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Bannockburn - a black metal moshfest (NEW MIX / UPDATE March 2017)
#1
-------------- NEW POSTING AND MIX (MARCH 2017)

I´m revisiting some of my old mixes to get a feel how much I have developed my skills in the past 2-3 years. Bannockburn was one of my first mixes (if not THE first) I have ever done besides mixing my own songs, so this song is somewhat special for me. After listening to my old mix I felt the need to do it again and see where it takes me. I started from scratch, and surprisingly it took me less than four hours to finish this mix.

I've spend most of that time choosing the right kick/snare/tom samples for this style of music and of course picking the right guitar sim which is kinda different compared with my old workflow. My main goal was to get the best source tones possible for this song/genre so I could concentrate on mixing, not fixing things.

I came up with samples from Eyal Levis Drumforge Addon and Toneforge Menace for the guitars. After that, it was a matter of minutes to get a quick, basic mix of the song with all instruments in the right spot and another 60 minutes to add reverb, delays and all the bells and whistles.

The end result: Bannockburn_new_2017 has way more clarity, punch, depth and definition compared with the muddy, grumpy mix I did three years ago. Looks like my Nail the Mix subscription has paid off Smile

------------------------------------- OLD POSTING AND MIX FROM 2014
Hey guys,

I was bored mixing my own stuff so i picked up this song and worked on it for about 6 hours. Bannockburn is a straightforward black metal song so I tried to mix it like most of the black metal songs I know:

- Thin guitars
- very "light" kick drum
- reverb, reverb, reverb


.mp3    Bannockburn_old_2014.mp3 --  (Download: 11.27 MB)


.mp3    Bannockburn_new_2017.mp3 --  (Download: 10.86 MB)


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#2
Good Job man! Sounds good for 6 hours of work. Check out my mix, I spent a few hours on it aswell.
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#3
Hey Blitzz, just had a listen to your mix and it sounds great. I like the fact that the bass is actually audible in the mix and the kick has some thump to it, although I think the bass is fighting with the kick and muddying up the kick. The kick in my opinion needs some 3-5 kHz and less 300-400 Hz for it to really make it gel with the bass.

The lead vocals are nice and in your face even without the double track. I'm not sure what you did with the Low Lead and High Lead tracks and I really didn't notice them untill I looked at the screen shots from your mix window. The vocal could use that double track just to give it some width and make it seem like the vocals are surrounding the listener in the """choruses""" or throughout the whole track.

The guitar tones are nice and mid heavy like the Immortal track you referenced, maybe a little further back in the mix but still heavy and powerful. What did you use for your rhythm tones, I'm seeing Ezmix but I'm not sure which patches you used for your tone?

Overall this is a great modern black metal mix. Smile
Mixing is way more art and soul than science. We don’t really know what we’re doing. We do it because we love music! It’s the love of music first. Eddie Kramer

Gear list: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, Mbox Mini w/Pro Tools Express, Reaper, Various plugins, AKG K240 MKii, Audio Technica ATH M50x, Yorkville YSM 6
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#4
I guess this was my very first mix on this site. Still cool but I don't even have that cubase project anymore. Maybe I do it again someday. When I use EZmix i almost always use a sneap sound - and in 90% it's the Odin preset which is a copy of Amon Amarths guitar sound. Works well in most mixes.
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#5
Blitzz. Everything I've heard from you is well above the grade. Nice work always. Like your sound a lot.
Whats in the secret sauce.
Drums punch a hole in the sun.
Guitars wipe clean the blade of a rusty razor.
Vocals have eaten a bucket of rotten flesh and spat it out.
Sterling.

James
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#6
Many thx James Smile I listen to metal for the last 34 years so it's probably just knowing what's important for each genre and trying to get there with my mix. I always mix with ref mixes - they help me to stay on track. Samples (Slate, Superior Drummer) and guitar/bass sounds from Andy Sneaps EZmix Addon are a big help too, the rest is mix prep, gain staging and getting the balance right. I don't use a lot of plugins nowadays - most of the time its the slate stuff and some special tools stuff from other companies because i love the workflow or because slate doesn't have that kind of stuff yet (like the de-esser from fabfilter or C6 from Waves). I do a LOT more automation these days because it's the only way to bring out all the small details in a song.
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#7
Well done, this mix comes close to the original! Maybe i like it even better then the original.
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#8
I really like this mix! It's smooth like Satyricon's 'Volcano', but without the clipping ;-P.

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#9
Oh, thx mate =) I would probably mix it very different nowadays but I remember having a lot of fun when i mixed this song 2 years ago with the limited knowledge i had back then. I´m totally missing clarity - there is too much frequency masking in the lows/lower mids. maybe I do a new version from scratch just to see if I can get a better result now.
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#10
------------------------------Update March 2017:
I´m revisiting some of my old mixes to get a feel how much I have developed my skills in the past 2-3 years. Bannockburn was one of my first mixes (if not THE first) I have ever done besides mixing my own songs, so this song is somewhat special for me. After listening to my old mix I felt the need to do it again and see where it takes me. I started from scratch, and surprisingly it took me less than four hours to finish this mix. I spent most of that time choosing the right kick/snare/tom samples for this style of music and of course picking the right guitar sim. I came up with samples from Eyal Levis Drumforge Addon and Toneforge Menace for the guitars. After that, it was a matter of minutes to get a quick, basic mix of the song with all instruments in the right spot and another 60 minutes to add reverb, delays and all the bells and whistles.

The end result (listen to Bannockburn_new_2017 added to my first post at the beginning of this thread) is a mix that has way more clarity, punch, depth and definition compared with the muddy, grumpy mix I did three years ago. Cool Smile
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