The WIP Thread

[dimebagfan01]

It sure is the right place to post.
But, in order to receive feedback you need to first provide some feedback for the last 3 posts or more if you please. This way everyones post gets attention and no one is left out

Gotcha! Thanks man, still getting used to SSO and the community after being away from guitar forums for a while.

EDIT: Checked out your doom metal track and it was pretty sick. I think the guitars are a little too fuzzy for my taste with not enough clarity (especially in the chugs), but throw some bass in the mix and you have a solid sludge song. Some of those riffs sound really dirge-y and weird, which (to me anyway) is a great thing. Keep up the good work and if you keep messing with that song, I'd definitely be interested in hearing more.

 

[dimebagfan01]

I've given a few critiques today so I thought I ought to put something of my own out there. I think I want to put a vocal to this but I can't work out what it's about

https://soundcloud.com/prolegomena-1/mellow-8

Really digging this man, nice work! I think the leads could be a little higher, but otherwise awesome job. As far as lyrics, it makes me think of looking out an airplane window or up at the stars and realizing how infinitesimally small we are in the universe. It gives me similar vibes to Space Cadet by Kyuss.

 

[dimebagfan01]

Hi all - just noticed that this is the right place for this kind of activity. So forgive me "the newcomer". The feedback on my other work was very inspiring for me and full of useful informations. On this dedicated WIP thread i just want to ask about this (more advanced in work) piece of my music - I give up about month ago... so maybe comments push me further ??? Maybe guitar solo need to be added what do you think ?
TNX!

https://soundcloud.com/delaa-2/layer-delaa-fargis

Digging the tune man, nice job. I'm not a pro by any means so take this with a grain of salt, but I think as far as the mix is concerned, your distorted guitars lack a certain grind and punch to them (so they don't sound as pronounced) and the leads could be slightly boosted/have a little less echo on them. Also, I think the drums sound out of place in your mix, as if they're a little too loud or don't have enough room ambiance to them so they don't gel right with the rest of the band. Just my 2 cents, but overall nice job and a great song.

 

[prlgmnr]

Not 100% sure if this is where I should be posting this, but oh well. My band is in the demo stage of writing a new album/EP/release thingy. I figured while we're a little more inactive recording-wise due to school, I'd work on getting a good mix for the demos so when it came time to record the final product, I had a better idea of how to achieve some good tones and get a good mix. Here's one of the new tracks: https://soundcloud.com/dimebagfan01/gaping-new-mix-test.

I'm using Cubase as my DAW with a Scarlett 2i2 interface (not the greatest, but it works for now). The guitars are running through either the TSE X50 (rhythms) or the LePou HyBrit (leads), a few different cab impulses, and the TSE 808 is usually up front. The bass is split, with the dirty track using the BOD. All the drums are separated and put through Drumagog with various different samples.

Overall, I think the mix is good but the snare doesn't have the right amount of pop and I don't think everything is cohesive in the mix. Then again, I've heard the song enough to be absolutely sick of it at this point, so some outside input would really be appreciated!

So to my ears the drums are too "clean" for the level of.. let's say "crustiness" in the guitars. The kick and snare at least, cymbals are probably fine. What's it like if you blend in a bit of the original drum sound? Otherwise you can always dirty up the drums with a bit of overdrive or something, tape saturation plugin maybe. Don't have to go nuts.

Ooh I've just got to 3 minutes, this bit is great. Proper chunky.

Compositionally I feel it loses it's way a bit after the solo section, I'd be inclined to see if it's possible to shave a bit of time off somewhere and bring it in under 5 mins, might all sound different once you've (presumably) added the vocal.

 

[Saieph]

New WIP. Not married to the drums in the second section.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/saieph/0013-saieph[/SC]

 

[theo]

Saieph: 0013 That limiter has made things so much punchier! Massive improvement to my ears. I feel like this track could be a lot bigger and beefier sounding if you brought out the mids in the bass more.

Dimebagfan01: Gaping new mix test - I like this. I actually thought there was no bass in this mix at first. Bring that bad boy up! Maybe highpass the guitars a but higher to allow for more low end in the actual bass itself. Got a link to your bands facebook? I'm a massive fan of this style, it's quite similar to what I play and write.

Axxessdenied: Heed the call of doom - I'd put some compression, saturation and verb on the vocals to start with, they feel very separate from everything else.

 

[dimebagfan01]

prlgmnr, thanks for the tips. I agree that the drums sound a little too clean for the rest of the band, so I'll mess with different types of saturation to try and dirty 'em up. Also, that middle riff is one of my favorites as well


theo, thanks for the kind words! I had the bass up higher in previous mixes, but I always got "there's too much bass" from my bandmates. Glad to know I'm not alone in wanting it a bit higher. And you can check us out at our Facebook or our Bandcamp, but our sound has definitely gotten much heavier/more technical (to a certain degree) than our demo.

 

[theo]

dimebagfan01 you're definitely not alone! The bass is where the true heavies come from in my opinion. Maybe you could be tricky with this, bump the highpass on the guitars up a tad to leave more room down in the low end for the bass and then instead of adding more volume, use a multiband compressor to bring up just the lows in your bass??

 

[coreysMonster]

Very short WIP trying to get guitar, bass and drum tones down with the new equipment. I'm trying to get a more natural sound out of the 8 string - more SYL and DTP than Meshuggah. Still struggling to get the guitar to cut through, though. Playing: MixTest01.mp3 - picosong

New WIP. Not married to the drums in the second section.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/saieph/0013-saieph[/SC]

The first thing I thought when hearing this was "Slipknot" for some reason, but that's from a purely songwriting perspective. It sounds like your bass could definitely use some more punch, but I am definitely digging those drums. The lead sounds a little very loud, especially considering the repetitiveness of them. It might be what you're going for, but you might want to pull them back a bit.

I just started building a doom/stoner rig... and I made quick clip for fun. Even recorded vox which I've never done before. Timing and stuff sucks but I'd love feedback on the guitar tone mostly

https://soundcloud.com/axxessdenied/projet-axxessdenied-heed-the

there's no bass. Just one guitar through a stereo rig recorded with SM57s each side panned L/R.
Blackface super reverb dimed 10/10/10 bright switch off slammed with a fuzz and a Yamaha G100 solid state head slammed with a proco rat.

Now that is some fuzzy doom guitar! Just imagine how massive it would sound with a huge bass sound under it. I can only hear the guitar on the left for some reason, though? Did you forget to pan one to the right?

Here is my latest. Still have some solos, retracking a couple of parts (esp the "chaos" section), and some ambience to throw in...

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/saieph/0014-saieph[/SC]

Another one from you; Same issue with being a little lacking in the upper range of the bass guitar frequencies, but that might also just be my taste.

Compositionwise I like this one way more than the other one. Drums sound punchy af. I'm not listening through my monitors right now so I can't say too much about the low end, but the midrange seems to still be missing something to fill it out a bit more. Maybe that's why I keep mentioning the bass a lot?

 

[theo]

coreysMonster: You could try putting an EQ boost in the 1k - 2K region somewhere.
I feel like your drumkit freqs could use more taming than the guitars though.

Solid potential there though!

 

[coreysMonster]

Aaand updated Playing: mixtest004.mp3 - picosong

Changed the drums, boosted the rhythm guitars at 1 and 2khz, gave the bass a little boost at 1khz, dragged the ambience way down to just fill out the midrange. It's starting to get there.

I think I'm going to adjust my guitar tones and take out some gain. It seems to me that part of the problem is that it's too fuzzy. Less drive on all the guitars + bass coming up next.

 

[theo]

coreysmonster: That's a great improvement over where you were at with the last mix!

 

[Saieph]

Finished this one.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/saieph/0013-saieph[/SC]

Thanks for the feedback, all of you. I want to remix this one a bit to get the cleans up as well as some other things. I hate making excuses, but honestly...it's not even a bass, and I'm having a difficult time rectifying the mid-range of it a bit, so that "tweak" is going to have to wait until I get my 5 string up and running. Beyond that, my solos, repetitive or not, are kind of loud...I guess I just figured as an instrumental those should be. But if they are obnoxious, perhaps I could turn them down a tad. Thanks again, all!!!

 

[feilong29]

I finally learned how to properly route my drum kit! I think this is by far my best mix yet; any suggestions are definitely welcomed! Thanks for checking it out \m/

https://soundcloud.com/berial-feilong29/street-fighter-ken-theme

 

[Stijnson]

Been quite a while since I last posted in this thread, but alot of gear changes later and some other, real life stuff, I started recording some things again. Lately I've been more in a kind of ambient rock/metal vibe and really enjoying recording that kind of stuff instead of straight up metal, so hope its not too bad! Critique is as always very welcome

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/stijn_bos/orbits[/SC]

 

[Saieph]

@feilong29 - It seems to me that your mix is a little compressed. Also, the cymbals are a bit washy, the kick should probably be panned more towards the center (unless this is the sound you are going for), the mix low-end is fairly well missing, and you could certainly get a bit more out of your guitar by bumping mid and low mid a little. Overall, you are heading in a good direction, as you definitely have some presence there, and the mix is at least fairly balanced.

@Stijnson - That's really decent stuff, man. It reminds me a bit of Cave In, who, if you haven't heard you should check out for sure. I love that ethereal sounding stuff, especially when comes from the guitar and is space-centric. Keep up the good work, I look forward to hearing more!

My latest...not complete, and I'm in the process of re-arranging the structure and adding lead and solo work, as well as some fx stuff in parts:

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/saieph/0015-saieph[/SC]

 

[blubaruboxer]

new WIP. still have some guitar work to do. kind of mixing as i go along and trying to get the guitar and bass to gel a little better on the chuggs. probably a better player would help, lol. also trying to figure out how to end it. maybe a little melodic solo to bring it to a climax in the last part. we will see where it takes me.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/singularis75/project-54[/SC]

 

[Stijnson]

@Saieph - Thanks dude, and thank you for the recommendation, I'll be sure to check them out! Liked your track too, that kick drum really kicks me in the chest! Although I thought the guitars might seem slightly detached from the drums, but that could just be me, good stuff either way!

@blubaruboxer - Good track, love the intro! And overall great sounding mix too, maybe the high gain rhythm guitars are a bit loud for my tastes, but that could also be the sound you're going for. Oh, and it is appreciated to comment on other people's tracks when you post one

 

[prlgmnr]

new WIP. still have some guitar work to do. kind of mixing as i go along and trying to get the guitar and bass to gel a little better on the chuggs. probably a better player would help, lol. also trying to figure out how to end it. maybe a little melodic solo to bring it to a climax in the last part. we will see where it takes me.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/singularis75/project-54[/SC]

Liked this, got me thinking of both Fear Factory and Carpenter Brut/Perturbator etc.

I think the "plinky" bit that comes in around 1:20 is drowning the drums/everything else out a bit much.

 

[blubaruboxer]

@Stijnson i appreciate the feedback. After listening on my work computer i agree that the rhythm guitars are louder than i would like. I will definitely give feedback from now on.

@prlgmnr the bells are definitely washing out that part. i haven't found bells that seem to work like i want yet. although i definitely want the bells there to accent the part. it seems like the reverb and delay feedback are washing it out after the bell hit. so i will work on toning that down.