Learning from Metallica's Mistake

[MerlinTKD]

Okay, by now we've all been made aware of the production on Metallica's Death Magnetic, and had the chance to make our opinions known:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ge.../67110-death-magnetic-wave-form-analysis.html

So, the next question is: how do I, as a fledgling, neophyte recording musician (or you, as the same, or you, as an experienced home producer) avoid this kind of ridiculous overkill in my own productions?

I guess what I'm asking for are tips and tricks, make sure to do this, make sure not to do that. Rules of thumb to live by, in the recording process, as it were.


I know what I've recorded myself has that same thick, opaque auditory wall that's so prevalent in DM (thank God, not to the same degree!), and I'd like to learn how to create something much more transparent and dynamic. Obviously there are specific solutions to each specific situation, but let's hear some good basic information to get we less-experienced folk off in the right direction!

 

[Mattayus]

I tend to use very little compression. Well, in as much that i keep the threshold quite high so i dont get that 'squashed' feel, but low enough so there is some compression to aid the cohesiveness of the finished product, you know what i mean?

 

[sakeido]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately too, between Death Magnetic and Bulb's mixes.. right now, all I really do is use a L2 at the master to boost things up a bit and make sure it is never attenuating more than 3dB. Otherwise, I have a hard time getting the body in the sound I really want.

A link that deals specifically with mastering would be nice.. because right now, I just took what Frederick Thorendal used on his Superior example.

 

[Plankis]

Aiming for a RMS around -9-(-10) is enough, imo. I think Metallica's is around -6.47...

 

[MF_Kitten]

i always aim for minimal to no clipping. to ensure that, i put a compressor on the mix that only tames the kick or snare, the usual suspects. they´re usually the loud and clipping parts of the kit, at least the kick is (i usually compress the snare by itself).

i set the compression level really high, and the attack and release speeds low. then i adjust the threshold until it only kicks in when the loud noises activate it, and nothing else. then i bring the compression level down until i can´t hear any pumping or compression, but i can see the compression gauge (a visual bar that shows the compression level in real-time) moving. that way, i know it´s dealing with the clipping without me noticing it. i haven´t been able to do it as well as i wished yet though, but now that i´m upgrading to a better DAW, Logic 8 Express, i´ll be able to get it just right

 

[MF_Kitten]

Edit: Doublepost!

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

so are you guys throwing a little comp on to the guitars, snare, kick, AND the whole mix a little?

 

[sakeido]

so are you guys throwing a little comp on to the guitars, snare, kick, AND the whole mix a little?

Its different all the time in my mixes,
- Guitars no compression whatsoever. Latest one I tried a little multiband but generally nothing.
- Snare, compressed top, middle & bullet to bring out crack, body and sizzle respectively
- Kick, no compression whatsoever
- Whole mix, Waves L2 & C4 multiband compression

 

[Mattayus]

i have one compressor on the bass (ESSENTIAL, PEOPLE!), and two on the whole mix.

The first one has a fairly low threshold, fast attack, fast release, hard knee. The second one has a medium attack, slow release, hardly any threshold, and a soft knee.

It's the second one where you really start to hear everything getting ssssquuuuiiiisshed! The first one's for volume increase without clipping really.

Then, to cap it all off, i'll brick wall it with a limiter, low enough to catch the clips/peaks, but high enough to not lose dynamics or make everything pump like fuck!

 

[sakeido]

Oh yeah, forgot about bass. I compress the fuck out of it so it has basically no dynamics at all not sure how exactly I should be doing it.

 

[Mattayus]

Well you're along the right tracks. Obviously the aim isn't kill the dynamics, but the bass is an instrument of little dynamics anyway. It needs to be tamed, purely due to its nature. It's loud, it's messy, it's unpredictable, and it can fog things up due to its extreme low end. Therefore you really do need to smash the shit out of it so it's totally level and even and not popping in and out of the mix at random intervals!

a multiband compressor is awesome for bass, if you have the patience to sit there and fuck with it. I usually just throw a straight forward compression on it though

 

[MerlinTKD]

Wow, this is awesome! Thanks for jumping in, guys!


So, speaking of bass... how DO you 'compress the fuck out of it'? I'm using Reaper, I'm assuming I use the ReaComp VST and set the pre-comp high? I'm not even sure what all these sliders do

 

[Mattayus]

Sorry dude, not familar with Reaper, but gimme 5 minutes and i'll take a screenshot of my compessed bass in Logic, see if you can take some tips from it

 

[Mattayus]

Here you go man

 

[MerlinTKD]

Thanks bro!

 

[Plankis]

comp picture

Could you also tell the general gain reduction? It's easier to set the threshold then.

 

[Mattayus]

Roughly between 5 and 8 DB, usually around 6

 

[newamerikangospel]

I am still finding my sound with SD 2.0, but overall I run compression on:

Kick. Its actually setup to remove the initial attack. It doesn't "remove" per say, but brings it to a more hearty "thud" then the Clickooom".

Snare top to bring the body of the snare out. I helps bring the little thick after ring out to make the snare sound more like a wrecking ball instead of a ballpin hammer

Toms to flatten them a little (I hate really attacking toms/kicks). Pull more body, drop some of the ticks

Brass (Cymbals/high hats/rides) Kind of the same thing. It isn't to flatten, but to pull more body out of.

Bass, I compress enough to smooth and make sound more of like a sexy velvet.

Guitars, I do a humble amount on, but its more of a side effect. I compress the middle"s" (4 band compressor) to thicken the tone, generally leave the bass and highs untouched, but they get splattered with a little bit of compression in the after effects.

Synths. This is a very case by case basis. I use multi band compression on something I want to pull the bass out of, without effecting the overtones with a standard eq. Alot of my stuff is squarewave based any way (sounds better to my ears), so there isn't alot of dynamics.

 

[jacksonplayer]

I'm kind of a weird duck by today's standards because I record on a tabletop recorder (Korg D3200) rather than a DAW. But I don't add *any* compression to individual instruments in the mix. I track my bass guitar with mega-compression because dynamics are usually the last thing you want out of that instrument, unless you're talking jazz. My drum sounds come from my Yamaha Motif ES-6 keyboard and are already "pre-compressed", since the samples are quite punchy. Mixing acoustic drums would probably be different, though.

For mastering, I use a four-band limiter effect in my D3200 that is preset for mastering, and I then tweak to taste. It raises the high end and high mids much more than the lows, effectively acting as an EQ in addition to raising the overall sound level. This helps me because I've found that my raw mixes often end up really bass-heavy. I don't allow *any* clipping, and I work to find a balance between dynamics and perceived loudness. It's a process of compromise, ultimately. It seems like metal producers in the early to mid '90s found a nice medium ground, but then everything got fucked up once nu-metal came along.

 

[MerlinTKD]

So, this was posted in the Metallica Waveform thread, in Gen Music:

Cos it was mentioned:

Modern Music is Losing Something by Darren Monson

also

I realized that what I record sounds a LOT more like the 'loudness' example, than the clear, punchy original. How does one avoid that, especially using all digitized sounds (amp modelers, sampled drums)? How does one get that wonderful clarity, instead?