Old School Grindcore

a reply to: Liquesence

Lol me too. I tend to center my mixes around the kick. Bring everything up to the point where you just can't hear the kick well enough, then back down again--and start from there. I used to have a bad habit of losing the kick in the mix since I like a lot of layered low end to mid on the guitars. Heck, I'll record up to 4 layers of the same guitar riff then EQ and pan 'em if I have to just to get that extremely thick sound. You're hearing only two layers on these tracks.

If I ever wanted to sell an album, I'd hire a pro for mastering any day. I just can't trust my own ears after a while.

a reply to: Crosswinds

I'll record up to 4 layers of the same guitar riff then EQ and pan 'em if I have to just to get that extremely thick sound.

Exactly.

Hell, I've done more than 4 layers for guitar. 3-4 for acoustic on top of 3-4+ for electric, some straight up, some panned hard L and R, some slightly offset, layered FX (DS1 distortion + Rat + Orange stack simulation, etc), for a full, fat, sonic sound. Heard Bill Corgan sometimes has like 20+ guitar tracks layered together.

Interesting how you center yours around the kick. Mine varies depending on the song, but I also lose my kick and bass from time to time, so I have to lower. My biggest challenge since I use so many instruments is creating proper space, and learning eq range of each voice to isolate it.

a reply to: Liquesence

Ya can never have too many layers! It all depends on the genre, etc...
For this stuff I try to keep it a little thin but here's an example where I used quite a bit of "stuff" here and there. There are some electronic FX and some other odds and ends--but I have some more of the other style stuff too that I have yet to upload.
Yeah the more instruments you use the harder it is to keep everyone's frequencies in their own pots so to speak. The good thing about metal is usually you're only dealing with the standard stuff--guitars, bass, drums, keyboard, vocals... but it's still a challenge to balance everything and keep it from sounding too high endy.
Pay close attention to the vocal effects on this one. I did fun things. *_*

Good stuff. Reminds me of early Brutal Truth.

Okay, here's what Crosswinds looks like. And sounds like.



Full song:

a reply to: Crosswinds

That voice with that face?

*sigh* heaven

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

Hah, thank you.

I'm going back into the dungeon, er, studio later today. I need to turn the heavy up a notch, I'm considering trying a song with just a bass guitar, or at least more prominent bass.
I recently got in to a band called Spasm. They're goregrind and they have no guitarist (!). Their titles are pretty graphic, just a heads up in case you look them up. Deepest, best grindcore I've found yet so far.

a reply to: Crosswinds

Hey Crosswinds, thought I'd give this thread a bump.

Totally sweet! All the way around.

I'm not a big fan of the genre but you have some awesome things going in many songs.

It cracks me up watching the convo about remastering/mixing - I think yours sounds pretty darn good! That is the hardest part of it all,

Keep making music that makes you happy and thanks for posting. I'll say it again that your avatar is the best on ATS also.

a reply to: ColoradoJens

Haha thank you so much! I truly appreciate that. I work pretty hard on this stuff and it's nice to hear even from someone who's not big on this kind of music that you still appreciate what goes into it. Awesome. I will totally keep cranking the tunes out, I even have a new vocal technique I want to try. I've gone through everything--open growls, nasal grunting, etc, but I haven't yet mastered the pig squeal.

Thanks again about the avatar. That made my day! I like to say that it's my "spirit animal"

Cheers,
xwinds