Opinions On This (Short) Clip?

[Matt Smith]

Hi Guys--
I was wondering if you'd take a second to give me your opinion on the mix of this MP3. No vocals, just guitar, bass and drums. Any general comments or specific comments are more than welcome; you guys are always very helpful. Any ideas on how I can improve the snare are especially welcomed. Snare is an Eric Singer signature model with "Fat City" from the D4 mixed in.

I swear, in a few years I will be wandering around the halls of an insane asylum mumbling something about how "the snare killed me, the snare was my downfall." Most frustrating thing ever!!!

Anyway...

here's the link.

 

[Kenny Lee]

Hey sounds cool. Hey this is just my opinion man, but did you do anything with the snare track? EQ? Comp? Maybe buss it out to an aux. track and give it a little reverb? I use Metric Halo's Channel strip on my snares. They have KILLER presets to work off of that'll have that baby crackin'!
Good work though man. Good work!!!

 

[Matt Smith]

Thanks man. Yeah, as sad as it is, I actually EQd and compressed the top, bottom and sample tracks, and sent the top mic to a verb, and that was the best I could do. uke:
Whenever I tried to draw out more attack, it ended up just sounding weird...almost like I couldn't hone in on the right frequency.
I would love to be able to use MH's Channel Strip...that's what Andy uses, too...but it's Mac only. The ironic thing is, that I do everything else (day job is graphic design) on a Mac, but my studio setup is PC. I just don't have the time or $$ to get a Mac set up for the studio work; the PC was already available to me. Anway, heaven knows we don't need to get off on THAT tangent again...

Thanks for the comments and help.

 

[Kazrog]

I dig it a lot! Very clean sounding. Maybe the snare just needs to be quieter? I think you've got a good basic sound there.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

My opinion : I don't like the hihats... The snare is not bad ! Maybe a touch of reverb and a bit more smack on it (compressor with a slow attack)... The bass maybe a little too shy, and the guitars are bit loud too... Good sound overall but I'm sure you can improve it even more, you're already very close ! Anyway, this is obviously not mastered material yet, and most of this could be solved at this stage, tho you'd really better consider lowering the guitars before because usually, from my very little experience, limiting brings the guitar even louder and lowers the drums...

 

[SickBoy]

Any ideas on how I can improve the snare are especially welcomed.

Maybe just raising around 3kHz a bit, to "open" its sound a bit...
The whole recording in general seems too dry, maybe a hint of reverb would help as well. As for the sound in general, it's clean, sounds good. One thing I don't understand is, how in the hell did you succeed in making a 192kbps mp3 sounding like it's 128kbps?

 

[Ermz]

The guitars don't strike me as being very powerful. I'm presuming you're using everyone's favourite 5150 but I just get the feeling it could be kicking more ass.

As other people have said though, you have a pretty good basic sound going there. The snare still sounds a little out of place... perhaps a little too warm and lacking attack for metal.

I also agree with adding a touch of verb here and there (prefferably a bit on the snare) just to space things out a bit.

Anyhow, good luck!

 

[Matt Smith]

Cool, thanks guys. I really appreciate all of the opinions and will keep them all in mind when I start tweaking.

 

[Where She Wept]

I like the snare alot. I personally like the snare tuned tighter, but it sounds so crisp. How'd you get it so clear? Did you compress both the natural sound and the sample? how 'bout mixing the two? do you start with the natural sound and mix in the D4 till it was clear? I'm hitting the studio soon and want a nice crisp snare like that.

Plus i'm startng to wish i could trade my DM5 for a D4.

 

[Matt Smith]

Yeah, I EQd and compressed them seperately. I started with the natural sound and then added the sample in as much as I could before it started sounding too triggered. The sample gave it more body.

 

[Liam Thompson]

Hi Matt, hows the track coming along now? do you have an improved clip to post?

By the way is there any chance you could post or send me the FAT CITY snare sample please?

 

[Emperor Nakoo Hiryuu]

Matt Smith? The St. Anger tribute guy?

In all seriousness, it sounds rather good to me. I definitely found myself wanting to sing "The snare killed me, the snare was my downfall" over that fast riff, though. :hotjump:

 

[James Murphy]

Plus i'm startng to wish i could trade my DM5 for a D4.

iVe always felt the D4 sounded better than the DM5.

 

[MR NINE]

iVe always felt the D4 sounded better than the DM5.

I agree completely!
the DM5 has a nice percussion samples/efx, but for real drums triggering the D4 is the thing!

 

[Matt Smith]

Yup, I worked on it a lot this weekend and got it sounding better (IMO). Did some EQ stuff and ended up using a different sample, among other things.

Here's a newer version.