LinuxMusicians

• It looks like you just recorded a single track for rhythm guitars: what's usually done, in metal, is to record it at least twice in two separate tracks (some go with 4 or even 8 ), and put one on the far left, and the other on the far right. The slight difference between the two takes gives much more "air" to guitars, making them sound much better and more powerful in a mix too. It's important to actually play the two takes separately and not copy paste, as otherwise you end up with them conflating in the middle and losing the effect. If you actually did that, the two takes may be way too similar (or copy pasted?), as in my headphones I only heard one sitting in the middle, where it has to "fight" with bass and drums for some space.
• I'd also add a tiny bit of reverb to rhythm guitars too, just to make them fit a bit better in the same "room" as bass and drums.
• The solo is well played, but maybe a bit too dry: you could try adding a bit of stereo echo or delay to make it more "spacey".

Basslint wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:50 am Since you asked for tips but I am not good enough to give them, perhaps I can give some feedback as a listener.

The track does not sound bad and the mix of genres (I think I can hear prog metal, alternative metal and industrial metal in there) is very audacious. The preset at 0:25 is too bright, it sounds like it belongs to a completely different genre like smooth jazz or synthpop. I like the dancehall synth after that part, after it I would have gone for a dubstep-style drop The part at 1.43 is a bit messy. Your guitar playing is very good, however!

Rainmak3r wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 12:49 pm Glad you could overcome your laziness, which is something I can definitely relate to
Sounds are nice and instruments well played. I only have a few suggestions related to the guitars:

• It looks like you just recorded a single track for rhythm guitars: what's usually done, in metal, is to record it at least twice in two separate tracks (some go with 4 or even 8 ), and put one on the far left, and the other on the far right. The slight difference between the two takes gives much more "air" to guitars, making them sound much better and more powerful in a mix too. It's important to actually play the two takes separately and not copy paste, as otherwise you end up with them conflating in the middle and losing the effect. If you actually did that, the two takes may be way too similar (or copy pasted?), as in my headphones I only heard one sitting in the middle, where it has to "fight" with bass and drums for some space.
• I'd also add a tiny bit of reverb to rhythm guitars too, just to make them fit a bit better in the same "room" as bass and drums.
• The solo is well played, but maybe a bit too dry: you could try adding a bit of stereo echo or delay to make it more "spacey".

Of course it all comes down to taste, so if that's the kind of sound you wanted to get then feel free to ignore me! This is just how I usually approach my guitar parts, and so may very well not be the best approach for all metal genres.

Tenaba wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:28 pm That's pretty embarrassing, but it's fixed now in the bandcamp version.

Rainmak3r wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:36 pm No need to feel embarassed! I've noticed that sometimes Ardour also "forgets" how some tracks are panned, and puts them centered instead (it's rare but it happens). For guitars I've now grown accustomed to "anomalies" and so can tell right away if they're not panned as they should, but in other cases I tend to fall in the same trap too.

jeanette_c wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:33 pm Hi @Tenaba , this is a great track! I love your bass sound in particular. And I pull off my hat to you for having achieved that production. I rarely worked with real guitars, let alone bass and know from that experience that it takes time and much more efforrt than samples and synths. Btw. I like the bell-organ like synth, though it would still cut it at lower volume and so perhaps allow you to get the mix louder.
Your snare and kick also sound absolutely spot on! The kick has that extra click and the snare's gated/compressed reverb is just right. Though the snare is rather too low in the mix, perhaps.
Adding to Rainmak3r's advice, I'd say:
* you can send guitars and other elements to reverbs or delays of choice, so you can highpass filter them a lot to get out of the way.
* I have a feeling your bass might do with some heavier EQ, attenutating some low mids to get ot of the way of the guitars.
* High cutting is always an idea. I don't know how much you used that on the guitars. Put highpass filters on almost anything except bass and experiment, while the full mix is playing. Solo the highcut tracks can sound almost weak, but in the mix other instruments make up for that.
* EQ'ing in general is a good tool to clean up and make way. So you might selectively attenuate frequencies in many tracks to make room for the peak in one particular instrument. I.e. find the most defining peak for your snare and lower that in the guitars. Also scooping out some mud between 300-600 Hz is often a good idea. Many melodic and rhythm instruments will cover that area, even bass reaches up into those frequencies.
* In case you just have one guitar and want to make a little more out of that: try a hilbert filter (there is one in the SWH plugins). One output could do. It should even still be mono compatible.
* If a particiluarly dynamic element can't be tamed enough by one compressor with good settings, try cascading, i.e. put another compressor in series. It's different from one compressor with lower threshold or higher compression ratio (perhaps not applicable here).
* If your snare drum doesn't cut it, layer it with shaped white noise. You can even filter that to taste and used it only as a tail enhancer. This is easy enough, if you work with MIDI/samples. Any synth should do for that.
* If you're really hard pressed, you can do more at the mastering stage. Automate the volume of the section a bit, try more compression, some more EQ'ing. Opinions differ on that. Some say the mix itself should cut it. OTOH you find post mix or master-bus EQ'ing in a lot - if not all - modern productions. As well as compression/limiting.

In case my advice seems too simple or kindergarden level, I apologise, it can be difficult if you're not completely aware of someone's knowledge. - Anyway, thanks again for sharing this track. I'm very glad that you built ragequit into a "finished piece"!

Best wishes, Jeanette

GMaq wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 2:17 am Wow, this is excellent!!

Absolutely love the combo of the clanging bass and guitar grunt, super clean production and EVERYTHING sounds good, very impressed with the drums too!

Great job!