Greetings everyone, welcome to new episode of Metal Mixing Guide podcast
Y'all already know what's going on in this bitch today
But before we will go for the shit, I'd wanted to say few things
Originally it supposed to be mix model of "A Voice Within" album by Intervals
It all started from my collaboration with Sayar Sadikov
He've had an idea to make cover of song called Ephemeral and asked if I can help with the sound and shit
Within next few months we've achieved pretty close results
Props to his playing skills and my abbility to steal every single tone in the world
So I've thought that it can be good thing for new tutorial
2 months later after tonns of tests in different environments it ended up in the way it is
Yes I know I'm a champion of fucking up the plans, but original model didn't really work outside of cover context
And I used to change a lot of things in order to get stable processing model
Basically I choose to give up something that actually works
Instead of calling it Intervals tone and pretending that I nailed it good
So I'd wanted to invite you to Sayar's channel and check out his cover
In order to motivate you little more, we will add information about recording chain under his video
I mean: guitar model, audio interface, strings and all that stuff
I'll leave link in the description
So without further ado let me bring you up to speed with the shit
Let's start our journey from them rhythm guitars reamping
As you can see we have quite a lot of them, but all this stuff is processed almost the same way
So processing itself is not a big deal
Generally speaking we have two tone models - "A" and "B"
What's more important is the actual way I arranged it
Main double is the main riffage, isolated it sounds like this
Pretty much all the time it's followed by second double, where higher notes getting transposed 1 octave lower
And this additional triple pack is almost the same thing
The only difference is that this time I transposed same notes 7 semitones higher
All together it forms some form of inverted power chord for melodic parts
While root note remains the same for all the tracks, let's listen to it all together
As I said processing of this stuff is almost the same
So let me show you how it's done with main guitars first
First element in chain is guitar processor Revalver 4
This time we use Flathill head with tube screamer in front of it, so at this point we only form basic distortion
Next thing is low pass filtering to cut out unnecessary fizzy highs
Basically this step is just a preparation for next plugin
Classic Clipper by T-Racks to get additional compression and saturation
As a result we kind of rebuild revalver's distortion by replacing fizzy highs of the amp with clipper's saturation
Now it sounds much fuller so the tone evolves from being "metal as fuck" straight to "fat as shit"
Next step is cabinet simulation with my custom impulse, for this double we're gonna use model "A"
Just as always you will find all the good stuff in the additional files pack
Same processing is applied to other channel
Same as other packs - we use L95 and R95 panning
Routing to self-titled bus with no processing, we just need it for batch export
Other packs is the same thing in only exception of cab impulse, for them I use tone "B"
And also little level reduction of double and triple busses
On top of that I used some editing
Basically it's just open 7 string being dropped from 0 to -12 semitones using pitch-correction tool
Together with few cuts on top to get a lot of swag
I also used fade-out for very last note to get smoother transition to clean guitar parts
Together with another fade-out on top of processed audio we will get pretty transparrent transition
But at this point it's all about drive levels
Seems like we're done here, so it's time to print the audio
But before that - be sure to use at least 0.2 seconds value on them convolvers to get transparrent results
I use low quality settings for filming purposes
So set up rendering zone and start batch export from main, double and tripple busses
Moving on to lead guitars
At this stage we will get background lead from the beginning, glitchy lead from the middle of the song
And also additional melodic double played with octaves
Let's start from main lead tone
First two plugins is revalver and impulse loader
This time I used 6505, just because it provides more kind of stable and compressed sounding
Speaking of pedalboard - I use tube screamer with different settings addapted for lead tone
Plus treble booster in front of it to get additional brightness
Lead guitar impulse inside of convolver
Then I use Valhalla Uber Mod to get little wider sounding, some light touch of chorus
Ping-pong delay
Then small amount of shimmer reverb
Some equalization
This module is related to production of cover song, so at this point it may seem like useless element
But there was reasons for me to do this and I didn't want to change the sound by evening it out
Stereo control with Imager, basically we just make them mids wider
Then this channel goes to Lead Main bus
Which is the keeper of all equalization applied to lead guitar inside of main mixing project
I used to transfer some of the processing to basic templates in order to free some CPU power
First equalizer deals with ringy midrange and unnecessary low and high parts of spectrum
Second EQ is additional set of polishing
All together they allows our lead to take proper place in the mix
Moving on to Lead Glitch
Before we will get to all that glitchy stuff - we need to bounce basic audio in order to cut it
Sure it could be done before reamping, but because of great compression of amp I could get very sharp starts
So first part is pre-bounce channel
Here I used same Revalver and Kefir settings
Same kind of shimmer, EQ and Imager
So I bounced this shit and put processed audio to Lead Glitch (post) channel
Cut it using 32th note intervals and deleted every second part in order to get this kind of swag
Please notice that I adjusted the intro of our lead before the export
It was necessary because reverb need some time to respond and fill the sound
Otherwise we could get dry start
So even though we cut this thing off - our lead gonna be evenly filled with reverb all the time
On top of editing I also used short fades to be safe from clicks
And now it's time to give this channel shit tonn of processing, check this out
First element is light chorus
Then we cut off unnecessary low-end popping
Some Ping-Pong delay
Reverb
Light reduction of highs from side
Making them mids wider with imager
Final polishing to get rid of unwanted resonances
And limiter in allround mode to get slight control on peak dynamics
Final part is octave double
It's based on rhythm guitar processing model, so first 3 modules are exact same things
However this time I used different cabinet impulse
Some delay at the end of the chain, just to make it bigger
Exact same processing on another channel
Both have level around -6 decibels, 87% panning off-center, routing to Octave Guitars bus
Same as with main Lead - I keep pre-mixing equalization here
First equalizer will make them shits little brighter and cleaner on mids
Second one is final integrational movement
Here is the settings of mixer just in case if I missed anything
Be sure to use higher impulse lengths together with oversampling where it's possible
Setup rendering zone and start batch export from Lead Glitch post, Lead Main bus and Octave Guitars bus
Last set of guitars is them cleans, check this shit
Let's start from main clean guitar
Basic tone is formed by first 3 elements
First one is Flathill in clean mode
Then I used custom impulse response as a cab sim
And then applied slight compression to fill the sound
In this case I did not do gain matching
So it's just gets louder, compression itself is pretty subtle
Some more compression with H-Comp
This time we get bigger gain reduction, but also use it in parallel mode so effect may seem subtle as well
Then I use stereo delay
Right channel is getting 30 ms delay, while left one remains the same as it was
As a result now we have some kind of double tracked and wider sound (=Haas effect)
H-Delay settings are based on factory tape delay preset
The only thing I changed is turned off analog mod in order to get rid of fizz on highs
And valhalla room for space
Clean lead guitar
First element is Fox head
Custom impulse response
Same kind of tape-delay, notice that this time I left analog mode in it's source position
Same kind of compressor
Another delay, this time I use ping-pong mode in order to make it wider
And Valhalla room with higher decay and mix values
You don't really need that much, I just didn't want it to be in front of main clean guitar
I also used off-center panning to equalize stereo placing of them shits
This lead model can be also used as warm clean
Just turn off reverb and delays, maybe adjust incomming level little bit and you're in
Since we're done here - be sure to use higher length values on convolvers
Set up rendering zone and do batch export from both channels
Next stop - bass guitar template
We're not gonna get too deep in the way it works because it was already explained in previous videos
Intstrument itself is my free library for Kontakt 5
You can learn more about it by following promo video link in the description
Basic setup and automatic patch has been explained in metal mixing guide #23
I'll leave link with time code in the description as well
It's the same thing in exception of using "Automatic 5" instead of "Automatic 6"
Two outs (of total four) of Kontakt are processed with matching impulses
So we won't get too much difference in performance on different strings
These are custom made for this guide and use 5th string spectrum as a reference
That's why we keep that channel unprocessed
There was also no reason to match the noise
Kontakt channels are routed to Chronos Sum bus, where I have Izotope Decrackler with these settings
This thing will give us smoother performance by evening out some harshness and clicky sounds
However when activated it can overload my CPU
I only turn it on right before mix down of audio to be sure that my processor won't reach heat levels of neutron star
Output of this bus is turned off
Instead of that I use 3 different sends to FX channels for realtime parallel processing
Basically we just have multiple outs at the same time, that's really it
Here is how them shits processed
Now all 3 go to bass bus, just to continue processing of a whole thing
Then this bus is routed to bass master bus, which represents important mix corrections, same as I did with leads
Main point of this whole thing is to keep resonating frequencies under control
So first multiband compressor is a light touch on dynamics of lows below 227 Hz
Other bands stays inactive
With next EQ we reduce outstanding low frequencies together with dirty zone around 1300 Hz
We also have more or less wide boost around 1800 herz to bring up some of them picking sounds
Additional reduction of low end
Same zones, so I just used another EQ to make searching of these more comfortable
Second multiband control of lows
This time we compress very nerrow zone between 100 and 169 Hz
Final polishing of spectrum
We're done here so same as everywhere - activate oversampling wherever possible, use higher lengths of impulses
Turn that decrackler on, setup rendering zone and start export from Bass Master bus
Last set of audio is pack of 3 synths, them shits gonna play a role of background for clean guitars
Let me demonstrate it over pre-rendered sum of both
So first synth is based on Ambibella preset from Kontakt's factory library
You can find it if go to Synth folder, then Pad sub folder, should be here
I might change something, so here is the settings I used
Speaking of processing - first element being used is decrackler with these settings
It will help us to even out unwanted clicky attack
Then I use CLA-2A to squash the dynamics and maybe get some saturation
Brainworx Control to swap left and right channels
we'll need it to get proper stereo together with Ambibella low
Then I use Valhalla Shimmer in order to create huge space feeling
And Valhalla Uber mod with Warm'n Warbly on board to make it smoother and darker
Ambibella low is pretty much the same thing
Still I might change something inside of the sampler
Processing is the same
I only used MIDI transposition to make it 1 octave lower, that's why it's called low
For Sailor I used self-titled factory preset as a basis
You can find it inside of Choir subfolder
Here I used internal panner to solo content of right part of stereo cause I liked it more
Left and right channels are different in this case
Then I used BX Control to put that right channel to center by soloing it
Same kind of compression with CLA-2A,
Not so extreme this time
Slight reduction around 1487 Hz
Right on the fucking edge if you know what I mean
Valhalla Shimmer with bigger mix value and lesser feedback
Same Uber mod settings for same purposes
Here is the levels I used
So it's time to mixdown our stuff
Be sure to turn on them decracklers, then do batch export from 3 synth channels
Time for drums
Starting from this point all the action will be continued in the same project
so right now we only gonna talk about drums
but all the audio we've prepared earlier as well as master processing will be there too (low-key it already is)
Let's just pretend that it's not here yet
So just as always I use Superior Drummer two in multi-out mode as main drum kit
Avatar library on board
No any internal processing, we're gonna process everything externally
And speaking of routing - I added output markers to them channels outside of sampler so it's easier to understand the routing
There is whole bunch of other stuff such as bleed adjustments, sample levels, envelopes and sample names
Instead of going for all that stuff - I will write it all down in txt file to mention everything
Or you can just use attached preset
There you will also find custom drum map for this drum kit, which can be helpful for drum programming
Now let's go for processing starting from kick
To make it more clear - I will bypass second step of processing together with triggers
This way you can understand how my kick sounded before I started to do mix changes
Basically it's related to cover production stage
First thing is processing on channels
I used tiny amount of delay compensation on internal kick mic
It's gonna slightly change phase correlation between channels, very subtle thing
Sub mic
Here I used EQ to get rid of midrange dirtyness
And then we have SPL Transient designer to make them hits shorter and little more focused
Now all 3 channels go to Kick bus where the processing puzzle starts
First movement is complex equalization to even out a lot of dirty stuff
I might go top down at some point, so please don't take it all as a consistent build-up
Then I use CLA-76 to get some compression
Izotope 5 Exciter provides us whith shit ton of tape saturation
This way it will be easier to play with timbral changes later
Just because it will be more squashed and stable
Now I can start to form basic dynamics with Transient Designer (SPL)
Basically we just reduce dirty sustain and focus attack
Forming new fundamental frequency with R Bass exciter
Then we use multiband compressor to get control on dynamics all over the spectrum
And also control amount of sonic pressure of each band
Basically it just makes everything smoother
Then I use NLS Channel to slightly move our kick out of center
We also get some saturation, but it's not that extreme
And right after I used complex equalization to polish things up and form proper kick tone
This is what I used for cover production
You can say that it sounds sharp as hell, and it wasn't that obvious at first
But when I started to test old version of this project with different arrangements
I figured out that this sharpness may be a problem in most cases
It's not really about the tone, the problem is that I can clearly hear that it's fake (kick)
So I needed to smooth it up somehow
Because of the way it was done - I couldn't really fix it with EQ
So I decided to add some triggers in order to have better basis for post-processing
Channel's names pretty much speak for themselves, but the tricky part is internal envelope processing
Decreased attack allows us to stay away from total sum of samples being too punchy (=short smooth fade-in on every sample)
And sustain control means that we won't get unwanted tails, we don't really need them
Same thing goes for other trigger
So now I can control total sum of kicks by changing timbre of triggers, check this out
Now we have much fuller and richer sound to work with
Superior's kick bus and two triggers face each other on Kicks bus
First thing here is gate
This way we can get rid of some sustain from Superior's channels and sort of glue them layers together
So it's all about summing things up, bleed itself is not an issue in this case
Otherwise I could just turn it off in Superior
About 3 dB of compression with CLA-76, just to glue them shits even more
Then I started to polish it up with equalizer
Also added little boost around 3 kHz to bring back some colours
This was probably top down move, because next equalizer have had devilish amount of bands in the same zone
Little adjustment of fundamental frequency
And then we open portal to the underworld with another EQ
This one forms final tone of our kick and allows it to take proper place in the mix
Not too bright and not too dark
And now this whole thing goes to drums bus
There is also sends to bass and rhythm guitar side-chain compressors
And send to Ambience side-chain compressor from Kick bus
Moving on to snare
Processing of this thing goes in a complicated way as well
But unlike the kick - we're gonna play around with room channels as additional layers
So let's start from the top mic
First thing I did was reduction of several resonances on mids
It was top-down movement to fine-tune work of next element
Which is CLA seventy six in ALL mode, which means that we get high amounts of both compression and saturation
And then we adjust fundamental tone just a bit
Bottom mic
Here I use transient designer to get control on sustain of snares
I wanted to keep it tight together with top mic
And then slight control of the timbre
Amb Bullet mic
As you can hear I only used kick and snare bleed in it
So we add room colors to the shit and still keep it clean from noisy overheads
Here I just dropped one resonating zone
It's not about to clean things up just yet
So don't take it as a polishing movement, things could be sort of random at this point
Amb mid mic
Same as previous - this one contains only kick and snare responce
It's gonna make our snare wider and give it solid room feeling, we won't need to use reverb this time
Here is how I changed the timbre to keep things in balance
And I also moved it out of center to actually move snare closer to the center
Last element is SD1176 mic
This is the main source of bleed and little direct adjustment to the snare sound
So now all the channels face each other on snare bus
First element is complex control of dynamics
Basically it just unites them shits and form proper attacks on each band
Then we use equalizer to clean the spectrum and add some of that low end pressure
Limiter will help us to slice them peaks and get little more stable dynamics
Final polishing in order to clean things up and integrate it to the mix
Then this bus goes to drums bus
Speaking of sends - we have same kind of send to rhythm guitar side chain compressor
And also send to parallel compression channel
Here I used extreme settings to get as much compression as possible
This way we will make our snare fuller in mix
This channel is routed to drums bus as well
Toms
Processing of both is pretty much the same in exception of little EQ difference
Let's start from Rack toms
First element is pretty transparrent EQ shape in order to get cleaner tone
I know some of y'all can say that it's still pretty complex
But in my universe anything below 100 bands per one equalizer can be described as "transparrent"
R Bass to bring up some low end
And CLA-76 to get fuller sounding
As I said floor toms is the same thing, the only difference is low end EQ shape
This time we have wide boost of lows instead of resonance cut
R Bass and CLA remains the same
Now both channels can face each other on Toms bus
Another compressor in first place, this time it's gonna unite both channels together
NLS for console saturation with small amount of clipping distortion
Then I reduced dirty noise from overheads bleed and changed midrange content to keep it in balance with other elements of the mix
Pro-L for peak level control
Same as others this bus goes to drums bus
Hi-hat
It's nowhere to be found in current arrangement, so I will use separate midi part to demonstrate how it works
First thing I'd wanted to say is that main source of hi hat will be our room
So direct mic or overheads bleed is just a support for that
First element is tremolo in order to get slight flutter feeling
NLS to heat up the shit with console saturation
And then I filter out unnescesary lows and highs to make it transparrent on top of overheads and room bleeds
Output routing to drums bus
Now let's go back to our main arrangement and check out them overheads
So first thing here is basic polishing to get rid of unwanted low end and some other stuff
NLS for same console saturation reasons
Tremolo to get same kind of flutter
Overheads mask impulse
Basically it's just light EQ matching from drums bus
I used it on early stages of mix to get quick fix of old timbres
But there was no point to apply it to kick and snare so I decided to bring it back to overheads and room
We gonna use 3 different variations of that, it all goes down to matching amount so there will be little difference
SSL Compressor
I used it to compress the cymbals at first, but then I changed them levels of cymbals
As a result now it reacts to snare peaks
Why not, it still adds some nice feeling to the mix
Final cut of dirty zone around 6 kHz
Output routing to drums bus
And finally the room
So first thing is self-titled impulses for close and far channels
As I already said total effect is pretty subtle
Mono channel stays unprocessed
All 3 of them go to Ambience bus, let's peep this out
So first thing here is CLA-76 in all mode
It's gonna give us some compression together with some sort of broken type of sound
First polishing move, let me bring up them overheads so you can hear the correlation
Pro-C in side-chain mode
As you already know we feed it with signal from Kick bus
This way we get slight reduction of room during kick drum hits
Which basically means little more focus for it
Some saturation from NLS
Flutter generator
And final polishing
At the end of the day this bus goes to drums bus and so we are
All we have here is NLS bus to sort of lock drums all together by bringing up some saturation and have little reduction of peaks
Output routing to master bus
So now we can finally add our stems to the mix
I didn't do anything with lead guitars in only exception of master bus routing
Basic fading and little level automations like in the spot between main lead and following glitchy part
Clean guitars and synths are routed to master bus as well
Same fading stuff for them
And the only processing move here is little EQ on clean lead guitar
Just subtle reduction of problem zone on mids
Bass track is routed to master bus as well
I also did some cuts here to match glitchy effect of rhythm guitars
Other than that it just gets compressed by kick's sidechain
Very subtle thing
Now Rhythm guitars
All 3 tracks are routed to rhythm guitars bus where we will finish the tone
But before we will go for it - check out what I did with audio
Actually let me change the collor so you can see it
So I did several cuts to mark transitions between different sections of the song, there is like 5 of them
Intro part, Evil part, Short-ass bridge, Chorus, and Outro
The idea is to have manual level adjustments for each section to control both pressure and tone of guitars
Remember that we've had two different tones?
So now we can change overal picture just by changing the balance
So I used values around -0.7 dB for main double track not counting the outro, it's gonna be different story
Second double have more variations
From default level for intro, to -1.7 dB for evilish part
This allows me to create additional headroom and let tripple track dive in without big volume changes
By the way I used -2 dB for it
Then I used little boost for bridge, because that's the place where tripple track ends
So we need to keep the pressure (sonic) around same levels, it should not sound like something is gone
And for chorus I drop it even lower to -3 dB to leave enough space for octave guitars
And now outro part
Rhythm guitars is not important here, all I want is to do smooth transition
And bring it down as soon as possible giving enough space for clean guitars to be heard
Right after this cut a lot of things kicks in, it creates additional (sonic) pressure
So we can drop one of rhythms, in this case it's minus one decibel for main rhythm guitar
And almost right after this cut we can start fading it out
Notice that it ends far beyond actual ending of guitars
As I already said I don't want it to be too obvious
So even though it doesn't ends on total silence
We still can't hear it because of other instruments in the mix
Plus previous pre-reamping fade already did part of this job
Now all them shits go to summing bus where I have final timbre changes
I'm gonna pull things in chronologically
So first one is this EQ
My first attempt to make this entire thing work
Evening out some zones and making our shit brighter
It sounds little cleaner now, but there is still a lot of stuff to even out, like this whistle
Now it's not so outstanding, but we've created enough space for other midrange resonances to be heard which is bad
Before we will go for fixing it - let's add side-chain compressor and center plugin
Center will even out some... well, some center of stereo and make overall mix cleaner
It's much easier to hear the bass now, isn't it?
Compression itself is kind of the same we've used on bass, something around 1 db of reduction from snare
There is still some ringyness in the mids, I think you can hear that
Especially when it comes to chords of chorus part
So I use another EQ in front of mid-side processor
And very last thing to cut is this resonance
Now let's compare it with source tone
This is it for rhythm
This bus have lowered level and routed to master bus
Very very last part of mix adjustments is set of special effects
Unfortunately I won't tell you how it's done
simply because I didn't keep these projects for some reason
All this stuff is custom made for cover song
Basically we just tried to recreate it as close to the original as it was possible
At least for me
Let's listen to what we have
And now all together
So obviously first of them is just reversed toms
It's not related to our drum tone because I took it out of lo-fi intro part simulation
There was hell ton of stuff in order to get sort of original sounding and these toms include all that shit
The only difference is reversed audio
Same goes for reversed noise
I've made it from short piece of white noise passed through reverb
Then I just used a lot of EQ over it in order to copy the sound of original effect
There was probably something else like valhalla uber mod or something like that
Then I just bounced and reversed the shit
Another thing is this rifle shot
All the processing for these channels is additional reverbs, just to keep it on the back side of the mix
I also used little EQ to reduce low end pressure of toms
On top of it I used Sub Destroyer by Joey Sturgis Tones for subtle bass drop
From 54 to 27 herz, whole octave difference
Used the advantage of internal saturation so it's not gonna sound like a perfect syne
So 3 FX channels are routed to master bus, while Sub Destroyer is routed to limiter bus
Because I didn't want my compressors to react to this thing
It could made obvious pumping hole in the mix
Seems like too much of them last things, but there is another last one for sure this time
UberMod noise track
Here I just used Valhalla uber mod with Warm'n warbly preset in a role of noise generator
This thing will fill the sound, make it little crunchy and dirty
We're done with mix, so before we will go for mastering - take a look at them levels and panning settings
Now master processing
First element is EQ for same resonance control purposes, mostly related to guitars
Actually this EQ was very last thing applied to this project
I just used it in the first position to get stable reduction before compressors
Another EQ, related to earlier stages of production
I used spectrum matching to visualize problem zones by comparing my mix with several others
So it was easier to see the problems and locate them bands properly
Multiband compression
Main target of this thing is snare drum, so this way I pack it deeper in mix
Master matching in form of impulse responce
Related to early stages of production
Izotope Reverb for tiny bit of space
Second multiband compressor for same snare reduction purposes
This time I keep 2nd band in parallel mode, so we fill the sound and still have some dynamics in it
Other bands don't get that much of compression so I used 100% mix amounts on them
Bus compressor with long attack and short release allows us to glue elements of the mix together and have control on overall dynamics
Last equalizer
This one belongs to early version of template
So here I deal with two resonating zones and cut out unnescesary lows from stereo
Now our master goes to limiter buss, where it will face bass drop and both gonna get final loudness and peak dynamics control
Just as always I use pro-L
Allround mode will give us extra bit of glueing
And that's pretty much it
And for those of you who want to get additional files pack, which includes:
Full pack of chronos patches
Cubase projects which I used in this video
Full pack of impulses used in this guide
Preset bank for Revalver 4
Full pack of pro-Q presets
Same pack of templates for Reaper
Source DI and MIDI files
Presets for SSD4 and Superior Drummer with custom drum map for MIDI programming
You will find all of them shits in my private post on Patreon, which will be available after pledging $1
By doing this you will also get access for rest of my private content and help me keep doing what I do
Link is in the description
So hope you learned thing or two from this guide
See you next time