Critique my tone and mix. Engl Fireball content. Need suggestions.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Soundstorm
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Not sure a boost would do it. Just in my experience engls really do not take boosts well. I’ll add I’ve never owned a fireball, so maybe it’s different. But the savage and powerball got weird sounding with one to me.

Thought the second one you posted sounded plenty good guitar tone wise.
 
Bram576 said:
Not sure a boost would do it. Just in my experience engls really do not take boosts well. I’ll add I’ve never owned a fireball, so maybe it’s different. But the savage and powerball got weird sounding with one to me.

Thought the second one you posted sounded plenty good guitar tone wise.
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I boost mine with a Zakk Wylde OD, (the new reissue), and it eats it up. And the noise gate is stellar.
 
Ok I tried out some of your suggestions, and a few other things.

-Re-ran the drums through the hardware saturator again so it doesn't distort on the busy parts.
-Tracked through the Badlander 100 instead of the Engl and boosted with a Silver Archer pedal.
-Put a dynamic EQ on the pokey part of the bass (around 2.5k) to keep it at bay.
-Got rid of the SM57 and re-mic'd the cab with an sE7 condenser and MD421.
-Backed off on the limiter so it's barely limiting every once in awhile.

I think I'm liking the Badlander better for this track. Of course it's a 100 watt vs the Fireball's 25, but it's just got some extra weight and authority behind the riffs. Overall I feel like these changes have cleared up the clutter some on the track, but I'm still gonna try to dial in the guitar sound some more.

A friend of mine that's the recording and mixing engineer for Crowbar, Exhorder, and Down's latest albums is going to work with me and help me get everything dialed in better this weekend, so hopefully that'll help too. He gave me the idea for swapping out the 57 with the sE7. He also suggested blending in a DI which I don't have but will try next. Let me know what you guys think and if you have any more suggestions, thanks brose!

 
Yeah there's way more definition here. The Badlander I think is nice for really low tunings in that it naturally has no bottom end. That said while I like this a lot better, IMO there's a bit of a hole now in the bottom end between the bass & the guitar. Maybe try a couple edits where you increase the ass of one vs the other & see which makes more sense?

Yeah mic choice is huge. Check out this comparo I did.
 
The mix sounds good.

I've found that using a clipper before the limiter to shave off just a little a bit of the bigger spikes so that the limiter doesn't have to work so hard helps a lot. I don't clip off much so it is a very subtle difference but there will be a little more punch and better clarity for snare, bass drum and guitars in the mix when doing it that way instead of just using a limiter. When I used just a limiter, even if not pushed hard, it always kinda smeared some transients together especially the snare can lose a lot of punch.
 
I liked the first mix posted with the Engl. That second Engl mix when you mentioned you increased the gain lost some definition I think.. at least it sounded that way on my shitty gaming headset.
 
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