FX-problems..

[noGearslut]

hei guys..

I have serious problems adding FX to my mix.. we are talking about deathmetal (I mentioned this 100times).

what do you guys use for VOX, guitars, drums?

talking about delay, reverb.

thanx

[brandondrury]

I'm in a phase right now where I'm putting tons of effects on everything. In fact, I'm grabbing random shit like Waves Mondomod, Metalflanger, and Enigma and not even looking at what I used and then just adjusting the level until it adds something.

With deathmetal, I've only done a few projects over the years, but I'd think that everything would be fairly dry. I'd put a short bright verb on the snare bottom. I'm just guessing but probably under .8 seconds...maybe more like .6 or less. In my room, I have to use verb to make the overheads sound like they weren't done in a closet. It's helped a lot for me. So I'd just try to get the overheads to sound like the drums were recorded in a more ideal space. To me there is nothing worse than a totally dry hihat for example.

The vocals really depend. The black metal that I've done seams to call for lots of weird effects...usually a lot of delays. A lot of the guitars of the more popular black metals are not always recorded that well to begin with so I'm not sure how I would react to the guitars. I've soaked metal guitars in verb in certain songs and it turned out great. These were songs that called for more of a "spacey" vibe. I probably wouldn't do that for typical thrash or whatever. Now, I'd probably use delay and chorus instead.

If you are not happy with your effects, I'd say, put a shit ton on there. I'm talking just cover your damn mix so that if the band where hearing it, they'd question your abilities. Laugh out loud while you do it like a mad scientist. Then, SLOWLY turn that crap down one aux and one track at a time. For example, if you hear that a certain part guitar part guitars muddy from too much verb or whatever, knock it down. If the chorus ping pong / slap back thing is making the snare stupid, don't turn the aux all the way down, just turn it down 10dB or something and then listen.

I'll post my best heavy mix on here (I didn't it a couple days ago). I've got rotating chorus and all sorts of really crazy shit going the entire time. You can only hear it when I really accent those parts, but it's certainly there all the time. It's amazing how much level is going to my retarted rotating chorus bus, for example. It's not that much lower than my guitar bus. However, it has a way of blending in and not being noticable. But when you mute it, something is missing. This is probably one of the top mixing fundamentals. Maybe I'll write an article on it or make an mp3 or something.

After mixing really dry for so long, and realizing that it wasn't the way to go most of the time, I had a breakthrough. I listened to Summer We 69d by Bryan Adams. Listen to the vocals at the very beginning. They have a retarted amount of effects on them in the beginning. Yet during the song, it's not THAT noticable. The point is that modern production (while usually appearing to be dry) still has a lot of effects all over the mix. Modern production is certainly not dry. They don't just use mics and levels. There are delays everywhere.

Warning: My method will only work for mixers who typically mix too dry. If you typically mix with too much effects, you may want to take the opposite approach.

One last thing, I find that lately, I've not been using reverb for anything but drums or specific cases that need it (like a clean guitar intro). I've been using a TON of delays. I love what delays do for a mix, but there is always at least one part of every song where it jumps out and just feels wrong. Well, automate it!

Just my two sense.
Brandon

[Deng]

For vox try some distortion. There are a few bands that I listen to where it soudns like the singer plugged a mic into an over driven 5150 stack and started screaming, it adds a great edgy and aggressive character...as Brandon said if it doesn't sound good, bring the distortion gain down but not off. Besides that a lot of the vocals sound dry to me, but looking at what Brandon said could probably be fucked around with. Besides distortion there is really nothing I can think of.

-Deng

[Deng]

sorry, missed half the post. I like adding delay to guitar, maybe even just slightly to make it sound "fuller" and I agree with a lot of what Brandon is saying. One thing you can try is, if you have a room mic on drums, put some delay on that and bring it down some in the mix. It adds a cool effect. Hope my ideas have helped.


-Deng