BKM’s mix

Hi there! Here’s my mix entry to the contest.

My goal with this track was to give the mix the kind of bass response, tightness, and instrument separation that metal listeners expect these days while also retaining some 90s death sensibility, which means only minor editing and conservative use of samples.

To line with the organic feel, I deliberately retained a lot of the “dirt” in the individual tracks that would typically get edited out these days, such as guitar fret noises and breaths in between vocal takes. I suspect that the track was recorded semi-live from the bass bleed in the cymbal and room tracks and because of the organic ebb and flow of the track’s tempo which was most likely not recorded to a click.

One thing that I worked hard to preserve was that insane low end on the guitars. The rumble extends down into the sub bass, I’ve never heard a raw guitar sound like this (and I suspect it was EQ’d quite a bit on the way in). I definitely did not want to lose the movement and impact they created but at the same time, in their raw form, they completely dominated the kick and bass. Ultimately I decided to reign in the guitar low end only very slightly and instead give the bass more upper midrange presence to poke through that way. It was a challenge to keep the mix from getting boomy while trying not to neuter the guitars too much.

Hope I was able to do this one justice. Certainly had a great time mixing! Best of luck to everyone taking part.

• This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by BKM.