The Willowbrook Strangler

[gemini8026]

cheesy cliche metal tune done for a friend who lives in a small town in Willowbrook.

Yah, its cheesy, but can you all please critique my mix?!? Im working on getting thigns as clean as possible, and im curious how the sound quality feels to you, and if it feels over/under compressed.

Could this be confused with a professional recording?!? I dont think so, and I would enjoy any feedback helping me make better mixes.

Everything is myself (guitar/bass/vocals/drums) recorded in Cubase, and using WAVES plugins to do all my effects.

(drums are DKHS recorded using my e-kit as well as some hand editing)

Thanks for any feedback!!!

http://www.kainziw.com/mp3/wbs.mp3

[RacerX]

I'm nowhere near a recording expert, but it sure sounded good to me!

The guitars are cool, the vox is too, for a 80s vibe.

The only critiques I'd offer structurewise:

You got the rhythm guitar holding a chord for way too long at multiple places:
:57 - 1:01
1:25
1:57 - 2:03 6 seconds of boredom right here
2:49
3:27
3:55

Maybe put something dynamic in here, like a dive bomb or pick harmonics.

Also, I clocked the tune at 4:15, kinda long for a simple tale, maybe cut a minute out.

[gemini8026]

thanks for listening Ron, i gladly take your advice!

[kmanick]

I think the recording is top notch, sounds great!
you're right it sure is cheesy 80's sounding metal :ROTF: ................................But so what it still kicks ass!

[Guitardude86]

That song put a big-ass smile on my face, you captured so well what I love about the 80s! Unbelievably good Love it!
Woo-hoo-hooooo... If you ever need an audience for a live performance let me know, I'll be there if I can

Rock on!

[Bert]

Cool song, and well done! The mix was a bit too reverberated for my liking. Sounds like you had a bit of reverb on just about every track... use it a bit more judiciously and I think it will tighten things up nicely. Vocal sound was a little muddy and could stand some de-essing. Otherwise sounded good!

[Adam]

Disclaimer: I'm only mentioning things I would fix. Assume if I don't mention something, I thought it was fine.

The whole thing sounds too constrained. Not enough stereo separation. I would pan your rhythm guitars on the heavy parts way wider - 80% or 90% left and right, and pan your lead parts closer to center channel. A guitar solo is usually treated just like a lead vocal in the stereo field. You may have to bring up the levels of the rhythm guitars and bring down the leads because of the perceived change in volume by doing this, but the clarity it will give to your mix is well worth the trouble.

Also, the rhythm tones are a little too scooped and compressed for for 80's metal standards, IMO.

I agree with the comments on the reverb, too. I'd take the 'verb OFF your rhythm guitars all together. Also, the only drums that really need it are snare and hi toms. Certainly none of the rest of the kit needs any. I can't imagine you have reverb on the bass, but in case you do, get rid of it.

Also, you should notch the EQ in your vocals around 10khz to control the small sibilance issue. It's probably the reverb in your signal path running after your eq that's having this affect, so messing around with the reverb setting on that track may help.

Last thing is make sure you run it through some mastering software to even out your levels some, or at least run your final mix through one more stage of compression / limiting.

Nice job so far - these issues are all pretty simple stuff to correct.

[gemini8026]

hey thanks guys, especially Adam, I appreciate time spent with those suggestions. Im going to try those out, and then ill re-post the mp3 around 5:00 my time (central) have a relisten then!

[gemini8026]

Revision posted, it actually sounds a lot better with less reverb

[St.James]

I like it too. Cool tune.