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