Modern production sound

[maximzub]

As some of you may know, I went into the studio in July to record my first single. Dave and I agreed to each make our own mixes and compare them to see which one we like better. Unfortunately, the mixing process has reached a standstill. Neither of us know how to achieve the modern sound of bands produced by Elvis Baskette, Howard Benson, Scott Stevens, etc. Anyone here have any tips for me to achieve such sound? Is there something I have to do with the EQ of each track? Certain effects? Panning?

[Dolo]

There are shitloads of tutorials on YouTube but you should start with double tracking guitars and panning them hard left and right which gives you a solid stereo effect. I guess there should be quite a lot of compression on the drums and the vocals.

[Timotheus]

If at one point you think: "I can hear all the instruments individually", that's a bad sign. Crank up the volume, add more compression. If you're still worried, show whoever's doing the mastering a picture of a sausage, and tell them to let that inspire them.

But yea, basically what Dolo said. Even if you don't have double tracks, just copy it over and maybe delay it a few miliseconds.

Compression and (over)saturation should take care of the rest.

[Dolo]

But yea, basically what Dolo said. Even if you don't have double tracks, just copy it over and maybe delay it a few miliseconds.

I would absolutely double track them if that's not much of a hustle. You can't just copy them over because you get phasing effect.

[Timotheus]

But yea, basically what Dolo said. Even if you don't have double tracks, just copy it over and maybe delay it a few miliseconds.

I would absolutely double track them if that's not much of a hustle.

If it's possible, I 100% agree. If everything's recorded already and double-tracking isn't possible, that can still help.

You can't just copy them over because you get phasing effect.

Just switch the phase on one if that issue occurs.

[maximzub]

There are shitloads of tutorials on YouTube but you should start with double tracking guitars and panning them hard left and right which gives you a solid stereo effect. I guess there should be quite a lot of compression on the drums and the vocals.

Compression and (over)saturation should take care of the rest.

The guitars are double-tracked already. I'm actually liking the sound of them. The vocals and drums are my bigger problems. The vocals sound dry and aren't standing out very well, while the drums have literally no punch. The bass drum has a low rumble that I don't know how to get rid of, and the snare drum sounds like a tin can. What kind of compression and/or EQ and/or reverb should I use on them?

[Dolo]

I do all of my recordings in REAPER and I use its stock plugins. For the vocals I usually add quite a lot of delay that bounces from the left to right channel and I apply just enough reverb so that the 'dryness' disappears. In order to make them stand out you need a good volume balance between all the tracks, if you want them up front, just turn them up (or turn the rest of the mix down) but just make sure you get no digital clipping.
I don't have that much experience with mixing real drums as I normally use drum plugins but you can cut out some bottom end in the bass drum using some EQ.

[maximzub]

I do all of my recordings in REAPER and I use its stock plugins.

I do too. Which plugins do you typically use? I've only worked with ReaEQ and ReaVerberate, and I haven't gotten far with either.

[Dolo]

Those, plus ReaDelay and ReaComp

[Andy92]

Nolly Getgood (Periphery bassist/producer) has a ton of YouTube videos on mixing I’d recommend checking out. He even has one where he mixes an entire song using the stock plugins in Logic. One of the biggest tips I learned from him was how to properly do parallel drum compression as well as adding a bit of overdrive to the snare drum to make it snap harder.

If you want an “easy” solution and don’t mind forking over the cash…check out ControlHub by STL Tones. They also have a subscription version you could start with to try for a month at a cheaper price. It’s basically a library of mixing and mastering presets that imitate effect chains of studio gear from various producers. A few of them have demo videos out there showing how to use certain presets for vocals/guitars/bass/drums.

[Timotheus]

There are shitloads of tutorials on YouTube but you should start with double tracking guitars and panning them hard left and right which gives you a solid stereo effect. I guess there should be quite a lot of compression on the drums and the vocals.

Compression and (over)saturation should take care of the rest.

The guitars are double-tracked already. I'm actually liking the sound of them. The vocals and drums are my bigger problems. The vocals sound dry and aren't standing out very well, while the drums have literally no punch. The bass drum has a low rumble that I don't know how to get rid of, and the snare drum sounds like a tin can. What kind of compression and/or EQ and/or reverb should I use on them?

Automation between loud instruments and vocals can be really cool to make the vocals stand out more. There's a tool for this in Reaper, as that is what I used, but it's been over 5 years ago, lol.

Also creating separate tracks solely for delay and reverb gives you tons of options. You can compress and EQ your effects, without intervering with your main tracks. You can be super creative with this, but even in its simplest form it gives you a lot more options than just using plugins.

You can do the same thing for your drums, or even all the high-end instruments. Forward them all to one track, add some reverb and turn off the main source, so you only hear the reverb. Stuff like that can really glue your mix together. Subtilty is key though... You should only be able to hear the difference when you mute the reverb track.

Apologies if all of this is main knowledge it's stuff like that that really helped me when I was recording a lot.

[maximzub]

Apologies if all of this is main knowledge it's stuff like that that really helped me when I was recording a lot.

No apologies necessary as I lack that kind of knowledge. I'll apply all of the advice that you guys gave me and see how I like the mix after that.

[TenaciousBe]

Okay, so don't take any advice from me because the one album I recorded with my band in 2008 (that I essentially recorded, mixed, all that, on my own) came out sounding like absolute crud... but one of the things I always remember is an interview with James Hetfield where someone asked about how they got such a huge sound, and he said they didn't double-track guitars, they triple-tracked them. One in the left, one in the right, and "the thickener" in the middle.

[Crumbso]

Drums are the hardest bit here. Does reaper have a transient shaper as standard? That is the going to be the key.

DRUMS
Snare: Transient shaper to increase the snap of the initial hit, EQ to bring out the fundamental tone, reverb to make it sound big (but be careful to keep it light)
Bass drum: Gate, transient shaper, EQ out the boomiest lows but keep some for power, scoop out the mids heavily and increase some highs for a bit of click.
Overheads: EQ for taste and maybe some compression
Toms: Transient shaper to taste, EQ each for the fundamental tone, maybe compression
Total drums mix: Compress, EQ (scoop some mids), saturation until it feels powerful and maybe some very light reverb.
If you really hit a stumbling block. Reaper's standard gate can be a midi trigger and you can add to the snare and bass drum sound with samples.

GUITAR
One take panned hard left, one take panned hard right. EQ to taste but make sure there isn't too much bass in there. A surprising amount of the tone will come from how everything connects with the bass guitar

BASS
Take your bass take and create a send, so that there are two paths being processed. Keep one clean and emphasise the bass frequencies, do a high pass on the second one and add some distortion to that. Then balance the two together until it sounds right

VOCALS
Compress, compress, compress and then compress some more. EQ this in the high mids and lop some bass off the sound. Add some saturation for a bit of power and then add very light ping-pong delay and finally a light reverb with a fairly long tail. The less delay and verb you can use is best. You should not really hear it in heavy sections, it just helps everything to sit together in the mix.

OVERALL MIX
Light compression, light saturation, a bit of a smiley eq curve and then hit a mastering limiter reasonably hard. If you do it right the waveform will look like shit but it should still sound good.

[Crumbso]

Apologies if all of this is main knowledge it's stuff like that that really helped me when I was recording a lot.

No apologies necessary as I lack that kind of knowledge. I'll apply all of the advice that you guys gave me and see how I like the mix after that.

I'm happy to take a look at the stems if you'd like.

[Crumbso]

Double post