Indeed. That's far too drastic. Better to HP everything but kick and bass somewhere around 200Hz and gently using 12-18 pole HPF. Also, it is better to try if lowering the low shelve filter works first. Shelving doesn't screw up the phase so much as HPF or LPF. So same goes for the high frequencies - better to lower the high shelve frequencies with the knee at 12-15kHz.

Speaking of HPF-ing, doing it to kick and bass is also recommendable, especially if the knee can be boosted. It's a part of the "Pultec trick", and then lower 200-300Hz as necessary, 1 octave or Q 0.71 to get that beefy kick or bass. It's your choice which one is more important in the song.

Cheers!

 

I wouldnt be here if I knew that was the correct way to eq HAHAHAH ...only kidding

 

...I was kidding... doing any of what i said removes some harmonics... I actually never HP anything (usually), but I will do a really low Q low pass on harsh stuff

 

There are so many different sounding kiks, some bang at 40, others hit harder at 90, I honestly just use my ears as I have been equing things since 2011. I did a mix with my buddy and we were doin all types of drastic stuff with tape emulation and so on for about 3 hours, he said ok it sounds good lets master it... I checked my levels before bouncing and it was at -5.5db at the highest peak... I honestly think I can just hear everything and know what it sounds like at sub -3.db

 

Great work on your album! I'm digging it but I also love Goregrind. Big fan of Napalm Death, actually posted them not too long ago in my Death Metal thread on here.

You definitely have your own sound with your vocals but I'm not hearing any nasaly vocals. They sound more like satan belching than your regular growls, it sounds more like it's coming out of the burp of your throat than your nose. I was more of a fan of your tenor vocal than your bass but that's just me.

Maybe you are listening to your vox in solo? Because I'm not hearing anything nasaly in your mix. It's probably mostly in your head, or at least it's not on the record you linked. Sounds fine to me. Like @F.L.O.W. said, try different mic positions because you play metal and know how much it matters when you mic your cab.

 

Hahaha i am always open to all kinds of mixing, as long as it sounds good, i tried it with a 12db octave on really low vocals and it worked, there are no rules in my opinion.

Yeah man, that is what i do usually, but i was applying the drastic 500hz hp cut at some really low pitchshifted vocals, what i do its not considered "music" per se anyway, so i always do aggressive shit lol

Like i said, there are no rules, and i was doing this to -16 semitones pitch shifted vocals, of course i needed to remove lots of unwanted lows, but it also worked at normal growls with a 12db octave HP cut. So, it can work for some, and not work for another, its all about the mix you are working on.

Thanks a lot mate. yeah maybe its all in my head, and YES, i am listening the isolated vocals most of the time, i always try to sound as best as possible isolated so it fits better in the mix later...

Actually my project is inspired by the goregrind legends Regurgitate:

Hahah the tenor vocals, you mean the screams? those are loud as fuck lol

Yeah different mic positions its what i always do, but like you said before, maybe its a issue that only i find

 

Well, obviously we have to do a bit of soloing, but there are many who would say to EQ in context of the mix.
What sounds good on its own doesn't necessarily sound good in the mix.

 

You're welcome, credit is due where it's due. Didn't even expect someone on the board to be into goregrind tbh but I gave your album some tiny promotion because I liked it so much.

Yeah the screams but I still seperate by tenor, baritone and bass only because of the frequencies they take up because screams can be deep too and growls can shriek too so thats why I mention them that way. I can definitely see the resmpblance between your project and Regurgitate.

I wouldn't sweat how it sounds in solo, it's inside the mix that counts most. You know how it goes, the guitar has to be rather thin in the mix because the bass supports it and there is plenty of distortion around it to be loud enough but in solo it's rather tinny which doesn't matter in the end becase only the mix matters.

I wish you would share some death metal/goregrind releases you like in my thread. There's not that many of us in there lol

 

Thanks a lot bro, haha yeah this genre is just for freaks i guess. Its like the most extreme thing one can find in music... i dont even consider this music tbh. And i am not by any means a PRO producer or some crap like that either way, but its good to know some basics of course!

Totally, that is a good way to describe the sounds, it sounds more professional too haha.

Look, for that EP i showed you, the guitar was the one with the most bass in the mix, the "bass" (its just my guitar pitched 1 octave down with obviously added distortion like there is no tomorrow) was the thinner sounding one. One thing i noticed its that this genre doesnt follow any kind of rules, its quite the opposite most of the time.
And i totally agree with you, in the MIX its where it matters, if it sounds good in the mix, then you are good.

Thanks for the nice words and the sharing once again, grealty appreciated!

 

Not cut. I actually meant you should boost nasality/1k if you want more nasality and "agressivness" (or "forwardness" or "presence"). Presence is usually a bit higher, around 3k.
Similar to when you cup the mic.
https://www.dpamicrophones.com/mic-university/proper-hand-placement-on-a-vocal-mic

 

Last edited: Jan 4, 2022

Oh, i get it now.
Yeah cupping the mic is shit to be honest haha. It completely transforms the sound of the mic. I dont know how the hell some vocalists sound awesome while cupping the mic.

 

EQ!
Yet every rapper does it live! And in the studio with a dynamic mic.
I've been really surprised recently to find out that a lot of artists record with a dynamic in the studio for HH.
And they hold it like that too!

 

LOL I like to cereal bowl my mic like a deathcore band that underestimated how many wet shrooms it ate before wandering off in the forest like a dementia patient then mooning trees like they owe you something. I'm so glad you know how much ass that sounds like.

You're very welcome! Keep up the great work! Metal in general doesn't have that many rules. I consider it music though, I actually consider it to have more emotion than most music. In fact metal forces you to acknowledge anger which makes you a far more wholesome and collected person in the end instead of ignoring the darker emotions like most genres/people do which bottles things up which don't usually end too well for people.

Heavy music does things for me that no other style of music can.
You ever seen Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse go clearance shopping and geek out over a toy dog that farts? Best shit ever!

Or Don Tardy of Obituary feeding stray cats in his freetime before dinner? He even catches them, neuters them and releases them back where he found them with his wife as part of some program in his city to stop them from over producing themselves and dying because no one would feed them.

 

Dynamic microphones are quiet, usually with self noise of 5dB or a little more. Although I am unfamiliar with working with a Behringer XM8500, I imagine that your screaming and grunting would and should mitigate any self noise that the microphone exhibits, so eating the mic won't get rid of the noise of the vocal capture. Either use a gate to quash any noise between vocal lines or edit the out manually. If your mic is noisy it might be that the preamp of your interface is cranked and it is coming from there if you hear it, though I cannot imagine that it would need be with the sound pressure of your screaming. So no, in this instance I don't believe that you need to be close to optimize the signal to noise ratio as it would be redundant. A decent quiet preamp as in whatever interface that you are using should also not be introducing much if any noise to the signal..

 

man, i dont even use eq on the vocals when mixing, just mix it until it sounds good

 

Because it cuts through the mix. Cupping the mic is not bad per se (yes, I've worked 10 years in live sound/FoH), as long as its "EQ" serves the sound/mix. Just like reamping, using a "wrong"/different mic, running a mix through a potato or whatever. I've even recorded metal bands/singers/growlers cupping an sm57 in the studio (if it works, it works).

Sidenote: Try (on vocals) a parallel distortion and bandpass at around 1k (Q to taste), in that order. Then blend it in with your dry vocal.

 

Last edited: Jan 5, 2022

Totally, EQing Cupped vocals is the only way for it to sound decent. I have done cupped vocals, and i needed to get rid of a lot of resonances later, it also sounded more dark, which can work for some mixes.

Haha, yeah cupping does wonders sometimes, it just depends on your type of vocal i guess... Lee Dorrian from Napalm Death always cupped the mic and he sounded like a fucking monster! he is my fav grindcore vocalist of all times.

And that is very true (and deep). I totally agree with you! Its cool that through music you can put your most perverted fantasies hahaha.

Sure, it depends on the preamp, but we can agree that the more you are far away from the mic, the more noises it will pick, that is the noise ratio i was talking about. Also, it depends on the style of course. But i have found that if i am far away from the mic, it will pick more unwanted noises, ambient noises and so on. Also my preamp is quite shit, its a Behringer UMC22 Audio interface, so there you go, i am a poor musician haha.

Not eq on vocals? that means you are using a good condenser mic that fits in all mixes. Dynamics are darker and definitely need EQ, unless you are making a quick demo that sounds subpar.

True, it cuts in the mix, that 1k we are talking about, helps a lot. But for me, my vocals get totally ruined when i do that. I need to do lots of EQ after to get rid of that "honk" frequency around 900hz. By the way, when i got rid of the 900-1k frequency, it started sounding like i was not doing cup, but the high end was almost non-existent, so i dont see why someone would cup the mic, unless he wants to look cool in the stage haha. Some singers have got their own sound with cupping, but i am talking about metal and grindcore that its a totally different world.

 

I was never one to cup the mic, although I do know some bands do this but I never knew people really compared frequency responses with mic hand placements which is pretty cool to be honest.

Glenn Fricker would call me a dumbass if I cupped my mic and I would become my own useless cunt of a bassist all in one sentence if I tried!