A Beginner's Guide to Mixing Metal at Home - Episode 3 pt. 2 (Guitars 2)

[NoNameDude91]

first of all, half of the mix is the recorded stuff from your musicians. if the guitar sound, bass guitar sound or whatever suck, you start working with a lot of eqs compressors and so on trying to get the best sound. but if the guitars sound from the beginning awesome, you only have to filter some nasty frequencies out and yeah maybe, if the signal isn't that much pre compressed by the distiortion use a compressor. the next part, panorama and the frequencies! next part, reverb and delay ;)

[Jamesmsv]

@NoNameDude91 Very true, too many times I've spent too long trying to make a bad source signal sound good and it's never any substitute for getting it right from the start. Most of the time it's even easier to re-record than try messing around repairing audio, it never sounds great in the end if it's got too much processing of any sort.

[NoNameDude91]

@Jamesmsv great words, i think everybody starts to record a bad sound and trying to manipulate it with tons of plug ins :) a good mix is not depending on plug ins! when you like to create a big guitar wall, record it with a fat sound but not too much distortion!! double it, pan it l + r, do it with another guitar sound, but not as "fat" as the first one. you will see, if the guitar sounds combined, only a eq for bad frequencies but not boosting! find another harmonies and do the same!

[NoNameDude91]

@Jamesmsv but with other panaroma settings! so it gets bigger and bigger :) try a bus compressor to the final guitar bus and it will sit perfectly in the mix! try to get some sounds to the back with reverb and delay (equing the reverb!!!) so it gets airy and awesome. my mastering chain is: L1 - not too hard settings, only for getting fatter mix. Linear Broadband EQ - for boosting frequencies for a linear line. and then a maximizer :D thats it! and it sounds holy shit awesome dude haha

[NoNameDude91]

@NoNameDude91 i don't need this fucking things like stereo spreader or vitalizer.. i mean what the hell? such overhyped useless stuff!!! if you are a good engineer you dont need this. people, learn the basics and not more. at the beginning i thought wow, i need all these plug ins for a better sound :D no way... go and get a well sounding interface like the apogee duet, buy good monitors, and a good mic. thats it. all the other stuff is in your daw. but i dont mean you dude ;)

[JohnChaosVirtue]

Thank you sir so much for this. I was messing around days and days trying to make something for our first EP and just in a few hours, just watching your videos, I finaly have something that I can enjoy as a listener, not just as producer.

The least I can do is thank you.

[LeonidFrog]

thanks, you show consider doing a similar tutorial with superior 2.0 :)

[Jamesmsv]

@LeonidFrog I definitely will be, just got SD2 so I'm working out how to get the best out of it. Unfortunately my new PC has died on me after 3 weeks so it might me a few more before I get another video done..... Damned IT!

[LeonidFrog]

hey, I got the waves stuff, looking for the tube saturation plug that can work for *mac, anything from the waves bundle that can work or if you know another way to go about it. as always great vids

[Jamesmsv]

@LeonidFrog Sorry dude, I'm afraid I don't know as I don't use a Mac. If you google for it include the term 'harmonic saturation' as well as it will produce a similar effect. Voxengo do a free tube amp but I don't know if you can just isolate the saturation effect. If you're using cubase then the free DaTube that comes with it is actually very good but unfortunately only adds slight saturation so not too noticeable. It's one thing really missing from the waves bundles. Good luck!

[Jamesmsv]

@LeonidFrog Just remembered something - if you're using Cubase on the Mac then you'll have access to their legacy plugins, one of which is the Magneto - I've never used it but have heard good things about it, it's a tape emulator, they work well for saturation especially on distorted guitars. To find it, go to the cubase forum and search 'legacy plugins'. As long as you have one Cubase license you're entitled to their whole library of old VSTs. Hope that helps!

[RamonaTheBand]

Awesome videos - ive been an audio info junkie for 20+ years and this little series is one of the best of all times. I produce very little metal - but this helps me out a lot. I can cant thank you enough!!

[nayakvishak]

great vids for beginners like me...you are just amazing...

i watched all your videos...and it helped me a lot...but i have 2 questions for u...

1) do u use a sound card or usb interface to connect ur guitar onto the pc..

2) why do use mutiple inserts in cubase like overdrive boost and cab simulations vst if u can do it in single vst like guitar rig or pod farm...

plz answer me and thanx...

[Jamesmsv]

@nayakvishak Hi dude, thanks for watching. To answer your questions... 1) I use an EMU 1820m which is quite a hi-end soundcard (or was a few years ago), I would always recommend using a PCI card + jack/xlr inputs as in my experience they're much better than usb.

2) There are obviously many different ways to achieve a metal guitar sound, the way I'm showing is probably the most common with people who are doing it for free. As always though, my way is not always the best for others, try it all!

[nicksram4x4]

excellent stuff! thank you friend!

[tokai1999]

Very interesting. I get real issues with distorted sound. I have never seen such dramatic Eq settings. Excellent tips for extra plug ins, I have bookmarked this and will watch it a few more times and pass it on. Cheers mate.

[Jamesmsv]

@tokai1999 Cool - I've probably said this in other comments already, but distorted guitars are probably the single hardest instrument to mix well in modern music. I'm certainly not the expert when it comes to these so do check out some other guys on youtube, there's plenty searching for that perfect guitar tone! Only problem is the perfect guitar tone doesn't always work once the rest of the band is playing.......

[jamoxesox]

awesome stuff man, thank you your a good teacher

[Jamesmsv]

@jamoxesox Thanks mate, I appreciate the comment.

[ShreddingDragon]

Excellent tutorial, well explained and thorough. Poulin amps are great and I'm totally for impulses these days. Thanks for the tips on Variety of Sound plugins too, I'm trying them out immediately. (But one thing: palm mutes or not - pick harder! ;)

[lealeexx]

im having problems downloading the c4. It says i need an iLok to run the demo... what am i doing wrong?

[Jamesmsv]

@lealeexx I never used the demo so wasn't aware that you needed an ilok for that nowdays, they must be getting paranoid that people can crack it somehow. You definitely need one for the full version of any Waves product so I would recommend getting one if you plan on buying any expensive plugins, but they're not very cheap so if not it might not be worthwhile if you aren't. Waves tech support or ilok (dot) com might be able to give you more info.

[onionblaster]

Honestly i don't like the tone of the guitars.... they sound very digital... there are better plug ins on internet that make them sound better, stronger and with more air.

[Jamesmsv]

@onionblaster That's probably my mixing that you don't like (or more accurately the impulses that I've chosen)rather than the VSTs, the free ones I'm using really are very good, I recommend giving them a go and see for yourself.

[onionblaster]

@Jamesmsv ... i appreciate the effort doing this videos and helping many of us trying to get a better sound in our home mixing... i will give a go to the vsts and try by myself in my next mixing. Thank you very much.

[simonpvo2]

@Jamesmsv If i may come with a suggestion, you might wan't to look at some of the free amp models from LePou, or the TSE X50, it sounds sooooo much better than the guitar amp sim you used. When that has been said, thanks for the mixing tutorials, i did actually learn quite a bit from them :)

[Jamesmsv]

@simonpvo2 By all means dude, but you'll see what I think of Alain LePou if you check out my top 10 guitar vst video........

[decapitatedrathead]

too much gain on the guitars!, also palm mute a bit tighter and play harder sounds alot better for that kind of riffing

[Jamesmsv]

@decapitatedrathead Remember you're only hearing part of a song. Palm-muting is not an effect I wanted over that particular riff, it creates a groove that doesn't really fit with the general atmosphere of my music.

[AceFire117]

Thank you so much, i'm actually learning to mix at home just for fun and for my band, much easier to record at home, having a nice beer with the band :)

You helped me understand so much on the guitars and drums ! \m/

I do have one question though, i did not bounce the guitars like you did, i just sent the left & right directly to a single group channel (in stereo) but the plugins don't affect my sound. I can't figure out why !

[Jamesmsv]

@AceFire117 Sounds odd ! Can you send me a link to a screendump of your mixer window so I can see how you've routed everything? If you're sending both channels to one group and adding the plugins to that group I'm not sure why it won't affect the sound without seeing the mixer itself. Hopefully I'll be able to help.....

[AceFire117]

@Jamesmsv thanks for answering ! but actually i realised just after posting my question that i didn't route the good output for the group channel ^^" my mistake !

But by the way, can you tell me how to do a proper "volume in" with distortion guitars ? Cause when i use "fade in" in audio process it only affects the gain and not the entire volume.

[Jamesmsv]

@AceFire117 Glad you got it sorted! Best way to fade in guitars is use automation on the track (or group) fader rather than using the Fade option in Process. This also means you can adjust it later down the line if you need to, plus it doesn't affect the gain through the amp so you maintain the same distortion throughout

[AceFire117]

@Jamesmsv Thanks man ! i see what you mean, never got the chance to know what it was meant for now i know ;)

[AceFire117]

@Jamesmsv hey me again, just wanted to know why bounced the guitars ? what are the advantages ?

[Jamesmsv]

@AceFire117 The only reason I bounce down is because my PC is about 7 years old, so it hasn't got enough CPU to deal with Cubase, plugins, plus the software recording the tutorial. I have to turn off plugins wherever I can to save memory for other stuff! I do this even when not recording tutorials just to keep plenty of space for spikes, and there's no problem with that as long as the original files aren't deleted so I can change things later on if I need to.

[AceFire117]

@Jamesmsv So.. what is normally done instead of bouncing the guitars ? :s

[Jamesmsv]

@AceFire117 A lot of people don't like messing with the original audio, so they keep all tracks with all the plugins running. That's fine, but if you run low on CPU power then I see nothing wrong with bouncing down the tracks that you are fairly sure will not need any more changing, such as the normal guitar tracks.

[damienro0]

Hey man, this has helped a lot! Hey, my mixes sound a bit unclear, muddy probably, and they lack strength, wot would you do to give them more clarity, and more strength, it all sounds weak to me? one question, so you basically compress almost all the instruments right? check my mixes in soundcloud, my channel is /damienro0 I dont write the full page here because i think youtube doesnt let me post it! thank you!

[Jamesmsv]

@damienro0 It's usual to compress pretty much everything - but (like with my bass episode) if it doesn't sound as good with it, don't use it just because you think you should! As for your mixes, I honestly dont' think you have a problem with power - it's clarity that might need improving. I would suggest changing your guitar tone a bit, plus experiment with different kicks and snares as they sound a bit too similar, the snare is also a bit too dominant with it's rattle, maybe try a tighter one?

[damienro0]

@Jamesmsv Thank you for replying that quickly man! appreciate it! I've been trying to work the song a little bit more and i uploaded it in the same page, i hope you can check it out again! As you said i think I need more clarity, but i tried eq'ing the way you mention, i still couldnt get it to be clear, i eq'ed again the whole mix, and again in mastering, but i cant seem to get it! I dunno why? Why do you mean but rattly? and how can i make it tighter?

[Jamesmsv]

@damienro0 I'll send you a PM, too much to say in one comment!

[pesciro]

Sir, you are the master. Thanks for your tutorials.

[Jamesmsv]

@pesciro It's a pleasure, I'm glad I'm able to help others with this stuff for once!

[mikkwik]

Good one. how can we hear this whole tune? sounds cool.

[Jamesmsv]

@mikkwik Cheers dude - I'll upload the full song once I've done the last 2 episodes on vocals and the final mix. nothing fancy, I'm afraid a video is way out my budget!

[MarkArandjus]

Part 2 already? Nice!

[Jamesmsv]

@MarkArandjus Thanks for watching! Yeah, I wanted to get these up together as there's a lot to talk about with guitars and it all only comes together properly if you follow all the steps in both videos. Guitar EQ is probably the single hardest thing to mix in metal, I am expecting to receive quite a lot of comments on these ones (good as well as bad, I hope). Hopefully my methods will at least give people a new perspective on how to find the tone that works for them.