Can I get some feedback on this Nightmare solo cover?

[Nick Kay]

This is basically what I do to try to get better as a producer & guitar player (IMHO I’m much better as a guitar player than a producer, but it is what it is lol) — I try to re-create sections of songs and mix them, with me playing everything. This is one I just did for the solo section of Nightmare, the first rough mix.
Everything is me except for the drums and the bass, I ripped them from YouTube.
My bass is being fixed atm, when I get it back I plan to re-do the bass part myself.
I don’t like the rhythm guitar sound that I got, I’m going to change that, or maybe just EQ this one a bit.
I don’t have it doubled as of right now, and I don’t think I should…there’s just too much going on to double it.
I like the tone of the lead parts except for the tremolo picking section…I compressed the shiz out of those two tracks, so the pick attack noise wouldn’t be annoying and stick out, but I think they came out a bit mushy and I chopped off too much of the high end in the EQ as well.
Other than those things off the top of my head, I think it’s coming along really well.
I used amp sims for everything, I don’t have any real amps (unfortunately) though I would love to get a Hellwin someday.
How does everyone else handle double tracked leads?
I did 75% L/R for each except for the ending, I did 85% L/R on those, my thought process was there is a lot of fast alternate picking going on, so it could separate them more.

Appreciate any thoughts from anyone, thanks.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Eh . I used to think the same thing until I saw avengeds tracks in breakdown. They do 4849595 tracks for each part. If you don’t right it still sounds like 1 just heavier and deeper.
Sounds good tho.. soundcloud is also bad with uploads too so upir actual recording could sound better.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

LOOOOLLL Calvin. It’s so true about the amount of tracks they used! Here’s my two cents, I don’t know shit about producing or recording, but your entire lead solo section sounds WAY too clean, robotic and dinky. It almost sounds like a midi file and not like an actual guitar. I see you wrote that some parts you chopped too much off, and I agree it sounds like an easy-to-spot cut-and-pasted solo. But great playing! Sorry I can’t be of more help.

 

[Nick Kay]

Lol, I was referring to the EQ of the tremolo picking section (chopped off too much of the high end)
You think the _lead_ part sounds robotic and dinky? Interesting
I did four takes total, one for each section, and each has its own harmony part except for the second
I didn’t punch in or quantize anything, I try not to do that unless it really has to be done and the part is just way too hard to do in one take
It’s definitely is something that I struggle with though, making it sound a lot more fluent between sections, I really don’t know what the best way to go about doing that is
Honestly though I think when I get the rhythm sound a little bit better and get this mixed better, the leads will blend a lot more

 

[Ed Seith]

Needs one more rhythm guitar, a little less high end on the other one. The opening melody leading up to the solo is a touch too loud – the sound of both together should NOT be louder than the solo guitar. Solo sounds great – very well played and clean. Agree that the tremolo picked part came out too muddy – bringing back some frequencies in 4-5k range should help. Nice!

 

[Nick Kay]

Thanks Ed, and everyone else as well for giving me a lot to work with.
I appreciate you all taking the time to comment and help me out with this.

 

[idssdi]

This is very well played!
I’m not a mix expert but a think We hit the nail tight on the head with his feedback!

 

[Andrew Fernandes]

I thought You played it very well my only negative was maybe the backing guitars could sound a bit fuller/better, but the guitar tone was very nice also.

 

[Christopher Lonski]

Yeah, Ed’s right on the rhythm part. I would double it for sure and smooth out the high end a bit. The attack seems a little too defined for the role that it’s playing in that section. You might consider a little less gain as well for the rhythm tracks as well. If you listen to just the guitar tracks on the original recording without drums, bass, and vocals; it’s honestly not super high gain and not crazy tight tone-wise. It doesn’t have to be though, because the attacks are outlined by the beat, and kick in particular. I posted it a while back, but here is a link to maybe 10 different avenged songs with all the different parts separated (vocals, guitar, drums, bass, extras, etc.). You will have to download audacity(which is free) to open the files. As far as the rhythm parts go, they are double tracked and paned to each side. One track has more defined mids and the other is scooped, at least with nightmare. Check them out-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t24xdruEsZorzGY78T8zVv3N5CUc-ouU

 

[Christopher Lonski]

Also, always consider double, or sometimes even triple tracking rhythms parts. It is a busy section and you DO want to leave space for the lead parts, but double tracking shouldn’t make the track any busier since the 2nd track is playing the exact same thing as the 1st. When doubling though, you really gotta make sure your rhythm is spot-on. Do it over as many times as it takes to make sure each attack lands on top of the attacks in the other track. The only thing that should be different is the EQ and really minor nuances. This just makes everything sound bigger and fuller, not busier.