Post-Metal I'm Halfway through College track!

[AdenM]

Sup guys. Finished my second year of college today, finally got to sit down with my PRS and dial in some non-djenty tones. I'm going for the kind of really open, round, midrangey PRS tone that bands like The Ocean, Night Verses, Steven Wilson, etc. have, and am trying to write some really atmospheric post-metal type stuff, over more technical prog that I typically write. As a result I'm still working on mixing new tones and more guitar tracks in (6 on this little snippet), as well as getting some really tasty, reverby drum sounds, let me know what you think!

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/dailluminaughty/done-with-finals[/SC]

 

[AndruwX]

Hey its sounding pretty decent. Good!
Can I ask, how did you track the guitars in this? I'm curious.

 

[boobstastegreat]

I think this sounds really good. I hear some cloudkicker in this...

The drums, in my opinion need some work in terms of sound. What drum samples are you using?

 

[KristapsCoCoo]

Guitar sounds great, drums and mix overall is lacking... But, yeah, what did you use for guitar? I really dig your tone in this!

 

[AdenM]

Guitars are direct through my POD X3 Pro. Basically, take your typical djent tone, dial back the gain to about 45-55, max mids, some bass, and little treble. Reduce compression and gating, and then boost the bass and low mids, while cutting the harsh highs slightly. Then add a concert hall style reverb, mix it down pretty low, really widens the tone. Result should be a really airy and round, but still focused midrange tone, a la Nick DePirro of Night Verses. As for tracking, I've been hard panning two left/right for rhythms, and then 70-80 percent pan for two atmospheric delay-verb-octave chord tracks that I mix pretty low. Leads center panned, been experimenting with a centered rhythm track mixed down as well as doubling leads. I like to mix the bass pretty loudly, and make sure I high pass the guitars out of the low range. I rely alot on the kick to give some of the more syncopated stuff definition, which is why I mix it pretty loudly. I really want to get the drums to sound more like another part of the mix, as opposed to having everything kind of layered on top of them and trying to get them to cut through. What pointers do you guys have as to the drums and the mix as a whole? (Drums are EZ Drummer DFH, gonna grab metal machine soon i think.)

EDIT: Thanks alot for your comments and feedback guys

 

[AndruwX]

Guitars are direct through my POD X3 Pro. Basically, take your typical djent tone, dial back the gain to about 45-55, max mids, some bass, and little treble. Reduce compression and gating, and then boost the bass and low mids, while cutting the harsh highs slightly. Then add a concert hall style reverb, mix it down pretty low, really widens the tone. Result should be a really airy and round, but still focused midrange tone, a la Nick DePirro of Night Verses. As for tracking, I've been hard panning two left/right for rhythms, and then 70-80 percent pan for two atmospheric delay-verb-octave chord tracks that I mix pretty low. Leads center panned, been experimenting with a centered rhythm track mixed down as well as doubling leads. I like to mix the bass pretty loudly, and make sure I high pass the guitars out of the low range. I rely alot on the kick to give some of the more syncopated stuff definition, which is why I mix it pretty loudly. I really want to get the drums to sound more like another part of the mix, as opposed to having everything kind of layered on top of them and trying to get them to cut through. What pointers do you guys have as to the drums and the mix as a whole? (Drums are EZ Drummer DFH, gonna grab metal machine soon i think.)

EDIT: Thanks alot for your comments and feedback guys

Thanks for the explanation, very useful.
In my case I use addictive drums 2 for how real they sound, but I have heard a lot of good things about metal machine, so be free to use it!

 

[thisiswhywefight]

I just want to say Night Verses is amazing and their guitarist is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The solo on To The Ends of The Earth is basically the best solo I've ever heard.

 

[AdenM]

Oh hell yeah dude. I hope they blow up, I love how Nick kinda fuses the shoegazey, post-whatever, effect-laden stuff in a more modern/progressive setting; I love post-metal, but alot of bands are too shoegazey for me, to the point where I feel like the songs have no energy, but NV kills it. Prime example is 2:16 in Time Erases Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y5TkVfliR0

 

[Rakija]

Dude this is sick! Good work We have similiar tastes!

 

[Nick]

this is cool, you really should pick up metal machines. I bet if you just dropped the MM kit into this and did absolute minimal eqing etc it would make the whole thing sound a lot better.