Total Newbie! Please offer advice on my mix!

[Gelfling666]

Hi all, I'm new here (first post...) but already I've found a whole ton of amazing advice and ideas!
Anyway, my first attempt at mixing / mastering a song from my band, it's taken me quite a long time to get to this stage but it's slowly getting where I want it to be... the musical style is kind of blackened death metal, so the sound I'm going for is somewhere around Watain, Marduk, Dissection etc, kinda raw and with a lot of high-end. This is only very rough demo quality so any suggestions on what I could do to improve it would be much appreciated!

Edit - there are a few different versions up now, the most recent two are using impulses for the guitars and bass, and have replaced the kick and snare drums which I think gives a more defined sound...

http://soundclick.com/eternalsaros

 

[Tokyurot]

Hi, and welcome the best forum there is

I quite liked your song, although it sounded abit muffled to my ears. I think the guitars could use more gain and just a tad less mids.
I would also try giving the kick abit more snap to it, and also raise the volume of the vocalist, whom sounded great for this type of music!

I think the bass supported this song very well, and overall I feel this mix doesn't need too many fixes, mostly some eq'ing & volume level balancing

 

[Gelfling666]

Cheers for the comments, I see what you mean about more gain on the guitars, i tried this using the guitar amp simulator in Adobe Audition and it transforms the whole track! Gotta remix now to compensate for the change in tone etc, but I think it will sound loads better.
Not sure how to give the kick drum more snap, eq I guess, although I'm having difficulties making it audible in the mix unless I raise the volume loads, then it seems overpowering. I guess on a lot of metal the drums are pretty loud.
The vocalist will be please with your comment too!
I'll keep playing around with it and pose a new version soon.
Thanks again!

 

[slayercannibalsuffohead]

Hey mate, welcome.



Well, I dont enjoy black metal, but I must say, you have captured some good energy in this tune. What blows me away is that you can actually hear the bass.



Drums need work, and I think if they could sound sharper and sit in the mix a bit better, you are on a winner. For this type of metal, you have nailed a great guitar and bass tone.



Congrats dude, keep that good shit up and one day progress to some Death Metal! (Sorry mate, just being a smart arse).

 

[Gelfling666]

Again, cheers for the positive comments, I am into death metal more than black metal but due to trying to keep band members happy (when there was an actual band) I wrote in a lot of black metal stuff to mix it up a bit. When I've got all the songs mixed I'll put them up, it's like ADHD metal cos each song has a different vibe, some Gothenburg style stuff, some good ol' Marduk style blastathon bm, atmospheric folky passages etc... this song is more grindy, but I guess the vocals bring the BM pain...

I'll work on the drums too, it's DFH so I find the snare and kick sounds particularly uninspiring but I'm not sure what other options there are out there that would sound better in a metal context... not to mention I'm a lazy ass and would rather try and make what i've already sequenced sound good than start hunting around for alternatives!
I'm happy enough with the bass (given the shit equipment I used to record it), but as Tokyurot mentioned, deffo need more clarity, bit more gain to make the song sound less 'dead'.

I really wanna get into doing stuff like Ulcerate at some point, the 'everything is fire' album has kicked my ass from here to next week, awesome stuffs!

 

[Gelfling666]

New mix, tried to do something with the kick drum, and added more gain to guitars... raised vocals volume... not sure if the guitars are too thin now... i could be at this for some time!

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7850808

 

[Gelfling666]

New version posted today, see first message in thread.. any more ideas? seems a little clearer with the additional gain on the guitars.

 

[xMannequiNx]

the master def. sounds better, but there needs to be some more low mids. The guitars sounds very hollow. Also work on micing the guitar cabs, and replace the kick with a much clickier sample.

 

[Gelfling666]

Yeah I thought about the reverb on vocals thing, maybe that would give the song that additional something i feel it needs...
Agree with the kick sample, having difficulties eq-ing it to give the required 'click', so maybe replacement is the way to go. i'll check out the sticky 'drum sample meta' thread later and see what i can find.
The guitars I'm having a 'mare with, I recorded them using a crappy Pod 2.0, so they're not mic'd cabs. (unless you're suggesting I should mic cabs for future recordings, in which case I agree). There's not really enough gain on them so I ran them through a gain booster and eq'd again, maybe I took too much mids out, I'll have another play around with it this weekend.
Cheers for all the comments, really appreciate the advice!

 

[roy22341]

Try using impulses with the POD if you're not already. They're awesome.

 

[Tallicalad]

Mate, you should put up the audio for others to have a mix. Not bad so far, bit muffled though. Drums need more clarity, could come from replacing them really. Everything else sounds ok really.

 

[Gelfling666]

I will look into using impulses, any suggestions for a starting point, any freeware etc that is worth a look?

It's tempting to take up the offer of putting the audio up for others to have a go at mixing, however then everyone will know how shoddy the source tracks are! At least I can mask all the imperfections etc... haha.

With all the time and effort I'm putting into this, it's probably worth re-recording all the guitar and bass tracks with some decent source sounds, plus replace the drums with decent samples, rather than struggle with crap guitar tones!

Again, thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Gelfling666]

Thanks for the tips et al, I'll be sure to check out those programs.

Yes the guitars are quad tracked, the usual 100 - 80 panning thing going on. Maybe I should try lowering the volume of the 80 panned guitars, I read that can help the sound somehow...

Cheers for the myspace add as well, your songs sound great, will keep an eye on your page for new stuff!

I'll post my results when I've had chance to play around with the guitar tones a bit more...

 

[Gelfling666]

New version, with Catharsis' Impulses... made the bass a lot more grimey, overall the mix seems to have a quality that gives me a headache... not necessarily the desired effect!

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7913569

Next step is to do some drum replacement I think, not happy with the snare sound, or the kick drum...