Amorpheus - Cold Winds and A Coming Storm (instrumental version) [looking for feedback]

[Amorpheus]

Hey guys, just finished up the skeleton of a new track I've been working on. Still has some work to go into it musically, but what I need some help with is feedback on tone, eq, overall sound balance, and all that jazz. If any of you care to give it a play and let me know what you think that would be the shit. Thanks in advance.

 

 

[FatherAlabaster]

There are several issues here. The biggest problem is the drums. They're too quiet overall, but the high end is up too high and it's making them sound powerless and tappy. Take whatever EQ and other plugins you have on the drums off (you may even need to do a slight roll-off in the high end), turn them up, pan them in to about 50%, and try mixing them to sound a bit more natural. Work on your kick/snare balance, program some variation into the cymbals, and after you've done that, consider adding a touch of reverb to the drum buss to give the sounds a feeling of existing in the same space (a tiny bit will do, 7 to 10% mix on most current plugins, enough to feel but not really hear in the mix).

The guitars sound like they have phase problems - did you use a stereo doubler, or did you just quad track them? If you used a doubler, turn it off. If you're using a microphone, play with the placement to try and capture a bit more meat with less high end. I'd suggest panning the rhythm/middle voice guitars out farther (anywhere between 75% and hard L/R) and keeping the melodies either on a single track in the middle or (if you must double them) panned out around 40% to either side. Again, I think you should try to get a more natural sound, and use EQ gently only after you've got your pan structure and your basic levels set up along with the drum tracks.

There's also a note in one of the melodic sections (right at the end of the phrase) that's actually the wrong note for the part it's going over, and you repeat it several times. You may know what I'm talking about. Play that one note a half step lower, or revise the chord underneath it, but right now it just clashes in a way that doesn't move the song forward at all.

I really can't tell what's going on with the bass. Is it keyboard, or guitar synth? Either way it's not anchoring the bottom of the song. If you're playing an actual bass, play it with conviction, put a little bit of overdrive on it and put that fucker right in the middle of your mix. Even if you're going for the sort of unsettled humming quality of the bass on "De Mysteriis" or the melodic approach of "Bergtatt", rather than a traditional low end, the bass needs more focus.

Once you've got everything sounding more convincing, this mix should fall into place. Any vocals going to happen?

[kjtheguitarist]

Seems nothing more needed to be said on this.