Jump to section: 0:03:35 - Drums 0:06:20 - Snare 0:11:35 - Kick 0:13:20 - Overheads 0:20:40 - How to make overheads wide 0:27:35 - Room EQ Tricks --- 0:30:55 - Bass 0:32:00 - Filtering Bass 0:34:30 - Bass EQ --- 0:39:05 - Andy Sneap Guitar Trick 0:40:10 - EQ With Purpose 0:41:05 - Getting Rid of Cabinet Resonances 0:44:37 - Gluing Guitars and Bass Together 0:46:55 - Drum Cymbal Bus 0:47:15 - Adding Reverb to Cymbal Bus 0:48:35 - Rhythm Guitars 0:50:00 - Lead Guitars 0:51:15 - High Pass Filter To Remove Cabinet Resonances 0:52:00 - Adding Delay to Lead Guitar 0:55:35 - Automating Lead Guitars 0:59:40 - Mixing Extra Rhythm Guitars to Fill In Space 1:00:35 - EQing Instruments By Listening to Other Instruments
Can I just say, I've watched all kinds of videos and read all kinds of stuff just trying to learn more about mixing music, and this has by far been the most helpful video I have watched.
More to come! Got a metalcore mastering video on the way 😉 Thanks for checking the video out. Be sure to share with others that might find it useful! Cheers man.
Not sure if you're still checking these comments but thank you so much for this. You have no idea how much you have helped me. Turns out I've been way overthinking everything and I've been trying to make things pop by boosting frequencies rather than removing unwanted frequencies from other tracks. Absolutely invaluable information mate
Of course I'm still checking my comments! 😊 Thank you for the kind words. It really means a lot. These videos take a lot of effort and hearing that it has helped you helps motivate me to keep doing them. I'm very glad you learned something from this. If you think others might find it useful, please share! That way we all learn from each other. Also if you ever have a question about music, don't hesitate to reach out and ask me. I'm more than happy to help. Cheers!
Thank you so much Bobby! Really glad it helped! I'm going to be releasing another metal mastering tutorial here soon that I hope will also help you get that last 10% out of your songs 😀 If would mean the world to me if you shared this video with some friends that might find it helpful. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions either! Cheers man!
Raytown!! Thanks for doing this. I have a coworker who asked me to mix his metal bands song and I've never done metal music before. Primarily hip-hop, r&b and acoustic/folk. This was a challenge I'm excited about and your video helped tremendously. Thanks man! And yes, that Arc of the Sun song rocks!!! Your super talented and a great teacher
Thanks for posting how you work and how you approach a mix. The content was super helpful and helped me listen critically to understand problem areas and how eq is such a great tool.
Michael, thanks so much for the kind words and for taking the time to watch this long video! I'm really happy you found it helpful. Please feel free to reach out with any other questions you have about mixing, mastering, or whatever! I'm always happy to help any way I can. And please share the video with others that might find it helpful. Best of luck with your music 🤘
Just found your channel today, and have found this very helpful for mixing process! Thanks for the great content, I'll be studying your vids more this month!!
Shit the bed dude this is awesome. So glad i found this - I'm trying to get serious about making my home recordings sound better and this thing is a goldmine. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the kind words and taking the time to watch the video! I'm really glad it helped. I'll be adding more videos about mixing metal soon, so be sure to sub to get notified when they get uploaded! If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Best of luck with your music! 🤘
Hey Hank, thanks so much for watching! I hope you got something from the video. This is a great suggestion. I'll reach out to some of my clients and see if I can mix one of their songs live. I promise I'll try my best :) If you want to get notified when I upload more live mixes/tips & tricks, please subscribe and click on the bell. Again, thanks so much!
Hey Hank, recently did a video on mastering some hard rock music if you are interested! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MnzBCq5X5dk.html
Hey bro that was a great vid man I learned heaps. Thanks so much for uploading. Just one thing. Not sure if it got brought up later but you missed a hi hat hit at 14:28 starting on your bar 89. Hope it was sorted out haha
Thank you soo much Samir! It's people like you that encourage me to keep doing this! Really appreciate the kind words. I'm here for you if you ever need anything!
Definitely! The process is basically the same. I would suggest printing your vst drums as individual drum tracks and process them the same way as shown in this video. It takes a little longer to set up, but worth it 👍
Not QUITE a tutorial, but I did mix some VST drums by GGD live in one of my recent live streams! Check that out here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8BoyWWLHQrk.html
Am I the only person who thinks boosting to find a frequency to cut doesn't make any sense? I watch a ton of these types of videos, and everyone does a sweep boost. I do exactly the opposite. I make a big cut and sweep that. I never do it in solo either. I sweep the cut until the track sits better and the song opens up. I just don't understand how making a giant boost is helpful. Everything sounds bad when boosting 20 db. On the other hand, if you do a sweep cut, the only cuts that will sound good are the ones you actually need. Why have I never seen someone else do it this way? It seems so much more intuitive.
I make 8-bit metal on FL Studio, and I've always wanted to hear it with realistic-sounding instruments instead of the stock FL plugins I use (FL Slayer, random sampled drum kits, etc) but lack the audio engineering experience to do anything about it. If I sent you a raw of everything, is it realistic to think you could sample-swap everything for realistic instruments and turn my track into a legit song? Because I would be willing to pay for something like that. I'd love to hear from you on that possibility. Great video!
Dude, thank you so much for the kind words! I hope to release other videos over the next few weeks that will show you my process for producing vocals, pitch correction, harmonies, etc. Please share with others that might need some help getting their songs to sound killer. Cheers!
@@tgstk2 Seriously, can't thank you enough for your support. If you ever have any questions or want me to do a video on something specific, don't hesitate to send me a PM either on YT or on one of our social accounts (@raytownproductions).
Unfortunately, there were no vocals with this session. But I'd be happy to make a video to talk exclusively on metal vocals if you think it would be helpful Alex!
That makes me really happy man! Hope it helps. And absolutely! I definitely do these same tricks with GGD and SSD. Good luck with your music man. Cheers!
Hey man! Great content. I'm wondering if I understand correctly- you're replacing some of the drum hits with samples (Snare and Bass)? At that point why not program the drums with raw samples and mix the programmed kit?
Hey Corey thanks so much for watching! Yes, that is correct - I'm replacing the snare and kick drum with samples. The reason we don't just program the drums is an artistic choice. You absolutely could just program the drums, but part of what makes this song great is the push/pull groove that the drummer has. If the drums sounded like total crap, I probably would replace them entirely with programmed drums. But in this case the performance and source tracks were pretty good. I try to keep as much of the original tracks as possible. It makes these songs unique compared to everyone else that programs drums. If you've been doing this stuff long enough, you will start to notice the different samples in songs which takes away from the identity of the artist. Hope that helps man! If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask! Lots of more great tutorials coming soon 🤘
@@RaytownProductions Thank you so much for such a thorough reply! That makes sense. After I post the comment I got to thinking about it and came to pretty much the same conclusion. Keep up the great content!
It did get released (and with vocals!). Check out the spotify link here: open.spotify.com/track/4l2JB8KXuCJwj5fgYrWsdk If I'm not mistaken, Brian Hood did the mix for the album (ex MyChildren MyBride drummer). Cheers!
Hey thanks for checking out the video! I've been doing this for a very long time, mostly out of necessity when I played music in a band. There were no "local studios" so we had to figure everything out ourselves. That being said, I read lot of books and talked with others online about what they were doing to EQ guitars, what compressors to use for drums, etc. A lot of that has changed, and there are some incredible resources available. If you want to learn check out Nail The Mix. Incredible information but you will have to pay for it. Searching on RU-vid is hit or miss, so be careful with the information you find on here. If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to reach to me via email - I'm happy to help explain things or give you resources that might help. Best of luck with your music!
I know Billy and have talked about workflow with him before, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of this was similar to the way he approaches mixing. I also am a fan of doing things quickly to not lose perspective.
This is a great point. Once you get a mix sounding pretty good, you NEED to check it on multiple sources to make sure it plays back well on each of them. In this case, the snare is probably lost because of masking frequencies, so I would take an EQ and try to find instruments that make it even harder to hear the snare when certain frequencies are boosted and cut those frequencies. Another possibility is that the mix in general is over compressed, and I need to back it off to let the drums breathe a little more. Thanks for watching and hope it helps! Cheers!
Learned a lot by trial and error growing up. But there are great online educational programs now that are very helpful. I would recommend the unstoppable recording machine academy (@urmacademy). That is some of the best information out there for metal producers. If you ever have any other questions (music related or not) don't hesitate to ask. And if you need help with mixing or mastering, I'm also more than happy to help. Hope that helps! Best of luck with your music.
Thanks for upload! The frequencies around 2 - 9 the whistling comes from cabinet? so for instance if you choose a good mic position and cab not exactly need to cut it?
Thanks so much for watching man! I hope you got something from the video. To answer your question, it really depends on a lot of factors. Typically heavily distorted guitars just have those frequencies saturated and there really isn't much you can do. You can do some tonal shaping by choosing a darker mic, different mic position, different amp/guitar; however, in my experience that usually changes the tone so much that the guitars no longer keep up with a big punchy metal production. So the best strategy for me has been to cut those frequencies and not worry too much about them up front. The main thing is to find a *balanced* guitar tone using your mic positioning or amp settings. Hope that helps man! Let me know if you have more questions. Best of luck with your music!
@@RaytownProductions Thanks it was helpful. In my opinion some cases those frequencies are needed like old school metal based guitar tones like metallica does back then. If I kill those frequencies then feels like more modern and can't recreate certain soundings. Keep up the great work would see more mastering and mixing vids! Cheers
@@RaytownProductions would like to ask also did you master any metal song to vinyl? That could be an another next video tutorial. Or do you willing to master artists materials? I would be interested to master my upcoming music to steam and vinyl. Let me know if you open.
@@swamibrahmavadin5234 I do master other people's music and would be happy to discuss this further. Send me an email when you have a moment! bobby@raytownproductions.com
@@RaytownProductions thank you for getting back to my comment. Your videos are really awesome and informative!! Thank you for putting your knowledge out there so we can learn 🙏🏻
Great idea! I would love to release the stems with this track, but the album isn't mixed or released yet! I'll be sure to post a link to the stems if they get cleared by the band. Cheers!
I think the mic just got too close to the cymbal and what you are hearing is the the cymbal moving above and below the mic. But I didn't engineer the song but don't know for sure. So if you ever hear that kind of sound, be sure to look out for mic placement 🙂
![MIXING A METAL SONG FROM START TO FINISH [STEP BY STEP]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
