Biggest Baddest Metals!

EthanC

EthanC

Member
Pushing the envelope as far as i can trying to get the biggest, fattest, heaviest, yet cleanest technique possible with regards to mixing and mastering. As usual, my beloved Axe-FX 2 is my champion of guitar and bass tone. Couldn't live without the thing.

BE ADVISED: I make no claim to having any skill with the guitar whatsoever. I'm not saying any of this is "the best" with regards to any other music, it's simply the best (and least crap) that I'VE personally done thus far.

Answering any and all questions about the mixing and mastering process on-demand. No matter what I experiment with, i just keep coming back to the Diezel CH3 for my main metal tone.

Something I've noticed is that as much as i love my jam patches with the axe fx, they sound like shit in a mix. Am i right? And ones that sound like grainy balls when you're jamming out have a tendency to sound much better when recorded. Ask Insane Clown Posse, it must be a magical mysterious miracle of the world or some shit!

What I'd really like to improve on is layering background ambiance but I just plain don't have much knowledge of all these wacky synthesizers and stuff that these "technical djent"y guys do.



 
Totally agree on the use of presets. I want my 'guitar only' presets to work when recording but they get lost in the mix. So I've let that go and stick with the realities and it works well. I like the tune and your playing, btw. Cool stuff. What's your DAW? I was using Samplitude ProX and Sonar X3 for the last year or so, but Samp would seem to crash at the worst times, and Sonar is slow as shit. Using Reaper for 2 months now, it's fast, reliable, and does well enough what the other 2 can for me.
 
Psykopsilocybin said:
I wish I had skills like these. Nice job! :encouragement: What guitar and preset did you use, if you don't mind my asking?
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Thanks a ton for the praise guys :)

The preset was just one that i made. It would be much use to anyone else unless they're also using BKPs because it has to work around the dyanmics of those pickups. I will say though that i used the Herbie CH 3 for the amp and the Kalth Allen #4 4x12 cab and a really old school one from the original axe FX just called "4x12 metal".
 
As for background synth stuff, for starters, what DAW are you using?

Ah. Scratch that, I see on your Soundcloud that you're using Cubase. Does it have built in synth stuff?
 
And, by the way, I'd love to see what your settings are too, as I'm currently having some trouble getting the herbie to where I want it.
 
Ben.Last said:
And, by the way, I'd love to see what your settings are too, as I'm currently having some trouble getting the herbie to where I want it.
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The backgroundambience is actually "embracer vst" but again, i only use that as ambiance because i don't have enough experience with "electronic music" to know any other good sources :p

DAW is Cubase 5

Believe it or not, my position is that there isn't a huge night-and-day difference between the higher-gain amps that i've used. Rather a better way of putting it might be that I find the cabinet(s) you use is/are responsible for the vast majority of "tone", compared to the slight dynamic differences between amps.
 
EthanC said:
Believe it or not, my position is that there isn't a huge night-and-day difference between the higher-gain amps that i've used. Rather a better way of putting it might be that I find the cabinet(s) you use is/are responsible for the vast majority of "tone", compared to the slight dynamic differences between amps.
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Oh, I agree. That's one thing I've definitely learned since getting the AFX (whether it holds as true for the real amps, I'm not sure). They do all bring a little something special to the table though, and I'm having trouble getting the Herbie to play nicely.
 
As for electronics, would you want to come up with parts that are their own thing, or do you just want to be able to have stuff playing under the guitars to add a bit of something to them?
 
Ben.Last said:
As for electronics, would you want to come up with parts that are their own thing, or do you just want to be able to have stuff playing under the guitars to add a bit of something to them?
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Well I really like the background business of (for instance) Misha's first album. That stuff's all programmed and i actually tried to get ahold of Jake a while back to see if he could provide some pointers but i never got a response unfortunately. For me, my main thing is that background drones go a long ways to counteracting the "dry" sound of perfectly tracked music.

I noticed this actually trying to find out why some of my tracks still sounded different from other people's (better) recordings (like Misha's) when i knew for a fact i was using the exact same gear and settings, and even capturing snapshots proved they were sonically identical - It was basically because without some sort of ambiance, even if it's almost completely subsonic, still affects the listeners ear. It's a lot like looking at one of those optical illusions where they ask you which of the two images are darker or lighter and it turns out they're actually the same, but you perceive a difference. That's precisely why i always try and have a layer of "something going on" to keep the mind's eye of your ear (this is some deep shit yo) guessing a very small amount. It will make any kind of music mix, metal, rock, even electronic, more pro-sounding and "wet".

I guess to answer your question, if i had the capability, i'd definitely throw in some tight electronic shit but for now, it's just variations of background drones ;)
 
Well, if you don't mind spending some cash NI Absynth is really amazing for drone stuff; NI Massive is pretty great too, but it's a bit more involved. I'll look around and see what I have that was a more budget friendly option.
 
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