[timaeus222]

Source: Battle For Whose Sake
Remix: The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix)

Just wanted to show this to you guys! Shreddage rules! :D Currently, this seems passable. Is it? :o

[zircon]

Production-wise, it's a little on the muddy side - I would try to bump some of those low-mids and mids down, while brightening up stuff like the snare and bringing the lead guitar out more. The rhythm guitars are of course awesome :P You might try a different tone on the lead guitar as well to make it even more distinct (and/or different EQ). Also, any reason why the drums are panned so much? I would put them dead center but then the overhead/room mics should provide some stereo space. Does that make sense? Arrangement-wise, main thing I would suggest is making room for some kinda breakdown so it's not that huge wall of sound the entire time. When you give a mix like this a breather, it makes coming back INTO the wall of sound more powerful.

[timaeus222]

At first, I thought the drums should have an increased stereo width (with Stereo Shaper) in order to make them fit more easily, but I definitely see where you're coming from; I had them at the center earlier. Since there was mid to low-mid compression that I didn't hear, I'll fix that instead and return the drums to center! It might also prove useful to you that I was using EWQL Stormdrums for the drums, so the snare, kick, toms, etc. are automatically panned in Kontakt, and are in the same channel, but I'll see what I can do. :P

1:34 - 2:00 should have been the breakdown I intended to put, but I'll work on that more and make it more evident!

Thank you for the awesome feedback! It completely makes sense, no lie! Personally, it's quite an honor to receive feedback from you!

[timaeus222]

This would be the V2, with my fixes to the muddiness, stereo panning on the drums (mostly kick and snare were affected at first), and (hopefully more than slightly) more evident breakdown:
The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V2

Source: Battle For Whose Sake
Remix: The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix)

(Bumped three times)

[jnWake]

I like the arrangement, and the second version has much better sounding rhytm guitars.

Some comments/suggestions:

- Is there a bass on this? It is either too low or non-existant which is bad because a solid bassline really helps a rock/metal song.
- The hi-hat sound is a bit too messy IMO. I find it quite distracting, try to make it a bit shorter. Bass drum sound is a bit too quiet and short too.

[timaeus222]

There wasn't a bass. I was actually hoping the lower rhythm guitar chords would create sufficient low bass frequencies. I can try to squeeze in a bass at 20-70 Hz. For some reason I seem to get compression at higher frequencies. Well, at least I'm hearing it.

There isn't much I can do about the hi-hat; it's a WAV implemented into EWQL Stormdrums's .nki, not an actual separate WAV. (Well, it is an actual separate WAV, but it wouldn't make sense to use that on its own when I could use it in the .nki and get the round robin effect) Same with the bass drum (although I think you're mixing it up with the toms). I suppose I could try changing the EQ and reverb.

Remix:
>>The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V3<<

The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V2
The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V1
Source: Battle For Whose Sake

I don't think it sounds as good as the V2, though I shouldn't really be comparing them. The drums do sound less subdued though. Right now it just sounds like there's too much bass, but I'm not sure.

(Bumped once)

[Gario]

MOD REVIEW:

Eh, the hats didn't bother me nearly as much - I think you could get away with them in this track. I actually thought the wet sound gave the track some more color, which is always (well, almost always) nice.

I'm going to have to echo Zircon's comment on the muddy nature of this track. There's just too much going on in the mid section of the EQ, so everything blends together in a guitar soup. It feels like you're playing the rhythm on the same strings as the lead, as they share the same sonic space. That rhythm really needs to be taken much lower while the lead stays roughly an octave above it. I know it sucks to re-record anything in a track, but in this case I think it'd be worth it, fixing both the muddiness issue AND the bass issue at the same time.

Speaking of which, yeah, the bass is non-existent. The rhythm idea could work if it were playing in the lowest strings of the guitar, but it doesn't really sound like it. If it is then you really need to mess with the EQ on your rhythm guitar and bring those lows out significantly.

Arrangement sounds good in my book - no comments there.

I think I would enjoy this one if the sound was clear and there was enough bass in it, and so would OCR. Fix these things and come back around - likely you'll have something that's passable with those fixes, there. Good luck... and sorry if my suggestions mean a re-record.

[timaeus222]

It's quite ironic, actually, because this is actually Shreddage, not real guitar. So I wouldn't have minded fixing octaves if I had to. xD However, even if I wanted to, I couldn't. The mapping on regular Shreddage actually limits me to almost those exact octaves. I can't bump the lead up an octave, and I already have a layer of low riffs for the metal feel. I'll just have to mess with the EQ some more.

If it helps, I have one layer of low riffs, one layer of full chokes, one layer of regular riffs, and one layer of the lead, if you look at only the guitar. In V3, the bass is actually there, but it apparently isn't as loud as you anticipated.

EDIT: AHA! I figured out the main reasons why it's muddy! I usually forget the fact that the mixer effect tracks work in order from top to bottom, not at the same time. My lead and low riffs were feeding through the EQ before they were amped, so they were quieter or sounded differently than they should have. Therefore, the EQ I had was overboosting the mids. :D Now the drums are less subdued and there should be much less muddiness and low-pass-ish sound.

Remix:
>>The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4<<

The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V3
The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V2
The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V1
Source: Battle For Whose Sake

Hm, it might actually be sounding pretty good! :D

(Bumped twice)

[Magellanic]

Its sounding much better than the previous versions. Bein a guitarist ,its probably just me being picky, but I think you need to perhaps be a bit more sparing with the squeals on the lead. If you like em' then leave 'em but if you're wanting to keep the listener believing that the guitars are real, ease off of them a tad. The drums do sound weak to me. For the style of the guitars, I feel like there should be more of the click on the bass drum hits. The snare is barely comin' through. The cymbals sound very distant from the mix.

You said you have no bass, but the thing with guitars is that in the lower range - mud is a very real problem. By cutting the low-mid and putting a beefy bass in, you will get a lot more power from your guitars. Part of the secret to a great rhythm tone is the bass tone. Your mix will also sound much clearer.

I think the guitars could do with a lil information around the +600hz/mid range. They sound a little too scooped to me, but that's just personal preference.

Seriously, the arrangement is great. The style is great too. I just think there needs to be a little bit more tweaking to your eq and balance. Once you got that nailed, this will really be the best it can be. There's more potential in this mix to be realised

[timaeus222]

Thanks for the feedback! Right now I believe I've fixed the bass drum and snare instances. It turns out the problem was in the sequencing itself, and their sequencing was on an ineffective velocity layer, so the right frequencies weren't coming out. I still don't believe the snare is quite good enough in the high end though. I'll keep working on that. I think it's just the sample itself. EWQL's mapping is convenient though. I can add custom snares that actually don't overlap with other crucial parts of any drum kit (;D).

I cut the low-mids some on the regular riffs and cut the low-mids on the low riffs a bit less than the regular riffs, and I believe it sounds better than before. :D

I thought about reducing the squeals, but it seems that most of them fit where they are. Personally, it just doesn't sound as good without certain instances.

I did add a bass in the V4, but it should be more evident in the next update.

EDIT: Hm... the new snare doesn't sound like it fits. Maybe it's just because I don't actually play drums. Right now it seems like it doesn't match a metal kit. Does it work?

Remix:
>>The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.2<<

The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4
The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V3
The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V2
The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V1
Source: Battle For Whose Sake

(Bumped twice)