Urgently Need Help on Symphonic/Melodic Metal Mix!

obelix5150

New Metal Member
Jul 13, 2010
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So I've been trying to work on this mix for one of my band's upcoming self-releases and I just can't get it to sound good. It's not ugly or harsh (imo) but just sounds lifeless, characterless, and has no punch. could someone have a listen and give me some tips as to how to make this recording come to life (and sound a bit more professional in the process)?

Thanks so much!

Recording:
https://soundcloud.com/user823269752/trial-mix-1
 
It could do with a much tighter low end in regards to bass and rhythm guitars. Whats happening with the EQ in each? If you balanced the low end in each, you could probs bring the kick up too because it's not really audible and could serve to add some more punch.
 
That's what's confusing me, because I thought I was doing everything I was 'supposed to'... rhythm guitars are hipassed at 100hz, and I have a pretty gentle scoop at around 150 to clear them up a bit more.. bass is hipassed at 50 I think (which is probably my problem..) and I have the 'punch' of the kick boosted at 70hz.. so i figured the bass's primary punch should be a bit lower than that.. i also have the bass sidechain compressed controlled by the kick, but that compressor's not doing very much/it's not dramatic compression..
 
Try either lowering the bass guitar volume and/or getting rid of/reducing your 'low bass punch'. I'm guessing you must have boosted it some quite extreme levels? The low end of the mix is just dominating and masking the rest.
What else is happening with guitar EQ? And keys/synth EQ?
I think the mix could be quite feasible if you sorted the low end, good song too.
 
I think the bass boost is around 3 db.. no more certainly.. I guess it's mainly just the sheer volume of the bass guitar probably. Otherwise, I have a gentle scoop around 700 to get rid of a slightly boxy/cardboard character, and a gentle boost around 3.5khz to add a bit of sparkle - but I think it's not a very convincing sparkle because overall things just sound bland.. all I've done so far with keys is a generic hipass, but I'll likely have to do more especially in the latter half of the song (which I didn't include in this mp3 b/c it's an 8 minute song) where things get truly symphonic lol.
Thanks for the input dude!
 
Okay, here's a new mix I made today.. I think I fixed the over-bassiness of the overall mix but I still feel unconvinced by the liveliness of the overall picture.. and I also don't like the snare sound.. feel like there's an overkill amount of attack and not enough body/sustain, but no matter what I do with the compressor it seems to have that character, or drops out of the mix entirely..

Also I didn't do anything much with the orchestrations and stuff at the end yet lol
https://soundcloud.com/user823269752/trial-mix-2

And here's a screenshot of my eq/filter settings for rhythm guitar and bass:
ScreenShot2013-08-07at55156PM_zps7445f9f2.png


@Jim that'd be cool! I'll upload the stem/source files somewhere when i get the chance
 
Compress that bass, and boost the lows from 30 to 60hz enough to compensate. It should restore the lowend of that mix. Then work on the mids (a little boost around 1kHz makes it sound more metallic) Don't be afraid to scoop mids out of it, as the guitars already bring that audio information. You can also add a little more mids and delay/reverb to the leads, as well as a little volume increase to separate them a bit from the rest.
 
Automate rtm gtrs down for gtr lead/solo sections.
Low pass bass at about 6k, you could low pass guitars a lot lower if you wanted to let some higher stuff come through. I tend to lp gtrs 8-10k to let synths through a bit.
Are you replacing kick/snare?
If it were my mix I would probably have a look at the kick eq too and check everything is in order. There's maybe some conflicting frequencies in there.
Still not entirely happy with the bass, maybe the boost you have on 2k could be a bit higher, like 3k and wider too.
Maybe cutting some muddiness out of 300-500 in guitars could help? Or maybe a bit higher up like 750?
 
Try to use transient designer on snare to add more sustain, also you could try to use parallel compression for snare, kick and toms....just use really hard compression with long release, 1176 style comp in all buttons mode for example, and add it as much as you need...
You may use max bass plugin for low end of your kick but be gentle with this, you risking to get too boomy sound if overdo it.
Try to separate you bass guitar into two tracks, one for low end and another one for everything else. In this case you can control it much better and you can add some distortion on the second track (if needed) but keep your low end clean.
Also be sure that you used high-pass filter on each of instruments (before compressor) according to they workable frequencies. Even if you don't hear something, all your compressors feel this.
If all instruments playing at the same time with orchestral elements you can feel free to cut off all from 300 Hz and lower, or even more. If you have some places where orchestrations stay alone or all your guitars and drums plays not so tight, you can bypass this filter by automating.
 
Thanks for your advice guys! I haven't had a chance to take a crack at this mix since my last post but I'll definitely give all your suggestions a try!
 
Hey dudes, this is how the mix is sounding right now.. tried to incorporate some of your suggestions.. definitely miles better than my first try lol.. but I'm still not 100% satisfied with the overall character of the mix.. any more tips? Definitely thanks for y'all's help so far though!! And apologies on how much quieter this mixdown is than the other two.. i readjusted all the levels so i have at least 6db headroom on the master bus

 
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Keep working on toms & kick body, make hi-hat for 3-4 db less, try to add more body on overheads (if you have room mic track-use it), also I think lead guitars at the end of the song (after choirs part) combined with orchestration sounds not in the best way (IMHO), it sounds like a one melody tries to fight with another one.
P.S. Could you upload your raw tracks and DI's? Would be great to have some mixing practice with this song :)
 
Tbh I'm finding working with the toms to be a struggle.. actually all the drums are a bitch because of how we recorded it.. the drums are all triggered mesh heads, triggering Superior Drummer samples, and the cymbals are real/recorded w/ a dual pair of overheads.. but that means that the overhead mics dont have any drums, so I can't use them to add any depth or dimension to the drums. Tis making the task of creating a huge, epic drum sound rather difficult.
I personally thought the lead guitar at the end of the song was unnecessary but the other guitarist in the band insisted on it.. will probably end up deleting it to be honest.
As for the raw tracks, I'll do it when I get the chance, sure! Don't have DI tracks for guitars, and the keyboards are all software instruments (ProjectSam Orchestral Essentials) but I can bounce those to audio.
 
Also here's another song from the self-release album that I've been working on.. trying to keep a pretty uniform tonal vibe between songs and thus the same kind of things worry me (as far as the overall brightness/clarity is concerned). I think some parts of this song are getting a bit muddy but I have no idea what to do to fix that, all keyboards are hipassed at 400hz (or more depending on the song section), and all guitars have varying degrees of hi-passing on them as well..
 
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