New Metal Song Finished, Determination Options

[thefireball]

SOUND FILE HAS BEEN UPDATED AGAIN ON JULY 8!! I used Ozone. FINAL MIX

I classify this as my first REAL metal song. It's the first song that's ever come close to a studio version with good drums. I recently bought EZdrummer and so this track is kind of a first test with the program. I realize the track has a few tiny imperfections and things could be improved, but I will get better over time. I guess you'd say it's part of an EP. Please realize I'm very new to this. Right now I concentrating on getting my ideas recorded for real now.

Hope you enjoy! There will be a music video for this soon. Stay tuned!
Thanks to all who have helped me on this song thus far. You seriously rock!

Programs:
POD Farm 2
EZdrummer
Reaper
Audacity
iZotope Ozone

Equipment:
Jackson SLSMG 6-string (EMGs 81/85) - rhythms
Ibanez RG 350 DX 6-string (Infinities) - solo
POD Studio GX
GHS 7-string Boomers, LT 10-60 for rhythm guitar
Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky 9-46 for solo guitar

This post has been edited by thefireball: Jul 8 2011, 07:20 PM

Attached File(s)

 Determination.mp3 ( 2.18MB ) Number of downloads: 65

 

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Hey mate! That's a very cool riff, and nice arrangment, lots of things going on. I can hear that you really tried hard to make this one!

You still need to work a bit more on your mixing. It's a bit boomy, and lacks definition. Here are some tips on how to improve it:

- Turn off ambience channel in EZD completely, and raise kick and snare just a bit, lower down hihat
- Cut guitars bellow 100Hz
- Insert this plugin on drum track, and play with knobs

try not to overdo with compression!

[thefireball]

Hey mate! That's a very cool riff, and nice arrangment, lots of things going on. I can hear that you really tried hard to make this one!

You still need to work a bit more on your mixing. It's a bit boomy, and lacks definition. Here are some tips on how to improve it:

- Turn off ambience channel in EZD completely, and raise kick and snare just a bit, lower down hihat
- Cut guitars bellow 100Hz
- Insert this plugin on drum track, and play with knobs

try not to overdo with compression!

Thanks for this feedback.
Questions please.
*Where is the ambience channel? (I've got EZD in Reaper)
*When cutting below 100Hz, is that the Low Pass filter or High pass filter? The guitars are recorded in Audacity.
*I didn't see a way to download the plug-in.

[Ben Higgins]

Hey this is really cool ! It almost sounds a little Industrial.. like Rammstein but with more lead.. I'd agree wtih Ivan that the improvements could be made mainly in the drumming side of things.. to make it heavier rather than techno sounding. I'd have less hi-hat and less kick drum. I'd make it a more solid, driving beat with more weight to it. It'll take a bit of playing around with drum beats but you'll get the knack of it very quickly.. we're all guitarists so we've got to use our imagination with what we think they would play

This music would work really well on a driving game

[thefireball]

Hey this is really cool ! It almost sounds a little Industrial.. like Rammstein but with more lead.. I'd agree wtih Ivan that the improvements could be made mainly in the drumming side of things.. to make it heavier rather than techno sounding. I'd have less hi-hat and less kick drum. I'd make it a more solid, driving beat with more weight to it. It'll take a bit of playing around with drum beats but you'll get the knack of it very quickly.. we're all guitarists so we've got to use our imagination with what we think they would play

This music would work really well on a driving game

I may need help then!

[Qenzoz]

Sounds good , I really like the guitar stuff, the drum stuff is cool too, but in my opinion I'd say use a little less hi-hat

It'll take a bit of playing around with drum beats but you'll get the knack of it very quickly.. we're all guitarists so we've got to use our imagination with what we think they would play

And thats why I love playing the drums too , knowing the fills and beats, helps you when it comes to creating drum tracks

[WeePee]

I would like to hear more kick drum.

Put a little bit volume for that 2nd guitar or 3rd ?

And U could use maybe more symbals (I would )

Is the "Humanizing" button on ? It's between "open mixer" and "open grooves".

But seriously here's a good tutorial for Ezdrums (in the first page).
I.E. making those drums to sound in "multichannel"...etc

Also check out Youtube !!

But yeah great song !

[Mudbone]

Fireball dude, thats a great song The guitars do sound slightly muffled, maybe needs some EQ'ing. I'm not good with recording so I can't really say for sure

[quadrium]

Hey man,

Great work here! I've added this one to GMC Radio Let me know if you do a remixing. I'll change it

Dogukan,

[tonymiro]

Just a few suggestions for getting the drums to sit ok in the mix (I´m assuming that mic placement, spill, etc are not an issue as it´s software drum emulation):

1/ levels of the individual parts of the kit, followed by the group so that it fits the mix.
2/ Surgical eq of other instruments around the kick and the snare main frequencies/harmonics to clear some space and ensure that the instruments and the drums aren´t fighting each other.
3/ Compressors are your friend here - a lot of the punch/snap etc can be helped by getting the compression right. That means experimenting with both the type and make of compressor you use and the settings. With the settings you really need to look at the attack and release times and get them right.
4/ Also you might have to experiment a bit with different compression techniques ranging from gating, through serial and parallel compression to upwards expansion and decompression.
5/ Sometimes some careful use of something like an Exciter (like the one Ivan´s linked) can help on a snare but be careful as they often add noticeable distortion and artifacts.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Thanks for this feedback.
Questions please.
*Where is the ambience channel? (I've got EZD in Reaper)
*When cutting below 100Hz, is that the Low Pass filter or High pass filter? The guitars are recorded in Audacity.
*I didn't see a way to download the plug-in.

Sorry for not clearing up!

1. Ambience channel: Open EZD window, you'll see small mixer in the lower left corner, click on it, and the channel to the left that says "ROOM" on it - that's the one.
2. That is High Pass filter, because it let's "hi frequencies pass"
3. Sorry - http://hotfile.com/dl/7697627/d110ea3/disc....vst.v2.11.html

PS Don't overdo with ThrillMe, it's can get pretty sucky

[thefireball]

Thanks guys! I'll will certainly check this stuff out and consider it all. It's kinda overwhelming in a way since I'm completely new to this. I wanna get this song perfect. Thanks for helping me do that. You guys rock.

[thefireball]

(This picture is in Reaper. I'm using this as a help for asking Ivan.)

This post has been edited by thefireball: Jun 12 2011, 03:36 AM

Attached image(s)

 

[WeePee]

Hi there !

Have you updated your song yet ? Looking forward to hearing it...

[Cosmin Lupu]

Hey man! I like what I hear I'd suggest you add more diversity and dynamics to the grooves you are using by alternating the drum rhythms (use quarter notes on the open hi hats or the china for that heavy half time feel for instance )

Keep it up!

Cosmin

[thefireball]

File is officially updated. * bump *

[quadrium]

File is officially updated. * bump *

Awesome! I updated this one at GMC Radio

[Sinisa Cekic]

Awesome demo ! Congratz !

[Todd Simpson]

Nice! Now your talking Everything is sounding nice. The drums sound very spiff. Getting good drum sound can be a challenge with EZ drummer but it sounds like you've tweaked them nicely. EQ, Compression? And your pinch harmonics are killer as well. All around well done!

I liked it so much in fact, that I pulled it down and ran it through a bit of "Mastering Sauce" just for fun. It brings out the guitars a bit without changing the mix to much. Give it a listen and compare it to the original and let me know what you think.

 MasteringSauce.mp3 ( 5.42MB ) Number of downloads: 83

[thefireball]

Nice! Now your talking Everything is sounding nice. The drums sound very spiff. Getting good drum sound can be a challenge with EZ drummer but it sounds like you've tweaked them nicely. EQ, Compression? And your pinch harmonics are killer as well. All around well done!

I liked it so much in fact, that I pulled it down and ran it through a bit of "Mastering Sauce" just for fun. It brings out the guitars a bit without changing the mix to much. Give it a listen and compare it to the original and let me know what you think.

 MasteringSauce.mp3 ( 5.42MB ) Number of downloads: 83

That's cool! I really love it! I wonder where you got this? I was thinking of redoing the solo to make it tighter, so this way I could do it myself on other songs as well. Or is it only for Mac? Thank you for this Todd! It sounds much more professional.