Heavy Metal Production in Your Bedroom
By Sridhar *
(This article is cross-posted at Sridharsmusic.com)
A lot of people have come up to me and asked me how I can get the almost-commercial sound on myMelakartha recordings.
It is no dark art, but it did take me quite a while to get there. I’m going to share some simple ideas and concepts that can make your mix (and thereby song) a lot more appealing, and complete. When was the last time you wrote a great song in your head, but which turned out to sound like nails on a blackboard by the time you had finished recording it?
Bear in mind, this is a complete bedroom guide – If you’re the kind who came here looking for suggestions on tweaking that SSL hardware rack, or trying to reduce the noise floor on your mammoth 32-channel tube pre-amp powered mixer that sits on your desk, let me shoo you away before you get disgusted with our primal, budget mixing methods 
Bedroom Tracking
A) What you’ll need -
- An interface between your instrument/mic and your computer – I’m not going to get into the details on this, there are tons of guides and comparisons on which interface to use. I personally use the Line6 GuitarPort which is an older version of the Pod X3 in the market right now and is discontinued. I’ve had good results with line6 and their products are highly recommended.(OR)
- A soundcard
- Software DAW – Cubase/ProTools/Logic/Adobe Audition/Ableton Live/Sonar, the list is endless. This is completely dependant on your preference. I really like Adobe Audition 3 for tracking so I will base the rest of this post on that, though the concepts are applicable across all the DAWs.
- Headphones/Speakers for monitoring – Highly recommended are the Sennheiser HD650 or, the cheaper Audio Technica ATH-M50
B) Setting up your DAW
- Metal has always been about precision, and heaviness. Tightly timed tracks = HEAVY! So I’m assuming that we want to be recording to a click track.
- For a bigger sound to your guitars, you MUST double track and pan your guitars. If you’re a tight player, you are most certain to enjoy the sonic results from quad-tracking your guitars as well.
- Set your DAW to record at 24 bit audio, at 48 khZ. Warning: Ensure that your interface can do this before you buy it. Refer to this guide here for detailed comparisons of audio interfaces
- Set your signal levels on your interface (using the gain feature), or using the ‘Volume’ feature on the POD – to make sure that youre getting a moderately hot signal, but this would vary if you are using different preamps. For starters, record a couple sample waveforms to check this, and see that there is not more than 5-10dB between the top (clip) areas and your highest signal level.
- Make sure your DAW inputs are set to the interface, and get tracking !
- Tip : If you’re using an amp modeller for your guitar like the line6 pod, make sure you go easy on the treble and presence knobs – somehow line6 has this tendency to add a horrific amount of those which end up making your tracks sound sterile. Bass is another tricky issue to deal with, but bass is generally more controllable during the mixing stage.
The next article coming up in a couple of days – Bedroom Mixing!
Stay tuned, and leave a comment if you have any feedback, or any questions to be answered. Cheers!
* Sridhar is a guitar prodigy from Chennai, currently working in Singapore. In 2009 he released highly successful debut album ‘Transcend‘ which received much accolades from all over the globe. Sridhar is currently working on his heavy metal project Melakartha.
Nice. cheers.
That’s exactly what I’m doing currently after experimenting for 2 years of experimenting with home recording methods. I use the exact same software with a POD X3 Live.
EDIT — That’s exactly what I’m doing currently after experimenting for 2 years with home recording methods. I use the exact same software with a POD X3 Live.
“Set your signal levels on your interface (using the gain feature), or using the ‘Volume’ feature on the POD – to make sure that youre getting the hottest signal possible without clipping”
No, no no!!!
Peaks around -10dB are plenty. Please don’t perpetuate this misguided approach to tracking! You do not need to record this hot – it makes mixing harder and it eats up the headroom your DAW will need to to process your tracks without making them sound nasty.
After tracking, if you can lift all your faders to 0dBFS and you still have headroom on your master meter (at least 3dB, but preferably 6dB or more) then your tracking levels are fine.
That should have read “lift all your faders to 0dB”!
I agree, and it was a mistake, the stupidity of which was realized way later. The correct version of the blog post can be found here –
http://www.sridharsmusic.com/blog/heavy-metal-production-in-your-bedroom/
It was modified to read -
“Set your signal levels on your interface (using the gain feature), or using the ‘Volume’ feature on the POD – to make sure that youre getting a moderately hot signal, but this would vary if you are using different preamps. For starters, record a couple sample waveforms to check this, and see that there is not more than 5-10dB between the top (clip) areas and your highest signal level.”