Olf Tryggvasson – Dead The World Gothic Mix

I’ve made an improved version of the mix, since on the first one I managed to mess up my snare and change the tone of the vocal in the last moment. There was also a metallic attack on the bass, that was sticking out.

So I made a new version – out of contest – cause it was bugging me, and I wanted, once I put the project down, to not think about what I should have done every time I listened to it. This way I’m happy that I finally came up with the best version I could. The bass still has that metallic attack, but it doesn’t stick out. The snare is clearer, the vocal has a little less honk, is more open, and is integrated in the track better. I’ve also cleaned the guitars a little bit – there it was – for me, at least, a compromise between weight and stride, but at the cost of clarity, and articulation and note intelligibility, but at the cost of less heaviness. I think this balance is better, and you can actually hear the notes and the phrases along with the vocal, for the first time with this project.

I hope you enjoy. Comments on this version are welcome.

NOTE: this version is OUTSIDE OF THE COMPETITION, since it comes after the deadline. My official submission is the one above – unfortunately :p. It is what it is. I just wanted to also have the better version posted. I’m curious if people like it more.

Best of luck!

Latest – and most likely last – version. obviously, still OUT OF CONTEST.

didn’t change much in the way of the approach or the target sound, just replaced a few plugins for the same functions: replaced the gates on the kick & snare with some better sounding ones, changed the eqs, with largely the same settings, but different inbuilt character, replaced the exciter on the 2-bus, and used a proper limiter for the maximization, instead of just moving the volume up in ocenaudio, for the automatic soft clipping to kick in. i could have made it louder, but didn’t like the sound.

i’m still not happy with the kick and the snare, and it messes up the entire track. i believe gating is the main culprit. need to find a gate i like – and i know how to operate well, with all the different params, i still haven’t found one that i like all the way – some do some things better, and others worse. between the various kinds of muddy smoothness and fullness, and a clean but small and sterile sound, i tried to find a good compromise. i don’t like the sound the snare, even though i think it sits where it should in the mix, and listening now, i hear the bass having a little plumpy honk that needs to be eq-ed out, but i’m not going in again.

i think the overall mix has the punch, the massiveness and the depth, it has the balance, enough separation to hear everything clearly, while still gelling together, as a track. i’ve got most of the character that i was looking for – i would have wanted it a little darker, squarer in transients, and thicker, texture wise, but i couldn’t get it without mud and ugly resonances.

it was gnawing at me, i took personallly that i couldn’t come up with a version that i liked – at least overall. this one i’m almost ok with – with the notes above. but i’m gonna leave it at this, maybe i’m gonna revisit it some day. time to move on.

enjoy and let me know what you think of it.