Any easy mixing cheats?

[Maddnotez]

Been trying to record again after stopping because it sounds like shit.

I see all these youtube guys saying yeah bro, here's my $80 Scarlett and zero processing and it sounds amazing. Im not buying that. How are these guys getting pro results without doing anything?

Here is a rough draft of a metal song I was working on. No bass added yet, just vst guitars and drums into an equally or better interface than a Scarlett. Any noob friendly ways of making this sound halfway believable?

[spawnofthesith]

I would recommend getting a captor to use with your real amps and some good IRs


I'm no pro but I was instantly able to get significantly better tones recorded with a $20 behringer interface I got off marketplace than I ever got trying to mic my cabs back in the day, and definitely any plugin amps I've tried to use

[Maddnotez]

I would recommend getting a captor to use with your real amps and some good IRs


I'm no pro but I was instantly able to get significantly better tones recorded with a $20 behringer interface I got off marketplace than I ever got trying to mic my cabs back in the day, and definitely any plugin amps I've tried to use

Thanks, and yeah I've been considering getting a mic to try and mic my amp but the captor direct sounds like a better idea.

[ElDirtySanchez]

I think I know of one of the guys you're talking about. I would believe that he is getting those results without any processing because he seems to know what he's doing. It's about getting your source audio right before it hits the track so that way you only do minimal processing to add that little extra.
I've been using my POD Go for a lot of my recording and I honestly think guitar sits better in a mix with minimal processing when you use a real amp. I feel like I have to do a lot of processing when I use digital to make it sit right. I'm going to get a Two Notes Captor soon to try out and see if my feeling is correct.
Here's what I would do if this was my track, I'm by no means making pro mixes but I feel I've been getting much better. Listening to your track, I would double track the guitars, hard pan left and right. I would also bring up the levels on everything.
For guitars , I'll use a high pass/ low pass filter and look for any honkyness/ boxeyness in the mids and bring that down. I will do a little amount of compression on guitars. Honestly, a lot of times, I will go through the presets in the plugins and try those, depending on the plug in you use, it will have presets for guitars. I'll tweak if need be.
For the drums, I'll add a little compression to them and use some sort of a tape saturation plugin then some room reverb, it'll help beef them up and sound bigger.
For bass, I'll hit with an eq followed by compression, sometimes add a little saturation to it.
The other thing to pay attention to is your level going into your daw, if it's too hot going in, it'll sound like crap. I use an audiobox and it tends to run hot when I plug the guitar straight in, so when I use my Pod Go, I use the volume on the amps in the Pod to help lower the overall volume so it's not too hot going in.

[Maddnotez]

I think I know of one of the guys you're talking about. I would believe that he is getting those results without any processing because he seems to know what he's doing. It's about getting your source audio right before it hits the track so that way you only do minimal processing to add that little extra.
I've been using my POD Go for a lot of my recording and I honestly think guitar sits better in a mix with minimal processing when you use a real amp. I feel like I have to do a lot of processing when I use digital to make it sit right. I'm going to get a Two Notes Captor soon to try out and see if my feeling is correct.
Here's what I would do if this was my track, I'm by no means making pro mixes but I feel I've been getting much better. Listening to your track, I would double track the guitars, hard pan left and right. I would also bring up the levels on everything.
For guitars , I'll use a high pass/ low pass filter and look for any honkyness/ boxeyness in the mids and bring that down. I will do a little amount of compression on guitars. Honestly, a lot of times, I will go through the presets in the plugins and try those, depending on the plug in you use, it will have presets for guitars. I'll tweak if need be.
For the drums, I'll add a little compression to them and use some sort of a tape saturation plugin then some room reverb, it'll help beef them up and sound bigger.
For bass, I'll hit with an eq followed by compression, sometimes add a little saturation to it.
The other thing to pay attention to is your level going into your daw, if it's too hot going in, it'll sound like crap. I use an audiobox and it tends to run hot when I plug the guitar straight in, so when I use my Pod Go, I use the volume on the amps in the Pod to help lower the overall volume so it's not too hot going in.

Unless i messed it up these are 2 guitar tracks panned 100% L/R

I added HPF at 80hz on both, bumped 2db around 6100hz and dropped the mids 2db somewhere. Very small curve

I added compression to the master channel. 4to1, -4db and .01ms


I've read a lot that drum vst are already processed and to leave them alone...But I really have no idea what I'm doing. I guess I need better guitar tracks and better drum vst maybe

[ElDirtySanchez]

Yes they are processed and I've read that too, but I've also seen other people still process them. I have found it does make them sound beefier and bigger when you do. I don't go overboard with it, just enough to thicken them up.
I also think what you've got doesn't sound bad at all.

[RaceU4her]

dont get caught up in the you need a ton of gear to sound good thing, a 57 and a scarlett is more than adequate for great tones. i would definitely grab a bass though, the bass is kind of an overlooked thing that is just as or even more important than guitar tones in a mix, any decent bass and a sansamp will do. after that its just learning about eq and compression and how to get everything to sit right, which takes quite a while. your tracks here though sound plenty decent already

[Guitarbilly]

I second getting a reactive load and using that with your amps. That will make a big difference.

Also 4:1 compression on the master channel is a bit heavy, try 2:1 so there is more dynamics.

Try out a few plugins, EQ curves and once you get something you like, save it as template and use it as starting point for your future tracks.

That's the main thing for me, I found a setup that works for my band and made a template for my DAW so now I just pull it up , make a few adjustments (tempo, etc) and everything kind of falls into place. So I just have to play the parts and adjust levels at the end. Makes it a lot easier than starting from 0 every single time.

[Maddnotez]

Word thanks ill try some of these things

[ninjaraf]

Mixing can be so complex, depending on so many things. If you want easy, I remember a friend of mine sending me some stuff he did with EZMix, and it sounded pretty good, if a bit generic.

For the most part, when I'm using drum software, I don't do anything to it. I have a kind of "standard" bass chain these days that I copy onto every project. Works well with the drums. Then I just record guitars, and I honestly almost never do anything to them. Even for the stuff my band has released, there is VERY LITTLE in the way of processing on the guitars. Like ElDS said...getting what you want from the source is probably the most important part for that.

If we're talking about live drums, that's a whole different story, and takes some time, trial and error, and all that to really get even decent at. Took me years mixing a full band stuff to get to a point where I can be comfortable releasing stuff on the streaming platforms and shit.

I've struggled with plugins, too. But I think I can get pretty solid results these days with mics and using a reactive load with IRs. I've been using the Celestion Speaker Mix software for IRs these days. I can blend in a Redback and a V30, which is how I am micing anyway, and get something that works well enough for forum purposes, but if I'm releasing something, it's gonna be with a mic. I don't feel I am quite there with IRs yet.