The WIP Thread

[rahul_mukerji]

Daniel13 The piece 72a sounds sludgy and more in the realm of doom metal. Sounds pretty gnarly [in a good way]. I would recommend playing with the EQ a bit, depending on what kind of a sound/feel you want the track to have. I would also EQ the Kick Drum to beef it up a bit. A little cleaning up using EQ can help clear the mix as you stop frequencies in the same range from interfering with each other.

Generally the guitars don't need to have too much low end and EQ-ing those out can help the low range instruments [Bass and Kick Drum] cut through. I could bore you with other details, but there are much better resources on EQ on the web and Youtube. YT is especially useful since you can actually do a "hands on lab" session by following along, which is much better than just reading 5 pages of text, IMO.

For the 1374bc piece, I agree with mbise1993 as in try to dial back the gain. If the pedal is not really working to meet your sound needs, I would highly recommend getting some free VST for your DAW and using those. Using that will give you a lot of flexibility in terms of sound. Again, EQ here would help clear the mix a bit.

Good luck and here's looking forward to your new mixes ! Here's a link for Free VSTs

Click this link for a good collection of Free Guitar VSTs

mbise1993 you have a catchy piece / riff there !! Reminded me immediately of something the Kris Norris Projekt would do. Very nice ! It would do really well with Vox and a sick solo !! Looking forward to hearing the completed track !

 

[TheUnknownOne]

Hi everyone, newbie here !

First I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone posting on this forum, since there are a lot of valuable informations and tips here, so i'm really grateful for all this stuff you guys taught me

But since here is the WIP thread, I would like to share with you a demo that i've been working on last weeks for my band. This is my first "serious" demo work with vocals, so any constructive criticism on the mix would be greatly appreciated !

(By the way, I am quite unsure about my master compressor settings as I am not really familiar with this tool by now...)

Here's the link (sd2.0 & cookie monster vocals inside)-> [SC]https://soundcloud.com/jeyh21/lonely-mix-demo-160415/s-kxyHU[/SC]

 

[mbise1993]

@TheUnknownOne Thats a killer song you have I really like the tone and guitar work, some very tasty riffs in there! The mix was pretty solid as well. The only thing I would recommend is lowering the level of the vocals a little. I feel like they're so loud that the instrumental bits and breakdown don't really have that punch that they could have. But then again, that might just be my personal preference. Either way, I'll be looking forward to more of your stuff!

 

[JEngelking]

JEngelking honestly compared to a lot of new music this is a lot less jumbled lol it does flow quite nicely and really taps into different moods which i dig a lot. only thing i would change would be to add some low end to the guitars, sounds a bit too mid driven for me but then again mids are what everyone is into these days.

and here's my garbage to critique, i know there is a lot wrong with it but if there's anything that i might easily overlook that might make a huge difference let me know. or just critique the songs in general.

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-colvin-13/72a

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-colvin-13/1374-bc

Thanks man! Much appreciated. I think that once I get some bass in to the mix that will help even out the low end in the mix.

For 72a, I would start off by echoing rahul_mukerji. The guitars are very dark sounding, so I thinking working on a better source tone there would be a good idea. The drums could also be more present, as they are being overpowered by the bass and guitar in my opinion. As for 1374 BC, I would say the same critiques, although in this case the guitar tone is thin and fizzy.

Good starts though!

Hi everyone, newbie here !

First I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone posting on this forum, since there are a lot of valuable informations and tips here, so i'm really grateful for all this stuff you guys taught me

But since here is the WIP thread, I would like to share with you a demo that i've been working on last weeks for my band. This is my first "serious" demo work with vocals, so any constructive criticism on the mix would be greatly appreciated !

(By the way, I am quite unsure about my master compressor settings as I am not really familiar with this tool by now...)

Here's the link (sd2.0 & cookie monster vocals inside)-> [SC]https://soundcloud.com/jeyh21/lonely-mix-demo-160415/s-kxyHU[/SC]

I like the overall feel of this song a lot! The snare should be more heard, however, and I'd personally make the kick drum less clicky, and possibly add some "space" to the drums and make them sound a little roomier by adding a subtle touch of reverb. Guitar playing is tight though!

Here's a song that my friend and I have been working on in goals of (hopefully) getting a full band together. Guitars are recorded with a Pod HD500X into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Same for the bass (which I tracked with a guitar for now, but we have a bassist redoing it). The drums are EZdrummer. Whole thing was recorded and mixed in Reaper. I'm not super happy with the guitar tones cause I think they sound a little fizzy and "loose", so I think next time I'm gonna try running a pre from the POD into an impulse cab and see how that works. We're also working on double tracking some of the guitars because we didn't have time to the first go around. All critiques and comments are welcome.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/insertcoolbandnamehere/first-song-re-mixed[/SC]

I like the vibe I get from this song a lot. The only critique I would really have is that, as you apparently know, the guitar tone could be tighter. But otherwise, nice work!

Edit:

Just finished this up so I've now got a new submission.
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/oceansbuiltonsinkingships/artyom-wip[/SC]

 

[DamienE7]

Just finished this up so I've now got a new submission.
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/oceansbuiltonsinkingships/artyom-wip[/SC][/QUOTE]

So much Rob Zombie feel... love it man!!!

Ive Persisted with this for ages, way too long... but its the easiest thing I've got recorded so i can keep tracking and test mixing and figuring everything out... got a new POD HD500x a couple weeks back so i recorded again and completely overhauled my drum sound cut compression and tried to shape and control more with eq... i think the results are phenomenal!! any advice and criticism welcome.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/shalashaska-4/paint-it-black[/SC]

 

[Shammas]

Unknown- The biggest glaring flaw with your mix is that the snare is virtually inaudible. Killer vocals though!

JEngel- Sounds great, but I think the drums are just a tad loud.

Damien- My only complaints are that the kick and snare sound a little "boxy". Sounds awesome!

I've been working on demos for my second album. So far I've got this test clip for my acoustic sound-
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/michaelaverymusic/michael-avery-common-demo-track[/SC]
And this one for my drum sound-
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/michaelaverymusic/more-drum-sounds[/SC]

 

[DamienE7]

Unknown- The biggest glaring flaw with your mix is that the snare is virtually inaudible. Killer vocals though!

JEngel- Sounds great, but I think the drums are just a tad loud.

Damien- My only complaints are that the kick and snare sound a little "boxy". Sounds awesome!

I've been working on demos for my second album. So far I've got this test clip for my acoustic sound-
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/michaelaverymusic/michael-avery-common-demo-track[/SC]
And this one for my drum sound-
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/michaelaverymusic/more-drum-sounds[/SC]

Love that acoustic sound man!! really really nice!

what do you mean by boxy?

 

[Shammas]

Love that acoustic sound man!! really really nice!

what do you mean by boxy?

I guess it's a bit "roomy", like the 300-800hz area is boosted a little too much and it might sit better if those are brought down.

 

[TheUnknownOne]

I've been working on demos for my second album. So far I've got this test clip for my acoustic sound-
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/michaelaverymusic/michael-avery-common-demo-track[/SC]

Really liked the playing and the overall feel !

Thanks for your tips mbise1993, JEngelking & Shammas. I'm still working on the snare and kick balance and I also lowered the vocals a bit, it starts to sound much better to my ears now !


EDIT: Okay I was having hard time finding a decent snare sound in SD2, in the end I realized that I messed up with my parallel compression settings !

 

[mbise1993]

@Shammas That acoustic sound is awesome! I think you really hit the nail on the head with that. I like the playing a lot as well, I'm a sucker for those interesting chords haha. And the drums sound good to me too, but I feel like I can't give very good feedback on those since I'm still using EZdrummer for my mixes

Anyways, here's a new song that I just finished up mixing today. I think it turned out a lot better than my first song (on my soundcloud if you wanna check it out) in terms of both the guitar tone and the overall mix. This time I went for a more djenty tone and used a cab impulse instead of the fizzy cabs built into the POD HD. I also routed my drum tracks to different channels and actually tried my hand at mixing them instead of just using the EZdrummer defaults. All feedback is much appreciated

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/insertcoolbandnamehere/another-song-with-no-name[/SC]

 

[rahul_mukerji]

Shammas: That acoustic sound is really nice and bell clean !! I thought the 0:40 part could use some EQ. Sounds a lot like Don Ross / Preston Reed kinda playing !

I don't really have a good drum reference, so no comments on your drum track.

mbise1993: Nice piece !!

 

[theo]

mbise: I feel like your right hand crash is a bit loud in comparison to the rest of what's going on. I'd like to hear more ambiance on the kit to make it feel a little more relaxed. some we placed verb maybe?

New one I just started mixing for a friend of mine. Totally out of my comfort zone here... It's not death metal! hahaha

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/pmbsxuckvj2zspq/The Endless Nothing Dream 24-APRIL-2015.mp3?dl=0

EDIT: Fixed link, dropbox noob here.

EDIT 2: Fixed link, dropbox noob here. AGAIN

 

[rohan daniel]

hey guys

 

[rohan daniel]

hey guys,

This time i used a different amp for the "sound"
recorded through 2i4
amp - engl invader through an orange cab mic 409 dynamic
drums - toontrack - avatar as usual

any type of comments are appreciated

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/rohdan/untitled[/SC]

 

[theo]

EDIT: Nevermind.

 

[Daniel13]

took some pointers and tried again, tough to get it to sound good and for me to still like it. issues with this one i can see are that it sounds dampened the bass is inaudible after it gets uploaded to soundcloud (its beefy before that) and on small speakers the drums are way louder than they're supposed to be.

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-colvin-13/a-perfect-example-of-tragedy-2

oh and this whole song was recorded with my ibanez SRC6

replaced link with updated version, converted it before uploading to soundcloud and lowered the drums 3db. also re eq'd the bass but they are still inaudible on cellphones. drums are also overly loud on cells and quiet on everything else now

 

[Dead-Pan]

What are you monitoring on?

 

[Daniel13]

hey guys,

This time i used a different amp for the "sound"
recorded through 2i4
amp - engl invader through an orange cab mic 409 dynamic
drums - toontrack - avatar as usual

any type of comments are appreciated

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/rohdan/untitled[/SC]

this sounds ridiculously good. i love the guitar stutters

 

[Daniel13]

What are you monitoring on?

headphones, computer speakers w/sub, and a cell phone, sounds great on all of them till it goes onto soundcloud

 

[Dead-Pan]

Strange cause on my cell about all I can hear are the drums.