My new metal song

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Michał
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My new metal song

Post by Michał »

Hello,
This is a demo version of my new song.
Recorded and mixed in Ardour 5.3 with calf plugins and IR cab emulations.
I use a focusrite scarlett 2i2 for vocals and bass and Laney IRT studio guitar head for guitars.
I use my sf2 midi bank with drums and cymbals sample for percussion track.
What do you think, any advice on the mix and mastering?
https://youtu.be/SVsa4yPmtXU
Last edited by Michał on Thu Mar 30, 2017 9:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
tavasti
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Re: My new metal song

Post by tavasti »

This is not my favourite genre (bit more melodic metal is mine), but I would mix solo guitar bit more higher volume.

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Michał
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Re: My new metal song

Post by Michał »

indeed, it could be louder.
Nachei
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Re: My new metal song

Post by Nachei »

I'm terrible at this stuff, so take my comments for what they are worth... just trying to provide some feedback...

The overall sound quality is great: all the instruments come through clearly... Maybe some more low end is needed? But maybe it's just the combination of YouTube quality + my headphones.

Perhaps what I found missing is more variation in the production along the song... it feels like the same parameters are kept without variation from beginning to finish; a bit more of variation, according to what different moments of the song demand, could add a nice touch; a few ideas I'd try: different delay/reverb settings in chorus vs verse, volume automation to make parts of the song stick out, a tiny bit of flanger in certain drums or guitar sections...

The voice track is very in-your-face in the mix, which is a good thing, but I also find it a bit raw, like requiring some additional treatment; it sounds too "live" to me. I don't know why is that ( if I knew I'd be paid the big bucks :P ) but some possible things to try are: adding a parallel voice track with a bit of distortion, layering several takes sung exactly in the same way (I recently tried this one in a song and worked great), trying the Haas effect, and perhaps adding some reverb or delay (perhaps delay better than reverb, because reverb has a potential risk of pushing the track back, and the voice could loss aggression).

Sorry if you have already tried some or many of the things that I propose, like I say, I don't have a clue audiowise, but hopefully you find something interesting among all these suggestions.
Michał
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Re: My new metal song

Post by Michał »

Thank you for your comments,
It is true that Youtube reduces the quality.
I will send the new version in a few days in this post.
Raw vocals - I agree (in this version there are no plugins on vocals, only the compressor and reverb on the bus "master").
About guitars: I can do reamp or change cabinet emulation.
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Re: My new metal song

Post by gimmeapill »

Not a big fan of the vocals, but all the rest sounds good to me, nice work!
Michał
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Re: My new metal song

Post by Michał »

Someone ask me "Which drum samples did you use?"
I use free kick sample from http://themetalkickdrum.com/free-stuff/freestuff.html
I bought some snare and toms sounds from the Internet (I don't remember from which websites)
I recorded the cymbals using Zoom H1
I threw all sounds to the .sf2 file.
tnovelli
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Re: My new metal song

Post by tnovelli »

Pretty damn good. I like the raw sound. Wow.. you guys have been doing this for a while. I like the new sound.. not so death metal, still aggressive. Guitars sounds about right to me, not too fuzzed out, good crunch & definition.
Michał
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Re: My new metal song

Post by Michał »

I post one more song, more thrash metal than the previous.
The song is about partying and drinking so it happier.
https://youtu.be/3pXrpqZDVsw
I added a little reverb and delay for vocals but not too much
It is still raw and aggressive but with more space.
I added Calf Multipass limiter to increase the volume of the mix.
Last edited by Michał on Thu Mar 30, 2017 9:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
tnovelli
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Re: My new metal song

Post by tnovelli »

Michał wrote:I post one more song, more thrash metal than the previous.
Cool.
I added a little reverb and delay for vocals but not too much
It is still raw and aggressive but with more space.
I added Calf Multipass limiter to increase the volume of the mix.
Yep, I use that for rock/metal. Also just started using Noise Gate on my bass drum & floor toms, to kill the low-end ringing.

Linux Musicians: Winning The Volume Wars :mrgreen:
ambicumber
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Re: My new metal song

Post by ambicumber »

Give some more power to the drum. Maybe the snare is a bit murky.
singforme
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Re: My new metal song

Post by singforme »

No idea what you're singing, but great music! Try making the guitars wider (one Rhythm Track all the way left and one Rhythm Track all the way right). That leaves the voice, the bass guitar and the solo guitar more space and also you don't want the drums to sound wider than the guitars. Put A LOT of parallel compression on the vocals. That's the two things I would do on those mixes.
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Re: My new metal song

Post by Quirq »

Just listening to the first-posted track. Metal isn't my thing but I don't mind it.

Overall, I'd say the mix is pretty good and most of the way there :) . However, it is rather muddy, I think you could do with doing some EQ work in the mids to improve clarity and definition -- for instance, the drums in the intro sound dull and boomy and throughout the cymbals aren't very sparkly. I'd be careful about cutting too much from the guitars, the sound pretty good, but I think tame the mids on the kit and maybe increase the top end a little (and carefully) on the cymbals and anything else that will help the top end (which will in turn help compensate for it being muddy).

I'd agree that it could possibly use a bit more bass or, at the very least, it could do with a bit more compression on the low end as the bass drifts in and out of audibility a bit.

But like I say, it's already sounding good and most of the way there, it just needs a little more work to make it really shine :D
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Re: My new metal song

Post by AlexTheBassist »

Nice track. I liked the composition and even understood a bit of lyrics (I think it's written in Polish), but I think it could be mixed better. Sources are nice, they have some headroom to extract more punch and clarity from. Can I have the stems? I'd try to remix that, this material is good.
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Working in Harrison Mixbus and Ardour on KDE Neon + KXStudio.
Michał
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Re: My new metal song

Post by Michał »

Thank you guys for your comments and suggestions.
Lot of advices were accurate.
I fixed some bugs, and once again release everything on youtube.
I started a new channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD4wEu ... hqMPuXGyvQ
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