26-03-2015, 09:14 PM
Hi guys
Please check out my mix, and feel free to skip the prose!
Following Mike's advice I spent quite a bit of time working with the phase-alignment of the multimiked drums in order to reduce the timbre-damaging effects of comb-filtering. I blended in the provided samples for increased timbral and dynamical consistency, while trying to preserve the natural character. During the blast-beat sections with very fast snare-hits (ex. Chorus and intro), I chose to add less of the snare sample, and ended up processing the snare in these parts entirely differently than the more forceful snare in the verses etc. I also felt the need to add in hipass filtered kick-drum samples to gain a bit more “click” and again, consistency. Overhead mics were also hipass filtered to pretty much isolate the cymbals and hihat and to free up the low end and lower midrange. I basically set the cutoff as high as possible without affecting the sound of the brasswork. Oh, and lots of fiddling with gates on the snare, hihat and kick close-mics. Would have been easier to just use samples all the way
The guitars had loads of rumble in the low end, and these were hipass filtered at around 450 Hz to leave more space for the synths, snare and toms. I found an extremely strong peak in the distortion-induced white noise at 2kHz – it was almost pitched and I realized that it made the mix sound like the Norse winds were blowing hard. It added atmosphere, but took too much space in the busy mix, which led me to cut it in most of the track, making it a bit more prominent in the open guitar-only parts . I also found a relatively strong obtrusive hiss at 4.7kHz, which I notched out. All in all, the guitars have been mangled to make room in the mix, so it may not be to everybody's liking. I decided not to re-amp the guitars and instead try to make the best of it – I thought this could be a good exercise in itself.
I notice other mixes here have used saturation on the vocals with good results, and I would consider this in the future, or if I decide to give this mix another shot.
Overall I found that I had to do a lot of subtractive EQ and panning to unmask the mix elements and to keep harshness at a tolerable level (definitely waaay too soft for true old-school norwegian black metallers). Stereo width manipulation of the synths using M/S processing helped me free up the middle of the stereo image, instead placing their emphasis on the sides portion of the mix.
On the master buss I did some gentle EQ, mostly cutting a bit around 400Hz with a wide Q, because there was an energy buildup that could be reduced for clarity. After this I added gentle compression for mix glue, and in the end limiting, again trying to do as little harm as possible.
I would like to thank Cnoc An Tursa for making their raw material accessible, it was great fun working with this track! And also a huge thanks to Mike Senior for writing mixing secrets; If I had not had access to its well-laid out methodology I would have stumbled screaming into many more mixing pitfalls than I already did during this black metal adventure!
Hope you enjoy the mix, and suggestions for improvements are very welcome!
Please check out my mix, and feel free to skip the prose!
Following Mike's advice I spent quite a bit of time working with the phase-alignment of the multimiked drums in order to reduce the timbre-damaging effects of comb-filtering. I blended in the provided samples for increased timbral and dynamical consistency, while trying to preserve the natural character. During the blast-beat sections with very fast snare-hits (ex. Chorus and intro), I chose to add less of the snare sample, and ended up processing the snare in these parts entirely differently than the more forceful snare in the verses etc. I also felt the need to add in hipass filtered kick-drum samples to gain a bit more “click” and again, consistency. Overhead mics were also hipass filtered to pretty much isolate the cymbals and hihat and to free up the low end and lower midrange. I basically set the cutoff as high as possible without affecting the sound of the brasswork. Oh, and lots of fiddling with gates on the snare, hihat and kick close-mics. Would have been easier to just use samples all the way
The guitars had loads of rumble in the low end, and these were hipass filtered at around 450 Hz to leave more space for the synths, snare and toms. I found an extremely strong peak in the distortion-induced white noise at 2kHz – it was almost pitched and I realized that it made the mix sound like the Norse winds were blowing hard. It added atmosphere, but took too much space in the busy mix, which led me to cut it in most of the track, making it a bit more prominent in the open guitar-only parts . I also found a relatively strong obtrusive hiss at 4.7kHz, which I notched out. All in all, the guitars have been mangled to make room in the mix, so it may not be to everybody's liking. I decided not to re-amp the guitars and instead try to make the best of it – I thought this could be a good exercise in itself.
I notice other mixes here have used saturation on the vocals with good results, and I would consider this in the future, or if I decide to give this mix another shot.
Overall I found that I had to do a lot of subtractive EQ and panning to unmask the mix elements and to keep harshness at a tolerable level (definitely waaay too soft for true old-school norwegian black metallers). Stereo width manipulation of the synths using M/S processing helped me free up the middle of the stereo image, instead placing their emphasis on the sides portion of the mix.
On the master buss I did some gentle EQ, mostly cutting a bit around 400Hz with a wide Q, because there was an energy buildup that could be reduced for clarity. After this I added gentle compression for mix glue, and in the end limiting, again trying to do as little harm as possible.
I would like to thank Cnoc An Tursa for making their raw material accessible, it was great fun working with this track! And also a huge thanks to Mike Senior for writing mixing secrets; If I had not had access to its well-laid out methodology I would have stumbled screaming into many more mixing pitfalls than I already did during this black metal adventure!
Hope you enjoy the mix, and suggestions for improvements are very welcome!