Decypher: 'Unseen' (v1+v2)

[loupi]

tried to get it tight without samples and without loosing the bass all together. my angry friend at SpectreSoundStudio came to mind, for those who don't know what i'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX6sX3AF1ks (some great advice on this channel for mixing and recording heavy metal).
reference for volume and tone Raketkanon #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW6hT8K2H2E&t=133s (steve albini's recording/mix of this great band)
i'm a fan of the volume knob as the ultimate loudness-tool, so i try to mix in a way people can use this tool at their own leisure without snare or kick starting to poke through obnoxiously and damage their speakers or indeed their ears. feedback appreciated, i might return to this mix a bit later for automation and little tweaks. peace

version 2 (mixdown5): brought up the vocals, blended more of the natural unprocessed kicksound in, and added 1176 on drums, vocals and guitars (antress 1176-clone to be more specific) for some extra tightness and power.

[dcp10200]

Hi Loupi,

I can appreciate the kind of sound you're trying to go for, kinda reminds me of some first wave Black Metal stuff but with punchier drums, for me though I'm missing the high end in the cymbals and vocals. Also the lo mids in your mix really seem to take away from the power of the rest of the mix, making it cloudy sounding, especially on the double kick runs. I'd try scooping out some o the 200-400 Hz range on the kick and some of the low mids on the guitars just to clean it up a bit. If you haven't already, try highpassing the overheads at 400 Hz, it helps with phasing on the close mics and just cleans up the low end of the drums, something I learned from Glenn that helps with live drums in metal.

Cheers, and hope this helps
Doug

[loupi]

thx dcp!

i went for a compact, natural and dark sounding mix. something that sounds better and more powerfull (vs. harsher) when you turn up the volume (as i think this is the kind of music best served loud). on my speakers and headphones the lowmids kind of make place for the lows and highs when i turn up the volume, and things balance out nicely.

i did quit a drastic highcut on the overheads and vocals though. i wanted the crunch of the guitars to stand out without having to use too much compression or push its highend with eq, and i wanted to be able listen to it loud without things becoming harsh. as i like to use the overheads as an important part of the overall drumsound, i try to leave the low and mid's in the oh's but i do put things meticulously in phase (splitting stereofiles and moving all the drumtracks around till it sounds right). thanks again for your interesing comments!