Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

[Diocletian]

Okay, new song. I was messing about with some clean strumming and evolved it into this METAL behemoth! (of a sort...) :friday:
I'm happy with the rythm guitars, but I just cannot seem to ever record a lead line properly! In this track they seem to make the whole thing sound muffled, like it's coming through a blanket.
I really like this little song, but the sound quality I'm getting is really ruining it for me.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7440235

 

[everdrone]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

heh I want to hear the behemoth so I clicked

All my SD friends are posting in tips and clips today lol

the delay on the clean solo - you could lower it some for the high frequencies

Your happy with rhythym guitars so I wont comment on that.

Solo guitars: are you doing subtractive eq? we discussed that 3weeks ago here. You can play with more treble on your guitar knob as well as the mix. My compressor is not very good for guitars but it has eq and compressor built in together which helps shape tone alot. For soloing I usually dime my bridge pup and dial in some of the neck pickup for a thicker solo tone. You can back the presence off of the solo with a compressor as well as the reverb/delay. For solos my recording chain is usually in this order: eq, compressor, random effects, delay, reverb, then another eq if it needs it.

You should render your solo too, and look at the waveform to see if there is any clipping. If there is and you still need that volume, you might want to consider less compression and more limiter.

Sounds cool , good luck dude!

 

[DankStar]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

sounds pretty cool. not sure what blanket effect you're talking about, other than a typical DIY type sound that lots of us seem to have, which isn't such a bad thing.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

Hmmm, without seeing the mixer I can only suggest a few things.

The kick needs a low cut filter at 40 hz or so and another cut in the 320hz range with a regular eq. The cymbals are too loud and the snare not loud enough. I would try and balance out the drums first. Put a low cut filter at 120 hz on the snare and cymbals and a low cut filter on the bass at 50 hz. The guitars aren't the problem I think.

Hope that helps.

 

[Diocletian]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it as always!

InnerDream, the drums are definetely my weak point - I use Fruity Loops but I don't have time to learn how to use it properly - so I always have to create a very small loop for the main beat which I then loop over and over again, and for the cymbals I just added in each one singly in an extra track in Sonar. It's a total pain in the ass, I'm seriously need to get a good, EASY to use, automatic drum program.

BTW I added another metal song to my Soundclick page (little bit like Morbid Angel I think), it only lasts 49 seconds, didn't want to start another thread, feels like I'm flooding the place with my noodlings!

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7443427

 

[GoDrex]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

I think it sounds pretty good.

One tip I can give you about the drums is when doing metal (or rock in general usually) - you want to do all cymbal hits with either a bass drum or snare hit at the same exact time. For example starting at 2:48, those accents will sound much cooler if they had some bass drum behind them. Cymbals need bass drum or snare with them to give them power.

For a drum program I like the sound of EZDrummer a lot. I haven't used it yet but I've heard some very impressive tracks done with it.

I've mainly used PCDrummer and it's pretty good. It can be time consuming to make a very varied track that sounds realistic so that part of it stinks. But you can set up a basic thing pretty quickly once you get the hang of it. The reason I use it is it can do bass parts (with a $10 add on) - and I don't own a bass yet.

if you want to hear some stuff done with PCDrummer - check out my website link in my profile.

 

[Diocletian]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

I'm listening to your Middle East thing just now, sounds good, I love that kinda stuff! Was that with PC Drummer?
I just downloaded a demo for a program called Quickbeat. To buy the full version is only $20, so if the demo's any use I might do that.

 

[Carl762]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

I can't offer you any technical advice, as I'm a learn'in, but

At 3:28, that was very tasty. Great send off.

 

[Carl762]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

Strongbow is my favorite. Keep on playing.

 

[GoDrex]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

I'm listening to your Middle East thing just now, sounds good, I love that kinda stuff! Was that with PC Drummer?
I just downloaded a demo for a program called Quickbeat. To buy the full version is only $20, so if the demo's any use I might do that.

thanks - everything I've got there that has percussion on it was done with PCDrummer

edit - except for the really old stuff that was done with an actual live drummer

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: Please. Tell me what I'm doing wrong!

about the first one(lurker...): the first lead line isn't too audible(probably that blanket effect you're talking about) the rest of the song sounds good except for the drums, but i can't comment on how to fix them since i hardly know anything about that:dunce:
good stuff though