08-01-2014, 06:00 AM
(27-11-2013, 06:08 PM)Spede Wrote: Hi guys. This came together fairly quickly (less than two hours). I guess it's not hard to figure out what I used as a sound reference (this song and the drum sounds fitted perfectly for that thing IMO).I guess not everybody is gonna like this one.
Sounds like you're using Metallica's Death Magnetic as your reference. If so, my advice? DON'T. Seriously.
Dynamic range, measured in Db, measures the difference between the recording's loudest peak and its overall average volume; a good rule of thumb is if that measurement is in the single digits your recording is "overcooked." I ran your mix through TT DR Offline Meter and got a reading of *4*.
To be blunt is totally LUDICROUS. No wonder I had to turn my volume down to about HALF my usual volume just to keep it from tearing my eardrums out! 
Geez...! 
It's hard to judge the quality of your mix with everything so mashed together, but I will say the frequency balance sounds excellent. But dude... somebody oughtta confiscate the compressor you're using in your master buss (or delete it if it's software based). Oy, my poor ears...
Forgive my bluntness, but this is the very kind of compression abuse I talk about in my profile. As an aspiring audio engineer, it is one of my primary goals to prove that this kind of compression is TOTALLY unnecessary and just plain RUINS the sound of ANY music. Hell, even METALLICA'S OWN FANS lambasted them when they released Death Magnetic, I believe the first album to ever have tracks with dynamic range under 5 dB.
They even pointed out that the versions of their songs downloadable for use in the game Guitar Hero, which didn't have the compression treatment, sounded WAY better than the "mastered" versions on the album:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Magne...production
This is also why I'm very leery of the term "mastering." I often wonder what an engineer means when they say it. To me, "mastering" is the final polish of ANY recording and my feeling is if the recording is done right in the first place there should be little to do to "master" it outside of making sure the loudest peak hits maximum level, trim off any excess and add any fade in or out. That's ALL mastering should be IMHO. Any of these "loudness" effects created with compression should be done on INDIVIDUAL TRACKS during the MIXING process NOT during "mastering."
All right. Now that I got THAT off my chest, I would LOVE to hear this exact same mix again only THIS time with NO master compression WHATSOEVER. I'm wondering what kind of mix this was before it was crushed to death...
