This is my first upload. I'm a bit nervous, but excited. You guys are critical, but almost always polite and fair, and I'm really excited to be joining the community here.
This is my first time mixing a metal song, but I've been listening to the genre, especially Killswitch and the like, for a long time. Adam Dutkiewicz has been in influence on how I mix guitars for a while, too, so I was thrilled when I saw that Killswitch was such a huge influence on this song.
I'm really happy with how it's turned out, but please give feedback!
It's very bright on my monitors (Adams) and on my headphones (akg). Anyway, the reverbs sound weird throughout the whole song - especially in the bridge at 2:00. The hihat sits in a small room and the voice in a cave? that doesnt make a lot of sense to me. overall the vocal reverb is a bit too prominent for my taste - too bright, too long.
other then that it's a good mix in terms of equalization but it lacks the weight and movement some other mixes here had. maybe because every part of the song has the same volume level in your mix? I don't really hear any kind of volume automation for the different parts of the song. like bringing the vocals/guitars/drums or everything 1-2 db up in the chorus? the hihat seems to have the same level in the bridge like it has throughout the whole song. if you bring the bridge down 4-5 db you can make the solo 1-2 db louder and still have some db left to make the final chorus really loud and explosive.
(12-01-2015, 12:48 AM)Blitzzz Wrote: [ -> ]It's very bright on my monitors (Adams) and on my headphones (akg). Anyway, the reverbs sound weird throughout the whole song - especially in the bridge at 2:00. The hihat sits in a small room and the voice in a cave? that doesnt make a lot of sense to me. overall the vocal reverb is a bit too prominent for my taste - too bright, too long.
other then that it's a good mix in terms of equalization but it lacks the weight and movement some other mixes here had. maybe because every part of the song has the same volume level in your mix? I don't really hear any kind of volume automation for the different parts of the song. like bringing the vocals/guitars/drums or everything 1-2 db up in the chorus? the hihat seems to have the same level in the bridge like it has throughout the whole song. if you bring the bridge down 4-5 db you can make the solo 1-2 db louder and still have some db left to make the final chorus really loud and explosive.
Thanks a lot for the tips. My first reaction was to be defensive, and I knew it would be. It's hard not to be when you spend seven hours on a mix. But after putting it down for a couple weeks and coming back to it I agree with pretty much everything you said.
I was trying to find a middle ground between the way I would mix an alternative rock song, which is where I'm most comfortable, and the typical kind of mix you would see in this song, hoping I would come up with something unique. I'm feel like I'm still doing that in this mix, but I cleaned up a lot of stuff. I really used a lot of compressed room mics on the drums in my first mix, and it really clouded everything and made it hard to hear, and I responded my making everything way too bright so it sat on top of the drums. The first thing I did was take the compressor off the "Room 2" channel with all the cymbals and turn it down a bit. I also took all of the room mics out of my parallel drum buss, and I lightened up on that compressor a good deal. So now that I had a clearer drum sound, I could bring down the cymbals and put some of the bass back into the guitars. It may still be a bit bright, but I think it's a step in the right direction.
I started form scratch on the lead vocal sounds to try out some new plugins. I may have been a bit heavy handed with the compression, but they definitely sound better than before.
So bringing the room mics way down in the drums fixed that "roominess" on the hihat in the bridge. I also brought my decay time way down in the reverb for the vocal, and I also set up a second reverb buss with a medium hall sound. Every track uses a combination of these two now. Some its a bit more of the big vocal verb, some a bit more hall, but I tried to use less reverb overall. I think that gives it some depth, while still sounding balanced.
I already had what I thought was a lot of automation on the guitars and drums to keep the feel moving, but I made it just a little more apparent. I also lightened up on my master buss compressor and got rid of the bullshit limiter. As a result, this mix isn't as loud, but I'm no mastering engineer, so I figured its best if I don't pretend to be one. Let me know what you think, Blitzz, and thanks again for the advice. God know you're probably tired of hearing mediocre mixes of this song. I learned a lot.