How many instruments and how to mix a metal song?

JuneBug29

I love messing around with recordings and as much as i like other styles i do love metal. Can anyone give me a guideline on what they think is the best way to record a metal song. I know this is vague so i'm gonna say thrash metal cause that's what i want to give a go to see how it turns out. Here's how i would do it. Any help on things i may need to reconsider please do help. Thanks

- 2 guitars with mid distortion miced up with sm57's (1 45 degree to the front cone and one to the back of the cone for both tracks)

- Bass guitar miced up with sm57 (not ideal but it's all i have at the moment) with a DI feed into the mixer

- Customised programmed drum kit for thrash metal

The way i would mix it would be roughly as follows

- First thing i would do is play it all together and see what's clashing. First thing i would probably do is cut out the guitars below 100hz

- Secondly i would try to find the frequency that the bass works best at around the guitars so that all 3 instruments are spaced out. I would use the miced amp and DI to get this sound. I would also compress it at this stage to get it sounding solid.

- At this stage i would consider eq-ing the guitars again

- Drums would be the last thing i would mix (am i making a mistake here). I would give the kick more click that bass (compressing it as well). I would try to make the snare stick out a bit more with eq. Cymbals i would leave as they are eq-wise unless they needed to be pulled out a bit. Eq would be applied working around the other instruments to make it stand out but be punchy at the same time.

- Next i would work awhile on making sure nothing is clashing with anything else eq-wise

- Next i would make sure levels are correct and would rework eq around this if needed

- Next i would add reverb to the guitars to try and make them stand out a bit more. Any lead i would probably automate both level-wise and eq-wise

- Probably would add eq to the snare to stand out a bit and add reverb to cymbals to give them a nice standing out sound

- At this stage i would do a readjust of levels

- Next i would readjust eq setting for the individual drum setting

Very rough and ready i know but that's the basic steps i would take. Main reason for the thread is to find out if i'm doing anything drastically wrong and if there are any tips anyone would give? Any (constructive) help very much appreciated. Thank you

progsound

JuneBug29 wrote: »

- 2 guitars with mid distortion miced up with sm57's (1 45 degree to the front cone and one to the back of the cone for both tracks)

- 2 guitar tracks panned l & R use one sm57 aimed at where the dustcap meets the cone and about an inch away from the grill, use some isolation headphones and your ears for fine tuning

- Bass guitar miced up with sm57 (not ideal but it's all i have at the moment) with a DI feed into the mixer

- Customised programmed drum kit for thrash metal

The way i would mix it would be roughly as follows

- First thing i would do is play it all together and see what's clashing. First thing i would probably do is cut out the guitars below 100hz

- Secondly i would try to find the frequency that the bass works best at around the guitars so that all 3 instruments are spaced out. I would use the miced amp and DI to get this sound. I would also compress it at this stage to get it sounding solid.

- Not sure what you mean here but already compressed as **** distorted guitars dont need more compresion, but by all means pin the bass

- At this stage i would consider eq-ing the guitars again

- Get the source right you should just be doing some hp/lp on guitars and mayby adjusting the mids and highs but nothing to drastic its all about the source get that right and your golden

- Drums would be the last thing i would mix (am i making a mistake here). I would give the kick more click that bass (compressing it as well). I would try to make the snare stick out a bit more with eq. Cymbals i would leave as they are eq-wise unless they needed to be pulled out a bit. Eq would be applied working around the other instruments to make it stand out but be punchy at the same time.

- its metal so your going to be needing a lot of punch so id recommend reading up on parralell compresion not going to get into it here but here is a good starting point http://www.faderwear.com/guides/parallel_compression.shtml

- Next i would work awhile on making sure nothing is clashing with anything else eq-wise

- Next i would make sure levels are correct and would rework eq around this if needed

- everyone works differently but this is the first thing id do with a mix to get a feeling of where the song is going before i do anything else

- Next i would add reverb to the guitars to try and make them stand out a bit more. Any lead i would probably automate both level-wise and eq-wise

- verb tends to muddy up distorted guitars quite a lot i would avoid it even on leads i prefer to use delay on leads if it is called for. Also if you must use verb put a hp filter before the verb cutting from around 300 down and a lp filter after cutting from about 5k onwards

- Probably would add eq to the snare to stand out a bit and add reverb to cymbals to give them a nice standing out sound

- I tend to set up a verb buss for the entire kit and only use it for slight ambience and thats if i have no room mics i definatly never use verb on just the oh. I also have a verb buss for my snare which is really important to get right for your drum sound

- At this stage i would do a readjust of levels

- Next i would readjust eq setting for the individual drum setting

Very rough and ready i know but that's the basic steps i would take. Main reason for the thread is to find out if i'm doing anything drastically wrong and if there are any tips anyone would give? Any (constructive) help very much appreciated. Thank you

Listen man i think you are over thinking this my advise is just go ahead and do it and learn from it because there is far to many things involved in mixing a song that can be listed down to tick off as you go. Head on over to this site http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/production-tips/419244-all-tutorial-requests-here.html and read up on all the tutorials they have posted there and you should be in better shape in your thery anyways then go put it into practice.