Please help a young man find his way thru the metal forest....

[Element77]

Dear Ann Landers,

I'm having so many issues with my setup and sound, that it's getting ridiculous. No matter what I use, what plug-ins I try, or what settings I steal from this board, the result is always the same.... Garbage. So finally, I think this may be the best way to have someone do some audio forensics with my stuff.

I made a little test, (I know it's a lame-o metal riff. but just so everyone can hear.) It's called "Test_130bpm" on my page....

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=657988

To me, this sounds horrible....

So, On top of that, I posted a .rar file with my DI tracks, a wav of the distorted guitars alone, a full wav, the Drum MIDI, a screen shot of my Guitar EQ, and A sceen shot of the effects, and their settings in the chain...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4085008/Test Song.rar

Please listen, if you can, and see if you see some glaring mistake I am making... You'll probably save me from throwing my equipment in the garbage... speaking of... this is how I make this Godawful racket....

An ESP H-207 with Blackouts, plugged directly into my E-MU0404, (I've tried to use my PodXT as some sort of Di box, to no avail...

This goes directly into Sonar, and then I just bang away on Superior 1.

Everyone DI signal I hear is clean and bright, and full of life. Mine seems to be dark, and bassy, and when I put it thru the effects, it seems cardboardy.

So if anyone would like to help, I will repay you in tales of ribbaldry.... or something.

This isn't a "Hey! Remix my stuff because I'm too lazy" thread, this is a "Help a brother out" thread....

 

[Lionwing]

You say that your DI's sound dark and bassy, are you using new strings? You would be better buying a dedicated DI box otherwise you won't be working with a balanced signal. I've found that without bright and clean DI tracks, you're pretty much trying to shine a turd when it comes to getting a usable tone.

If you want to drop a bit of cash on a DI box, you don't have to break the bank, I have a behringer (I know, lol) active DI but its actually pretty good!

 

[Element77]

Fuck it, I give up. Yes, I'm using new strings.... No matter what I do, it sounds muddy and plastic. I've done everything I could possibly think of, minus buying a DI, I'm not going to drop 100+ on a Countryman just to find out I'm stuck with this dark plastic-y tone. I just need someones opinion on the Direct Tracks, to see if I can get another set of ears on this.

 

[ahjteam]

bass guitar... I guess I really need to make a tutorial about this as this seems to be a really common problem

 

[Fox Mulder]

bass guitar... I guess I really need to make a tutorial about this as this seems to be a really common problem

Yes.

 

[Element77]

No no. Absoultly, I know about the bass, it absolutly adds depth and body to my tracks, but the question is, is if my DI tracks are shite, or not. I've put other people DI tracks thru my shit, and it sounds 100x better, so I just want someone to say "Hey, these are garbage, or hear something (or not) in them.

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

I think he was saying its not your DI's its your bass track ...

 

[Element77]

There is no bass track.

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

Exactly

 

[AntonioPetrole]

Exactly

burn........

On a serious note, i just bought a 5 string bass for 230$ on CL and it makes such a huge difference. Its suprising how small the guitars can sound in some of those "epic guitar tone" mixes. Dont do pitchshift bass, cause it just makes you think that its something else when it is still the not having a bass part.

 

[scorpio01169]

it really needs a bass track.....everything else sounds good

 

[-Loco-]

bass guitar... I guess I really need to make a tutorial about this as this seems to be a really common problem

Please, I will fucking love you. Some reference/examples on how to 'gluing' the bass to the guitar in the mix would be great.

 

[beyond dead]

I never listened to the tracks, but I have heard that the blackouts are particularly bassy/dark sounding. emg 81 would be a bit brighter. also, the body wood of your guitar will make a difference. A guitar with a mahogany body will be much deeper and muddier than an alder body with a maple top.

 

[beyond dead]

Please, I will fucking love you. Some reference/examples on how to 'gluing' the bass to the guitar in the mix would be great.

hi pass filtering the guitars, running the bass through a guitar amp (sometimes the same gtr rig used on that recording) and blending with di and bass amp track, tuning using melodyne and compressing then limiting the fuck out of the bass. thats about it.

 

[Element77]

This mix sounds like a cow farting in the pasture. I understand the bass issue fully. But I'm not at all happy with it, I've been banging my head against this for 4-5 years now. And I really do feel there is some crucial step that I am missing. And I just want someone to hear what I posted and pick it apart. I've been coming here for quite some time, getting information, giving information... I did a song awhile back that everyone thought was mint, so I posted everything I could about that song. Now I am posting the opposite looking for answers.

 

[updog]

Your drums sound pretty awful and are very loud in the mix in my opinion. Didn't think the guitars sounded that bad. As already established, try adding some bass in there. A VSTi would cut it for now.

 

[Element77]

ouch. I didn't think the drums sounded awful. But I guess they could, I always try to get a nice roomy sound with the drums, and build around that. So maybe that's the issue... I don't know.

 

[beyond dead]

This mix sounds like a cow farting in the pasture. I understand the bass issue fully. But I'm not at all happy with it, I've been banging my head against this for 4-5 years now. And I really do feel there is some crucial step that I am missing. And I just want someone to hear what I posted and pick it apart. I've been coming here for quite some time, getting information, giving information... I did a song awhile back that everyone thought was mint, so I posted everything I could about that song. Now I am posting the opposite looking for answers.

practice practice practice. couldnt pick one thing apart, just get better at every stage. you are probably just making slight mistakes which pile up. make sure you get an awesome source signal to start with.

its when you let little things go out of laziness, they pile up at the end. dont take any short cuts. dont fool yourself. if you even suspect that you have made a mistake, or need to redo something, do it.

 

[John_C]

I think that the guitars are the strongest part of the mix. Not liking the drums though, nothing some eq and comp couldn't brush up a bit though. But yes, bass is important so get some in there

 

[-Loco-]

hi pass filtering the guitars, running the bass through a guitar amp (sometimes the same gtr rig used on that recording) and blending with di and bass amp track, tuning using melodyne and compressing then limiting the fuck out of the bass. thats about it.

Melodyne for what???
I've tried duplicating the d.i and doing HP/LP and putting TSS on the HP one. My compression I think just seems to be all wrong. Depending on the riff some notes might be higher up in the fretboard so LPing the bass just means when I get to that 'moment' in the song it's just going to sound empty. Need a way round this.