New Metaprism single (prog metal) I engineered/mixed/mastered [Music Video]

[Mattayus]

The only thing I had no part in engineering was the vocals, they did that at a studio nearer their home town, then sent it on to me to mix.

Drums were recorded way back in Dec 2014 when I engineered their album. We recorded the drums for this song knowing it would be a single in the future.

It was weird actually, working on a drum mix that I'd already worked on previously, but didn't just want to use the album mix. I went for something a little different this time, mix-wise, even though the source sound was obviously exactly the same. I wanted it to have a bit more rawness and less uber-processed sound to the kit. More room mic in the mix, that sort of thing.

Guitars were, IIRC, 2 tracks of my Rectifier into my Marshall 412, and two tracks of the guitarist's Engl Invader II. For lead sound... I can't actually remember, maybe JVM410H?

Bass was a fight. Bassist was adamant about using his Warwick Vampyre, which, to me, sounded like utter dogshit, and would not sit in the mix for love nor money.

All I know is, I'm much happier with this guitar sound than I am the album guitar sound. I used a Zilla Fatboy for the album, and really don't like the way it sits. It's not terrible, I just prefer the way the Marshall fits the mix.

 

[Korwent]

Mix is cool overall, but yeah the bass tone doesn't fit too much...

 

[Mattayus]

Bass TONE? There is no tone It's a characterless 'parp' in the background. It's seriously the muddiest, most lifeless, dullest DI I've ever had to work with. The most annoying thing is he's a fucking amazing player, and more annoying still... he has a much nicer sounding bass!! But wanted to use this one.

Fucking bassists...

 

[Phil_ocean]

Pretty cool mix, not a big fan of the song but I dig the mix Bass is indeed muddy but what can you do, I guess you can say it adds "warmth"

 

[Christian WUFU]

Bass TONE? There is no tone It's a characterless 'parp' in the background. It's seriously the muddiest, most lifeless, dullest DI I've ever had to work with. The most annoying thing is he's a fucking amazing player, and more annoying still... he has a much nicer sounding bass!! But wanted to use this one.

Fucking bassists...

I completely thought you were exaggerating until I watched the video. Holy hell that is the worst bass "tone" I think I've heard. Was there no way you could have tracked the bass yourself after he left for the day?

Also, these vocalists definitely need prop mics hahaha

 

[Mattayus]

I completely thought you were exaggerating until I watched the video. Holy hell that is the worst bass "tone" I think I've heard. Was there no way you could have tracked the bass yourself after he left for the day?

I did. I happened to have the exact model Ibanez he also owns, so I learned and recorded the track, mixed in a KILLER bass tone, sent it out to everyone, they all loved it/preferred it, but he didn't I know I could've been sneaky and just kept it in there, but I'd be fuming if someone did that to my guitar tracks or something so thought I'd better not, even if the poor bass reflects badly on me as a mix engineer. Nothing you can do really.