Kepler Engelbrecht – Dead to the World mix

@custardsquare:

Thank you! I love that snare and how it seems to keep the entire rhythm section together.

@balamguitar:

Thanks man :)

No gate on the snare, not even a loose one. Ironically though, I did gate the triggered kik, but that was to shape the attack of the kikdrum with the gate attack time. I have a compressor on the snare but I think it has maybe 2dB or so of gain reduction. More to keep it under control volume-wise than to mess around with the attack.

I find it strange to have found some entrants complain about the tom sound. I like those toms, they’re well-tuned and well-recorded. They didn’t even really need to be compressed. I just kept the bleed, and boosted around 800Hz since that seemed to be where the tonic of the toms lived. I automated them in one or two places to have the fill be more audible, but that’s it.

As for the vocals, I’m happy with their space in the mix. Perhaps they could be brought up a dB or so, but I feel that the vocals are closer to another rhythmic element in this type of mix, and less a melodic instrument that should be placed front and center.

Thank you for listening, both of you!

@Ledzettervall

Thank you:) All things considered I’m happy with the tom sound. The mix was intended to be more in the realm of documentary and less that of fantasy, so… for certain tom hits to have been harder, the drummer should have played harder. HOWEVER. I really like the drum performance. It’s not hyper-quantised, which makes it feel much more alive. I’d take that above hits that sound like they were quantised in an Excel spreadsheet.

Re: vocal mix – I referenced mixes of a similar style from the same period, and the vocals are more or less the same there. It’s a very modern trend to put death metal vocals center stage. As you said, the band might like it. Or not.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by FlimFlamMan.

@WideRangeEchoes

I’m happy you like it :D As I mentioned towards Ledzettervall, my goal was to make it sound like it could be a recording made in the band’s rehearsal space. No frills, no fuss, just balanced instruments mostly the way they were recorded. While the bass would also not be something that I’d nowadays put on a record, it’s similar to what you’d hear from stylistically similar recordings from the same era. Although…. you’d also hear far more variance in the bass tones from back then.