need some help with this mix

[poisoned dreams]

hey guys heres a song i recorded in my pals house. But i need some help the drums sound abit far back in the mix (theres no reverb on them yet) and the guitars sound a bit dull ( marshall jcm 800 ) anyway plz HELP!! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=826738&songID=6644462

 

[Djabthrash]

Drums sound are quite ok, i'd do more processing (eq & more... especially on the kick drum) cuz' at now they sound very raw (but again they sound good (like that snare... perfect for hardcore stuff)).

I think the main issue here is guitars. It sounds really messy and quite scooped. If you can, try to find a better sound (clearer, crispier...) and rerecord them.

 

[poisoned dreams]

yeah i think i will do some more work on the drums the night, cant get the kick quite right. As for the guitars your spot on i dont like them but its the best i could do. The problem is the guitarist has his "settings of doom" that he wont let me try new things with and me being a drum i dont no were to start any ideas?

 

[Djabthrash]

yeah i think i will do some more work on the drums the night, cant get the kick quite right. As for the guitars your spot on i dont like them but its the best i could do. The problem is the guitarist has his "settings of doom" that he wont let me try new things with and me being a drum i dont no were to start any ideas?

Try to convince him that his "setting of doom" may work when he's playing alone or even during rehearsals/live, but obviously it doesn't work so well in the mix, so ask him to let you try stuff (less gain, more mids, different mic placement, etc...), and ask him also to read stuff on this forum so that he understands what you're trying to do.

For the drums i don't know, maybe you should listen to the kick drum + bass tracks only, and try to make a proper eq-ing so that they blend together well. I'd start with that.

But still the first thing to do is to work on the guitar tone.

 

[poisoned dreams]

thanx for that i will wait till we get the guitar settings fixed first before i try and remix it. Can you give me any tips with the guitar its a marshall jcm 800 i aint to keen on it but he loves it and a marshall 1960 cab. When were are trying to get the tone in the room there never seems to be 1. enough clarity 2. enough bit and 3. not enough emmmmm body

 

[Djabthrash]

thanx for that i will wait till we get the guitar settings fixed first before i try and remix it. Can you give me any tips with the guitar its a marshall jcm 800 i aint to keen on it but he loves it and a marshall 1960 cab. When were are trying to get the tone in the room there never seems to be 1. enough clarity 2. enough bit and 3. not enough emmmmm body

I don't own a JCM800 myself but i played one several times. First not only check the sound in the room but also sitting in front of the speaker you're gonna mic. Of course don't put your ear close to the speaker (keep in mind that moving your head a few millimeters will change the sound you hear (hence the sound the mic will capture) big time) when the amp is really loud

Also if you want people to give you advice you should describe your signal chain (guitar used, tuning, string gauge, pickups, amp settings, type of speakers in the cab, mic, position of the mic, how much guitar tracks, pan, post processing (eq, etc), etc...).

And try to search similar posts with people using a JCM800 (i guess you can find good settings on those posts).

I used to be a "scooped eq / tons of gain" guy. I found out (partly thanks to this forum) that a clear and ballsy tone comes with very tight playing, low gain, a good amount of mids (i'd try with at least 12'o clock on the mid knob on your amp), bass knob being rolled back a bit, a lot of presence but not cranked to avoid fizz... etc

This stuff works for me, and with my signal chain (mahogany schecter guitar, EMG 81, ENGL SE head, V30 engl cab, SM57 positioned a la sneap), so maybe it won't do the trick for you. Anyway you need mids to cut through, and you need to lower the gain to have a clear and crisp tone, and you need some presence to have bite but not too much to avoid too much fizz. Agood start is to put your treble/bass/mid/presence knobs on 12'o'clockand start tweaking from that untilyou find a good and balanced tone (i.e. you don't need too much low end, you have a bass player for that... guitar works in the midrange).

Give details on your signal chain and i'm sure people will start answering you. You should also post samples of the raw guitar tracks alone for us to hear. Use the search function and do some reading also since a lot has been said on this forum already.

Just my 2 cent though (i'm a noob compared to 90% of people on this forum).