* Spam Alert *
* Massive Post is Massive Alert *
So I joined that band I spoke of a while back (Better Left Unsaid) as a bassist, and went on a small U.S. tour with them and had a blast. Ever since our return from that tour we've been working on a new album, which I was lucky enough to contribute to in a significant way. All preproduction was done long distance over the net as I live in Oregon and they live in CA in my old hometown. I havent spoken much about it here until now because I havent been able to post anything online, and we all know how annoying it is to read about things without pics or clips to go with it! So Ive just been waiting till I had something I could show. Im really excited to be in a band writing music again and mainly just want to share my excitement, and perhaps get some feedback on this project Ive devoted the last 6 months of my life to help create!
Ill post a link to the song we posted first, so if you decide it sucks you dont have to waste your time reading the rest of the thread, haha. It's called "Reaper of Malice" and can be heard on our myspace at myspace.com/blumusic. Theres also a couple album trailers on the page which feature sections of other songs. The longer trailer is clips from the album, the shorter one is all prepro stuff.
Ok, if youre still on board at this point I guess Ill start going into the nerdy stuff.
The new album is a radical change from their older style, because their previous album consisted mostly of older songs written way before they were recorded and didnt really reflect where they were wanting to take the band. Also all but two of the members came aboard after the writing of the last album, with everyone contributing to the new material. Im the new guy, but I was lucky to be able to bring a lot of material to the table without many objections. Everyone got involved with every aspect which was somewhat new and very cool for me.
After we finished the prepro I went to California in January for the recording of the album at Castle Ultimate Studios with Zack Ohren. Really cool dude. I didnt want to be super annoying and get all up in his business, asking questions about everything that he was doing, so I cant provide any info on ITB treatment or specific settings. I just tried to gather information as non-intrusively as possible, by taking pictures and asking generic questions. Heres some nerd food:
-DAW was a PC running Nuendo (Cant remember which version)
(See pics for outboard gear)
-Drums
Ddrum Ash kit with a Ddrum Mike Marsh 14x7 snare.
Kick: D6 + Yamaha Subkick
Snare top: Sure Beta 57
Snare Bottom: cant tell from the shitty pic I took. Some sort of sm-81 looking thing.
Toms: E604, E904, Some Random Cad LDC on the floor tom
OHs: Neumann KM 184s
HH: AKG C451B
Ride: Cant Remember
Room Mics: AKG 414 and an Audio Technica 4047/SV
Certain things were compressed and/or EQd on the way in, but I have no idea about the settings or treatment after they were in the box. All the drum sounds are real and without sample augmentation, save for couple faster beats where our drummer didnt quite hammer the snare hard enough, so it was beefed up with samples taken from the kit. Our drummer wanted to try to go for real drums and though I was skeptical at first, being used to samples and what not, Im glad we went the el natural route, even if the usual quantizing was applied.
-Rhythm Guitars
Dean Rusty Cooley RC7 with EMG 707s > Tube Screamer > Krank Revolution (1st version) > Vader cab with some sort of eminence speakers. The Cab was converted to a 2x12 16ohm cab by disconnecting two of the speakers. The guitarist Zack recorded before us had the same cab and apparently the sound was noticeably improved by this mod. I had never heard of it, but whatev, we liked the end result. Cab was miked with an sm57 up front, and an Audio Technica 4047/SV about ten feet back. We spent most of a day getting the tone. Some EQ and maybe some Distressor compression going in, and some additional EQ and multiband comp ITB. Not sure if there was anything else. We took DIs but didnt end up reamping anything. No Gates on the guitars. Manual gating was applied only when direly needed, like if there was some weird unexpected noise or something. Some imperfections and string noise (the new myspace song being a prime example) were intentionally left in to keep things feeling natural and somewhat live, and I love it. Im sure some wont dig it, but it sounds refreshing and tasty to me.
-Lead Guitars
Dean Rusty Cooley RC7 w/ EMG 707s > Tube Screamer > 5150II > Marshal cab with Greenbacks, miked with a 57. Not sure what other processing went on besides some delay ITB.
-Vocals
AKG 414. Cant remember the mic pres. I have pics which Ill post, but I cant recognize what they are because stand alone mic pres are so out of my price range Ive never really looked them up, haha. Compressed and EQ on the way in, not sure what went on ITB.
-Bass
Dean Sledgehammer 5-String > Tech 21 VT Bass pedal (No DI!) > Sansamp Bass Driver, split here with a line going into the DAW, and another going out to some random (I think Peavey?) bass head driving an Ampeg 4x10, miked with an akg D112. Compressed and EQd going in, further EQ ITB.
-Mix. Zack mixed and edited as we went along, which seemed a bit odd to me, but it seemed to work. I would have liked to have had more mixing time though, as only one day was set aside purely for mix adjustments, which also seemed a bit odd to me. That being said, Im personally more than happy with the overall mix, and my only issues are too small to go into and are mostly a matter of taste. It was unfortunate being so far from home during the process, as I had nothing familiar to check the mix on. Ah well. Im still really happy with the end result. Having real instruments rather than DFHS and POD guitars is extremely refreshing.
-Mastering was done by Alan Douches at West Westside Music. His list of clients is insane. I love what he did for the mix. We purposely went for a somewhat quieter, warmer, rounder master rather than go for a harsh, overly aggressive and loud master. I think Alan was stoked that we let him do his job properly and exercise his expertise. For me the record almost has a feel that reminds me of an earlier era somehow.
Thats about it for the details that I can remember off hand or care to add at the moment. Heres some pics:
Drumbs.
Moar Drumbs. Aquarian Snare head was swapped out for an Evans coated before we started tracking.
Rhythm Guitar Rig
Rhythm Guitar Rig with distant mic on far left
Most of the bass rig, haha. I didnt get many bass pics because I was busy playing the friggin bass.
Tracking Vox.
Heres the link to the clip again for anyone who skipped straight to the end looking for it, haha:
http://www.myspace.com/blumusic
The album is due to be released early summer.
Hopefully you guys dig!
* Massive Post is Massive Alert *
So I joined that band I spoke of a while back (Better Left Unsaid) as a bassist, and went on a small U.S. tour with them and had a blast. Ever since our return from that tour we've been working on a new album, which I was lucky enough to contribute to in a significant way. All preproduction was done long distance over the net as I live in Oregon and they live in CA in my old hometown. I havent spoken much about it here until now because I havent been able to post anything online, and we all know how annoying it is to read about things without pics or clips to go with it! So Ive just been waiting till I had something I could show. Im really excited to be in a band writing music again and mainly just want to share my excitement, and perhaps get some feedback on this project Ive devoted the last 6 months of my life to help create!
Ill post a link to the song we posted first, so if you decide it sucks you dont have to waste your time reading the rest of the thread, haha. It's called "Reaper of Malice" and can be heard on our myspace at myspace.com/blumusic. Theres also a couple album trailers on the page which feature sections of other songs. The longer trailer is clips from the album, the shorter one is all prepro stuff.
Ok, if youre still on board at this point I guess Ill start going into the nerdy stuff.
The new album is a radical change from their older style, because their previous album consisted mostly of older songs written way before they were recorded and didnt really reflect where they were wanting to take the band. Also all but two of the members came aboard after the writing of the last album, with everyone contributing to the new material. Im the new guy, but I was lucky to be able to bring a lot of material to the table without many objections. Everyone got involved with every aspect which was somewhat new and very cool for me.
After we finished the prepro I went to California in January for the recording of the album at Castle Ultimate Studios with Zack Ohren. Really cool dude. I didnt want to be super annoying and get all up in his business, asking questions about everything that he was doing, so I cant provide any info on ITB treatment or specific settings. I just tried to gather information as non-intrusively as possible, by taking pictures and asking generic questions. Heres some nerd food:
-DAW was a PC running Nuendo (Cant remember which version)
(See pics for outboard gear)
-Drums
Ddrum Ash kit with a Ddrum Mike Marsh 14x7 snare.
Kick: D6 + Yamaha Subkick
Snare top: Sure Beta 57
Snare Bottom: cant tell from the shitty pic I took. Some sort of sm-81 looking thing.
Toms: E604, E904, Some Random Cad LDC on the floor tom
OHs: Neumann KM 184s
HH: AKG C451B
Ride: Cant Remember
Room Mics: AKG 414 and an Audio Technica 4047/SV
Certain things were compressed and/or EQd on the way in, but I have no idea about the settings or treatment after they were in the box. All the drum sounds are real and without sample augmentation, save for couple faster beats where our drummer didnt quite hammer the snare hard enough, so it was beefed up with samples taken from the kit. Our drummer wanted to try to go for real drums and though I was skeptical at first, being used to samples and what not, Im glad we went the el natural route, even if the usual quantizing was applied.
-Rhythm Guitars
Dean Rusty Cooley RC7 with EMG 707s > Tube Screamer > Krank Revolution (1st version) > Vader cab with some sort of eminence speakers. The Cab was converted to a 2x12 16ohm cab by disconnecting two of the speakers. The guitarist Zack recorded before us had the same cab and apparently the sound was noticeably improved by this mod. I had never heard of it, but whatev, we liked the end result. Cab was miked with an sm57 up front, and an Audio Technica 4047/SV about ten feet back. We spent most of a day getting the tone. Some EQ and maybe some Distressor compression going in, and some additional EQ and multiband comp ITB. Not sure if there was anything else. We took DIs but didnt end up reamping anything. No Gates on the guitars. Manual gating was applied only when direly needed, like if there was some weird unexpected noise or something. Some imperfections and string noise (the new myspace song being a prime example) were intentionally left in to keep things feeling natural and somewhat live, and I love it. Im sure some wont dig it, but it sounds refreshing and tasty to me.
-Lead Guitars
Dean Rusty Cooley RC7 w/ EMG 707s > Tube Screamer > 5150II > Marshal cab with Greenbacks, miked with a 57. Not sure what other processing went on besides some delay ITB.
-Vocals
AKG 414. Cant remember the mic pres. I have pics which Ill post, but I cant recognize what they are because stand alone mic pres are so out of my price range Ive never really looked them up, haha. Compressed and EQ on the way in, not sure what went on ITB.
-Bass
Dean Sledgehammer 5-String > Tech 21 VT Bass pedal (No DI!) > Sansamp Bass Driver, split here with a line going into the DAW, and another going out to some random (I think Peavey?) bass head driving an Ampeg 4x10, miked with an akg D112. Compressed and EQd going in, further EQ ITB.
-Mix. Zack mixed and edited as we went along, which seemed a bit odd to me, but it seemed to work. I would have liked to have had more mixing time though, as only one day was set aside purely for mix adjustments, which also seemed a bit odd to me. That being said, Im personally more than happy with the overall mix, and my only issues are too small to go into and are mostly a matter of taste. It was unfortunate being so far from home during the process, as I had nothing familiar to check the mix on. Ah well. Im still really happy with the end result. Having real instruments rather than DFHS and POD guitars is extremely refreshing.
-Mastering was done by Alan Douches at West Westside Music. His list of clients is insane. I love what he did for the mix. We purposely went for a somewhat quieter, warmer, rounder master rather than go for a harsh, overly aggressive and loud master. I think Alan was stoked that we let him do his job properly and exercise his expertise. For me the record almost has a feel that reminds me of an earlier era somehow.
Thats about it for the details that I can remember off hand or care to add at the moment. Heres some pics:
Drumbs.
Moar Drumbs. Aquarian Snare head was swapped out for an Evans coated before we started tracking.
Rhythm Guitar Rig
Rhythm Guitar Rig with distant mic on far left
Most of the bass rig, haha. I didnt get many bass pics because I was busy playing the friggin bass.
Tracking Vox.
Heres the link to the clip again for anyone who skipped straight to the end looking for it, haha:
http://www.myspace.com/blumusic
The album is due to be released early summer.
Hopefully you guys dig!
