My last job. (FFO: Polyphia, Guthrie Govan, etc.)

[noUser01]

Recently I produced, mixed, mastered, and performed a guest solo on my friend's debut single with his new solo project called Perseus Octave. Very Polyphia/Haunted Shores/Jason Richardson type stuff. Could really use some feedback on the production. I'm getting really into production these days but I'm far from being a professional by any means so I'm just looking to improve.

For those curious my solo comes in at 1:54.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/perseusoctave/third-equinox-ft-connor-gilkinson-1[/SC]

As far as production goes I had limited resources for bass and drums on this one. If anyone has more questions on the details of signal chains, mixing techniques etc. just let me know.

Guitars - AxeFX II (FAS Modern for rhythm, Friedman HBE + Deluxe Reverb for my solo, USA Clean for cleans) and TSE X50 for my friend's solo
Drums - Superior Drummer 2.0
Bass - Zombass 4.0

I've got a checklist in my head of things I would've liked to change but most of them I just don't have the skills or ear to get the results yet. Oh well, just a matter of time and practice! Any tips?

 

[whtSOEver]

Sounds really nice, I like it.

There is a thing I would change though. The cymbals on the far left and right seem a little bit disturbing, because they are so prominent. Regarding the whole mix, it seems that the overheads are either on the far left or far right as well.

What exactly is beeing played arround 2:60 on them? I'm not that familiar with drums, that's why I am asking. Is it alternating between a crash and a splash? Why not split them left and right so it envelopes the whole track?

What I would try is, when there is an alternation between cymbals put them on either side to envelope the track, lower the volume a little or maybe put some more verb on them with a slight compression to wash them out.
Like it is arround 2:20, there is a nice washed out cymbal.

I'm struggling with mixing myself so those are just some ideas I would try, maybe it helps .

 

[noUser01]

Sounds really nice, I like it.

There is a thing I would change though. The cymbals on the far left and right seem a little bit disturbing, because they are so prominent. Regarding the whole mix, it seems that the overheads are either on the far left or far right as well.

What exactly is beeing played arround 2:60 on them? I'm not that familiar with drums, that's why I am asking. Is it alternating between a crash and a splash? Why not split them left and right so it envelopes the whole track?

What I would try is, when there is an alternation between cymbals put them on either side to envelope the track, lower the volume a little or maybe put some more verb on them with a slight compression to wash them out.
Like it is arround 2:20, there is a nice washed out cymbal.

I'm struggling with mixing myself so those are just some ideas I would try, maybe it helps .

Thanks man. What are you listening on? They are fairly low in the mix on my KRK's but are more prominent on smaller systems and I agree could've been taken down a tad. They have some slight compression on them but I'll look at tweaking it. The 'verb is the same level all throughout by the way, but I'll see if I can't automate it or tweak it to sound more like 2:20.

Also what section are you referring to? I'm guessing you didn't mean 2:60.

As far as overhead width I think that's more of an issue of not being able to get my guitars wider, so the overheads seem too wide. I used a Haunted Shores track as reference and tried to mimic the cymbal panning on that, since it's very wide and sounds awesome. I didn't use any widening on the OH's though, I just hard panned them like 99% of tracks are, haha.

 

[TedEH]

Since it's been pointed out, I hear it too. Cymbals are too far to the right starting at around 2:45 or so. Sounds a bit odd to me there too.

 

[whtSOEver]

Hahaha, I meant the 2:50 part. 2:60 ... jesus .
But now that I listened to it again, it's simply one cymbal with different intensity there, right?

I'm listening to it on nubert A-20.

The wide panning is a nice idea. Maybe when it's blended like the part arround 2:20 it will work out smoothly.
I think it's the harder hits on the cymbal that are bugging me, because they are a little harsh and crave my attention . A little dip somewhere arround 3-8kHz maybe?

 

[Forrest_H]

I f-cking dig this. I don't have any constructive criticism to add since I'm not near my good speakers, will listen again at home

 

[bluemooo]

Rhythm needs a little less low end in the EQ, maybe rhythm guitars volume down a tad.

Edit: A little less low end on the clean too. I can hear my monitors pooping.

 

[noUser01]

Hahaha, I meant the 2:50 part. 2:60 ... jesus .
But now that I listened to it again, it's simply one cymbal with different intensity there, right?

I'm listening to it on nubert A-20.

The wide panning is a nice idea. Maybe when it's blended like the part arround 2:20 it will work out smoothly.
I think it's the harder hits on the cymbal that are bugging me, because they are a little harsh and crave my attention . A little dip somewhere arround 3-8kHz maybe?

Not sure what you mean about that cymbal, it's the same all the way through as far as general velocity goes. Probably just needs more EQ! It may be acting a bit weird because of compression. I'll see how I can blend it better, thanks. I think maybe I need to spend more time working with my room mic to get the cymbals to sit better in the mix.

bluemoo: The cleans popping is an issue that I suspect happened during reamping. You learn from your mistakes I suppose!

 

[sami50000]

I think it's definitely good. The core/source tones all sound pleasing, as in the rhythm guitars are nice and chunky, drums sound good and the lead tone is appropriate as well. I would personally mess with the levels or mix a bit, the lead guitar seems a bit too quiet in places and some of the cymbals are a bit too loud, when compared to the rest of the kit (and the whole mix overall).

The drums sound very "Superior Drummer" -ish, because, well, they are haha. This isn't necessarily a fault of your mixing, its just that the same sounds can be heard in many different mixes and songs (especially here) that they become easy to pick out. Don't know if this would bother the average listener at all though. The overall structure of the song feels a bit too much like "one section after the other" rather than an overall cohesive song, but I guess that's not what you're looking for feedback on. Sick solos and good feel though.

Hope this helps.

 

[TallestFiddle]

Dude your solo is killer!! I'm super impressed by that. Who are your biggest influences for lead playing? The riff behind it is one of my favorite parts of the song too. Its hard to give any critiques because the production seems perfect to my ears, this is some music that I would pay to listen to.


The one thing that sticks out to me though, is the part at 1:37. I'm not feeling that transition. I would try to slowly fade from the solo guitar into that clean strummed guitar, that spot of silence kills me. Maybe having a longer interlude there would be good. You could try to build up from that silence with a more ambient part, because the part at 1:54 is really amazing and its worth the wait. I do think that the song is cohesive other than that one break in the middle, each half by itself seems fine. I know that you're not really looking for feedback on the composition since you didn't write the song, but thats about all I can help with

Also, it might be a good idea to go through and see where you might be able to put in some different accent cymbals, because in a lot of the measures its one crash to start and then a different crash for 7 beats and then repeat. Its not a huge deal, I didn't even notice it during my first listen. Its probably fine the way it is since the drums are mostly there to support the guitars.

 

[noUser01]

Thanks guys.

I agree with the Superior Drummer syndrome, but unfortunately my cash flow has been needed elsewhere for the past several months, so trying to create a more diverse sample library has been put on the backburner. Hoping to get Drumforge when I get some spare cash. In a few months I'll be able to track real drums in a good sized room so all my drum mixes will be a lot more natural.

I really just "added" drums and didn't write them. I didn't want to put in more work when I wasn't being paid as a songwriter so I let him make all the calls. I was just the one programming drums because obviously he doesn't know how or have the tools. The composition stuff is basically all him. The only calls I made were when he asked for my feedback on a specific part.

I appreciate the love on my solo, man. I'd say these days I draw on a mix of Guthrie Govan, Mattias Eklundh, the Periphery trio, Synyster Gates (yes, really), Allan Holdsworth, and Andy Marsh. Those are the people who've probably influenced my playing the most in the past couple of years, and depending on the solo you'll hear more of certain influences.

It's on the Perseus Octave Bandcamp if anyone wants to pick it up.

 

[M3CHK1LLA]

i really like the song...good work.

 

[Electric Wizard]

You change that user title right now, mister. There was definite playing and it was great.

 

[noUser01]

Haha, you guys are too kind!

 

[Noxon]

Nice job, dude. I dug that

 

[Clocks]

Very good man, sounds nice and beefy. Regarding the overheads/cymbal issue - if it even is one, do you have the cymbals in overheads only or is there bleed in the room mics? If you have the cymbals in the room mics too/more it might spread it a tad more evenly.

The only other thing is more of a taste thing, there's some slight pumping going on, I think on the drum master or something? But that's just personal taste!

The structure is great, tones are sick and the solo is killer! Good job dude

 

[Tegara]

You oughta try the Metal Foundry pack for Superior Drummer to get more sounds. Also within SD's own mixer, you should make the cymbals (and hihats too when you use them) bleed to other channels, namely the ambient channels, and also parallel compress the cymbals in a separate bus.
I can't remember if there are ambient channels on default SD but if not, you should enable multichanneling, and then make a new bus in your DAW for the cymbals, add some reverb, compression and whatever.

 

[noUser01]

To be completely honest I think I just neglected the room mic with all the other stuff I was focused on. But hey, that's why I don't tote myself as a professional haha. All about learning! I do multitrack everything out and I do have Metal Foundry, but it wasn't installed at the time. Gonna take a crack at this in a few weeks once I get a good break from it, and see if I can't implement all the advice you've all offered as well as a few ideas I had.