timaeus222   Members

Someone asked me to help with mixing metal, so I did this. In the end, I finished a template that can also act as a helpful resource for you guys in one fell swoop! This shows specific things I did to mix a recreation of a portion of a heavy metal track by Ian Dorsch, but described in a certain way so that it can be applied in a general sense too. The compression is more specific than the rest, but the settings should be mostly transferable between corresponding plugins. This zip file has stems, screenshots, descriptions/reasoning, and the two free plugins used (endorphin and TLs-Pocket Limiter). Everything difficult has the purpose of each part explained so that you learn the concept, not the specific edit. Just to be clear, this is a non-ideal case. Metal Mixing - A General Approach (ZIP, 62.3 MB) Ian Dorsch - Subterrenea Full Original Ian Dorsch - Subterrenea Snippet Original Ian Dorsch - Subterrenea Snippet Recreation Unmixed Ian Dorsch - Subterrenea Snippet Recreation Mixed Also, this is not "how to mix metal and there's no other way", it's "how I chose to mix metal for this case". Fun fact: I used Groove Bias for the drums. Yes, that's right, an acoustic kit typically meant for jazz fusion, downtempo, and the less aggressive genres, used for metal! This just shows that it's not about what samples you use, it's how you treat them. Shreddage II for guitars and Trilian for bass.

It's okay, I was actually really close to finishing by the time you saw this. Besides, it can be another template at my disposal AND something helpful for you and many others. This shows specific things I did, but described in a certain way so that it can be applied in a general sense too. The compression is more specific, but the settings should be mostly transferable. Metal Mixing - A General Approach EDIT: As for your mix, the guitars sound a tiny bit hollow, as if they were high passed above 200~300Hz or so (this is just a nitpick). The bass seems wide? I used to do that, but I kinda stopped a few months back. Great snare tone, and the kick and snare are only slightly buried. The toms seem good. The newest version is actually quite close IMO, overall.

YES! This is how dubstep should be! Heavy, in-your-face, NO siren-like sounds, no senseless repetition, no corniness, tasteful sound design, clean production, and tight (enough) drums. Dat silent kick at 0:49. A large portion of the arrangement is a direct repeat, but other than that, no major complaints from me. This kicks butt.

Hm... You know, I'd make a video for this, but: 1) I don't know what DAW you use. Not a huge deal though. 2) My computer doesn't have a good enough processor speed to record at this RAM intensity for videos without significant lag and clicking. I'll recreate Ian Dorsch's "Subterrenea" demo for Shreddage II as best as I can with what I have, do some mixing, send you stems, and put screenshots of the EQing I did that you can recreate on your DAW, if that sounds cool to you. I'll describe the compression & reverb in a general sense, describe why I did each portion of each EQ (so you can make some sense out of why I did stuff and make EQ decisions based on my reasoning), and give you any free plugins I end up using. The EQ would do most of the work in the example I'm working on. I'll be using Shreddage II, Groove Bias Drums (whaaaaaat? ), and Trilian. I can't say I know enough to help with toms, though (the original didn't have toms, so the recreation doesn't have toms). Also, I didn't use the hi hats either, but those have such a loose range for pleasant EQing, so it's not going to be hard.

DAT CLIPPING. This is some serious comedy here.

Honestly, I just mix it however I need to, to make it sound good to me. There are a lot of YouTube videos that tell you "how" to mix metal tracks, but you don't know what audio equipment they have, so there isn't perfect consistency in the tips. I guess you could search those "tutorials" on YouTube, but you may not be a person who wants to sift through videos for practical tips that suit you.

This is not meant for submitting to OCR. It's just for improving. Hence, "Meat 'n Potatoes" compo. It's supposed to be conservative as possible.

Happy Birthday, Gar!

It at least catches my ears. Great deal, and would be well worth it.

Well, there's definitely less reverb, but the snare sequencing still comes across as repetitive, to me, especially because the velocities are flat and mostly unchanging. Most hits are the same volume and intensity, aside from the lead-in snare rolls. At 3:01, the hi hats are still mechanical, and every velocity on them is still the same. No human plays everything flatly, so having the velocities like that makes it sound like a robot is playing it. Also, the sequencing is very fast and the same sample is used throughout, so that adds to the robotic playing. If you listen closely to this at 0:33, it may help you with sequencing hi hats.

Welcome to the community!

Alternatively, you could also just use a soft knee limiter with a spectroscope, and boost the volume until the spectroscope shows the loudest peak touching ~-0.2dB (or 0dB, if you prefer). Soft knee limiters, unlike hard knee limiters, don't cause overcompression quite as easily (limiters and compressors act similarly in that they both push the excess volume down). Yes, I'm quoting Wikipedia.

That happens because you need a limiter to stop it from clipping.

Um... all I can really say is... Basic timbres, default FL samples, and repetitive mechanical sequencing, but I'm sure you're at a very early stage of music composition. A few weeks, maybe, so I'll leave it at that.

This is mixed pretty quietly overall. I can't tell without downloading, but maybe it's at around -3dB or so. It's a bit light on bass, but otherwise it's alright, from what I can glean due to it being quiet. No glaring issues.

Sounds alright so far, but some things of note: - There's a lot of treble right now overall, especially at ~10000Hz and ~17000Hz from the leads and hi hats. Most evident at 0:27. - This is mixed pretty loudly, with the leads being very upfront/dry and the non-percussive instruments a bit imbalanced with the drums, especially at 0:34.

Chimpazilla was thinking about this. Maybe it can be arranged.

FI-nal Fan-TA-sy FI-nal Fan-TA-sy FI-nal Fan-TA-sy

I'd be interested, but I'm just waiting for a fun theme.

The atmosphere you meant to go for was good, but the execution fell short of that goal, to me. Happy Holidays! Here are some things I need to point out: - The bells starting at 0:13 are a little bright, and it's painful to hear them. - The snare throughout plays a very unnatural pattern and it gets to be extremely repetitive. - The clickiness of the kick coupled with its constant double-hit sequencing clutters the mids and makes this seem like it's muddier than it actually is. - There's a whole lot of low end muddiness from the reverb on the kick starting at 0:23, really cluttering the low mids. It's especially obvious at 1:20. - Things get extremely muddy starting at 2:35 with the very reverbed pad and the reverbed kick. It's almost impossible to hear the harmonies there. The hi hats at 3:00 are also too loud and mechanical.

Ew, instruments. Can I get an acapella version of this?

Who's Sonic?

Oh yeah... I need to add to my list. More resolutions: - Work on four currently-WIP things: first novel, general-purpose sound synthesis tutorial for OCR, Music Production and Composition textbook-length guide, and music album

First thing I notice is that the part-writing is really simplistic, even for trance. The same arp from 0:07 - 0:14 repeats throughout 0:07 - 0:37, note-for-note. The guitar-like pattern/loop from 0:51 - 0:55 is repeated verbatim until 1:36. 1:36 - 1:50 and 2:07 - 2:22 repeat the same arp from 0:07 - 0:14. The guitar-like pattern comes back and repeats without variations at 2:36 - 3:21. 0:36 - 0:51 is repeated exactly as it is at 2:22 - 2:36, except with some high pads, a buried choir, and a snare roll. 0:51 - 1:35 is repeated exactly as it is at 2:36 - 3:20. With repetition like that, it gets to feel same-y throughout the entire track and it gets (don't take offense to this) boring. The drums are OK, but they're on autopilot for the entire track at the points when they're used, and they sound like one sample each (and default samples, perhaps). Overall, could be less repetitive by writing more variations rather than copying and pasting parts. Production can be less muddy, especially noticeable at 1:34, and the lead at 3:21 is too loud. I know it's a cover, but fixing the repetition will help your musical motivations and workflow. People really don't finish a good track in a few hours that often.

Not bad for your first stuff. It's noticeably FPC and BooBass though. Possibly FL Keys, too. The drums don't seem to be played realistically in terms of natural tendencies. There's a lot of cymbals in spots where they aren't necessary, especially in the Mega Man X - Opening Stage MIDI remix. Other issues currently don't really need to be addressed. I could go on with humanization, but it'd make more sense for you to practice more with writing closer to the typical playing styles of the instruments you use. i.e. Electric basses should not be playing a million staccato notes in a row at the same volume and intensity.