The "Processed" Sound

[atmetal]

I have been landing recording jobs here lately where the band wants a "Raw" recording. Well I have gotten pretty good at accomplishing the really roomy, raw sound. Now I just landed a job where the band wants that "Adam D." sound. I have some common knowledge of what he does in general, but I just can't seem to get the drums to have that really processed sound. Maybe it's my eq, maybe its my compression. I really don't know. This board has been a good help to me in the past, so maybe I can get a little more help now. I will post a clip when i get all of the instruments tracked.

I have Slate 3.5 samples
Bogner Uberschall
Orange 4x12
Mesa 4x12
Custom built isocab with Celestion V-30
POD with metal shop and fx pack
Pro Tools
SSL comps
Waves bundles
too many plugs to count.

Any suggestions would be nice!

Thanks!

 

[ahjteam]

too wide subject, narrow down your questions, read stickies and the link in my sig and come back. thank you.

 

[atmetal]

I have been recording bands that sound a lot like Jesu, Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Converge, etc... These recordings call for a very raw, dirty, roomy mix. A lot like the style of Kurt Ballou. I now have a job where the band sounds very generic and not really my cup of tea per say. But they sound like a terrible rip off of Killswitch, For Today, etc... Just really young and immature metalcore. This job would require a sound to the likes of Andy Sneap, Adam D, and even Joey. Seeing as tho Brian Hood is generally the go to guy in my area for this genre, even being good friends, an engineer won't give up their secrets. And don't get me wrong, I am not asking for hand outs. I just would like a little direction on where to find some help to acquire this sound. I am asking if anyone has any tips on eq, compression, etc.. for this type of mix. If this is still too vague of a description, I am completely out of luck because I have no other way to explain myself.

Thanks in advance for any advice or links to any sort of help.

 

[cloy26]

I think a POD would be a good bet in this case.

Obviously sample all the drums, take out a bit of your room mic'ing on your drum set up... Just do what you are saying. Modern metalcore is pretty in your face and processed, so, just do it. Quantize the shit out of your drums (this is my opinion.)

I don't know, I mean, I can only offer suggestions that only go so deep. I am not a pro by any means.

 

[Morgan C]

Everything edited to fuck. You've already got Slate drums which are automatically really hifi. Just make sure your guitars and bass are really tight.

 

[cloy26]

word. ^

tightness is a lot of it.

 

[KillFrenzy]

Tightness on just about everything. Edit yhe life out of guitars, bass, drums and vocals. Don't be afraid of using compression (you'll feel when you overcompress) and EQ. Forget what purists say that "when you add more than X dB (3 or 4) of any freq. range, you'd better re-record the source". Sometimes you'll want boosts or cuts of over 10dB, specially on drums. As the guys already said, use less reverb and delays. They 'have' to be discrete, only to glue things together - there are exceptions though.

 

[ahjteam]

the vocals need to be slammed with compression, sometimes even up to slight distortion, add a bit of delay and reverb to make them sit better.

 

[P-E]

Tightness on just about everything. Edit yhe life out of guitars, bass, drums and vocals. Don't be afraid of using compression (you'll feel when you overcompress) and EQ. Forget what purists say that "when you add more than X dB (3 or 4) of any freq. range, you'd better re-record the source". Sometimes you'll want boosts or cuts of over 10dB, specially on drums. As the guys already said, use less reverb and delays. They 'have' to be discrete, only to glue things together - there are exceptions though.

+1, it's mostly heavy use of compression, and agressive EQing.

 

[atmetal]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will post a mix in the Rate my Mix/Tone section in a couple of days.

 

[Full_Tilt]

Maybe I misread the question not sure ....but for processed drums who knows what they really mean ? do they mean compressed & gated to f**k or do they mean triggered ?
snare and kick normally get triggered these days but things like toms are still in the production domain .