# Another instrumental metal post. Would also like some opinions on my mixing.



## ZombieLloyd (May 29, 2017)

Hey guys. As I said in the title, this is another instrumental metal post. There seems to be quite a few on here. I'm a solo artist and aside from making my Youtube videos, I pretty much don't have the opportunity to play live, does Youtube even count as "live performance"? Anyway, I used to make music under my real name a few years ago just for fun. Now I want to take music more seriously as it's really what I want to spend my life doing and I'd like people's opinions on my mixing so I can get better. I like the way it is now, but since there's always room for improvement I'd love to hear people's thoughts. The video I'm linking to is my latest video, just uploaded on Saturday. The mixing on the other songs are pretty much the same, aside from the bass being a little louder here.


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## Dantas (May 30, 2017)

Great song, man! It's seems fun to play, and I liked how it changed pace at the solo.

If you accept some suggestions, I think the drums are a bit louder than the guitars....I don't know how much guitar overdubs you did (and how they are panned in the mix), or the intensity of the beats are too high, but if you find a balance between the two It would improve a already great song! Also, the second part of the lead (where you harmonize with a overdub) it's overshadowing a little bit the rest.

But the most important, the tone of the guitar and the drum sounds are great and well dialed! If you find that sweet spot in the mix, you make this song even better than it is. Keep doing it, man!


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## ZombieLloyd (May 30, 2017)

Dantas said:


> Great song, man! It's seems fun to play, and I liked how it changed pace at the solo.
> 
> If you accept some suggestions, I think the drums are a bit louder than the guitars....I don't know how much guitar overdubs you did (and how they are panned in the mix), or the intensity of the beats are too high, but if you find a balance between the two It would improve a already great song! Also, the second part of the lead (where you harmonize with a overdub) it's overshadowing a little bit the rest.
> 
> But the most important, the tone of the guitar and the drum sounds are great and well dialed! If you find that sweet spot in the mix, you make this song even better than it is. Keep doing it, man!



Thanks for taking the time to write all this out. I really do want it improve my music as much as I can. So the guitars are just one track each side, 50% panned. I do think the drums are quite a bit louder than the guitars, I'll work on that. I'm glad you like the drum and guitar sounds. The drums are the Progressive EZXpansion going into Superior Drummer 2, with reverb on the overhead track, and the kick and snare tracks. The guitars are just the Mercuriall U530 plugin with a 3Sigma Audio impulse response. The Randall Thrasher cab to be specific. With a typical low pass, high pass and just a tiny bit of mid scooping at 250-300hz As for the harmony in the solo I do agree that's overshadowing everything else. The truth is, I turned it up while I was recording that track and forgot to turn it down because I was focusing on mixing the bass with the rhythm guitar. Thanks again for taking the time to write all this out. It truly means a lot.


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## Dantas (May 30, 2017)

ZombieLloyd said:


> Thanks for taking the time to write all this out. I really do want it improve my music as much as I can. So the guitars are just one track each side, 50% panned. I do think the drums are quite a bit louder than the guitars, I'll work on that. I'm glad you like the drum and guitar sounds. The drums are the Progressive EZXpansion going into Superior Drummer 2, with reverb on the overhead track, and the kick and snare tracks. The guitars are just the Mercuriall U530 plugin with a 3Sigma Audio impulse response. The Randall Thrasher cab to be specific. With a typical low pass, high pass and just a tiny bit of mid scooping at 250-300hz As for the harmony in the solo I do agree that's overshadowing everything else. The truth is, I turned it up while I was recording that track and forgot to turn it down because I was focusing on mixing the bass with the rhythm guitar. Thanks again for taking the time to write all this out. It truly means a lot.



Cool info about the signal flow, thanks....I didn't know about the Mercurial U530, and downloaded the free version, and was testing with only the Cab Sim on for some overdubs that I wanted a different flavor.

I can't recommend you enough to try out 100% pan for each side, and even Quad tracking (so it would be two guitars each side) to make the sound huger.....it's only my 2 cents , and it's a valid experiment to make . but in case you already tested and didn't liked the final result, just ignore it haha.


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## ZombieLloyd (May 31, 2017)

Dantas said:


> Cool info about the signal flow, thanks....I didn't know about the Mercurial U530, and downloaded the free version, and was testing with only the Cab Sim on for some overdubs that I wanted a different flavor.
> 
> I can't recommend you enough to try out 100% pan for each side, and even Quad tracking (so it would be two guitars each side) to make the sound huger.....it's only my 2 cents , and it's a valid experiment to make . but in case you already tested and didn't liked the final result, just ignore it haha.



I hope you enjoy it, it's a lot better than some other plugins, in my opinion.

I used to do that with my old recordings a couple of years ago. I'd have both guitar tracks 100% panned left and right, it sounded alright but it made everything feel... Empty I guess. But then, I didn't have a bass guitar for recording a bass track so that probably didn't help. I have quad tracked before, it sounded great.


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