Extreme/Technical Progressive metal band - GODS OF EDEN

[overseer]

Hey guys just been doing a recording for my new band.

The style is prog influenced with very technical sections, LOTS of time signature changes, acoustic/flamenco influenced parts and lots of soundtrack style influences. If you think you might dig something a bit left field then please take a listen!

Guitars are all axe-fx with impulse responses, drums were triggered and then used superior drummer 2 for sound replacement.
Bass guitar was recorded with the Ampeg VST and then impulse responses.
All the synth/orchestras were done via Eastwest Orchestra and choirs and also various other electro synths found in my Pro Tools bundle.

Acoustic guitars were just miced up using a Rode K2 microphone.
All heavy vocals were recorded with a SM58 and all the clean vocals/choir sections with the RODE K2

http://soundcloud.com/godsofeden/godsofeden

If you are into what we are doing then please also join our facebook page to hear more songs.. They were all recorded using the same technique described above \m/

http://www.facebook.com/godsofeden


Thanks,

Danni

 

[AceFireForce117]

very interesting ! that's some awesome riffs there mate

I'd like to know was there any mixing on the acoustic guitars in your song First Contact and Gods of Eden ?

 

[overseer]

Thanks for listening man, glad you enjoy the songs!
Do you mean EQ on the acoustic guitars??? As for mixing yeah definitely everything is mixed.. I double tracked all the acoustics and panned them hard left/right with all the leads around usually 50/50 and if there were three harmonies like in the First Contact intro, then the other harmonie would be I think 20 left or right depending on what else is going on at the time. like synths and so on.

 

[DanLights]

Wow! Great song, and a very unique mix, very different, I like it! Drums don´t sound like the typical SD2.0 sound, the snare could use a bit more presence/crack but that´s just me, although bass and rhythms could go up a bit, but I´m not sure cause it does add to the uniqueness of the mix. Great job, I´m hooked!

 

[DanLights]

I love how everything is thin enough to leave space for the orchestra, it´s not above everything but in between, sounds very nice that way IMO

 

[overseer]

Thanks Dan
Yeah the drums are a bit different from the normal Superior 2.0 sound I have heard from others too.. I think it was all the extra EQ I did afterwards.
Overall this song I think reached around 50+ tracks.. so had to make sure everything was panned differently so they didn't clash and of course the EQ so they weren't fighting all the time.

Usually this meant dropping out a lot of frequencies instead of boosting as I've felt that usually works best?

 

[thefalloftheheretic]

I'm not a fan of that SD2 kick in the really fast bits.

However, everything else seems to mesh really well.
I quite enjoy this, yes.

 

[cyril_v]

any chance of you throwing up a bandcamp page for this EP? Definitely digging this track, so I'd definitely buy this.

 

[overseer]

Yeah that's the one thing I have the biggest issue with.. making the really fast kicks sound decent.. I have heard some other bands use sound replacement and make it sound quite good but I can't seem to find how they have done it.
Such a shame cause at rehearsal those parts are really powerful but wasn't able to quite capture that on the EP

 

[overseer]

I actually set up a bandcamp account the other day! We have the whole EP for free download atm.. Just in exchange for email to join up the mailing list \m/
We just want to get it out there as much as possible!

http://godsofeden.bandcamp.com/album/gods-of-eden

 

[AceFireForce117]

Thanks for listening man, glad you enjoy the songs!
Do you mean EQ on the acoustic guitars??? As for mixing yeah definitely everything is mixed.. I double tracked all the acoustics and panned them hard left/right with all the leads around usually 50/50 and if there were three harmonies like in the First Contact intro, then the other harmonie would be I think 20 left or right depending on what else is going on at the time. like synths and so on.

Yeah i mean EQ and all that shit
is that the only thing you do to them ?

Sweet ! i'll go download that right now !

Really like the cover aswell

 

[tomas_almeida]

I really am NOT into techique centered metal, but this is actually very very nice!
I love the flamenco parts, they sound really good.

I kind of have to agree with the comments on the kick and snare. Also, I think the bass could come up a little in the mix. Despite both these nuances I'd have to say I like the mix a lot because, as someone already mentioned, it's not what you would expect for this kind of thing.

 

[overseer]

Yeah i mean EQ and all that shit
is that the only thing you do to them ?

Sweet ! i'll go download that right now !

Really like the cover aswell

Yeah man just a bit of EQ and like it's been mentioned here too i usually take a lot of the lower frequencies off . even tho it tends to sound thinner because of the amount of stuff going out i think it works better for clarity.
Apart from that just the usual compression, limiter, clipper to try and get it as big as possible.. although double or quad tracking even for simpler parts tend to help A LOT in terms of size.
Also added a TL SPACE convoluted reverb to them and small delays here and there


Thanks we are really happy with the cover too! Waiting on the full booklet and back cover to be finished atm!

 

[overseer]

I really am NOT into techique centered metal, but this is actually very very nice!
I love the flamenco parts, they sound really good.

I kind of have to agree with the comments on the kick and snare. Also, I think the bass could come up a little in the mix. Despite both these nuances I'd have to say I like the mix a lot because, as someone already mentioned, it's not what you would expect for this kind of thing.

Thanks man I try and write the stuff and make it as interesting and varied as possible... since even I get really bored of straight technical metal after a while!
I grew up on flamenco and classical cause of my Spanish/South American background so it's always been a very big part of my writing style.

If I knew more about fixing the drums I would have done it or even used a different program to sound replace them .. I think I heard the Metal Foundry or something? Which tends to have really good sounds for metal drums.
Bass has always been a bit tricky for me.. trying to achieve a right balance in all monitors and systems I try them out on, making sure also the guitars and all the melodies come through and don't get lost due to the bass frequencies.