Creating a good mix between instruments

[jackmcdonnell]

heeey you sevenstring-ers,

been writing a lot of material lately and have recently done a lot of recording of my ideas into logic pro 9 using a pod2, logic software instruments for the drums and a DI'd bass guitar. All the material i'm writing is heavy metal stuff and i've been experimenting with djenty type sounds but now i've got all my tracks down though i've hit a brick wall. i've never done any sort of mixing of these instruments in my life and i was wondering where the hell you start? I've good knowledge of most of the parts of logic 9 (however i've only been using it for 3 months so i know i have a lot to learn). What advice would you give to someone in my position and where would you point me to get me on my way to the basics?

thanks lads
Jack

 

[Blackula]

For starters, and just a quick pointer, I always double track guitars and pan them and turn them up just a bit. I try to keep the bass just barely audible, but noticeable enough to still keep power, and keep your drum overheads down! lol. It's really just all about tweaking things until they mesh pretty well. If it sounds good, then theres a good chance that it is good. Heres a good thread on the reaper forum that I've been reading. It should help out.

Why do your recordings sound like ass? - Cockos Confederated Forums

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Make sure you know what instruments fit into what EQ range. EQ them accordingly and they will mesh. IE, you don't want the bass competing with the guitar for low end (lol?)

 

[Ryan-ZenGtr-]

Hi Jack, welcome to the forum!

Check the sticky'd posts here, at Andy sneap's Ultimate metal forum and gear slutz for a wealth of recording help.

Heavy Metal Forums, Discussion, Interviews, Reviews | UltimateMetal.com | Supporting The Metal Underground.

Gearslutz.com

So far as advice, start with your drum mix. It creates the psycho acoustic space your mix will sit in, i.e. a big room, small room, church etc all reverb presets, right?

Compress, pan and reverb to taste, with preliminary EQ to get you punchy. Dominion Endorphin, a free VSTi is great for drums. I use it on all drum complete mix bounces, then add eq and reverb. Sit kicks around 120hz and snares 3.5khz to 4.8khz with some kick snap at 6khz area.

Bass DI can be boosted with modelling, impulses etc. I like waves c4 multiband compressor to smooth the bass guitar at specific frequencies. Most important for me, low and high pass filters, 80hz and 4khz. Boost at 550hz for clarity and note definiton.

Guitars from pods can always do with some help. Lot's of people are using "NO CABINET" setting and impulses for speaker / mic modelling. LePou ReCab and Voxengo Boogex are FREE impulse cabinet modelers and free Mesa cab impulses are available online. Very easy to use.

I find that guitar's can be low passed any where above 120hz, up to 350hz (!) as most of the bottome end will just kill your bass and kick drum. 6.6khz is the special MESA/Boogie frequency for top sizzle. You'll probably want a high pass around 7.2khz to 8.2khz to remove Pod Noize only dogs and dolphins can hear but will cloud your recording.

A good finalizer will help, Izotope Ozone or any analogue desk VSTi on the master fader will help, which should be used when mixing.

MOST IMPORTANT: Do Not Save Money on MONITORS! Buy the best your project deserves!

Waves Gtr solo, amp modelling of Paul Reed Smith's real amp collection, looks interesting and is free for a year, as is Reaper's month trial (40USD for lifetime non commercial use).

Why not open a SoundCloud - Your Sound, At The Heart account and upload so everyone can make specfic comments.



Best of luck!

FREE GUITAR AMPS VSTI
Downloads at Kuassa Amplifikation
TheSerinaExperiment.net • Index page

LePou
LePou Plugins

Digital Fish Phones Endophin Compressor
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/880.html

DI BOXES
What reamp boxes are there on the market? - Ultimate Metal Forum

Slate Drum smaples
Trigger EX from audioMIDI.com

REAPER
REAPER | Resources

nEBULA vSTI
Acustica-Audio.com

Novationmusic.com - Nocturn Keyboard - Keyboard controller with intelligent plug-in/DAW control

STUDIO DESIGN
John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum • Index page

Waves Gtr 3.0
www.wavesgtr.com/html/product_gtr3.html

 

[jackmcdonnell]

that shit helps guys, thanks

had a fiddle with what im working on at the moment and this is what i came up with so far;

dirty fisting (UNMASTERED) by Jack McDonnell on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

couldn't think of a decent title (as always). comment it like a boss



Jack

 

[Blackula]

I don't think it sounds too bad man. The main guitars get swallowed up a bit towards the beginning, and it might just be me, but I think the over heads could go down just a touch on the drums. The guitars don't sound too bad all in all, but I'd put a little more balls into them, but that's just me I'm a bit of a chunk freak haha. The lead at the end of the song is a tad bit loud too.

All in all man, I think it sounds pretty damn good for you never mixing anything
I dig the song a lot too man, keep it coming!

 

[jackmcdonnell]

I don't think it sounds too bad man. The main guitars get swallowed up a bit towards the beginning, and it might just be me, but I think the over heads could go down just a touch on the drums. The guitars don't sound too bad all in all, but I'd put a little more balls into them, but that's just me I'm a bit of a chunk freak haha. The lead at the end of the song is a tad bit loud too.

All in all man, I think it sounds pretty damn good for you never mixing anything
I dig the song a lot too man, keep it coming!

thanks man, im fairly pleased with it but still think it needs work. i agree that the guitars do sound a little weak, how could i remedy this? i'll take your suggestions into account and have another upload up after the weekend.

 

[The Reverend]

As a sort of proof-of-concept, I really dug this. It felt like Japanese RPG main menu music mixed with metal? Good shit .

Read up on mixing, and then upload a remix

 

[Blackula]

Maybe turn the bass up a little bit? I love the tone though You're a beast man.

 

[btfsam]

good material and not a bad first mix at all

 

[jackmcdonnell]

UPDATE:


dirty fisting (2) by Jack McDonnell on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

some changes to the mix, including;

- a touch more bass to all guitars
- less compression
- 500ms delay to lead
- 5 sample stereo sample delay to rhythm gtrs
- subtle 1/8th note delay on top of that
- high + low crash levels brought down
- bass guitar brought up
- guitar levels brought up slightly



really don't know what else can be done to it. i think thats all really. do you agree?

 

[Ryan-ZenGtr-]

Nice stuff Jack. I enjoyed listening to your tunes. definite improvement on take 2... Delay and guitars = win.

If I was to offer a critique... The arrangement is quite busy...

I would say more, but I think your ready to work on the next ones which I look forward to checking out!

 

[Triple7]

This thread has definitely proven helpful!