RussMuller
Member
Hi everyone,
A few years ago I was in a band called Straw Man Complex. It was a heavy rock/not quite metal band that wrote radio-friendly songs. We had a lot of fun, and I recently moved back in with my singer from those days.
For poops and giggles, we've started writing again and I'm working up some rough sketches of songs which he uses to write melodies and lyrics. This is the first such thing we've started work on. The way he's writing the vocals (not recorded), this one is going in a very Fair To Midland direction. Musically speaking, it's not complicated. But sonically I feel like this is a big step forward from my previous work.
Here's the form:
Intro (keyboard solo not yet written) - 8 bars
Verse #1 - 8 bars
Chorus #1 - 8 bars
Interlude - 4 bars
Verse #2 - 8 bars
Chorus #2 - 8 bars
-Abrupt ending because I have no idea what's next
This demo is just 1 guitar (DC7X w/Ionizers > Axe-FX II > direct USB), 1 bass (Schecter Stiletto Custom 4 > Cali76 TX-P > Axe-FX II > direct USB), and the a Toontrack Metal Machine library (programmed via MIDI keyboard and manual editing in Pro Tools).
I have found that after 12 years of making music in Pro Tools that I get the best results when I shoot for simple, despite my audio engineer impulses to make everything complicated. I did very little in terms of plugins on individual tracks, but you can see I've got the master bus loaded with dynamics modules.
About the mix:
My methodology was to try and get it sounding as good as possible going into Pro Tools so that I can keep the mix processing simple. Over the years, I've spent a lot of money on gear and plugins, so I wanted to resist throwing on a bunch of crap that wasn't really necessary just because I have it.
The guitar and bass have a little compression going on from the Waves CLA Classics bundle. These are my favorite compressors to use in a mix. The LA3 does a really nice job of smoothing out any needles in the guitar tone without taking out the teeth. If I'm looking for an aggressive bass tone, I usually lean toward the black 1176 model. If I'm working on a bass tone that needs to be a bit more full and natural, I'll opt for the LA-2A model.
The drums are going multi-out, and there is no processing happening inside of SD's mixer. When I'm using the SD libraries I usually have a bunch of processing happening on each individual track, but since the EZ libraries are already pre-processed, I just wanted to add a little mojo. Each drum out is running through Slate's VTM, and then I've got SD's mono room mic getting crushed by an 1176 and a bit of additive EQ from the Schepps 1073 plugin. I did a parallel compression bus for the kick/snare and room tone, which really gives these drums some attitude.
The master bus is the 2track VTM followed by the SSL Bus Compressor (this is almost always the first plugin on my master bus), then the JJP Fairchild plugin, and finally an L3 MultiMaximizer to squash everything into your face. There's also no automation running here; just static levels. I haven't taken this out to the car and compared with other music yet, but I'm pretty pleased with how this is sounding.
How does this mix sound to you guys, in terms of the tones, balance between the instruments, and overall punchiness and dynamics of the track? Any suggestions, advice, or other feedback (besides to stop writing sucky music )?
**BTW: Lie To Me is the working title for the song. Don't lie to me about your opinions, no matter how harsh or hater-esque it may sound.**
A few years ago I was in a band called Straw Man Complex. It was a heavy rock/not quite metal band that wrote radio-friendly songs. We had a lot of fun, and I recently moved back in with my singer from those days.
For poops and giggles, we've started writing again and I'm working up some rough sketches of songs which he uses to write melodies and lyrics. This is the first such thing we've started work on. The way he's writing the vocals (not recorded), this one is going in a very Fair To Midland direction. Musically speaking, it's not complicated. But sonically I feel like this is a big step forward from my previous work.
Here's the form:
Intro (keyboard solo not yet written) - 8 bars
Verse #1 - 8 bars
Chorus #1 - 8 bars
Interlude - 4 bars
Verse #2 - 8 bars
Chorus #2 - 8 bars
-Abrupt ending because I have no idea what's next
This demo is just 1 guitar (DC7X w/Ionizers > Axe-FX II > direct USB), 1 bass (Schecter Stiletto Custom 4 > Cali76 TX-P > Axe-FX II > direct USB), and the a Toontrack Metal Machine library (programmed via MIDI keyboard and manual editing in Pro Tools).
I have found that after 12 years of making music in Pro Tools that I get the best results when I shoot for simple, despite my audio engineer impulses to make everything complicated. I did very little in terms of plugins on individual tracks, but you can see I've got the master bus loaded with dynamics modules.
About the mix:
My methodology was to try and get it sounding as good as possible going into Pro Tools so that I can keep the mix processing simple. Over the years, I've spent a lot of money on gear and plugins, so I wanted to resist throwing on a bunch of crap that wasn't really necessary just because I have it.
The guitar and bass have a little compression going on from the Waves CLA Classics bundle. These are my favorite compressors to use in a mix. The LA3 does a really nice job of smoothing out any needles in the guitar tone without taking out the teeth. If I'm looking for an aggressive bass tone, I usually lean toward the black 1176 model. If I'm working on a bass tone that needs to be a bit more full and natural, I'll opt for the LA-2A model.
The drums are going multi-out, and there is no processing happening inside of SD's mixer. When I'm using the SD libraries I usually have a bunch of processing happening on each individual track, but since the EZ libraries are already pre-processed, I just wanted to add a little mojo. Each drum out is running through Slate's VTM, and then I've got SD's mono room mic getting crushed by an 1176 and a bit of additive EQ from the Schepps 1073 plugin. I did a parallel compression bus for the kick/snare and room tone, which really gives these drums some attitude.
The master bus is the 2track VTM followed by the SSL Bus Compressor (this is almost always the first plugin on my master bus), then the JJP Fairchild plugin, and finally an L3 MultiMaximizer to squash everything into your face. There's also no automation running here; just static levels. I haven't taken this out to the car and compared with other music yet, but I'm pretty pleased with how this is sounding.
How does this mix sound to you guys, in terms of the tones, balance between the instruments, and overall punchiness and dynamics of the track? Any suggestions, advice, or other feedback (besides to stop writing sucky music )?
**BTW: Lie To Me is the working title for the song. Don't lie to me about your opinions, no matter how harsh or hater-esque it may sound.**