Metal sound engineers I need your help!

C

Christ-Hammer

Guest
So my band just did some studio recording for our new song yesterday and so far I am not completely impressed by the quality and we tried doing the recording kind of in a live situation so some of the parts are pretty sloppy, I was wondering if any of you metal engineers could help me if I privately send you our rough recording and tell me what to tell our engineer next time I see him to make it sound better. Thanks, also is it better to record to a metronome rather than live for metal and deathcore stuff?
 
I am no metal sound tech but I'd lean towards using a metronome for this stuff. But you can also decide on a song-by-song basis (I think Bermuda once said this was best) whether you want rock-solid timing or some small fluctuations.
 
So my band just did some studio recording for our new song yesterday and so far I am not completely impressed by the quality and we tried doing the recording kind of in a live situation so some of the parts are pretty sloppy, I was wondering if any of you metal engineers could help me if I privately send you our rough recording and tell me what to tell our engineer next time I see him to make it sound better. Thanks, also is it better to record to a metronome rather than live for metal and deathcore stuff?

i think this might be partly to do with it. It obviously feels a lot better to be able to record the whole take as a band but really it's a lot easier to get a good sound out of a recording when all the parts are recorded seperately simply because of better isolation (when pro bands record in studios as a band they usually will have the guitar amps in another room to the drums and do the main vocals seperately in order to achieve the same sort of isolation that you would find had everything been recorded seperately) and also i don't know how much of an issue this is but you would be able to use all the microphones to record just the drums rather than having to spread them out which will give you a better sound too, especially for metal. Really you need to have each any every drum miked up for metal and other loud music styles otherwise you simply won't hear them.

Yes, do record to a metronome. There are some types of music that may sound more "organic" or whatever when you don't use a metronome but metal really is just so i guess "precise" that a metronome really helps you to nail it.

I guess i wouldn't mind hearing this recording, my email adress i think is in the top bar of this post somewhere, you're better off sending it to the Yahoo! one since i use that all the time.
 
i think this might be partly to do with it. It obviously feels a lot better to be able to record the whole take as a band but really it's a lot easier to get a good sound out of a recording when all the parts are recorded seperately simply because of better isolation (when pro bands record in studios as a band they usually will have the guitar amps in another room to the drums and do the main vocals seperately in order to achieve the same sort of isolation that you would find had everything been recorded seperately) ...

Unless you're doing something like a jazz or folk recording where the live vibe is the whole point. But yes, I agree.

I'm not an expert engineer but I wouldn't mind hearing the tracks as well. Maybe you could zip em up into one file and use yousendit or rapidshare? You can then PM the link to all of us here who responded.

In any case, best of luck man.
 
i think this might be partly to do with it. It obviously feels a lot better to be able to record the whole take as a band but really it's a lot easier to get a good sound out of a recording when all the parts are recorded seperately simply because of better isolation (when pro bands record in studios as a band they usually will have the guitar amps in another room to the drums and do the main vocals seperately in order to achieve the same sort of isolation that you would find had everything been recorded seperately) and also i don't know how much of an issue this is but you would be able to use all the microphones to record just the drums rather than having to spread them out which will give you a better sound too, especially for metal. Really you need to have each any every drum miked up for metal and other loud music styles otherwise you simply won't hear them.

Yes, do record to a metronome. There are some types of music that may sound more "organic" or whatever when you don't use a metronome but metal really is just so i guess "precise" that a metronome really helps you to nail it.

I guess i wouldn't mind hearing this recording, my email adress i think is in the top bar of this post somewhere, you're better off sending it to the Yahoo! one since i use that all the time.
Sorry guys, I wasn't to clear in my post. I meant live situation as in we did it like a live recording, but I was the only one recording and I was listening to my guitar player through headphones. So it was like doing a live one, but track style and my guitar player just recorded over my drum parts. I will try and figure out rapid share, I have never used it before so wish me luck :D and I will link you guys to it. Another question, the recording I have currently is only the drum and guitar track and they are not mastered, but my question is does mastering a recording really make a big difference? My band keeps saying it will, but I don't trust their word. I will have more questions later, but I don't want to burden you guys with too many at the same time. Thanks for the replies, off I go....
 
Sorry guys, I wasn't to clear in my post. I meant live situation as in we did it like a live recording, but I was the only one recording and I was listening to my guitar player through headphones. So it was like doing a live one, but track style and my guitar player just recorded over my drum parts. I will try and figure out rapid share, I have never used it before so wish me luck :D and I will link you guys to it. Another question, the recording I have currently is only the drum and guitar track and they are not mastered, but my question is does mastering a recording really make a big difference? My band keeps saying it will, but I don't trust their word. I will have more questions later, but I don't want to burden you guys with too many at the same time. Thanks for the replies, off I go....

Yeah mastering does make quite a bit of difference, it gives the recording more "prescence" and really integrates everything together a bit more. Your drums actually sound pretty good. You need to really have it in stereo though, 2 overhead mics mixed left and right. Then for the guitar you can record it with 2 mics on the amp mix one of them left and the other right, delay one of the tracks by a few milliseconds and it gives you a really nice stereo effect on the guitar. This is of course if you only have one guitar player/part. If there's 2 then just mix one left one right and your uncle's name is bob, that's how almost all the metal bands you ever hear with 2 guitar players record their guitar parts. Then it's really just a case of EQing things for a bit more treble and adding a bit of compression and it should sound really good mate :). The other thing i would say is having listened to it, definetly use a metronome next time, ship just needs to be tightened up really if you know what i mean.
 
Unless you're doing something like a jazz or folk recording where the live vibe is the whole point. But yes, I agree.

of course, i mean it's all about improv isn't it? Also you don't need as many mics to record since you're not worried about giving everything maximum presence as it's not supposed to be an in your face wall of sound. But this is metal we're talking about here, different rules apply :).
 
I listened through the recording, interesting stuff! But my advice is to record to a click. The guitar and you were slightly out of sync at times. Also there's slight tempo fluctuations at times that don't do the song justice. Recording this to a click is gonna make it sound much tighter.
Other than that I can't give you much advice; I have no sound engineering experience whatsoever.
 
Thanks guys, I didn't expect to hear anything good about our recording hahaha, but anyway we did do 2 overhead so maybe our engineer didn't do it right? Idk but I think I agree with you on metronome Big_Philly, in a sense I am proud of this recording so far because it is our first ever studio recording (first time any of my band has recorded with a band in a studio), but at the same time I am disappointing because I know we could have done better playing wise, but I can't complain we are limited on hours because of money : /
Thanks a ton for the feedback though guys, it helps me more than you probably think hahaha
 
Hmm strange, I'll let the engineer know that something is up with the stereo recording.
 
Ditto on recording with a click, but also, maybe the engineer could pull the kick drum levels down a bit? They're out of proportion with the other instruments, in my opinion.
 
Ditto on recording with a click, but also, maybe the engineer could pull the kick drum levels down a bit? They're out of proportion with the other instruments, in my opinion.

Metal tends to have a loud kick drum. Plus it's only the guitar in and i think it's mixed a bit low down so i really think i'd want to listen to the whole thing before making any judgments on levels.
 
Back
Top