evaulate my mix?

[Waterlifemusic]

MODS PLEASE DELETE THIS THREAD.
I'm going to continue working on the song post it later.

[Chrisc_o]

Originally Posted by Waterlifemusic

Positive only plz!

Why bother posting it if all you want is praise? How useful is that? Maybe hold off until you've got the guts to accept criticism?

I won't be listening to it.

By the way: the default font used for your post looks nice.

[Remeniz]

The colour scheme sounds good I guess....

Look, you cant expect us to take this seriously when you also state "Positive only plz!". Constructive, sure.

[roman manlord]

I suspect the person screaming isn't nearly as angry as he's trying to sound and that he's doing it to mask insecurity and poor singing skills. Personally, I'd try and develop a scream that sounds unique instead of copying the thousands of other dudes using the exact same high school scream style. The keyboard solo is pure comedy.

But this is gearslutz and criticizing style is sinful, so ignore what I just said.

The keyboard intro sounds like it was miked with a cell phone. I'm not a keyboard person/, but don't they already produce a near perfect sound? It seems like it would take more work to make them sound bad than good.

From what I've heard of this type of music, the guitars usually go dead silent when muted between licks, these don't, try throwing in a gate or use volume envelopes.
The vocals sit too forward in the mix, sounds completely seperate from the music, was he recorded in a closet? Try getting the guy to back off the mic some, and if he's in a closet, get him out.

I mean this in a positive way.

[Chrisc_o]

Originally Posted by roman manlord

....bunch of negative comments...

I mean this in a positive way.

[redddog]

I think the problem is that the sylye of music has a very limited fan-base in the grand scheme. And the people that it doesn't speak to absolutely hate it. I happen to be one of those who just can not stand it. But I totally support you trying to record the type of music that YOU and your clients like.

There must be a forum out there that is in existance to cater to lovers of that genre and I bet you would get much more concentrated feedback as to production and mix.

Also, maybe state in your topic the type of music it is and you will avoid the old folk rockers and pan flutists here who are just startled at the genre.

(personally, that genre is the sound I think I would hear in my head if I were being dragged behind a car by my balls - but that's not the point and hence the parenthesis)

I would have a hard time commenting on the mix of ANY genre I just didn't understand to that degree.

[Bradley802]

I actually do enjoy heavy music like this (minus the European keyboard stuff) and I would venture to say that it's one of the harder genres to make sound good as a recording.

There are plenty of threads all over gearslutz that will help with the different elements of a metal mix, but if you're too lazy to search here are some tips I've found useful.

For a Low-Ender you'll more than likely need to rely on drum samples, I recommend Steven Slate. You don't nessesarily need a drum replacement software, it's tedious but you can just drop them in to match your recorded drums.

Try adding even more tracks of guitars and pan them hard. AND gate them or edit them as said above, go easy on the gain, lots of distortion will mud up your mix. Just because "the guitar tone that was picked up from the mics" may not have been what you wanted, just moving your mic around will drastically change the tone. Use headphones and move that thing around until it sounds decent.

Don't forget about the bass. Most metal bass players I've run into are guitarists that just wanted to be in a band. Make sure they're locking in and have decent tone, don't rely on the guitars to bring low end to the party.

Squash the hell out of the vocals with a compressor.

Use a reference track so you can keep A/Bing them during tracking and mixing to try and pick out what the differences are.

Overall I'm sure the band was more than happy with their mix, keep working and recording! Good luck!

[B.A.R.F]

Guitars - are very thin. Copy and paste a couple of them and pan the hard left and right.

Bass - Where's the bass? need more low end.

Drums - Also kinda thin sounding. Like Bradley802 said .. try some replacement. or eq.

Vocals - Way to lound in the mix. Also kinda dry.

Keys - Not sure what to say. The keys don't sound very good. Mabye you can try some eq.

The whole thing kinda sounds thin and weak. This kinda music should really be upfront, thick and really kick you in the face.

Just my 2 Cents.

[Amon]

There's a lot of work to be done here.

First: Ask to be CRUEL and STRAIGHT. The best way to learn is the hard way.

The drums: in modern metal productions, kick and snare must be in your face and snappy, full but crispy - youl'll want to bring out the lows of the kick and its clicky attack, remove all the rest (except some body below the lower octave's attack around 4 kHz) Be sure to preserve both the body, weight and snap on the snare. Toms and cymbals work not so different from other kinds of music, work on it depending on the source. Toms need fullness and cymbals have to shine. you need to use the click, unless the band is experienced, solid, professional, raw.

The guitars lack grit and aggressiveness, they also need to be gated - manual edit or detect silence then manually adjust. There are a lot of ways to make decent guitars with average guitars - no miracles, of course. Always double track in extreme metal - I usually pan L / R and L80 / R80. you can slightly adjust the L80/R80 panning afterwards, if needed. Sometimes I put a second group of guitars very low in volume - something like a haas or room effect.

The bass must be heard, many consider it just a low-end filler: wrong, it's another instrument and it's presence is of utter importance for the mix as a whole and for the music / arrangement itself. It may not be that obvious, but if you mute the bass in well recorded albums, they sound dead.

Vocals need to be compressed and saturated, perhaps (carefully) distorted. One compressor won't be enough, better to use different settings on two rather than squashing with one. You'll want to use a chorus effect / ADT.

Keyboards remind me of one of those cheap mid '80s Rolands.

Visit Sound On Sound and search for extreme metal, I remember a very well done, in depth article full of tips and with main frequency content listing for all of the main intruments.

Hope that helps.

[solveforq]

Put a song from a record you like in this genre on a spare track. A/B them. It will point things out to you. You get used to hearing everything after a while and will mix yourself into a hole. Think about it like a map. Turn those vocals down, and keep at it.

[Waterlifemusic]

Thanks a ton for the advise guys! just what i hoped for! =)