Finished Mix & 10 minute "making of" video

[MonochromaticStains]

yeah, that is a close second.

 

[Coprosatanica]

These clips sounds great to me. You can really tell with the vocals; being able to hear what his voice sounds like raw while doing the tracking vs. how they sound in the mix. Very warm and present... I think the guitar tone is killer too. Great work! There is definitely some slop on the performance side, but they seem like young dudes and they will probably get much tighter after a year or two. I'm always stoked to see younger fellas interested in playing power metal.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

beyond the obvious and already stated lack-of-click/sloppy playing issues i have only one comment: Oz, set up a talkback system. you can do it with a 57 or any other mic, you don't need to buy anything. i can see that you are only a pane or two of glass away from the drummer, but this would make things easier.

Always appreciate your comments, James! Yeah, I had a lame-ass talkback mic set up at the side of the desk, always on with fairly low gain.... hence the loud voice. The glass is a dual sliding-door airlock: shouting thru them would be futile. The isolation here is pretty good Next video, I'll have to do a studio walkaround & show this place off a bit more.

A couple days after that was shot, I added in a Mackie Big Knob, which is a real treat with it's hyper compressed talkback system.... not to mention it's even better with a foot switch. Cool stuff.


BTW, all the rest of my projects for the year are to clicks.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

OZ! First off, WAY cool to have a video, I love watching studio vids...

But.... the timing here is... for lack of a better word.. and to use my favorite word... WACK.

Where is the mandatory BLIP blip blip blip. ??

As I've stated before, sometimes, nothing can kill a drum tracking session faster than a click. You'd be surprised how often I don'ttrack to a click. Hell, I'd say 8 out of 10 projects aren't to a click. Most drummers can swing this no problem. I did the entire In4Life record without a click & the timing was nearly flawless. It really depends on the drummer.
Now with that being said.... I do realize this guy had a major timing issue with the first track. If you watch what he's playing in the video vs. what's in the finished song, you'll hear a major change in his pattern. Apparently, there was a large part of the video featuring my 'coaching session' with the guy, but had to be edited out due to space constraints on the finished disc.
End result: It's still a little loose, but it's a major improvement over what he wanted to play! Thruth be told, the drummer has shown major improvements over where he was last year. That being said, his next project will be to a click. I do take everyone's advice on here seriously.


As always, comments are appreciated.

-0z-

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Oz, your work, as always, is damn good.

-Are you happy with the vocal echo for FS?
-Are you happy with the volume level for the vocals?

Thanks Nitro. Yeah, I'm pretty satisfied with how the vocals turned out: Performance & mix wise. BTW, we used no auto-tune on the vox whatsoever.

-0z-

 

[CJWall]

Great guitar tones man and very cool to share this vid! Sounds like a TS was used in front of the 5150..? Sounds great either way.

What exactly is the Richardson configuration?

Charlie

 

[deathtotaliban]

hahahah in the video the vocalist sounds soooooooo funny, omg i laughed so hard. how much pitch correction did u have to use? anyway the mix sounds amazing, great job

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

hahahah in the video the vocalist sounds soooooooo funny, omg i laughed so hard. how much pitch correction did u have to use? anyway the mix sounds amazing, great job

.

BTW, we used no auto-tune on the vox whatsoever.

-0z-

 

[poundingmetal74]

Hey guys,
I'm the guitar player/vocalist for Final Stage, and I really appreciate hearing the criticisms. Yes, the playing was a bit sloppy (moreso on Phoenix than the others). Phoenix is a damn hard song to play (especially with that constant triplet rhythm) I'm still working on my "Hetfield wrist".

The biggest thing was that this was a "quick" demo simply to show people who we were, what we sounded like, and where our sound could potentially go. As Glenn stated, this was a very budgeted project, and despite a few production/performance flaws, the overall criticms have been for the most part positive with the songs/sound.

To hear a few other songs (for more casual rock songs - perahps "Open Your Eyes" will have more appeal for your tastes) visit: www.myspace.com/finalstage

BTW - glad you all liked the Vid. We had over 2 hours worth of material but much of it had to be slashed and burned due to size constaints on our website and space to fit it on the actual CD itself (it will be a Data/Audio CD). Much of the stuff cut out we felt was simply too "vulgar" for the average viewer (especially if the kiddies are watching).

Regarding the "You're not plugged in" moment - We had just done a quick tuning and after a full day's worth of tracking guitars.... it happens

Thanks again for listening and for your feedback.

-Brandon.

 

[_RiseInside_]

where´s the video ? the links direct me to mp3 songs :|

 

[poundingmetal74]

Try the first post for the video

By the way, I'm uploading the "finished" video as we speak. Not a whole lot has changed but there are a few things (audio in some spots are louder) and the final music has been added in as to not make the credits portion not so boring.

BTW - Do not watch this as full screen. With the low bit rate encoding it will look like total shit.

 

[nwright]

Honestly, I think it sounds good for what it is. It's power metal firmly rooted in the days where quantizing, meticulous editing and wizardy were not as prevalent as today's modern metal and digital recording. To keep the feel, I wouldn't say there is a whole lot you would want to do...The improvements could/should only be made by the musicians and their performance/technique. For a demo, I think it's pretty good.

So, I'm late to most 80's metal...I was too young to get into it then. But, when I listen to Reign in Blood nowadays, I hear the mistakes and production as much as I hear the songs, and that's a bummer...Todays metal production "standards" have spoiled us in their relative perfection. I'm slowly getting to where I can find a comfort zone in listening to a "truer" representation of a band, and this demo is where this band is at the moment, for better or worse (in terms of performance/technique). And, that's fine by me for any band.

But, I'm just a noob when it comes to production and engineering. I'm a hack player, too, so maybe that's why I'm more lenient...