First mix: all axe fx

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VESmedic

Well-known member
I’m sure everyone is tired of me posting this stuff, but…. What the hell else am I gonna do on a Tuesday night?

Main rhythm is recto and Marshall cab, the leads around 3:05 are the CAE preamp, trem guitars are a 5150, and then the extra wide shit at the end js something else I forget. Lots of different colors on this, I dig it. Neve 31102 on the accompanying guitars for some color and vibe and contrast.

https://on.soundcloud.com/VuVvgc8vkb4FJbiL7
 
Man Ves..that is super cool...I love the layers..it's like brain food. I've been trying a bit more layering stuff like you have, here but dude this really well put together.
I love my FM9 and AX8..but when I record with them I always feel like I need to brighten them up in the mix...do you notice that when using the III in your recording?
 
Skolphy said:
Man Ves..that is super cool...I love the layers..it's like brain food. I've been trying a bit more layering stuff like you have, here but dude this really well put together.
I love my FM9 and AX8..but when I record with them I always feel like I need to brighten them up in the mix...do you notice that when using the III in your recording?
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Thanks man!

Honestly, you just repeat and repeat and repeat. Eventually you learn what works and what doesn’t in a mix, even without hearing the other instruments. It’s also very hard to judge a guitar tone that is single tracked when you are going to double track it and spread it out across the stereo field like modern productions ( heavy stuff anyways) do.


As far as having to feel like you always need to brighten them up , I almost always brighten my guitars in some way shape or form, but it realllyyyy depends on what’s going on in the 3-6k area. Again, this just takes time to figure out and reference, reference, reference . What I CAN tell you is, most IR’s are far, far too dark to work in any mix I like anyways. If you feel you need to constantly brighten them up, you need to start looking at your IR choice. Put a hi/low pass at 65hz and 12k or so (just real gentle to start) and start looking through IR’s. Forget the dual mic shit until you can get a sick tone with just one 57. If it’s not sick with just a 57, adding another mic isn’t gonna fix it, I promise you.

Every one of these IR’s I’m using in this track for the most part is titan audios IR’s, and I swear by them: mostly because I know who Zach’s mentor for production is. Zach is in the band whitechapel, and has learned virtually everything and used the same gear to make these as engineer mark Lewis.

All this is great, but if you can’t hear it , you can’t fix it. I’ve got a pretty great sounding room with a great monitoring setup ( genelec 8351s, 7370 sub), and that makes all the difference. Honestly, nothing else matters until you get that right. You don’t gotta go that crazy to get a great sounding guitar tone or mix though of course .

These are just some of my initial thoughts on this. I could talk about this for hours. But constantly reamping everything you can and getting a feel for what works and what doesn’t in a mix is a great way to learn. Eventually you’ll start to hear and be able to fix things immediately or pick an IR you know is gonna be sick immediately . It does take a lot of time though in my experience. And I sure as hell am no professional either, I just try stuff and read until I have beaten a dead horse, and then I kinda maybe learned something from whatever I did….maybe lol.
 
B
PLX said:
Nice mix !

Guitars sound tight.

(y)
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Thanks dudeeee! I tried to get alot of contrast between the main rhythm tone and the other guitar parts, and I really like how that came out big time.
 
This is a killer track! very dark and creepy sounding. Love the bass tone at the start. Only thing I would say is i think some of the leads are mixed a little loud, they pop out of the mix too much when they should just blend in with it more.

Have you tried ML soundlab's IR's before?
 
anomaly said:
This is a killer track! very dark and creepy sounding. Love the bass tone at the start. Only thing I would say is i think some of the leads are mixed a little loud, they pop out of the mix too much when they should just blend in with it more.

Have you tried ML soundlab's IR's before?
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Dude I totally agree, thanks! They are “alittle” too loud for sure. I got thrown off by how different those tones are compared to the main rhythm parts, and I definitely didn’t need to crank them as loud as they are. I realllyyy love the last melody right before the end, those really wide atmospheric parts, just sounds sick. Reminds me of opeth big time.


I have tried ML’s, it’s just been awhile! I think his mikko product is a great idea, I just haven’t dove into it much. I remember I tried his jubilee 87 cab pack with the 8 ohm Marshall vintages I love, but I remember thinking they were crazy dark, but I’ll have to revisit them.


Also, outside of titan audios, the only other IR’s I feel are on that level are @easstudios IR’s, and then and for sure Jeff dunne’s IR pack of his OS recto cab. That might actually be my favorite commercially available recto cab out there. The clips I posted a few days ago with the triple crown model and the recto IR were Jeff dunnes IR’s. Single 57, just to the right of the cone I believe.
 
VESmedic said:
Dude I totally agree, thanks! They are “alittle” too loud for sure. I got thrown off by how different those tones are compared to the main rhythm parts, and I definitely didn’t need to crank them as loud as they are. I realllyyy love the last melody right before the end, those really wide atmospheric parts, just sounds sick. Reminds me of opeth big time.


I have tried ML’s, it’s just been awhile! I think his mikko product is a great idea, I just haven’t dove into it much. I remember I tried his jubilee 87 cab pack with the 8 ohm Marshall vintages I love, but I remember thinking they were crazy dark, but I’ll have to revisit them.


Also, outside of titan audios, the only other IR’s I feel are on that level are @easstudios IR’s, and then and for sure Jeff dunne’s IR pack of his OS recto cab. That might actually be my favorite commercially available recto cab out there. The clips I posted a few days ago with the triple crown model and the recto IR were Jeff dunnes IR’s. Single 57, just to the right of the cone I believe.
Click to expand...
Ya, this song really brought up thoughts of Opeth and a bit of Gojira, but then it's got it's own vibe too, which is really cool.

Why didn't you stick with the Triple Crown for this track? or are you just trying out your options? Not that the recto sounds bad, it sounds killer too. It's boosted of course, right?
 
anomaly said:
Ya, this song really brought up thoughts of Opeth and a bit of Gojira, but then it's got it's own vibe too, which is really cool.

Why didn't you stick with the Triple Crown for this track? or are you just trying out your options? Not that the recto sounds bad, it sounds killer too. It's boosted of course, right?
Click to expand...


Thanks man. The realllllyyy nerdy side of it is, I just like how the rectos low end extends farther down, has more give/squish to it as well, not as stiff as the triple crown. On some of the parts with the accompanying guitars I liked the low end bloom of the palm mutes behind those, it just made it sound more devastating to me. But, this is also why I used the IR I used. It’s a CB65 with an sm57, and then a Marshall vintage with a 201, all in the same cab. I like the 201 for when I want the most beef and low end/low mid information for the tone. So I’m sure the TC would’ve worked just fine, especially with that IR, but the recto just has this squishyness and bloom that is hard to beat for me personally. I’m just definitely a recto guy for sure.

And yes boosted with a parametric eq in front, dipping a low shelf at 500 hz and some gain added from it. This is almost exactly like the dirty tree style low end/response as the pedal, so I use this setup often in front of lots of amp models.
 
VESmedic said:
Thanks man!

Honestly, you just repeat and repeat and repeat. Eventually you learn what works and what doesn’t in a mix, even without hearing the other instruments. It’s also very hard to judge a guitar tone that is single tracked when you are going to double track it and spread it out across the stereo field like modern productions ( heavy stuff anyways) do.


As far as having to feel like you always need to brighten them up , I almost always brighten my guitars in some way shape or form, but it realllyyyy depends on what’s going on in the 3-6k area. Again, this just takes time to figure out and reference, reference, reference . What I CAN tell you is, most IR’s are far, far too dark to work in any mix I like anyways. If you feel you need to constantly brighten them up, you need to start looking at your IR choice. Put a hi/low pass at 65hz and 12k or so (just real gentle to start) and start looking through IR’s. Forget the dual mic shit until you can get a sick tone with just one 57. If it’s not sick with just a 57, adding another mic isn’t gonna fix it, I promise you.

Every one of these IR’s I’m using in this track for the most part is titan audios IR’s, and I swear by them: mostly because I know who Zach’s mentor for production is. Zach is in the band whitechapel, and has learned virtually everything and used the same gear to make these as engineer mark Lewis.

All this is great, but if you can’t hear it , you can’t fix it. I’ve got a pretty great sounding room with a great monitoring setup ( genelec 8351s, 7370 sub), and that makes all the difference. Honestly, nothing else matters until you get that right. You don’t gotta go that crazy to get a great sounding guitar tone or mix though of course .

These are just some of my initial thoughts on this. I could talk about this for hours. But constantly reamping everything you can and getting a feel for what works and what doesn’t in a mix is a great way to learn. Eventually you’ll start to hear and be able to fix things immediately or pick an IR you know is gonna be sick immediately . It does take a lot of time though in my experience. And I sure as hell am no professional either, I just try stuff and read until I have beaten a dead horse, and then I kinda maybe learned something from whatever I did….maybe lol.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight VES..I will definitely try some different IRs...Like many I gravitate towards "my" type of sound...I use stock IRs but have also found some good stuff with Sinquest/Ownhammer/Choptones..etc.
 
VESmedic said:
Thanks man. The realllllyyy nerdy side of it is, I just like how the rectos low end extends farther down, has more give/squish to it as well, not as stiff as the triple crown. On some of the parts with the accompanying guitars I liked the low end bloom of the palm mutes behind those, it just made it sound more devastating to me. But, this is also why I used the IR I used. It’s a CB65 with an sm57, and then a Marshall vintage with a 201, all in the same cab. I like the 201 for when I want the most beef and low end/low mid information for the tone. So I’m sure the TC would’ve worked just fine, especially with that IR, but the recto just has this squishyness and bloom that is hard to beat for me personally. I’m just definitely a recto guy for sure.

And yes boosted with a parametric eq in front, dipping a low shelf at 500 hz and some gain added from it. This is almost exactly like the dirty tree style low end/response as the pedal, so I use this setup often in front of lots of amp models.
Click to expand...
I think I saw you mention the Empress EQ recently, is that what you used? I have one lying around so I'm curious about your settings for it to sound similar to the DT so I can compare the two (assuming it's more than just the 500hz low shelf)
 
The tones you get are killer man. They're always super presency and slicey, but somehow never harsh. That's got to be a fine line to ride but the results speak for themselves.

Great composition and layering, too.
 
iff said:
I think I saw you mention the Empress EQ recently, is that what you used? I have one lying around so I'm curious about your settings for it to sound similar to the DT so I can compare the two (assuming it's more than just the 500hz low shelf)
Click to expand...


Hey homie, if I use the empress eq I use it in the loop of my amps only. I’m not opposed to using it up front, I just haven’t done it yet! But no, I’ve never used it to mimic the dirty tree, just the parametric eq in the axe fx
 
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Lots of punch and clarity and most importantly, it sits perfectly in the mix.

Well done!
 
Just listened on my HS5's. I like the tune, interesting stuff. Everything seems balanced well, couple spots leads are up tiny bit. Tones remind me of Nevermore / Jeff Loomis. The Axe has come a long way. Amps sound pretty convincing, can't miss the 5150.

Thanks for posting.
 
Very cool tune. I dig that erie sounding feedback (is it feedback?) that happens at 1:57-1:59 and also at 3:28-3:30.
 
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