Pancio wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:21 pm
The other problems, for me, are guitar sound and how to get rid of the nasal tone.
Usually I try to gently cut mids but the results aren't that good and I always get a fuzzy Lo-Fi sound (like a distorted amp through an intercom) during recording but a good tone while playing live (this time I tried USB recording, I miss amp and cab).
I will re-record guitars, anyway, I don't like the result at all and the EQ is not the hand of Mida.
This is another complex issue, but I'll try my best to think about and explain it. There are so many unknown variables at play here, but my basic approach is to accentuate the mids of the guitar tone. The mids are important for clarity in a full mix. I only gently accentuate them, though, because it is possible to over do it. Cutting the mids will quickly make the guitar difficult to hear clearly when other instruments are present, as most of the voice of the guitar lies in the mids.
It's complex because the pickups and amps themselves have a particular voicing that accentuate certain frequencies and attenuate others. The wood of the guitar itself can play a role, as well, and how it's constructed. Even the way you hold the pick and the angle that you strum at affects the tone and attack of the guitar's sound (and also the thickness of the pick, and the gauge of the strings, and the fret material, etc. etc. etc.).
I accentuate the highs a little bit for my rig because the pickups I use don't accentuate them at all; they actually attenuate them slightly. The bass is accentuated by my pickups, as well, so I tend to role them off a little on my amp. Having too much bass will clutter the mix and make the bass guitar fight to be heard.
Pancio wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:21 pm
I also know that lows spreads a lot more and they can cause big problems during mixing and mastering session and that's why I'm always cutting them a lot (guitars cutted under 120Hz), and aside from bass guitar and bass drums I usually cut every other instruments by 9dB under 50Hz to prevent muddiness.
Maybe this is the problem? Too deep cuts?
It's been a while since I've had to think about this. I believe it is safe to gradually cut 120Hz and below for the guitar, because the bass guitar will occupy that range. Sounds below 50Hz start to become more felt than heard, but it is safe to cut those frequencies when they are not part of an instruments primary frequency range. I don't think cutting the lows too deeply will cause any problems, unless the voice of an instrument relies on those frequencies (then you need to be more careful about the cuts).
Pancio wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:21 pm
What I learned for drums is:
-Always tune your set.
-Record the drums in a big and rich room since overly treated environments eliminate and flatten the sound.
-Toms and cymbals are difficult to get right because of the frequency range.
-Always samples the kick.
-Ride should be miked alone.
Yes, yes, yes!! Always tune the set, indeed! That's the most important part. I use a Tunebot nowadays and my drums have never sounded better.
Interesting approach with using a big rich room. I recorded my drums in a dry & neutral sounding room with 8 ft ceilings because I am paranoid about picking up reverb from larger rooms in my recordings. I won't be able to remove it in post and I'm not sure if the room-verb will jive well with the virtual reverb effects the I applied to the other instruments. I will mention that I
did have difficulty at first picking up the cymbals with my overheads. I ended up having to move the overheads pretty close to the cymbals. Maybe this is a sign that the room is too muffled?
I found the toms to be pretty easy to get right. It was mostly the snare and somewhat the bass drum that gave be a run for my money. You wouldn't believe the amount of effects I had to apply to the snare and bass drums to get them to sound "cool".
With the toms, I just slapped some EQ on them and they were pretty much good to go; didn't even need a compressor. Also, I use a noise gate on all of the drums' channels, but not on the overheads & ride and hi-hats channels (because of the decaying nature of the cymbals).
Yeah, I think I'm going to sample the bass and snare drum in the future. They are just too inconsistent sounding if you are trying to achieve a power metal drumset sound without samples. If you do anything fast with the bass drum, all of the power and attack goes away, so it is a necessity, really. If a snare isn't hit
just right, and in the exact same location on the head, it will sound very different. The snare drum is such a temperamental instrument, I swear!
I mic both the hi-hats and the ride. Honestly, though, the overheads pick them both up pretty well, as they are quite loud. I also mic'd the china cymbal because the overhead were too close to the crash cymbals & splash cymbals and weren't picking up the china cymbal very well.
Here's a short audio excerpt of me playing drums on one of the slower songs for my album:
https://mega.nz/folder/hdxCwAhL#_slklqRyE0ngdUuEzZZpHg
EDIT: I included a file with the suffix "RAW" to put into perspective where I started from and where I ended up in my mix. "render9" is an older render with an arguable better snare sound, but everything else is more primitive. I think the only difference between those two snare sounds is how much brightness there is, but it sounds much more different than that. Maybe I thought it too bright? I don't know.
I think it sounds okay... sort of. No samples were used here, but a million* effects were.
There are errors present too, like the drums getting suppressed by the noise gate accidentally, among other things. I rendered this a while ago just as a test. The toms, I didn't really tinker with too much, so they might sound a little rough. It's also a bit over bright and will probably have to be tinkered with once other instruments are introduced to the mix. Also, my pans might be too wide. This was recorded in my family room, hahaha!
*Okay, not a
million, but extremely heavy EQ, liberal amounts of reverb (for the snare) and less for the other drums, some compression, noise gates, and multiband compression (for the snare, around the 1kHz range, and it made a huge difference in attack/thwack).
Pancio wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:21 pm
I also have a sort of drum-vademecum Tolkki gave me years ago which I have rewritten recently and which I use to set-up things both live and in studio sessions.
I can share it, if you wish, it's pretty good in my opinion.
I'd be interested in taking a look at that.
I took a listen and it sounds better. The levels are more consistent now and the lead guitar tone is less annoying; a definite improvement! Something that I noticed from your older version and this version is that your rhythm guitar sounds like it is oscillating slightly... I forget what it's properly called! It's something that happens when the guitar isn't perfectly intonated. It's a minor thing, but I noticed it sometimes during the power chords.