A lot of people have come up to me and asked me how I get the ‘polished’ sound on my Melakartha recordings.
It is no dark art, but it did take me quite a while to get there. I’m going to share some simple ideas and concepts that can make your mix (and thereby song) a lot more appealing, and complete. When was the last time you wrote a great song in your head, but which turned out to sound like nails on a blackboard by the time you had finished recording it?
Bear in mind, this is a complete bedroom guide – If you’re the kind who came here looking for suggestions on tweaking that SSL hardware rack, or trying to reduce the noise floor on your mammoth 32-channel tube pre-amp powered mixer that sits on your desk, let me shoo you away before you get disgusted with our primal, budget mixing methods 
Bedroom Tracking
A) What you’ll need -
- An interface between your instrument/mic and your computer – I’m not going to get into the details on this, there are tons of guides and comparisons on which interface to use. I personally use the Line6 GuitarPort which is an older version of the Pod X3 in the market right now and is discontinued. I’ve had good results with line6 and their products are highly recommended.(OR)
- A soundcard
- Software DAW – Cubase/ProTools/Logic/Adobe Audition/Ableton Live/Sonar, the list is endless. This is completely dependant on your preference. I really like Adobe Audition 3 for tracking so I will base the rest of this post on that, though the concepts are applicable across all the DAWs.
- Headphones/Speakers for monitoring – Highly recommended are the Sennheiser HD650 or, the cheaper Audio Technica ATH-M50
B) Setting up your DAW
- Metal has always been about precision, and heaviness. Tightly timed tracks = HEAVY! So I’m assuming that we want to be recording to a click track.
- For a bigger sound to your guitars, you MUST double track and pan your guitars. If you’re a tight player, you are most certain to enjoy the sonic results from quad-tracking your guitars as well.
- Set your DAW to record at 24 bit audio, at 48 khZ. Warning: Ensure that your interface can do this before you buy it. Refer to this guide here for detailed comparisons of audio interfaces
- Set your signal levels on your interface (using the gain feature), or using the ‘Volume’ feature on the POD – to make sure that youre getting a moderately hot signal, but this would vary if you are using different preamps. For starters, record a couple sample waveforms to check this, and see that there is not more than 5-10dB between the top (clip) areas and your highest signal level.
- Make sure your DAW inputs are set to the interface, and get tracking !
- Tip : If you’re using an amp modeller for your guitar like the line6 pod, make sure you go easy on the treble and presence knobs – somehow line6 has this tendency to add a horrific amount of those which end up making your tracks sound sterile. Bass is another tricky issue to deal with, but bass is generally more controllable during the mixing stage.
The next article coming up in a couple of days – Bedroom Mixing!
Stay tuned, and leave a comment if you have any feedback, or any questions to be answered. Cheers!
Sridhar
Vats
/ November 28, 2009Hey Sridhar,
Good article. I have a couple of questions:
When double tracking or quad tracking the rhythm guitars, where do you pan each track? Also, I record to a click track and try to get it as accurate as possible but no matter how tight I play a part, there’s a slight ‘chorus’ effect that comes out of double tracking a riff, this seems to make the riff ‘weaker’ sounding. Does this mean the playing needs to be even tighter or is it something that careful panning and levels can rectify?
Cheers and look forward to the article on mixing.
(2)
sridharancr
/ November 28, 2009Hey Vats,
Quad track and panning generally depends on the song I’m mixing. I generally would go for 100L-100R-95L-95R, or 100L-100R-90R-90L. I would never pan guitars further in than that since it starts interfering with each other and gets muddy. Yes, there definitely will be a ‘chorusy’ effect, which would actually make the riff sound bigger! I’m surprised that you said weaker. Also, You have to ensure that your guitar is tuned to perfection before takes.
Playing needs to be tight, but doesn’t have to be machine-perfect, since its actually the inconsistencies in playing that contribute to the fullness, or largeness if you may. Hope this helps!
Vats
/ December 1, 2009Thanks a lot for replying Sridhar. I was panning them much closer than that, about 30L and 30R, that could be one reason I thought there was a problem with how it sounded.
Also, heard some of your melakartha songs after I’d posted my last comment, they sound great
Both musically as well as in terms of production. Is that you on vocals as well on insight? I presume the source of your overdrive is the HT-5 then and not the Pod you mentioned in this article? Cheers for doing these articles.
sridharancr
/ December 2, 2009There you go, 30L – 30R is too cluttered, and will not produce good results for rhythm guitars. Try 90 or 100.
Thanks
I’m glad you liked them – yes it was me on vocals for ‘Insight’
Actually, most of the songs except ‘Medicate’ and the HT-5 demo were recorded using just the POD. Even medicate, contained quad guitars, with 2 takes from the pod and 2 from the amp.
Vats
/ December 3, 2009Great, I have a Pod too…I kind of hated it until I read that the Meshuggah guys DI their Pods live!
Plus, reading your tips and listening to your mixes…made me think maybe it is possible for me to get a decent sound out of my Pod as well, although it’s one of their lower-end models.
Really want to get a valve power amp configuration, but that’ll take a while, unless I win the lottery – which is kind of hard to do when you don’t buy any tickets
Your drum article is quite an eyeful…it’s probably going to take me days to absorb all of it.
Agodorret
/ December 11, 2009Seems like you are a true expert. Did ya study about the subject? hrhr
vuppyadvale
/ December 14, 2009hey, extensive blog here. normally i don’t devise comments or situate on these sites but i could demand that you got some neat people on this blog. I’m also into the make beats furor or music section so this is uncommon for me. s be given to a mass dark prevent up the fresh work.
sridharancr
/ December 14, 2009Well I didn’t really study it, but certainly picked up a lot of stuff from just reading and fooling around
SCotty
/ July 19, 2010Hey man. I was just wondering if you could spare the time to help out a fellow recorder. I just bought a blackstar ht5 and have been playing with bass, treble, distortion mids etc etc to get a good sound and i seem to be having a hard time. I was wondering if you could share the settings you have used with your blackstar ht5 and weather you used the amps gain, or a pedal. been trying to get a godo sound for a year now and it’s really tough. just bought this amp and saw that you got an AWESOME sound from the HT5. if you can, please share as I’d much appreciate. so far i’ve
- had the mids high
- got rid of much of the bass
- had treble a bit below middle.
- gain pretty high
please let me know if im on the wrong track
SCotty
/ July 19, 2010sorry. just read you boosted it with a zw-44. just how much does that effect the overall sound?
sridharancr
/ July 19, 2010Thanks Scotty. Sure, I can help. However, a lot of factors go into shaping the overall sound of the guitar. Honestly, I don’t get a bad sound by just plugging straight into the amp, especially on the dist channnel. I have my bass knob nearly full, mids about 3 o clock, and treble at noon and this works perfect for me. The Zakk wylde OD I use just to hit the front of the amp hard when boosting for solos etc. I almost always use the amp’s gain channel, since the clean channel doesnt cut it for me.
Maybe getting rid of the bass is ruining it for you? Try bringing it back up.
Also, the cab that you use could be a possible culprit. If its the stock cab like mine (HT110 I think), these settings written above still hold.
SCotty
/ July 20, 2010Thanks heaps for the quick reply man. your a legend!
Oh thats probably my prob. i just use the 20 watt amp. no cab. sorry really new to this. so i guess thats a no go.
Ok. I’ve heard all over the place that
a) you should keep the bass really low and let the bass guitar do the low work
b) you should have the mids high as guitars are a mid instument
c) treble should be midway
But obviously you have better results than they, so i’ll listen to you.
ok so im thinkin of gettin a cab now for recording, but i was wondering… will i need to blast the crud outa that thing for a good sound?
Thanks in advance.
Scotty
SCotty
/ July 20, 2010wow. just noticed i didn’t even mention that I’m going for a metal sound. Like maybe august burns red. hehe soz for some reason i thought this was a given :S.
sridharancr
/ July 22, 2010Scotty – I presume that you are using the combo version of this amp. That’s fine too. A combo essentially means that you have the head + cab in one unit. Now, what you said was true about not letting the guitars go overboard on the bass, but for a metal sound, bass frequencies in the guitar sound are a must. My guitars tend to go down as below as 85Hz sometimes, and it helps keep the sound nice and round. Of course, your dominant instrument in that range should still be the bass guitar. Mids high is a yes.
Let me know how it goes.
- S
Vats
/ July 25, 2010Your articles have been quite helpful to me, in my quest for acceptable production values for my songs. I just finished recording one of them, was wondering if you could give me an honest critique of it, it would be much appreciated.
http://www.soundclick.com/vatsiyengar
Thanks in advance.