Judge this Rock/Metal mix and tell me how I did.

[Forgotten Lore Studio]

Hello everyone, I've been a member of this board for a short while, but have garnered a lot of good advice from those on it. Now is my turn to post a mix that I've done and let you guys bash it. Please tell me what I can do to make it better, if it needs anything. If it's good the way it is, then please put your compliments in here. Thanx again!

[jjb]

Very nice. Two thoughts. First, during the instrumentals (great guitar work!) they seem to be ever so slightly out of sync with the drums at points. Its subtle but I feel myself lurching forward trying to pull the guitar along once or twice. Second, the drums don't do the rest of the song justice. They sound artificial and don't have the energy of the song as a whole. But, even with those, I really like it.

jjb

[Forgotten Lore Studio]

Second, the drums don't do the rest of the song justice. They sound artificial and don't have the energy of the song as a whole

Could you expound upon this a little more? What exactly do you mean by artificial? The drums have had very little done to them besides a little help from drumagog on the kick and snare for more punch and snap, but it's still got a blend of the original with it, not 100% drumagog. I have done a little eq on the drums as a whole after a mixdown from the original 8 tracks and also added some compression for more of the punch.

As far as the guitar not being with the drums at some points; I believe that it is due to the fact that he played it that way when recording it. If you're referring to the lead solo part, he may be re-recording it anyway, as this was just a scratch take. BTW, all the lead parts and general different amp sounds were made using Guitar Rig 3! I used a studio reverb and a quad delay (if I remember right, I spent all day yesterday mixing this song) on the lead part and it really helped it stand out.

Thanks again for the comments!

[jjb]

To me they sound more like a drum machine than real drums. I was looking for more energy.

jjb

[chipman]

Hey, the first thing that struck me was the significant over-compression of the snare drum. Back the threshold way down and let it breath a little. Also, a little reverb on the drums will help them feel more live and less electronic.

Did you use a bottom head mic on the snare? If so, turn it down relative to the top head mic. Particularly during the snare rolls I'm getting too much of the "snares."

Nice tone on the clean guitar!

[Forgotten Lore Studio]

For those who might be wondering, I am still working on this song, in fact I am mixing down the drums again as I type this. I will post the new version soon. Thanks for your help!

[DogpitStudios]

I agree with all said about the drums. Dynamics are okay in metal no matter what you've been told.

I have worked with drumagog before and after about 3 years of having the plug in and finally understanding how to make it work I have decided that Its useless to me. I would rather just get a good smashing drum sound from the start. I think the main problem with the drums is the fact that the original snare drum sound and the drumagog sound do not match up. I suggest starting with just the overheads. Get them at a good high level. Then slowly add in bass and snare til necessary. A lot of people mixing metal find bass and snare to be priority. I believe that you must make the set sound like... well A DRUM SET. Not just a bass and snare drum. Also if you need a consistent punch you can put parallel compression on the snare and drum tracks. Basically make a bus with a compressor on it. Send one of the sends of both snare and bass drum to it. DO NOT SEND THE OUTPUT OF THE TRACKS TO THIS BUS. This way you will have Your drum tracks outputting to your drum bus and an other compressed snare and bass layer outputting to your drum bus. Assuming you have made a drum bus that is, thats kind of mixing 101


Feel free to ask any questions

Ben

[Forgotten Lore Studio]

Okay, here is the re-mix of this song. Thanks again for the advice. This time I tried a different snare sound on drumagog from a library that a friend bought me called drumwerks. It's supposed to be a snare from a DW kit. The reason I use drumagog is because I don't have decent enough mics to get a good sound from the start on the drum and snare. I've got a set of Audio-Technica Midnight Blue mics and one MXL 603S condenser for the overheads. Anyway, I think I'm getting a good sound with the little equipment that I have and at least the band that I'm recording is happy with what they're hearing. It's mostly just a demo recording anyway. I'm sure by the next time that they come to record later this year, I'll have learned so much more by then from coming to this site.