Pokemon Red/Blue - "Viridian Forest" (Metal)

[Friend of Misfortune]

Hi everyone,

I'm doing a cover of Viridian Forest of the Pokemon Red and Blue games. I'm still a newbie and this is my first post, so I hope I can get some feedback from you.

The original song for comparison:

 

[timaeus222]

Personally I don't really like the chopped guitars at the beginning; practically speaking, it's not realistic, though it's a real guitar. Did you just record multiple separate staccato chords and insert them manually?

The production is not too bad; the guitars sound good. I'd say the drums can punch through better; I can't hear the kick, and the snare is barely peeking through the guitars. Did you try adding some parallel compression to strengthen the transients (the drumhead impact in this case)?

Try listening to these drums for comparison:

Nice guitar arpeggios near the end at 1:55, though it was hard to hear it. Those notes were a good start to differentiating from the original.

 

[ZaneCross]

The guitar is very good, the choppy bit at the beginning was kind of awkward, but once the song started it was ok. The guitar mixing was good, and I did like that you could hear the bass without any trouble, sometimes that is really hard to do because guitars are sometimes hard to mix. Maybe bring out a bit more high end though, the guitar arpeggios were very difficult to make out.

The only really big problem is the drums, which are in serious need of EQ and compression. Boost the snares at around 250hz for more punch and between 4-8khz for more texture, also at 1-2khz for more fill. As to the kick, it is so quiet, I can barely hear that all. Before you do anything, you may just want to just pump up the volume first, but not too much, since you are doing metal a slightly (emphasis on slightly) quieter kick is pretty standard. Increase the low end at about 60-110hz, and maybe a tiny bit below that but not too much there, if you have any fast double kick patterns you will get a rather unpleasant sound with too much addition there. Boost around 500hz if you need a bit more fill, but not very much, you don't want to interfere with the low end of your guitar or your bass. And give it more at about 2-8khz for the 'click' sound that makes kicks sound so good. Maybe a bit more high end on the hi-hats, but those sounded ok so don't worry about that too much.

I feel so bad telling you to boost everything, but remember, moderation is key, and once you do all of that, if you hear any frequencies that clash once the drums are louder, you will probably need to start cutting some frequencies. I feel bad because I normally don't say to boost so much stuff because it's bad practice to boost a lot of frequencies, but in this case there is really nothing else to do but that. If they start interfering with the guitar though, you may have boosted too much or it may be a different frequency that is interfering once it is louder.

Overall, it was pretty good, it just needs louder drums. And remember, these aren't hard and fast rules, this is just my experience. Mixing is an art, and there is a lot of room to be creative with it.

Edited December 28, 2015 by ZaneCross
I left out an important detail

[Friend of Misfortune]

Hey again,

thank you guys so much for listening and sending your feedback! I will change the track and keep your tips in mind.

As for the chopped guitars, I recorded them in one piece and manually silenced the later half of the chord. It sounds really nasty in the beginning until 0:07, but as soon as the bass and kick drum and cymbals kick in, I felt some kind of relief while listening to it. Kind of liked the effect, so I kept it.