Please HELP! CRITIQUE

[davidpaulpaige]

OK After listening it seems I "might" have hit the remaster too hard.
Anyway Please Comment!

[mixingdrummer]

Overall this is a good mix, i think the kick as to much low end and not enough smack, i feel it doesnt have alot of power to it. The snare is also a little weak for me did you do any sample replacement or alot of eq to the snare and kick? The only other thing is the guitars are a little thin and dont fit to well with the bass i felt

[davidpaulpaige]

Thank you mixingdrummer for your comments!
Nope no drum replacements here. I feel like an ass if I have to "replace" what the artist should have recorded or provided in the first place. I am just the lowly mixer here not the producer or the artist. Although when I record heavy bands there may be a need to use gates or triggers but I return these to the console and blend them into their respective mic'd tracks all to the artists tastes or references of course.
Not much eq was used on the Kick or Snare. Snare had a little 1800-2k boost and the kick had a bit of hi-pass at 40hz, same old metal thing. Parallel compression is all that was used there.
I do agree the guitars are thin. They went for a Killswitch Engage sound, which is inherently thin and chorus-ey. I used a pair of SSL(4000) brown eq pair for the guitars, I felt the eq added some upper harmonics and provided some power(3K) and bite. In my opinion a good place to start doing research on recording metal guitar would begin with Terry Date(pantera), Scott Burns(sepultura), Joe Barresi(melvins) and Ross Robinson. These guys, IMO are the simply a few of the best engineers of creating what we would all call a "classic" metal guitar tone. For me, it would be impossible to consider metal or heavy guitar without these men and their work.
My new setup is entirely out of the box with a compressor on every buss, five in all with a tube limiter at the 2 buss. I do these mixes to get antiquated with the gear and also to experiment. This way the worst that will happen is someone will hate what I have done, as opposed to a CLIENT hating what I have done.
Here it's always for fun as I have nothing to prove and no special skill to illustrate. Although I will never be rich OR famous from music, there is nothing more in this world I enjoy more!

[thelongestyear]

It's easier for me to say what I find unsettling.
The toms levels could be a bit lower. The backs are overwhelming at times. The bass could be a bit more present (maybe it's my monitoring).
But the overall mix sounds like a record though. Nice one.