more glue, but I like the way the kick sits, because it's really powerful and has a nice click without eating anything else.

 

[Ermz]

I updated the mix slightly before bouncing the finals. The vocals are a little lower and the leads have been attenuated in a region that was pissing me off: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Cecile-20.mp3

There are still places left for this mix to go, but I've run out of both time and patience. Have to get back onto the paid work, as there are clients waiting.

I'm uploading a mastering pack for those of you who care, as long as I get the 'OK' from pifos, I'll post it up and you can take your shots at whatever alterations you think need doing. I bounced 4 different stems for more flexibility, alongside the whole thing.

It was a good opportunity to test the new outboard, so I'm grateful for that!

 

[Morgan C]

I updated the mix slightly before bouncing the finals. The vocals are a little lower and the leads have been attenuated in a region that was pissing me off: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Cecile-20.mp3

There are still places left for this mix to go, but I've run out of both time and patience. Have to get back onto the paid work, as there are clients waiting.

I'm uploading a mastering pack for those of you who care, as long as I get the 'OK' from pifos, I'll post it up and you can take your shots at whatever alterations you think need doing. I bounced 4 different stems for more flexibility, alongside the whole thing.

It was a good opportunity to test the new outboard, so I'm grateful for that!

The mix, especially the drums are really messy. I don't know if I love it or hate it, but it's very different and unique so I'm leaning towards love it.

I do wish the snare was a 'bit' harder. Some transient shaper or something at the end, just give it a tiny bit more attack. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it feels like it's not being hit hard enough.

The clean vocals are way too de-essed, especially the hardpanned ones. Sounds like he's got a major lisp. Also some tuning artifacts there.

I don't think the guitars are too soft (but I'm listening to #20, I dunno if that's been changed). They sound automated down during vocal-heavy parts, but they're plenty loud when there's no vocals.

 

[metalfanat1c]

Everything sounds great to me. The bass guitar could use a bit more rumble, but that's my opinion and not fact at all.

 

[Ermz]

Morgan, that's just the way that the Distressor attacks the snare. It doesn't do 'crack' on the front end like the 160 or most VCA-style ITB comps. It just has that round thud. I'm just happy its a bit different to my usual stuff - that's enough to learn a bit. Though I am kinda partial to that sort of snare sound, so it doesn't bother me at all. There IS transient shaping boosting attack on it too. The Distressor rounds it all off.

Right on about too much de-essing, but the amount of sibilance in the vocals is rather high, to the point where the de-esser barely did anything to dent it. This is along with assorted other ringing and tuning artifacts. I'm sure you know with the vocals it's all about the source. You can't fix these things later on down the track. Even trying would've taken hours and not been all that fruitful.

Also right on about the guitar automation. Their level changes all the time to make room for leads, vocals etc. The back half of the song was meant to be very much vocal driven rather than guitar. The parts where the rhythms are the loudest are right at the end of the song, and just after the leads cut out on the intro. It was all done intentionally to shift dynamics around.

Fair enough on the messy thing. I don't think I particularly agree there, but it doesn't matter. I tried a few different things, but this was the only way that made sense to mix this kind of music to me. I wanted it to feel like one wall of rumble/fatness. Kinda tired of the 'tick tock, snap, tick DJN bree bree' stuff. It's been over-done, IMO. Not saying this mix is the be-all, but I just wanted to try something outside the norm and learn while doing it.

Anyway, just brought the DBX 160 back from the shop, so more snappy drums will be a reality in the coming weeks. Whoo.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Don't quite dig the mix as much as that "Surrogate" mix you posted a while ago (2 months ago I think) which you called your biggest and best mix at the time.

Sounds like the tonal characteristics of the guitars (probably because they're impulses rather than using a real cab) seem to rob the whole thing of a bit of breathing space, but you know that already, heh.

Overall, great job.