BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

everdrone

everdrone

New member
Any comments or constructive criticism is much appreciated :-) I record stuff weekly and really appreciate any type of feedback from this awesome forum! Thats how I have gotten progressively better, any little bit helps.

I have been recording weekly for years, but I do not want to crowd up this place with new threads, so I made this 'blog'. That way I can track my technical guitar skill progression by a timeline, with a date for each track :headbang:

Most my recordings use Reaper as a Daw, Toontrack Superior 2.3 for drums, Ozone 5 for "mastering", ReaEQ or GlissEQ for equalizing, Recabinet for IR/impulses/cabinet modeling, and various other compressors and doodads. Ill try to be more specific for the recording gear and technique in each post.

Here goes the first post in this blog:

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I recorded this one with my new Revalver 3.5 modeling of the Peavey 6505+ amplifiers for the rhythm guitar tracks, and for the guitar solo and bass I use the toontrack ezmix presets. Revalver takes a bit of tweaking but it is worth it! using for all guitars both the EMG81 and EMG 85. This is some metal that has a bit more 'thrash' than I usually play with a fingertapping guitarsolo, check it:

https://soundcloud.com/earthalliance/2014-07-09-thrash-metal-and-solo
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

Dude, you should do a Wordpress blog as well. Keeps all your musings in one place. That's what I use my blog for! :)
Will def check this out later in more depth, am about to pass out from working 50 hrs in 3 days plus 2 nights of training and one night of recording!
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

cool beans brutha, thanks for the recommendation :) I need to look into that, what is your www for your blog? that sounds cool, seems to have worked great for ya (cool new album you made!)

well, priorities are important, dont get too burned out, thats like 16 hour days! crazy man
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

everdrone said:
cool beans brutha, thanks for the recommendation :) I need to look into that, what is your www for your blog? that sounds cool, seems to have worked great for ya (cool new album you made!)

well, priorities are important, dont get too burned out, thats like 16 hour days! crazy man
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This time every year is super busy for work, plus it's usually the time I kick off my recording schedule as well.

I am an audio consultant and project manager for an audio company, and Summer just gets crazy busy.

Link to my blog is in my signature, www.asfollowsmusic.com. It follows my musical musings, the creative process, and lots of articles on recording, mixing, etc.
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

Thanks Demanic :)

cool TO, much appreciated (I have signatures turned off)
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

Listening to it again. Still impressed. This is the level of clarity that I am seeking in a live recording/live mixdown((two different lives mixed)duh).
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

Thanks Demanic!!! :headbang: I never took the time to learn how to mix using books, manuals, youtube tutorials... but I just watched a 5 minute youtube video here and there and read forum comments. I do not know much about mixing so I just use presets really and spend like a half an hour mixing a song; this ezmix program that Ola demos is what I own and is the type of tone I am going for, he mixes the songs in just five minutes:

 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

everdrone said:
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That video is blasphemy. :)
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

I'm just being cheeky. If it helps get more good music out into the Datasphere I am not gonna complain.
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

thanks TO, glad you dug the riffage :) I am not impressed with my mix I must say, glad you are honest, I mean just slapping ezmix on a mix does not do it for me but somehow Ola's video does not sound as horrible of a mix, he is a genius tho

I boosted the bass frequencies since I am trying out for a cover band as bassist and ya that recording quality sounds bad
 
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Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

I was not implying your mix was bad by any stretch, my man. Just, to my mind, mixing is something else. If EZMix can help give your songs the polish it needs, then more power to ya and right on, I say. However, I would hope that it's the launching point to experiment with less presets and more experimentation with actual mixing techniques.
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

TwilightOdyssey said:
I was not implying your mix was bad by any stretch, my man. Just, to my mind, mixing is something else. If EZMix can help give your songs the polish it needs, then more power to ya and right on, I say. However, I would hope that it's the launching point to experiment with less presets and more experimentation with actual mixing techniques.
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cool brutha, thanks for your explanation here. Art is art as there are no rules to it, but mastering techniques paralleled with speed&accuracy is something different.

I have watched the Pensado's Place youtube videos which blow my mind; there really are no mixing silver bullets, its kinda like computer programming. basically I need to compress and recompress and tweak EQs ad nauseum to make my Ozone 5 happy. I don't really understand compressors cause my ear is not that good and gets fatigued, and Ozone fundamentally is way over my head. My "studio" is not treated for mixing either. I can understand equalizing with glissEQ and adjusting faders and using presets though, so I just do that for now. its been since 2008 that I have been doing that, but maybe in a few years Ill save up and get mixing lessons, its just really low on the priority list.

Thanks my friend for your feedback, I do like thinking about this sort of thing ;)
 
Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

Man that's some kickass riffing! I really like it.

About mixing / compression / mastering, it sounds very powerful but also feels just a tiny bit over the top. Try to lower the limiter on O5 a littlebit or change the multiband compression ratio without losing too much power. O5 is quite an interactive tool, every change matters and has an effect on others so be careful. You need only a small step back.

You can set a good value by ear too. Loop the outro part with the dense kicks and try to gradually decrease the limiter value and / or the compression ratio. There will be a point when cymbals stop the gentle wa-wa-wa-wa-wa pumping - that's where it cleans out nicely. The graphic meter on the limiter also helps you. You're in a good direction when it doesn't mowe too much of your audio lawn and the mix is still loud and kickin'. In general, it's best to solve all the loudness / opennes / kickassnes / lockness stuff right on the track level and leave it as little for the mastering processor as possible.

About avoiding a too loud mix try to throw this analyser after O5:

http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

O5 has a super refined industry grade analyser tool too but I don't know man, this is more straightforward to me. I use it all the time. If your mix is around -10dBFS it has an average loudness these days. Around -8dBFS it's very loud. Around -6dBFS it's dubstep. Around -5dBFS it's overkill. Anyway, there is no a single working recipe. I usually try to keep my mixes between -10dBFS and -9dBFS. If the client wants more volume I go up to -8dBFS but above that I start a hunger strike.
 
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Re: BLOG: My WEEKLY Metal/Rock/Classic/Doom Recordings:

Thanks much NecroPolo!! You have a ton of awesome insight, thank you for helping as well.

you said: "Loop the outro part with the dense kicks and try to gradually decrease the limiter value and / or the compression ratio."

I think you are meaning just cut that double bassdrum part out and put it on a separate track and lower the volume of the offending frequencies or EQ it or something, right?

that bit about the "mowe too much of your audio lawn" is spot on :banana: thanks for the plugin recommendation and everything, I downloaded it and will try it out; I finessed the mix using your insights and it does sound a bit better as I did compress with all types of weird pumping and distortion from ozone. You understand my issues with O5 really well, cheers :)
 
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