Finished mix - Comments welcome

[Glenn Fricker]

Hey all,

It's been freakin' ages since I've posted anything in here. Not for lack of projects, more like the exact opposite. Been too damn busy.

Anyway, here's a track from an album I completed earlier this year. The name of the group is "Aquila" and we've worked together on several projects. The new album is "Imperium" and is available on CDN records (my second project for this label this year).
http://www.cdnrecords.com/store/product-details.php?productID=2574

Here's the link:

Aquila - Breathing Fire, Breathing Life

And, it's first track on the hi-res player:
http://www.spectresound.ca/recordings.shtml

And here's the cover art.. pretty cool, IMO.

FWIW, they went with the whole "Roman centurion" thing because the drummer is addicted to Rome: Total War.

 

[Soundlurker]

Sounds pretty cool I even like the snare this time, have you changed the approach?

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Snare was my Pork Pie Big Black Brass with a Slate blend in there somewhere, I think. Drums were fairly easy to get the tones for, the drummer has good technique.

As I remember, getting the guitar sound dialed in took fucking forever, though. I think I reamped about 25 times till I decided on this... That's not an overstatement, either. I tend to get obsessive about these things.

 

[Soundlurker]

Well I guess it was worth it since it fits the mix and the music quite well. Actually the whole mix sounds very homogeneous, nothing is sticking out in a bad way. Good work!

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Thank you very much! A great deal of effort went into this one...

 

[muckypup1]

I like it dude! Its fucking brutal! Those guitars sound so good man...

 

[Nebulous]

Nice Glenn. It's been a while. I'll have to listen when I get home.

 

[KeithTidd]

I like the drum sound.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Hi Oz

I love the drumsound! Did you use some replacement? Awesome production quality.

I agree, the artwork looks pretty cool!

 

[Metal Overload]

Sounds really good Glenn, nice work!!!

 

[Soundlurker]

I agree, the artwork looks pretty cool!

Me too, apart from the cheesy lightnings

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Thanks very much, guys. I can't overstate just how much work went into this one.... ...Almost drove myself over the edge, if you know what I mean...


Anyway, drum notes:

The kit itself was a Yamaha Maple something or other. F'n sweet, anyway.
Getting the drummer to show up with the right skins was a bit of a chore, though. He still had the original skins on the damn thing! As I recall, we wound up getting one size wrong as the drummer still hasn't figured out how to use a measuring tape.

Kick: Slate 5 (my favorite kick sound)
Snare: Pork Pie Big Black Brass w/slate blend (I forget which one at this point)
Toms: MD421 - I made custom samples of these toms & replaced the weak hits. (Might have the .gogs kicking around somewhere)
OH: Joly Modded Oktava MC012. My first project with these since the upgrade. Wow, are they ever smooth.

I also made use of the BeatFixx service for this one... My first time going "out of house" for drum edits. It was a good experience & I'll certainly repeat.

Here's a few shots of the kit & player:

One thing I really like here: He has two hi-hats, so he doesn't have to continually play crossovers & can really wind up on the snare.

Vocals were my recently acquired vintage u87.... it seemed to work better with this vocalist than my usual SM7 for screamers.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Wow, Glenn! Thanks for posting the pictures. It´s difficult being not envious about your awesome builded studio

 

[kaomao]

I don't like the vocalist that much, the rest is really great

 

[Wild Hades]

Really great mix! Nice balance overall!
The only thing I can add is that I would make the vocals a bit more wet on the last part, but that's just me...

Congrats.

 

[lolzgreg]

This definitely the best mix I've heard from you Glenn. Outstanding work.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Wow, this sounds so amazing man, I love it!