Hey all,
I can't really put this in the "rate my mix" category, as it's not my mix, but the subtitle of this thread should be "How I spent most of 2008."
The short version: James was originally supposed to mix this, but due to the economic downturn & band members losing jobs, it just wasn't an option. The question of who was mixing was debated & thrown around for a bit, I was even considered, but eventually, Chris Donaldson from Cryptopsy wound up with the job.
So, I'm credited as "Producer" and "Engineer" on this release. As I said, I thought James was going to mix it, so I was producing with the idea of handing it off to James in the back of my mind. I remember getting a VERY interesting phone call from him before the project started, where he basically read me the "riot act." So, I pushed the band harder than I've ever pushed before, because the last thing in the world I wanted was an angry phone call along the lines of, "What the fuck is this crap? How the hell am I supposed to mix this shit?"
Fear is an amazing motivator.
As I recall, I had to learn Beat Detective on this one.... and that was a real nightmare. The drum patterns can be quite complex at places, lots of triplet-switch-ups & gravity blasts.... ugh, those were the worst. (BTW, these days, I much prefer Adams Reaper method.) It took fucking forever to edit the drums. ....hell, even getting the tempo maps took forever, because the drummer kept changing shit!!
Guitars, well, both guitarists insisted on playing their own rhythms, so that made life hell. On the slower, chunkier bits, I had one guy play all four tracks, just so it sounded tighter. Had to do a number of re-cuts & really pissed them off in the process, just to make sure everything was super-tight.
It really came down to, "How hard can I push these guys before I get my ass kicked?" The whole process was quite lengthy. We worked on & off on for most of 2008.
Vox went very well.... we had a number of guest vocalists come in & had a blast with that.
Needless to say, I was very disappointed that James wasn't going to mix... but, I think Chris did a great job in his own right.
I was "producer" in the sense that I tried to get the best performances possible out of the band... They had a very clear idea of what they wanted in terms of arrangements & lead lines. The only musical suggestions I made were in terms of vocal layering & maybe doubling a few lead bits here & there.
Overall, it's the band's best, tightest record. They've been around since about 2000, and this is full-length #3. They've also had numerous demo & Ep releases throughout the years.
So, without any further ado, I present:
http://www.spectresound.ca/recordings.shtml
The track title is "There will be Blood" and it's the first song on the hi-res player.
The album is available on CDN records, and there's a pretty cool shirt & CD combo promo at the moment.
http://cdnrecords.com/
Here's a few shots of the band promos & during tracking....
I've got some more pics from the sessions, but Facebook is being stupid at the moment....
I can't really put this in the "rate my mix" category, as it's not my mix, but the subtitle of this thread should be "How I spent most of 2008."
The short version: James was originally supposed to mix this, but due to the economic downturn & band members losing jobs, it just wasn't an option. The question of who was mixing was debated & thrown around for a bit, I was even considered, but eventually, Chris Donaldson from Cryptopsy wound up with the job.
So, I'm credited as "Producer" and "Engineer" on this release. As I said, I thought James was going to mix it, so I was producing with the idea of handing it off to James in the back of my mind. I remember getting a VERY interesting phone call from him before the project started, where he basically read me the "riot act." So, I pushed the band harder than I've ever pushed before, because the last thing in the world I wanted was an angry phone call along the lines of, "What the fuck is this crap? How the hell am I supposed to mix this shit?"
Fear is an amazing motivator.
As I recall, I had to learn Beat Detective on this one.... and that was a real nightmare. The drum patterns can be quite complex at places, lots of triplet-switch-ups & gravity blasts.... ugh, those were the worst. (BTW, these days, I much prefer Adams Reaper method.) It took fucking forever to edit the drums. ....hell, even getting the tempo maps took forever, because the drummer kept changing shit!!
Guitars, well, both guitarists insisted on playing their own rhythms, so that made life hell. On the slower, chunkier bits, I had one guy play all four tracks, just so it sounded tighter. Had to do a number of re-cuts & really pissed them off in the process, just to make sure everything was super-tight.
It really came down to, "How hard can I push these guys before I get my ass kicked?" The whole process was quite lengthy. We worked on & off on for most of 2008.
Vox went very well.... we had a number of guest vocalists come in & had a blast with that.
Needless to say, I was very disappointed that James wasn't going to mix... but, I think Chris did a great job in his own right.
I was "producer" in the sense that I tried to get the best performances possible out of the band... They had a very clear idea of what they wanted in terms of arrangements & lead lines. The only musical suggestions I made were in terms of vocal layering & maybe doubling a few lead bits here & there.
Overall, it's the band's best, tightest record. They've been around since about 2000, and this is full-length #3. They've also had numerous demo & Ep releases throughout the years.
So, without any further ado, I present:
http://www.spectresound.ca/recordings.shtml
The track title is "There will be Blood" and it's the first song on the hi-res player.
The album is available on CDN records, and there's a pretty cool shirt & CD combo promo at the moment.
http://cdnrecords.com/
Here's a few shots of the band promos & during tracking....
I've got some more pics from the sessions, but Facebook is being stupid at the moment....
Sounds killer man!
