Mixing metal songs

Okay given these two programs, cooledit pro or audition, I am looking for decent tips as far as EQing and mixing goes. I am fairly new to recording and mixing, and I'd like some good tips/advice. Also on a completely unrelated topic, as a metal guitarist, can I have some advice on decent amps, pedals, and guitar pods? Thanks guys.

Hello Hjorvard,

I've tried many different pedal effect over the years and now I'm really enjoying the Lin6 Spider amps with the built-in effects.

I had never tried the POD but I guess they use the same effects in the Spider. I've been able to tune in some great metal toens from it.

As far as recording goes, the tricky part with recording and mixing metal is that we use a lot of distortion so it's easy to have one big mess while mixing.

The best results I've got over the years was to use panning a lot and to use 2 different effects for my rhythm guitars. By that I mean I often double my rhythm tracks and pan them but I'll never use the same effect for guitar 1 as I will for guitar 2. This makes a huge difference.

I also use a completely different effect for lead and again if I use multiple guitar tracks for lead I'll modify each of them a little so they aren't using the exact same effects.

I find that "modulation" type effects tend to separate a track more easily. Like a basic chorus effect or a wah will make an instrument stand out from the rest of the mix, even when everything is the same level.. not that everything should or has to be the same level in the end. There are some great effects around these days and it doesn't hurt to spice things up a little unless you are going for more traditional sounds..

To get a kickass heavy guitar sound for metal try the following (check the following tracks for an idea of how this set up sounds)
'Flesheaters'
http://www.mp3unsigned.com/showmp3.asp?mp3id=9594
'The Futurist'
http://www.mp3unsigned.com/showmp3.asp?mp3id=29956

Rhythm guitars should have the gain/distortion at no more than about 7 on the dial, at the max. You get far heavier tones with less distortion.
Let most of the low end come from the bass guitar which should sit dead in the centre of the mix. Rhythm tones should be crystal clear and focus more on mids and highs rather than low frequencies. Aim for the lead and rhythm guitars to have different frequencies so they don't compete in the mix. Eg, if you play a lot of mids in your rhythms then your leads should have more highs and vice versa - (this is a very basic and watered down version).

Hard pan your rhythm guitars 100% to each side (make sure you record them in mono without any effects other than a little compression and some noise reduction. Add your effects (reverb, additional compression and EQ tweaks via insert VST fx) after the parts are recorded - unless they are integral to capturing the performance (tap delay, wah, whammy pedal etc). For extra heaviness, rerecord another set of rhythm tracks with any harmonies (5ths, octaves etc) with a different guitar sound or even different guitar and pan them from between 75% and 100% to each side. Depending on how heavy you want the rhythms, you can do another take if you wish with any accents for a centre pan track. Add some distortion in the post effects along with a little flanger and chorus (add to taste) to the bass and tweak EQ to add depth and heaviness to the overall sound. This is how I got the tone on 'Flesheaters' which is particularly nice IMHO:-) If you are playing an instrumental track with lead from start to finish you won't need that number of rhythm tracks - one to each side at 100% hardpan and one dead centre for harmony is sufficient while the bass takes up the low end. The biggest mistake most guys make is they get a real heavy boomy guitar sound that sounds good by itself then they multi track it and add the bass... this is the point things become irreversibly muddy. Take the low end out of the guitars and roll back the gain and you will get much better tone.

Hope that helps!

This is all excellent advice, and killer sound on your songs man!! What program do you use to mix and eq?

glad to be of help. Re my own setup, i do everything in cubase sx3 - recording and mixing etc. If i hadn't forked out 700 quid for sx3 i would be using reaper for everything. I advise you download a copy for free and if you can say for the licence. It, does everything cubase and protools does only a hell of a lot cheaper. I use a lot of vst plug ins including a uad-1 card to take the load of my pc's cpu. Took a while to get all the gear. I would advise you start with reaper and follow the manual and help on the reaper forum. Steep learning curve but well worth it.

Glad to be of help. Re my own setup, i do everything in cubase sx3 - recording and mixing etc. If i hadn't forked out 700 quid for sx3 i would be using reaper for everything. I advise you download a copy for free and if you like it you can pay for the licence (still free to download a fully functional copy). It, does everything Cubase and Protools does only its a hell of a lot cheaper. I use a lot of vst plug ins including a uad-1 card to take the load of my pc's cpu. Took a while to get all the gear. I would advise you start with reaper and follow the manual and help on the reaper forum. Steep learning curve but well worth it.

glad to be of help. Re my own setup, i do everything in cubase sx3 - recording and mixing etc. If i hadn't forked out 700 quid for sx3 i would be using reaper for everything. I advise you download a copy for free while its still available and if you like it you can, he you want, pay for a licence. It, does everything cubase and protools does only a hell of a lot cheaper. I use a lot of vst plug ins including a uad-1 card to take the load of my pc's cpu. Took a while to get all the gear. I would advise you start with reaper and follow the manual and help on the reaper forum. Steep learning curve but well worth it.

Thanks for the advice man. Do you have a link I could access that from? Oh yeah, do you perchance listen to bands such as King Diamond/Mercyful Fate, Death, Cynic, Pestilence, Atheist ect ect? I hear alot of those bands in your music.

Yeah, I love Death and Cynic, great bands. Also used to listen to a lot of Nocturnus too - worth checking them out if you havent allready (Thresholds is one of the all time best technical death metal albums ever IMO). You can get Reaper here:

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/download.php

Good luck with it!

Reaper is cool.. better than the commercial software (Tracktion 2.0) I have... and with better support and almost daily version updates, it just keeps getting better and better.

Also.. back in my youth (hehe) I used to get into a bit of Death/Doom metal.. The only bands that stick out in my mind are Carcass and Testament. These days Testament is crap compared to the stuff that used to put out.. Souls of Black is still one of my all-time favourite songs/albums.. "The Legacy" (by Testament) is a little on the ballad side of metal for most purists' tastes but it has some awesome lead guitar solos in it.

I also listened to Metallica, Megadeth and other similar bands around that time as well.. but I always loved, and still do partially, the power riffs in a lot of the really heavy death/doom metal stuff. However, without a soaring lead guitar motif to offset it I always felt a track was a bit lacking.. "The Legacy" is a reasonable example of what I mean.. Here's a youtube link for The Legacy.. it's a bit ballady.. I know.. but yeh.. I love it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96hWg3iFp5A

Here's a live youtube of Testament with Alex Skolnik (the lead guitarist, tutored by the same person as Kirk Hammett.. ie. Joe Satriani).. It's not as good as a studio obviously but it's live.. so he adlibs a little more.. does a little thing at the start too and you can see what the rhythm guy is doing a little bit too..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9RIk53Atmw

Thanks guys! I shall have to check that band out. Man this reaper program looks a tiny bit complicated but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. This is going to be fun. Speaking of Death and Cynic, go check out a post I left in techniques and styles, there's something I need advice on.

Luckily for me, I am a born and raised metalhead so I am well aware of Carcass and Testament. Carcass was great up to Swansong, though from an unobjective view Swansong wasn't bad musically, just not mega heavy. Testament how ever are legends. I liked all the albums except demonic. Alex Sklonick is amazing at guitar, and Eric Petersen isn't bad either. I hope that one day I can play even half as good as either of them haha...

Metallica I think lost it after Master of Puppets, and Ride the Lightning, but the funny thing about Megadeth is all of thier best material was anything pre Youthanasia. But which guitarist came in on Youthanasia? One mr Marty Friedman.

Originally Posted by: HjorvardThanks guys! I shall have to check that band out. Man this reaper program looks a tiny bit complicated but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. This is going to be fun. Speaking of Death and Cynic, go check out a post I left in techniques and styles, there's something I need advice on.

Luckily for me, I am a born and raised metalhead so I am well aware of Carcass and Testament. Carcass was great up to Swansong, though from an unobjective view Swansong wasn't bad musically, just not mega heavy. Testament how ever are legends. I liked all the albums except demonic. Alex Sklonick is amazing at guitar, and Eric Petersen isn't bad either. I hope that one day I can play even half as good as either of them haha...

Metallica I think lost it after Master of Puppets, and Ride the Lightning, but the funny thing about Megadeth is all of thier best material was anything pre Youthanasia. But which guitarist came in on Youthanasia? One mr Marty Friedman.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Actually, Friedman joined the band way before Youthanasia. He joined Megadeth along with Nick Menza for the Rust in Peace album. Highly touted as the best Megadeth album.

Originally Posted by: ahexnyne++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Actually, Friedman joined the band way before Youthanasia. He joined Megadeth along with Nick Menza for the Rust in Peace album. Highly touted as the best Megadeth album.

Ah that's right! My bad! That totally slipped my mind! Rust in Peace and Peace Sells where my faves. To be honest it's been such a mega long time since I listened to megadeth.

I'd 2nd just about everything that Superhuman & Benoit mentioned here.
I'm also a big fan of doubling up all the rhythm tracks and panning them pretty hard right & left. I rarely go the full 100%, since in my own experience it can cause the guitars to lose a bit of their overall punch. But then again I am working with just about the cheapest setup you can get. LOL :o

For rhythm tones & effects, I would almost always go as minimal as possible...doubly so if you are really planning on doing some serious layering. Nothing produces sonic mush quicker than 4 guitar tracks with reverb, chorus & delay piled on each of them. I used to be a huge fan of chorus effects, but these days I try not to use any at all on the rhythm tracks....Usually just some BBE Sonic Maximizer to brighten it and make it project a bit more.
Also as was previsouly mentioned, try a little brighter tone than you might typically expect use much less distortion that normal...again, especially if you plan on piling on the tracks.

For effect units/preamps/etc....I know that I'm still a bit behind the times perhaps...but I still swear by my Johnson J-Station and my POD 2.0. I love the V-amp2 as well...but those things just do not seem to be very durable. Too much bad feedback about them crapping out for no reason at all (mine did too).
With either the POD or the J-Station, I typically like to do 4 rhythm tracks;
2 with a Rectifier type setting for the grind and 2 with a more upper-mids based Marshall type setting for more punch and clarity.
Here's a Testament cover that I did using the J-Station for all of the rhythm work....LOL....Actually on this particular tune, I also did 2 bass tracks one dark sounding one for the "thump" and a really bright one to get a little of the classic Greg Christian sounding "clank" on the bass. LOL

Sins of Omission Cover

Bear in mind that it's a soundclick player..which kinda schmuffs the overall sound a bit. :mad:

Don