RevDrucifer
Well-known member
I’ve been teaching myself how to mix for the last 6-7 years and the best mixes I’ve done are the ones where I barely had to touch a thing after tracking. If you stick to the ’rule’ of getting the tones and dynamics going into the DAW and don’t rely on anything in the mix to do it, you’ll be good to go. Modern mixes sound like modern mixes because that’s the way everyone mixing them wants them to sound and it’s just expected from the buying public at this point. I remember a few years back when Queensryche released their first album with Todd La Torre singing, they released a single that clearly had auto tune on it that they thankfully removed from the album version; Todd’s obviously more than capable of singing in key so it was only assumed that it was done to give it a modern sound. The fans bitched up a storm about it and I’m assuming again that’s why it never made it to the album.
Some of the stuff I record is in the Floyd vein and i keep that stuff as organic as I can, the other stuff is modern metal and I want it to sound like a machine, and there’s some stuff in between that I go for both. There’s still stuff I do leftover from the days I recorded on 4/8-tracks; I still go for full takes from start to finish and just that goes a long way in keep some of the human element in things. If I make a mistake and it’s not jarring, I’ll leave it in. I don’t worry about every single vocal take being perfectly in key if it’s just out for a split second, I’m fairly anti-pitch correction in general (but it’s good on basses when you may have been too heavy handed on some parts) and I’ve gotten away from copy and pasting chorus vocals and just tracking them each time so there’s some variation in there.
I love Mastodon’s mixes, they always work for the songs, everything is crystal clear but they don’t have that overly compressed thing going on, there’s a lot of space in there. Especially the newer album. Big Wreck is a band I keep expecting this from, but Jesus Fucking Christ I’m guessing Ian Thornley’s ears are shot because they master their albums so damn hot, the last one was the first album I’ve ever heard that was unlistenable due to the brickwalling, which is becoming a thing of the past these days.
Some of the stuff I record is in the Floyd vein and i keep that stuff as organic as I can, the other stuff is modern metal and I want it to sound like a machine, and there’s some stuff in between that I go for both. There’s still stuff I do leftover from the days I recorded on 4/8-tracks; I still go for full takes from start to finish and just that goes a long way in keep some of the human element in things. If I make a mistake and it’s not jarring, I’ll leave it in. I don’t worry about every single vocal take being perfectly in key if it’s just out for a split second, I’m fairly anti-pitch correction in general (but it’s good on basses when you may have been too heavy handed on some parts) and I’ve gotten away from copy and pasting chorus vocals and just tracking them each time so there’s some variation in there.
I love Mastodon’s mixes, they always work for the songs, everything is crystal clear but they don’t have that overly compressed thing going on, there’s a lot of space in there. Especially the newer album. Big Wreck is a band I keep expecting this from, but Jesus Fucking Christ I’m guessing Ian Thornley’s ears are shot because they master their albums so damn hot, the last one was the first album I’ve ever heard that was unlistenable due to the brickwalling, which is becoming a thing of the past these days.
