Industrial/synth metal songs

    Quote from Ingvar

    Your guitar work is more accurate now! And music correlates with artwork, atmosphere is dark and cold like in old-school movies about aliens, UFOs, etc. :)

    Yup, that pretty much exactly what we're going for! 70's and 80's horror and scifi. :D The plot of the ep is stolen straight from the Alien universe, with the alien race mankind faces being the one that the xenomorphs were used against as bioweapons as hinted in Prometheus. :evil:

    Quote from waraba

    Hi ! This is not my cup of tea but I appreciate the real drums much more than on previous versions what a change !

    Is it me or the sonical chaos @ 7:20 is really intended ? 2 distinct harmonies that do not match , this is harsh to my ears :pinch:

    R

    Yeah I hated the plastic programmed drums as well.

    Good ears, but there's no harmony. There's an analog synth playing the same lead line but it wasn't properly in tune. I was hoping it wouldn't be too noticeable. I'll see if I'll just completely remove the out of tune track.

    Edit: I removed the out of tune synth. I also raised the guitars slightly in The Big Fight Scene.

    Edit2: New punchier drum sound, I raised the parallel compression track that was way too low by accident.

    I'm listening off the Coraxo(mega?) site - not sure if the player is going through soundcloud or just playing hosted .mp3's or whatnot.

    I think the overall sound is great - sounds as good as most professional releases. I like the songs too. The synth, guitars, and vocals have a great balance to them and the style is $$$$.

    My main issue is the drums and bass are difficult to hear in the mix. Guitars, synth, vocals all gel together perfectly.

    my advice is to brighten the snare and maybe compress it a bit. It sounds a little dull and sometimes fades into the background, but overall, I can hear it very well. The kick and the cymbals...not so much.

    The cymbals are desperately fighting for space against the synth and guitars, especially when the synth is doing a saw wave/distortion type thing. I have to really try to hear the cymbals other than clear accents and the mellower sections. You can hear the bell hits and the very high end frequencies, but I feel then need more body. So I'd bring them up in the mix, but shelf their highs a bit. Basically you want the same volume level with the very high-end on the cymbals but more in the 2-6 kHZ range (that's just an estimate).

    Crank up that kick drum. Just be sure to make a somewhat-narrow cut in the bass to fit the kick drum. It doesn't need to be a big cut either - just enough to give the kick enough room so it's not muddy. Maybe also do a peak frequency boost on the kick in the same spot, so it doesn't get too big/wide, if you know what I mean. I tend to try get the kick as low as possible without sounding woofy. Some people like a more poppy kick drum. Not me. I like to get punched in the chest.

    I can't really hear any bass. If there is a bass track, turn it up. If it starts muddying the mix, start cutting frequencies where it's clashing. I find you can often let the bass fill the entire low end, except with a notch for the kick drum. Once you start getting closer towards 200 HZ, you have to start adjusting so the guitar low-end doesn't conflict with it. By around 400-600 HZ, you need it to be cut pretty low, and above that you don't want to hear too much of it...until back around the high side of the mids. Once you get to 2 kHZ, you can let some bass come back in, so you get some high end - it helps you to hear the attack, whether its distorted bass, picked pass, or slap. It won't matter as much for finger-picking.

    Hey my bad, nakedzen. I had loaded the site yesterday, so I was listening to yesterday's mix, not the latest. I'm seeing there's a soundcloud link on the page now, and I agree that the mix sounds much better now - most of the things I pointed out are addressed.

    I guess my critique now would be that it is still a bit difficult to hear the attack of the cymbal hits. I think the suggestion above about darkening them and raising them in the mix will sound good.

    I also feel like the whole mix is a bit bright - can darken the whole thing just a bit and get more balance out of it, methinks.

    Quote from meambobbo

    Hey my bad, nakedzen. I had loaded the site yesterday, so I was listening to yesterday's mix, not the latest. I'm seeing there's a soundcloud link on the page now, and I agree that the mix sounds much better now - most of the things I pointed out are addressed.

    I guess my critique now would be that it is still a bit difficult to hear the attack of the cymbal hits. I think the suggestion above about darkening them and raising them in the mix will sound good.

    I also feel like the whole mix is a bit bright - can darken the whole thing just a bit and get more balance out of it, methinks.

    Hey, that's a pretty good idea on the cymbals! I'll give it a go tomorrow. The cymbals are a bit back on purpose though, I just don't really like a cymbal heavy mix, I find it makes everything sound a bit too congested and noisy. I think the overall eq balance is best left for the mastering engineer, he can darken the mix if he feels it's necessary. :)

    I know what you mean - finding that mixing balance is a very delicate process. You're definitely 95+% there. I'm really digging the demo.

    The cymbals as-is aren't by any means bad. This is probably just a personal preference, but I wish I could hear the time-keeping hits more. I can hear the accented hits pretty well. But when riding the hat or crash when the guitars and synth start really going, I can't really hear it.

    Quote from meambobbo

    I know what you mean - finding that mixing balance is a very delicate process. You're definitely 95+% there. I'm really digging the demo.

    The cymbals as-is aren't by any means bad. This is probably just a personal preference, but I wish I could hear the time-keeping hits more. I can hear the accented hits pretty well. But when riding the hat or crash when the guitars and synth start really going, I can't really hear it.

    I'll do some more involved volume automation on the cymbals. :thumbup:

    Edit: Done! I also turned down the vocals in some parts where they were too loud.

    Edit2: I toned down the high shelf as well since I was getting comments on the mix being too bright.

    Cymnbals sound amazing now - perfect. The only thing I would do different is make the bass kicks feel like you're getting punched in the chest with bass. but that's a personal preference. And it isn't easy - can easily dominate a mix if not done precisely and carefully.

    Well the soundcloud compression isn't doing the mix any favors. :D

    But I'll leave the proper low end treatment for the mastering engineer. Although I could try putting a harder ratio on the low end compressor, I think I have it at 3:1 now.

    But then again I kinda like that soft smooth attack on the low end. :wacko: And my monitors don't really have tight enough low end to make it out properly. Maybe I'll try something once I get my headphones back from the rehearsal space.

    Edit: I only had the ratio at 2.5:1, I'll give it a go how it sounds at 4:1. :)

    Edit2: I uploaded the higher ratio mix. At least the low end is bigger, I don't really have time for a proper listen now, I'm already late as it is.