The Black Crown - Flames

[Blitzzz]

Well, all the power is gone and there is not much emotion left in the guitars. I mean, it's a metal song. As a listener, I expect heavy, chugging guitars, right?

[mikej]

Added revision 1.2. More guitar. Cheers!

[Blitzzz]

Which one do you like more?

[mikej]

Which one do you like more?

Er, hang on. You said my guitars were missing punch and weight, and questioned if I had high passed them aggressively. You said there was not much emotion left in the guitars, and that as a listener you expected chugging guitars... I have taken this criticism on board and I've made some changes by not high passing the guitars so much and increasing the volume a touch... Do YOU like the changes? Cheers!

[mikej]

Had another go - added mix version 2.

[Blitzzz]

Hey, did you went back to the old version? Sounds very similar, but I can't really A/B both mixes at the moment. And I was asking about your opinion because sometimes you need someone from the outside to point you in the right direction. Especially if you have spent so much time with a mix that you only see the small the details but forget about the big picture

[mikej]

Hi,

Thanks for checking back.

I did a new mix from scratch with less aggressive high pass on the guitars, etc...

Today my opinion is that the mix probably needs less subby kick. Kind of lighter more punchy drums. More 3k ish (from guitar probably) and 10k, a bit less low end. Needs to be more mid forward, and maybe more work on the vocals. Maybe more compression/limiting, and a bit cleaner/less muddy overall. Not sure if I will tweak the v2.0 mix. I might start again with those aims in mind.

Cheers!

[mikej]

Ok, had another go at it - added mix 3.0. Cheers.

[LT808]

In my experience over eqing the amped/miked guitars can really change the tone of it and that really doesn't help anyone as the guitarist usually set their tone when recording and know what they are going for.

[mikej]

In my experience over eqing the amped/miked guitars can really change the tone of it and that really doesn't help anyone as the guitarist usually set their tone when recording and know what they are going for.

Hi!

Thanks for listening and for the comment. I agree with you for this mix & track, but it might not hold true in all cases I guess. For this site though I would guess following the tone of the sample mix would be a better starting point...

I don't think the main issue with this mix is the vocal level, or the guitar low pass, or guitar eq, as per comments is it?

I feel the actual issue is that the initial balance could be better. Everything is overprocessed and all bit forced really, which further throws things off. Perhaps over using eq to compensate for the sub optimal balance, hence the slightly strange sound. Add in too much slightly phasey effects such as waves doubler, and there you go.

After all that it's then all over compressed. To finish off it's over limited with a multiband on the master bus, which further throws the frequency balance out.

I think I made the exact same mistake with the Darkride tracks I attempted too....

Ok, so I'm trying not to make those mistakes with my current mixes and am hopefully approaching things with a slightly different mindset. Also trying to ref the sample mixes a bit better now too.

It's tempting to delete these 'failed' attempts, but hopefully they will serve as a useful warning to others, to not go down the path of overcooking things for no real reason.

I plan to give these tracks another go soon, having hopefully learned from my mistakes. Which is what this is all about really.

Anyway, thanks for all the comments, it's all much appreciated!