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Hammer Down - My Mix
#1
Before you listen to my mix, there's a few things I wanna say:

- I wanted a big, roomy, and epic power-metal snare sound, so I used a bit more snare room than usual. I partially did it since I really loved the room track that the drums provided, and I’m usually not a fan of drum room.
- I did not really get a metalcore, ‘Killswitch Engage’ type of sound here. There was more of an alternative vibe. I would say the band sounds more like ‘In Flames’ with a power metal vocalist. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it sounds great either way.
- The stems were fantastic to work with. There was no bleed on the drums or overheads at all (which I like), guitars and bass had already descent tone out of the box, and the vocals sounded cleaned up already. I could jump straight into making the mix sound good without having to try and fix a bunch of issues beforehand.
- Guitar solo is just insane. It had a nice melodic touch, and the sweep picking really got me going. Sounds a lot like Herman Li.
- There is really isn’t anything objectively wrong with the original master, but I really wanted to mix this myself to see what sound I would come up with. I am not the biggest fan of boxy mixes, and I tried very hard to avoid that and keeping it airy, open, lively, and epic while still having some punch and resonance.

Lemme know your thoughts! Wink


Update: Made some changes to try and fix the issues based on Blitzzz's feedback as well as some minor balance adjustments. (see v2)


.mp3    HammerDown r4 final.mp3 --  (Download: 11.28 MB)


.mp3    HammerDown r6 (v2).mp3 --  (Download: 11.27 MB)


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#2
Good stuff. the roomy verb on the vocals was a bit annoying. I just don't like it when you clearly hear the effect because it takes the attention away from the source material. stuff like that does work from time to time, but here it doesn't. After comparing it to some of my reference material, the vocals are not clear enough in the verse and the mix is lacking power in the low end. It's not much, and I wouldn't say it's personal preference, but maybe I´m wrong on this one because I haven't really mixed for quite a while now. Did you compare your mix (especially the low end) with the mix from Joey Sturgis in this thread? Give it a try Smile

http://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/showt...?tid=23427

So my mix notes would be:
- get rid of the weird vocal room reverb and try something else
- add a bit more oomph, but watch the buildup whenever Dirk's playing doublebass
- Go for a back and forth guitar talking thing at the end of the solo
- Maybe you should try and go for a "narrower" verse with guitars moved more to the center (like 50-75%) and then pushing them L/R hard in the chorus to open up the song and add some excitement to the chorus.

I definitely would have let you remix the end of the solo guitar part again until I can hear the melody guitar "talking" with the solo guitar. That small melody is the backbone of the song and without it being audible in the solo you lose a small, but nice detail. The solo guitar is even leaving some space when the melody guitar comes in and there is really no reason not to give both guitars a place in the spotlight
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#3
(21-04-2019, 12:45 PM)Blitzzz Wrote: Good stuff. the roomy verb on the vocals was a bit annoying. I just don't like it when you clearly hear the effect because it takes the attention away from the source material. stuff like that does work from time to time, but here it doesn't. After comparing it to some of my reference material, the vocals are not clear enough in the verse and the mix is lacking power in the low end. It's not much, and I wouldn't say it's personal preference, but maybe I´m wrong on this one because I haven't really mixed for quite a while now. Did you compare your mix (especially the low end) with the mix from Joey Sturgis in this thread? Give it a try Smile

http://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/showt...?tid=23427

So my mix notes would be:
- get rid of the weird vocal room reverb and try something else
- add a bit more oomph, but watch the buildup whenever Dirk's playing doublebass
- Go for a back and forth guitar talking thing at the end of the solo
- Maybe you should try and go for a "narrower" verse with guitars moved more to the center (like 50-75%) and then pushing them L/R hard in the chorus to open up the song and add some excitement to the chorus.

I definitely would have let you remix the end of the solo guitar part again until I can hear the melody guitar "talking" with the solo guitar. That small melody is the backbone of the song and without it being audible in the solo you lose a small, but nice detail. The solo guitar is even leaving some space when the melody guitar comes in and there is really no reason not to give both guitars a place in the spotlight

I spent about 2 days or so on the actual mix. This was done with only headphones, laptop, and cheap speakers with an awful room. I did not wanna spend way too long on the mix at first, and I know that it's far from perfect. I referenced your mix, kapu's mix, shul's mix, doug's mix, and a FFDP song mixed by Kevin Churko I believe.

Thanks for the feedback. I am definitely gonna take another look at my mix, because I think the song is great and the stems are easy to work with. I will listen to Joey Sturgis's mix and see what he did, and I'll be sure to try and upload another version with the issues addressed when I get the chance.
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