oMAREta (Lamb of God's Omerta Cover/Pony Ver.)

[Stallionslaughter 394]

I'd like to thank my wife for doing the intro to this song. I had to reboot my DAW on a refurbished computer, so I mostly had to build this from scratch. Only now, I know what plug-ins I like. Enjoy!

 

 

Advice on mixing (Especially drums) would be appreciated, btw. I use Ableton 9 lite and Scarlett Plug-ins. I'm new to this whole thing, so please talk down to me as if I was retarded because I will not understand any other way.

 

Much love! Rock on.

 

Download Mp3 - Stallionslaughter - oMAREta (Lamb of God Cover-Pony Ver.).mp3

 

All art by NCMares which is credited with links in the video description.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Ok. 

 

Your kick is really suffering from the beach ball effect. I think you ran it with too much high-end. Putting too much high-end on a kick makes it sound like a bouncing beach ball, and that is unfortunately a very weak kick. Bring in the low-end to give it that bulky depth it needs to bring it back to life. What's more, the high-end is leaking into the cymbals, bringing in some clipping and extra noise. If you bring down the high-end on the cymbals, you'll fix this issue. It may also be the fact your cymbals are a tad louder in the mix. 

 

Your guitar could benefit from a small dose of reverb. It's a little dry and it seems like you're running it through a large amount of fuzz. Personally, I'm not a fuzz guy, I'd prefer a high-end bright metal distortion. Fuzz brings about extra noise, which is hard to clean up in the long run. I could hardly hear your bass. Turn it up a little so the depth of the mix could be heard. 

 

Your vocals are way too mono. They will certainly benefit from a stereo runthrough and some reverb. Don't crank up the reverb too much. Rather, use it as a subtle effect to add some resonance to your vocals. Furthermore, what you can do, you can isolate long screams and crank the reverb there and fade the reverberated track. To do this, you can duplicate your vocal track. Lower the volume of the second track and add the load of reverb to parts of the song where you have an extended scream. 

 

I'm here if you need extra help in understanding anything I said. 

[Stallionslaughter 394]

Ok.

 

Your kick is really suffering from the beach ball effect. I think you ran it with too much high-end. Putting too much high-end on a kick makes it sound like a bouncing beach ball, and that is unfortunately a very weak kick. Bring in the low-end to give it that bulky depth it needs to bring it back to life. What's more, the high-end is leaking into the cymbals, bringing in some clipping and extra noise. If you bring down the high-end on the cymbals, you'll fix this issue. It may also be the fact your cymbals are a tad louder in the mix.

 

Your guitar could benefit from a small dose of reverb. It's a little dry and it seems like you're running it through a large amount of fuzz. Personally, I'm not a fuzz guy, I'd prefer a high-end bright metal distortion. Fuzz brings about extra noise, which is hard to clean up in the long run. I could hardly hear your bass. Turn it up a little so the depth of the mix could be heard.

 

Your vocals are way too mono. They will certainly benefit from a stereo runthrough and some reverb. Don't crank up the reverb too much. Rather, use it as a subtle effect to add some resonance to your vocals. Furthermore, what you can do, you can isolate long screams and crank the reverb there and fade the reverberated track. To do this, you can duplicate your vocal track. Lower the volume of the second track and add the load of reverb to parts of the song where you have an extended scream.

 

I'm here if you need extra help in understanding anything I said.

This is super helpful! Let me try a few of those things and I'll report back. Pretty much all of those things bothered me, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Thanks a ton!

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

This is super helpful! Let me try a few of those things and I'll report back. Pretty much all of those things bothered me, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Thanks a ton!

Alright. Btw, what pedals are you running?

[Stallionslaughter 394]

Alright. Btw, what pedals are you running?

I don't know what that is. Remember, I am completely inept and stupid at computer stuff. I am using Ableton 9 if that helps. Thanks again.

 

Unless you're talking guitar pedal, it's an MXR Super Badass Distortion and that's all. Distortion is set to aroused 70%.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Stallionslaughter

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I don't know what that is. Remember, I am completely inept and stupid at computer stuff. I am using Ableton 9 if that helps. Thanks again.

 

Unless you're talking guitar pedal, it's an MXR Super Badass Distortion and that's all. Distortion is set to aroused 70%.

No prob, and that's what I was talking about, the guitar pedal. My bad shoulda been more specific. From what I hear, that distortion is very sensetive. If you've heard, fuzz clips your signal so much, that it almost becomes a square wave. A squarewave sounding guitar does not sound good at all. Back off the distortion and increase the tone more to give it more of a bright edge. 

[Stallionslaughter 394]

No prob, and that's what I was talking about, the guitar pedal. My bad shoulda been more specific. From what I hear, that distortion is very sensetive. If you've heard, fuzz clips your signal so much, that it almost becomes a square wave. A squarewave sounding guitar does not sound good at all. Back off the distortion and increase the tone more to give it more of a bright edge.

Square is a sound? I didn't know that. Geez, I've got so much to learn. Lol. One day, I guess.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Square is a sound? I didn't know that. Geez, I've got so much to learn. Lol. One day, I guess.

It's a type of soundwave. I have a topic about synths laying around Vinyl's creative resources. One of these days, I'll put out a guide to effects for beginners. 

[Stallionslaughter 394]

It's a type of soundwave. I have a topic about synths laying around Vinyl's creative resources. One of these days, I'll put out a guide to effects for beginners. 

For better or worse, I've tried everything you said like a check list, and while I think it sounds pretty good on my personal listening speakers, it sounds really empty on my studio monitors (I've got the sennheiser 380HD pro), is that normal? I also couldn't figure out how to stereo enhance my lead vocals.

 

Full song with Vocals - https://www.dropbox.com/s/jewpvnezx62zvbk/EqDiabolic_MixMas~2.wav?dl=0

Instrumental Only - https://www.dropbox.com/s/xd55nba65y33olx/EqDiabolic_Inst~1.wav?dl=0

 

Anyway, I was hoping you could help me with it. It's my first original since Feb so I'd like to come out of this hiatus like a boss.

(I tried to do this in a PM, but it said, "no".)

[Denim&Venöm 19,152]

Can't comment on the technical side of things, but as far as the song, I found your timing to be off during the main choruses. Kinda sounds like it cuts in a bit too soon, as well as the flow of the lyrics not matching up. Out of place and pace compared to the original. I mean, if you trying to do your own thing with it that's fine, but it is a little off putting to hear the chorus out of sync for those that know the song. 

 

Other than that, keep at it. 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

For better or worse, I've tried everything you said like a check list, and while I think it sounds pretty good on my personal listening speakers, it sounds really empty on my studio monitors (I've got the sennheiser 380HD pro), is that normal? I also couldn't figure out how to stereo enhance my lead vocals.

 

Full song with Vocals - https://www.dropbox.com/s/jewpvnezx62zvbk/EqDiabolic_MixMas~2.wav?dl=0

Instrumental Only - https://www.dropbox.com/s/xd55nba65y33olx/EqDiabolic_Inst~1.wav?dl=0

 

Anyway, I was hoping you could help me with it. It's my first original since Feb so I'd like to come out of this hiatus like a boss.

(I tried to do this in a PM, but it said, "no".)

Did you run your vocals through a stereo track? I think that's your best shot. Then, add some reverb to them, like I described in my above posts. 

 

Your distortion still has that square wave fuzz. You need to find a pedal that doesn't do this, because your distortion is so watered down with fuzz, that the tone is affected quite a bit. I think you might need to look into something like a EHX Metal Muff or a BOSS DS1 or MT1. Those pedals a great for bright sounding distortion, especially with how low your guitar is playing. 

 

Also, you got that beach ball kick again...too much high end. Bring down the high end a bit and increase the low-end. Lower the attack time ever so slightly, for a solid boom kick. 

 

Hope you can work with that for now. 

[Stallionslaughter 394]

Can't comment on the technical side of things, but as far as the song, I found your timing to be off during the main choruses. Kinda sounds like it cuts in a bit too soon, as well as the flow of the lyrics not matching up. Out of place and pace compared to the original. I mean, if you trying to do your own thing with it that's fine, but it is a little off putting to hear the chorus out of sync for those that know the song. 

 

Other than that, keep at it. 

Yeah, the timing was really funky, and I couldn't quite get it right, and I didn't really understand it. This is simply bad musicianship on  my part, and I know what you mean.

Did you run your vocals through a stereo track? I think that's your best shot. Then, add some reverb to them, like I described in my above posts. 

 

Your distortion still has that square wave fuzz. You need to find a pedal that doesn't do this, because your distortion is so watered down with fuzz, that the tone is affected quite a bit. I think you might need to look into something like a EHX Metal Muff or a BOSS DS1 or MT1. Those pedals a great for bright sounding distortion, especially with how low your guitar is playing. 

 

Also, you got that beach ball kick again...too much high end. Bring down the high end a bit and increase the low-end. Lower the attack time ever so slightly, for a solid boom kick. 

 

Hope you can work with that for now. 

I worry that it's going to overpower the mix, so I second guess my kick EQ. I knew I was screwing it up, and I cranked the high-end anyway.

 

for the fuzz, I tried to lower the highs from 15k to 12k, but that didn't seem to work. I tried running a filter that chopped off the low end at 250htz and upper end at 12k, but that didn't do a lot either. I'm not really in the position for a new pedal, and I have yet to find a pedal sim that really does it for me.

 

Thanks for the help, man. It really does mean a lot that you'd listen and tutor me along.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

 

 

for the fuzz, I tried to lower the highs from 15k to 12k, but that didn't seem to work. I tried running a filter that chopped off the low end at 250htz and upper end at 12k, but that didn't do a lot either. I'm not really in the position for a new pedal, and I have yet to find a pedal sim that really does it for me.

 

Well, are you running through any digital software. Maybe you can use distortion from there...