Wall of Death - Femme [mixed by Stickman]

[Stickman]

Hey guys,

this is my version of Wall of Death's Femme.

Enjoy it and leave a comment about your thoughts.

Cheers!

[pauli]

Hey Stickman, nice to meet you.

I'm sure you guessed by the title of my post that this style of music isn't my cup of tea, so keep that in mind while reading my comments.

There are some pretty nice features to your mix... The drums and main guitars sound huge, and the vocal sound is very appropriate for the style.

Just a few opinions, maybe some opportunities for growth as I see it:

The main thing that's hanging me up is that there's a noticeable lack of definition between the instruments. The rhythm guitars are sort of blending into one solid sound, which in some ways could be considered a good thing, but the lack of contrast between the two is narrowing the stereo perception a bit and making it hard for you to carve out room in the center for the kick, bass and snare... and the lack of well defined transients is actually making is harder for you to get the power you're going for... basically you wind up trading power for loudness. If people want it louder they can turn it up, but there's no power dial on the radio, if that makes any sense. For my part, I'd look to clear out the excess low end, from about 125 hZ down, out of the sides channel of the entire mix.... I think you'll find it focuses the low end of the kick and bass guitar and will make balancing the guitar mids and getting that stereo contrast a lot easier.

A big thing I'm noticing is that the bass guitar seems a bit missing in action. If I'm remembering right there was more than enough energy around 1000-2000 for the bass to cut through, so it might be a good idea to level out the transient with a compressor and figure out what's interfering with it, because it comes and goes, but in some places I can't hear it at all.

Remember that with fast music (especially if you're gonna compress it as heavily as you have) excess low end is going to make it drag and feel muddy... I think the combination of high compression levels and too much energy on the bottom is taking some of the aggression away. Compressors respond very strongly to bass frequencies in most cases, and since bass wavelengths are also very long, the tendency of compressors to add sustain can cause the LF note tails to ring for too long and eat up more of the space between notes, i.e. definition, and therefore sacrificing power again for loudness. There are a few things you can try that might help... first thing I'd do is highpass the kick drum and bass guitar both at 45 or 50, because anything lower than that is going to turn into mud during those kick rolls. Second thing I'd look into is possibly gating the kick drum if you haven't already to decrease the note sustain.... that'll help with the low frequency balance and will also help you get your compressors to respond the way you want. Last thing is potentially a doozy, though... I'd suggest soloing the bass guitar and drum buss after you try those first couple ideas and setting a compressor on the mix buss based on those in solo.... the compressor is going to react the most strongly to LF energy and transients, and most of that content is contained within the bass and drums, so set your attack/release settings based on that, maybe max 4 dB peak reduction. Then fade the rest of the instruments into the balance with the compressor active... it'll help you avoid over-compressing it during mastering for one thing, and setting the compressors timing is much easier with the rest of the ensemble muted. Assuming you were careful with the EQ originally, you shouldn't need to fiddle with the guitar + vocal EQs too much, and you also probably won't need to rely as much on channel compressors, so getting the definition, punch AND loudness should be a bit easier. At least that's the way it works for me

Hopefully some of that helps? I could be completely off-base because this is just techno-speak about a genre you'd generally not find on my playlist, but maybe some of the technical tips might be useful somewhere down the line.

Cheers, see you around the boards

[manuke]

Hey guys,

this is my version of Wall of Death's Femme.

Enjoy it and leave a comment about your thoughts.

Cheers!

Yeah not quite happening in the low end but man, this could be pretty awesome with a few tweaks. Most energetic mix I've heard so far and gets heavy when it's supposed to. Think it's great, like it in my face like that.

[manuke]

And pauli, way to go with the feedack. Nice work mate.

[Stickman]

Hey Stickman, nice to meet you.

I'm sure you guessed by the title of my post that this style of music isn't my cup of tea, so keep that in mind while reading my comments.

There are some pretty nice features to your mix... The drums and main guitars sound huge, and the vocal sound is very appropriate for the style.

Just a few opinions, maybe some opportunities for growth as I see it:

The main thing that's hanging me up is that there's a noticeable lack of definition between the instruments. The rhythm guitars are sort of blending into one solid sound, which in some ways could be considered a good thing, but the lack of contrast between the two is narrowing the stereo perception a bit and making it hard for you to carve out room in the center for the kick, bass and snare... and the lack of well defined transients is actually making is harder for you to get the power you're going for... basically you wind up trading power for loudness. If people want it louder they can turn it up, but there's no power dial on the radio, if that makes any sense. For my part, I'd look to clear out the excess low end, from about 125 hZ down, out of the sides channel of the entire mix.... I think you'll find it focuses the low end of the kick and bass guitar and will make balancing the guitar mids and getting that stereo contrast a lot easier.

A big thing I'm noticing is that the bass guitar seems a bit missing in action. If I'm remembering right there was more than enough energy around 1000-2000 for the bass to cut through, so it might be a good idea to level out the transient with a compressor and figure out what's interfering with it, because it comes and goes, but in some places I can't hear it at all.

Remember that with fast music (especially if you're gonna compress it as heavily as you have) excess low end is going to make it drag and feel muddy... I think the combination of high compression levels and too much energy on the bottom is taking some of the aggression away. Compressors respond very strongly to bass frequencies in most cases, and since bass wavelengths are also very long, the tendency of compressors to add sustain can cause the LF note tails to ring for too long and eat up more of the space between notes, i.e. definition, and therefore sacrificing power again for loudness. There are a few things you can try that might help... first thing I'd do is highpass the kick drum and bass guitar both at 45 or 50, because anything lower than that is going to turn into mud during those kick rolls. Second thing I'd look into is possibly gating the kick drum if you haven't already to decrease the note sustain.... that'll help with the low frequency balance and will also help you get your compressors to respond the way you want. Last thing is potentially a doozy, though... I'd suggest soloing the bass guitar and drum buss after you try those first couple ideas and setting a compressor on the mix buss based on those in solo.... the compressor is going to react the most strongly to LF energy and transients, and most of that content is contained within the bass and drums, so set your attack/release settings based on that, maybe max 4 dB peak reduction. Then fade the rest of the instruments into the balance with the compressor active... it'll help you avoid over-compressing it during mastering for one thing, and setting the compressors timing is much easier with the rest of the ensemble muted. Assuming you were careful with the EQ originally, you shouldn't need to fiddle with the guitar + vocal EQs too much, and you also probably won't need to rely as much on channel compressors, so getting the definition, punch AND loudness should be a bit easier. At least that's the way it works for me

Hopefully some of that helps? I could be completely off-base because this is just techno-speak about a genre you'd generally not find on my playlist, but maybe some of the technical tips might be useful somewhere down the line.

Cheers, see you around the boards

Hey Pauli,

first of all, thanks a lot for your comment. It helps me a lot to to get nearly the best out of this track. I tried to consider every thing you have written and it was really interesting to read your thoughts. I really stuggling to find the appropriate words in english (its not my native Language). So, as i said, i tried to implement all your tips as well as tweaking with frequencies of each instrument to avoid masking each other.

That is the result.

I hope its sounds more accurate. By the way, i think it could help any body when someone of a different genre leaving his thoughs about a song. Another perspective can help to get out of bad habbits.

So, thanks dude for your help!

Cheers, Eric

[Stickman]

Hey guys,

this is my version of Wall of Death's Femme.

Enjoy it and leave a comment about your thoughts.

Cheers!

Yeah not quite happening in the low end but man, this could be pretty awesome with a few tweaks. Most energetic mix I've heard so far and gets heavy when it's supposed to. Think it's great, like it in my face like that.

Hey Manuke,

thanks a lot for your replay. You are right, my first version needed some tweaks and implementation of Pauli's Tipps. As you can hear at my second version, its better now than the first one.

Cheers, Eric

[Stickman]

Hey guys,

some days ago i purchased new wave plugins and did a new version of "Femme".

There it is and im very insterested in your thoughts.

Cheers!

[tman692]

which plugins did you use? sounds amazing. 1000x better than the first.

[Stickman]

which plugins did you use? sounds amazing. 1000x better than the first.

Hey man,
Thanks for your comment!
I used some waves renaissance plugins (like eq and comp.) as well as the CLA signature series from waves.

For the guitars i´ve used amplitube 3 the 150W Amp (based on the Peavy 5150).