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The Well Tweaked To Death Version
#11
Listened the file for upload version. For me the issues with this mix are not with the sound of source tracks or that the guitars would absolutely need reamping or something like that. I don't know if it is intentional, but the overall sound seems to change significally after around 3 minutes. It gives the feeling that the work is unfinished.

Some things about the mix:

The guitar on the left side has pretty strong resonance around 2-2.5k. Personal opinion is, that the frequency response of the guitar wall in modern metal or metal influenced rock should be uniform. In other words, the L and R guitar should have the same sound. If the guitar wall is built from doubled takes with the same source sound, as here is the case, simple drive them through a stereo bus, both tracks panned center. Then eq the obvious 'nasty' upper mid resonances away and clean the possible 'mud' from lower middle range with 'surgical' parametric eq method. Then shape the overall sound with broad shelf eq boosts or cuts making the overall sound brighter or darker. If this brings up too much low end rumble or makes the high frequencies too brittle, then counter this with low and high cut filters. Then finally, if you've managed the make the guitars sound pretty good and tolerable center panned, just pan the source tracks L and R. Then you can add subtle multiband compression and soft clipping / saturation / limiting to give the guitars a final touch.

The bass seems to have some huge ultra low end resonance or feedback. This definelty clutters the overall sound. I'd suspect you've processed it pretty heavy handed. If I remember correctly, the provided source bass track already had a pretty decent and mix ready sound, even if it was missing the lowest rumble octave. I'd say it's very hard to get the lowest octave excited from 'natural' bass track unless it is already present there. This requires a top notch bass player, a good bass and quality recording gear. I'd recommend you try cleaning the bass track with eq between 80 and 320 hertz, and possibly eliminating higher frequency resonances or noise. After this compress the bass track to make it 'feel solid.' Then add a post compression eq and carefully try to bring up the lowest octaves below 80 hz with shelf eq. If this works, but also brings up too much rumble, then add gate between the compression and post eq, and try to gate the bass as accurately as possible.

The drums, or at least the snare, seem to have some artificial sounding stereo widening effect on them. If there is such effecting going on, I'd suggest removing it, and using reverbs or room effects to make the drum sound 'bigger.' If you think the drums aren't cutting or punching through, try adding gentle (or not-so-gentle) slow attack compression for individual drums or drum groups, which in effect boost the initial transient. Finally, you can add 'weight' for individual drums by using some sort of clipping distortion, saturation or limiting.
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#12
(06-02-2017, 02:40 PM)kapu Wrote: Listened the file for upload version. For me the issues with this mix are not with the sound of source tracks or that the guitars would absolutely need reamping or something like that. I don't know if it is intentional, but the overall sound seems to change significally after around 3 minutes. It gives the feeling that the work is unfinished.

Some things about the mix:

The guitar on the left side has pretty strong resonance around 2-2.5k. Personal opinion is, that the frequency response of the guitar wall in modern metal or metal influenced rock should be uniform. In other words, the L and R guitar should have the same sound. If the guitar wall is built from doubled takes with the same source sound, as here is the case, simple drive them through a stereo bus, both tracks panned center. Then eq the obvious 'nasty' upper mid resonances away and clean the possible 'mud' from lower middle range with 'surgical' parametric eq method. Then shape the overall sound with broad shelf eq boosts or cuts making the overall sound brighter or darker. If this brings up too much low end rumble or makes the high frequencies too brittle, then counter this with low and high cut filters. Then finally, if you've managed the make the guitars sound pretty good and tolerable center panned, just pan the source tracks L and R. Then you can add subtle multiband compression and soft clipping / saturation / limiting to give the guitars a final touch.

The bass seems to have some huge ultra low end resonance or feedback. This definelty clutters the overall sound. I'd suspect you've processed it pretty heavy handed. If I remember correctly, the provided source bass track already had a pretty decent and mix ready sound, even if it was missing the lowest rumble octave. I'd say it's very hard to get the lowest octave excited from 'natural' bass track unless it is already present there. This requires a top notch bass player, a good bass and quality recording gear. I'd recommend you try cleaning the bass track with eq between 80 and 320 hertz, and possibly eliminating higher frequency resonances or noise. After this compress the bass track to make it 'feel solid.' Then add a post compression eq and carefully try to bring up the lowest octaves below 80 hz with shelf eq. If this works, but also brings up too much rumble, then add gate between the compression and post eq, and try to gate the bass as accurately as possible.

The drums, or at least the snare, seem to have some artificial sounding stereo widening effect on them. If there is such effecting going on, I'd suggest removing it, and using reverbs or room effects to make the drum sound 'bigger.' If you think the drums aren't cutting or punching through, try adding gentle (or not-so-gentle) slow attack compression for individual drums or drum groups, which in effect boost the initial transient. Finally, you can add 'weight' for individual drums by using some sort of clipping distortion, saturation or limiting.

Ah okay thanks good input!
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