Try leveling all your tracks between -12 and -6 db. Then level the master to maybe between -3 and 0 (before "mastering"). If you are using a separate track for effects (side-chaining), maybe turn that down all the way, level the primary tracks (the "music") and then slowly add it back to taste.
I don't know if you are using loops or plugins. If loops you may want to use EQ and/or compression, among other things, to normalize the volume. Writing automation in the track to control volume also helps. It is difficult to tell how much of the volume swells is creative choice vs mixing issues. You can see it in the shape of the wav, there is a big space between the loudest and quietest parts.
Also, try listening to your mix in a car as well as headphones. The car will help you with the bass. The headphone will help you find harsh tones to remove via EQ -poor folk's studio :)
Lastly, your user name is awesome even if it is imaginary, let me know if this helps.
Too bad the genre prematurely aged and ate itself. Probably too much mashup like mentioned previously.
Also no polyrhythm, but even my drummer has a hard time counting past four, so why make the audience do math.
I haven't really kept up with djent since it's not really in my wheel house (dumb saying)! But I still think bands like Meshuggah and a few others will keep some semblance of it alive for a while yet. I actually kinda dig all that polyrythm, weird time signatures and and polymetered riff stuff. A lot of people think that its all relatively new and attribute it to the Alternative/Groove/Nu/Math metal movements. But Bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen were doing it.
Well, the genre was too hard to pronounce anyway - (also you forgot the "d") djent: is it "Dee-gent", "jent", "Digint"? Who knows?
"but even my drummer has a hard time counting past four, so why make the audience do math"? Drummers get such abuse, that's why they want to pound sh!t all the time !
I used to be a drummer. That's why I switched to guitar, kinda like EVH.
Great sounding clear mix. Nice lead work. Live instruments are so much harder to mix than plugins, but you pretty much nailed it. It is also loud but not compressed (or very little), which is another hard thing to do.
I really liked this track when I first heard it. The drum track really stood out and is a focal point in the mix. I thought to add a bit more polish just to emphasize it even more. Kargalars rhythm track here is super cool also. I guess I would categorize it as Alternative, it reminds me of early Mark Tremonte stuff. I tried a few different approaches for the lead and settled on the intense or more aggressive styling. I thought it worked better dynamically than the slower more melodic stuff I had. I tried to avoid over compression but I think I ended up with a few spots where its a bit muddy. His original track is loud so I had to tweek the eq and make some adjustments where I added the lead.
He actually did more work on the original track and added some nice vocals. He has a pretty slick Video version of it on YouTube. You can check it out from the link in the original in his track list.
Thanks for checking this out and giving me the feedback. I really appreciate it.
Beautiful song and mix. I can hear every part but they don't overpower the vocals, which are a bit dry but should be (rather than distant and reverb drenched) given the context.
Was surprised by the tempo changes. Even just doubling the tempo like you did is more interesting than being trapped in the same quantized time signature. Also you took the time to mix the dry "dub step" sounds, which can sound awesome but destroy ears and speakers if not handled like actual instruments.
I'm surprised at this direction compared to your other works, it shows versatility, cool track, fun to listen to, keep digging up old stuff or make something new, I'll probably listen to both.
With this kind of music, tempo changes are a must. With as repetitive as everything else gets, it just gets boring without it. That's my opinion anyhow.
Yes. Treating the dubstep sounds as an instrument is very important. I've heard a LOT of dubstep that should have never been let out of it's cage because the mix was so uneven and just blasted to it's fullest levels. If used properly, the dubstep sounds can be really freakin' cool. In "Velvet Highway" (and other tracks off mine), I used them as accents and enhancers in he background to really push the main instruments forward.
This direction is actually the original starting sound of "Valvedriver" I've taken down a lot of my older work to make room for the newer. Most of what you've heard is the new direction. Even though I am a die hard metal fan since 1986 when it first got walking legs, (Like, everything from Metallica to Cannibal Corpse, and Slayer to Nile) I still love to do the synth based darker shit, too. I enjoy the tweaking and sound engineering. More so than actually making the music.
I can see the perspective of the previous comments, however the vocals sound better here than your previous tracks. Maybe run a compressor and EQ on the master buss to address "distant vocals" issue.
Just a thought, great track, keep it rollin, nice to hear someone that can hit notes effortlessly.
Cool sounding mix, voice needs low EQ shelf, increase in volume, and a little reverb and it will pop out of the mix instead of being lost in it.
Also, you can use distortion/saturation for a different but similar effect, but too much and you're Trent Reznor.
Nice track overall, great vocal ideas, keep it up.
Nice vocal range, nice execution on the improvised, floaty notes. Vocals could be a little brighter in the mix maybe (a little mid-rangy, shelf the lows and then increase volume, maybe with a little compression with a slow release, or a hint of saturation/distortion is also an option), also some reverb like mentioned above, but I'm just picky.
Not sure why this track is in here twice but mine as well comment again.
Here is a link to fuzeejasmine's acapellas, which are the best sound engineering files I've found on this site when it comes to the subtle use of vocoding (I've drank my fair share of autotune hater-ade):
Beautiful natural vocals. With the piano and subtle drums it had a "lounge" sound. My only complaint is the cymbal crash that didn't seem to have a context, but that's just my opinion.
I would love to hear the same thing, but with an EQ filter on the vocals and some delay, and then LoFi the whole mix with some vinyl imperfections.
Like I said, beautiful natural voice, lots of range, would be perfect for a slow ii V i jazz scenario, with plenty of room to noodle.
Interesting sounding track. I think the vocoding had cause some specific frequencies that spike the volume; the end is almost feedback in my speaker preventing me from turning it up.
A compressor/limiter on the vocal track plus some EQ notch work (wherever the notes spike the volume) will fix it and make the track sound great (I'm no expert, these are just things I've learned so far).
Also, I would've liked to hear the dry vocals mixed with the vocoder, so that the autotune is seasoning instead of the main course, but that may just be my personal preference.
Don't usually comment on same track, however you said you were struggling with guitar VSTs.
Here's a few things that may help with your VST parameters:
Upstroke vs Downstroke, palm muted vs open vs fingerpick (nail, flesh of finger, plucked etc.), pick scratch (creates noisy but note specific harmonics, possibly with some wobbly LFO to create randomness), and not all strings are struck at the same time when playing a chord.
There is a tiny delay between each string when a chord is struck, varying from a slow strum, to fast thrash palm-muted bar chords, as well as direction change in that delay, depending if it is an upstroke or downstroke.
If you had just a little more of these irregularities in your VSTs I would be completely fooled in a blind study. Also, just writing this is really making me analyze my playing.
Your plugin and composing work is awesome, and well ahead of most I've heard on and off this site. I hope some guitar theory helps with your struggles.
There's some clipping going on. You may want to consider a little more volume control on the tracks as well as some or more EQ and compression (you can really get those guitar VSTs crunchy if you play with the transients). You can also add saturation to fatten the mix without the wav becoming a brick and having a washed out sound.
Then the audience can crank it.
Great work, I keep thinking of Quake, but on steroids, keep it up. Also, several youtube gamers are always looking for music to put in their videos, this had FPS highlights written all over it (though that may take away some of the magic).
My man, I apologise for not replying sooner. You've been commenting and I've been putting off the replies. Thanks so much for the resources, I've been making my way around these metal tracks lately and it's been a struggle to say the least. I might have to hit you up on your offer to record some tracks for me, if you send me your email at centristmusic @gmail we can talk a little further. Can't get the drop C low chugs without crazy amounts of clipping and distortion that make the guitar almost seem unrecognizable.
This is the best sounding mix of the three. The upper register guitars don't have any harshness and you can crank it up.
All three were fun to listen to. I see you are making some new stuff after a pretty good gap. Looking forward to it.
If you ever want to collaborate, I can go the death metal rout all day, and my drummer's nickname is "makes everything metal." He'll do double bass on a ZZTop cover :)
I had to turn the stereo down at first. There is probably some 4K stuff still going on in the mix, but that might just be my ears.
Overall awesome job, love the double bass, I wish I could shed my bias as a guitar player and quit with the qualifier "good for VSTs" because blind study I may not have been able to tell (especially when you use both), and it shouldn't matter as long as it sounds good.
If it was me, I would put an EQ on the master and scoop the mids a little more, but once again that could just be my ears or stereo, and I am no expert.
Another thing to consider is to EQ all three parts of the Trilogy together, then render the separate pieces, to make the production consistent between them (unless you have 50 tracks, which you may).
Bass sounds good, nice and clean in my sub, no mud.
Great track, like the more aggressive sound.
You may be correct about the 4k in the mixing. I don't know about scooping more mids. Maybe. I'll have to wait until my new laptop arrives and is up and running before I can do any more editing. Right now I only have my ancient back-up laptop that can't handle what I need to do.
If I ever get to a point where I put my work on respective albums, then I will definitely be mastering accordingly. But for now, I'm streaming on Looperman and Soundcloud where people don't really listen to more than one track, more than one time.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment. I apologize for the extremely late reply. None the less, I appreciate your input.
Sounded great to me, well mixed, lots of buzzing but no harshness when turned up (electronic music tends to destroy speakers and ears if certain precautions are not taken).
I'm sure it's healthy to go "outside the box" for a while (since the question for metal for 5 years has been "but does it Gent?").
You've got the VST work down so I say go weird or go home, especially when you keep ending up over 7 min, just call it prog metal :)
on Insert Coin to Continue by sqrtofneg1
Try leveling all your tracks between -12 and -6 db. Then level the master to maybe between -3 and 0 (before "mastering"). If you are using a separate track for effects (side-chaining), maybe turn that down all the way, level the primary tracks (the "music") and then slowly add it back to taste.
I don't know if you are using loops or plugins. If loops you may want to use EQ and/or compression, among other things, to normalize the volume. Writing automation in the track to control volume also helps. It is difficult to tell how much of the volume swells is creative choice vs mixing issues. You can see it in the shape of the wav, there is a big space between the loudest and quietest parts.
Here are two videos that may help (they helped me) and would be a good place to start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAGC2fUAU1M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oOmX3JHwtE
Also, try listening to your mix in a car as well as headphones. The car will help you with the bass. The headphone will help you find harsh tones to remove via EQ -poor folk's studio :)
Lastly, your user name is awesome even if it is imaginary, let me know if this helps.
on stay safe by terryjmhitsong
on First Contact by StarTravels
on Peripheral by Neomorpheus
Answer "yes"
Too bad the genre prematurely aged and ate itself. Probably too much mashup like mentioned previously.
Also no polyrhythm, but even my drummer has a hard time counting past four, so why make the audience do math.
Well, the genre was too hard to pronounce anyway - (also you forgot the "d") djent: is it "Dee-gent", "jent", "Digint"? Who knows?
"but even my drummer has a hard time counting past four, so why make the audience do math"? Drummers get such abuse, that's why they want to pound sh!t all the time !
I used to be a drummer. That's why I switched to guitar, kinda like EVH.
Thanks.
Later bro.
on Ghost in my Guitar by Neomorpheus
Thanks for the entertaining comment bro.
on Control by Neomorpheus
Nice work, hope I hear more.
He actually did more work on the original track and added some nice vocals. He has a pretty slick Video version of it on YouTube. You can check it out from the link in the original in his track list.
Thanks for checking this out and giving me the feedback. I really appreciate it.
on MORE Just For Funsies by toddlove
great, fun sounding track, keep it up.
on Keeping It Saxy - Ronabo2020 by ronabo
I wonder how you would sound playing a ROLI?
on Beside Myself by Lauren-Morgan and JaeDread by 1lookurhooked
on Things U Could Do by Lauren-Morgan and Iammaxpain by 1lookurhooked
Awesome song, keep it up.
on Q and Chill by Lauren-Morgan and CXRTER by 1lookurhooked
on Labyrinth Of The Absurd pt 2 - Pain Has A Face by ValveDriver
I'm surprised at this direction compared to your other works, it shows versatility, cool track, fun to listen to, keep digging up old stuff or make something new, I'll probably listen to both.
Yes. Treating the dubstep sounds as an instrument is very important. I've heard a LOT of dubstep that should have never been let out of it's cage because the mix was so uneven and just blasted to it's fullest levels. If used properly, the dubstep sounds can be really freakin' cool. In "Velvet Highway" (and other tracks off mine), I used them as accents and enhancers in he background to really push the main instruments forward.
This direction is actually the original starting sound of "Valvedriver" I've taken down a lot of my older work to make room for the newer. Most of what you've heard is the new direction. Even though I am a die hard metal fan since 1986 when it first got walking legs, (Like, everything from Metallica to Cannibal Corpse, and Slayer to Nile) I still love to do the synth based darker shit, too. I enjoy the tweaking and sound engineering. More so than actually making the music.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment.
Take care.
on Summer Breeze by Lauren-Morgan and Pablo254 by 1lookurhooked
Just a thought, great track, keep it rollin, nice to hear someone that can hit notes effortlessly.
on Add A Lil Chocolate by Lauren-Morgan and Pablo254 by 1lookurhooked
Also, you can use distortion/saturation for a different but similar effect, but too much and you're Trent Reznor.
Nice track overall, great vocal ideas, keep it up.
on You Been On My Mind by Lauren-Morgan and Pablo254 by 1lookurhooked
Great song, true to the genre, keep it up.
on Take Me In by LaurenMorgan by 1lookurhooked
Here is a link to fuzeejasmine's acapellas, which are the best sound engineering files I've found on this site when it comes to the subtle use of vocoding (I've drank my fair share of autotune hater-ade):
https://www.looperman.com/acapellas?page=1&mid=fuzeejasmine&dir=d
Check them out and you will probably see what I mean.
on Fly Lauren Morgan X Roleez by 1lookurhooked
I would love to hear the same thing, but with an EQ filter on the vocals and some delay, and then LoFi the whole mix with some vinyl imperfections.
Like I said, beautiful natural voice, lots of range, would be perfect for a slow ii V i jazz scenario, with plenty of room to noodle.
on Take Me In - Lauren-Morgan X Sylvette by 1lookurhooked
A compressor/limiter on the vocal track plus some EQ notch work (wherever the notes spike the volume) will fix it and make the track sound great (I'm no expert, these are just things I've learned so far).
Also, I would've liked to hear the dry vocals mixed with the vocoder, so that the autotune is seasoning instead of the main course, but that may just be my personal preference.
on Gladiator by Centrist
Here's a few things that may help with your VST parameters:
Upstroke vs Downstroke, palm muted vs open vs fingerpick (nail, flesh of finger, plucked etc.), pick scratch (creates noisy but note specific harmonics, possibly with some wobbly LFO to create randomness), and not all strings are struck at the same time when playing a chord.
There is a tiny delay between each string when a chord is struck, varying from a slow strum, to fast thrash palm-muted bar chords, as well as direction change in that delay, depending if it is an upstroke or downstroke.
If you had just a little more of these irregularities in your VSTs I would be completely fooled in a blind study. Also, just writing this is really making me analyze my playing.
Your plugin and composing work is awesome, and well ahead of most I've heard on and off this site. I hope some guitar theory helps with your struggles.
on Hive Queen Fight Music by Centrist
There's some clipping going on. You may want to consider a little more volume control on the tracks as well as some or more EQ and compression (you can really get those guitar VSTs crunchy if you play with the transients). You can also add saturation to fatten the mix without the wav becoming a brick and having a washed out sound.
Then the audience can crank it.
Here's a tutorial I found that helped me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oOmX3JHwtE
I've been far down that rabbit hole and recommend it to anyone.
Great work, I keep thinking of Quake, but on steroids, keep it up. Also, several youtube gamers are always looking for music to put in their videos, this had FPS highlights written all over it (though that may take away some of the magic).
on Rise of a Villain by Centrist
on Fatal Ocean by Centrist
It would be nice to just view the voice as another instrument, but it's hard to get that detachment to avoid being self-conscious.
I thought you did great and the timbre was appropriate for the context. Keep it up.
on Overmyth I - Inception Of The Truth by ValveDriver
All three were fun to listen to. I see you are making some new stuff after a pretty good gap. Looking forward to it.
If you ever want to collaborate, I can go the death metal rout all day, and my drummer's nickname is "makes everything metal." He'll do double bass on a ZZTop cover :)
on Overmyth II - Cathedral Of The Witch by ValveDriver
Overall awesome job, love the double bass, I wish I could shed my bias as a guitar player and quit with the qualifier "good for VSTs" because blind study I may not have been able to tell (especially when you use both), and it shouldn't matter as long as it sounds good.
If it was me, I would put an EQ on the master and scoop the mids a little more, but once again that could just be my ears or stereo, and I am no expert.
Another thing to consider is to EQ all three parts of the Trilogy together, then render the separate pieces, to make the production consistent between them (unless you have 50 tracks, which you may).
Bass sounds good, nice and clean in my sub, no mud.
Great track, like the more aggressive sound.
If I ever get to a point where I put my work on respective albums, then I will definitely be mastering accordingly. But for now, I'm streaming on Looperman and Soundcloud where people don't really listen to more than one track, more than one time.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment. I apologize for the extremely late reply. None the less, I appreciate your input.
Take care
V.
on In The Dreams Of The Damned by ValveDriver
I'm sure it's healthy to go "outside the box" for a while (since the question for metal for 5 years has been "but does it Gent?").
You've got the VST work down so I say go weird or go home, especially when you keep ending up over 7 min, just call it prog metal :)