2 ORPHEUS songs online - (Ermz/ Plec)

Weeee pretty much expected it to be that awesome. finally some good ol melodeath without too much plimplim around it :D
awesome music and mix, although I'm also having small issues with the guitars, but they sound cool that way so fuck that...
lol funny synth on the 2nd song
awesome vocals too chris!
 
not sure if i love or hate it ;-)
to me this sounds empty on the one hand (low mid wise)... but on the other hand thats cool for clarity.
i get the feeling that its a little too squashed (but just a tiny tiny bit) and gets hard to listen to for longer
than a minute (but the we all know general listener is used to that...)
drums are a little too artifical and separated for my taste, does not sound like a whole drumkit to me,
but thats all subjective, and again its a really good choice for clarity, i guess thats what
you were going for.
and i think it will sound better on cans.i guess the band can be super happy with the results,
if thats what you were going for. so : dont get me wrong, its super pro sounding!!
and we all know that vibe is always subjective. and im just one of the very picky guys here, haha,
so you might as well ignore my post! ;-)
 
cheers again guys! Mago, I knew you had to chime in at some point dude, glad you were coming in to check it out man ;) glad you like the vocals, starting to be a real high point for the mix it seems!
I think, as we expected with Ermz, it's a like it not, from an AE side of course. There was a huge effort for that separation and clarity, the epic amounts of analogue on is probably what's keeping it held together so well with Ermz great mixing! So it's clear and still punchy etc, which for us, is exactly what we were hoping for! On enough listens, I can see the 'radio' rock aspects to it, but I like that haha! Overall very happy, hope a few of you get on board when the release is out! it's been a fucking long hard road with this one!

DCB: Everyone has something gel with or not man, like you said, it's all subjective! hopefully you like the music ;)
 
DCB: Everyone has something gel with or not man, like you said, it's all subjective! hopefully you like the music ;)

i do ! thanks to the clarity, you can really follow the music, i like that!
will this be available in europe?
 
cheers again guys! Mago, I knew you had to chime in at some point dude, glad you were coming in to check it out man ;) glad you like the vocals, starting to be a real high point for the mix it seems!
I think, as we expected with Ermz, it's a like it not, from an AE side of course. There was a huge effort for that separation and clarity, the epic amounts of analogue on is probably what's keeping it held together so well with Ermz great mixing! So it's clear and still punchy etc, which for us, is exactly what we were hoping for! On enough listens, I can see the 'radio' rock aspects to it, but I like that haha! Overall very happy, hope a few of you get on board when the release is out! it's been a fucking long hard road with this one!

haha I was looking forward to this for quite some time now, and I saw the thread when you made it, but I didnt feel like logging in just for writing
"12hrs?!? FUCK THAT!!" ;)
Yeah in the end the mix works very well and it also fits the music even if it has a noticeable amount of "Ermz sound" on it
can't satisfy everyone, also with production and we all know that.
I like it, I'll get it, and that's about it for me haha
 
It sure will be dude! Unfortunately, you'll have to purchase it online for the first few months, and it will ship to Europe. But we should have European distribution secured by May I think to make it easier!

There'll be a full TRAILER up in a few days with ALL the details ;) So all good dudes!!!
 
@Mago... champion :p I had to tease you bastards with the countdown! I finished building the website and I thought... well maybe just for the lols :p It's even worse when you're AT the site and can't get in :p
 
Chris, I'm glad you guys were on board with getting the hard euro lead synths in there. The sky is the limit from here... I dare not even imagine how crazy the coming songs with Keswick and your new arsenal of synths will be.

I'm hoping that as more songs from the album come out, you guys will begin to to see where the production is coming from. It was very much a push to get it over-the-top, to make sure that people remember this band. It's a very vibe oriented approach - trying to create distinctive tones that people begin to associate with the music. I wanted them to hear songs like Unscathed and Societies of Steel (which you guys obviously haven't had a chance to hear yet) and say 'what the fuck was that?? ....what kind of metal band does that??....play it again'. In my mind the albums that stand out the most are the ones where the great songwriting is highlighted by a production focus that emphasizes all its dominant elements. In this sense, we really wanted a strong rhythm section to push the beat, and make sure those trance synths were pushing the lead melodies hard into peoples' heads so that they wouldn't soon forget Orpheus' landmark debut album :)

Stay positive guys - the best tracks on the CD haven't even been unveiled yet. It's a record with absolutely no filler. Every song is great and catchy in its own way. Chris is probably sick of me saying this but....just wait till you hear the chorus on 'Neath the Shadow... holy fuck, haha. I must've heard it over 100 times now, and I still want to spank it every time it comes on.
 
Sptz mentioned the ride, and I do agree with him, but overall I think this sounds great :) Not sure if I like the synths on the second song or not, but that's a taste issue.

Edit: Also about the pumping issue, I think I can hear buildup on one specific chord being palm muted on Winds of change, but since it's just that one chord I don't mind.
 
Ermz, I totally agree that you brought something original to this production. It has an immediate wow factor to it that grabs hold of you. Obviously you know I'm a fan of your aesthetic...and this mix is no exception.

One question though..with all the trouble the guitars were giving you, did you guys consider reamps? Or was it that you loved the tone minus the low mid issue?

Catchy tunes and solid guitar work as well!
 
I can answer that! we had neither the time left or the funds to reamp again! and to be honest... we got a killer tone in the room... but that's it... it was in a 3 x 3 bedroom! the build up was terrible but you couldn't hear it on my monitors... by mix time it was too late. We even tried the head into impulses, but the amped tone was still WAY more alive! We actually, I THINK, realised how bad impulses are when compared to real micing. The lack of movement, everything just sounds stiff and I likened it to a cocked wah, just one position that's it... next time hopefully... same amp recorded in WAY better conditions :p
 
Yeah dude I hear you. I actually think the tone is great...just curious to get a feel for why things went the way they did.

Did you record all the guitars at your place or did you record them with ermz?
 
Had Ermz over! but like I said, what was in the room didn't come out overall! if those low mids came out right, the tone would be nut crunching as all fuck! but hey, it works for our songs and it isn't the typical 5150 > Recto Cab etc...
The actual chain was Jackson SLS 3 -> Erzm-screamer -> Mesa Mark IV ->Recto Cab! Like I said, next time will be the 'dream' tone I hope haha!
 
In the room it was one of the most melodeath tones I've ever heard. The amount of 'whacka-whacka' pick attack was immense. But too many factors worked to our disadvantage. The main was of course the room, but other gear/techniques used also exacerbated the problem. The guitar is all mahogany, and the pickups are blackouts, both of which are fairly loose and low-mid prominent. That was combined with a TS that boosted low-mids, run into an amp that focuses most of its tone around the 400hz area, and then mic'ed fredman-style to emphasize the mids even further. Thinking about it in that sense, I'm amazed we even ended up with a guitar sound that made it on the record at all... though it certainly didn't come easy.

There is a way to pull it off, but it would come with using a much larger space, a different mode on the amp, and possibly also ditching the TS entirely... or modding it to ditch the mid hump. Then of course not bothering with fredman mic'ing for the Mark IV, since it barely has any fizz to start with, and too many mids already!

We would have considered external reamps, but the schedules were too tight. I mixed this album in a time frame that was much shorter than any CD I've ever worked on in my life.
 
I don't think that the low mids on the guitars are typically bad, because in that way, it's got a lot of ballz, just a bit of clarity is lost...but since the rest of the mix is very seperated it works overall.
just a pitty that the rhythm guitars arent as clear as the rest...I guess some more high mids or highs didnt help in giving more clearity to it Ermz?
the leads sound amazing though!
 
In the room it was one of the most melodeath tones I've ever heard. The amount of 'whacka-whacka' pick attack was immense. But too many factors worked to our disadvantage. The main was of course the room, but other gear/techniques used also exacerbated the problem. The guitar is all mahogany, and the pickups are blackouts, both of which are fairly loose and low-mid prominent. That was combined with a TS that boosted low-mids, run into an amp that focuses most of its tone around the 400hz area, and then mic'ed fredman-style to emphasize the mids even further. Thinking about it in that sense, I'm amazed we even ended up with a guitar sound that made it on the record at all... though it certainly didn't come easy.

There is a way to pull it off, but it would come with using a much larger space, a different mode on the amp, and possibly also ditching the TS entirely... or modding it to ditch the mid hump. Then of course not bothering with fredman mic'ing for the Mark IV, since it barely has any fizz to start with, and too many mids already!

We would have considered external reamps, but the schedules were too tight. I mixed this album in a time frame that was much shorter than any CD I've ever worked on in my life.

I wouldn't have used a TS with the Mark IV. It really doesn't benefit from one, granted it's one of the three amps I've ever played that falls into that category.

Also, the reason why you probably tried impulses with this one and it sounded like garbage, is the special something going on in a Mark IV power amp. It doesn't really sound like any other amp in the power section. If you took an impulse from the Mark IV, and threw the preamp into it, you'd feel a little better about it.

Sounds like a lot of time and effort was put into this; congrats to all who were involved.
 
I still don't think the Mark IV lends itself to this kind of music at all. I don't understand why you guys felt like you had to use it...