First Cubase 5 mix - Nick Crow 8505/Gearbox

[Splat88]

Dude - I have been listening to this non-stop. I would buy this if I heard it on the radio FO SHO!

Dude - I checked on your MySpace, and it says you're influenced ny Big Wreck!! I thought I was the only person in the world who knew them!! EXCELLENT BAND!!!!!

Thanks man! I LOVE Big Wreck. "That Song" practically brings me to tears everytime I hear it and The Pleasure and the Greed is just amazing. Great rock drum and guitar tones.

 

[Splat88]

Sorry dude, I'm liking your other mixes a lot more. The bass on this is unbelievable, and the vocals sound really good. But the drums are sounding a lot smaller, toms are getting buried, and I think the guitars are too tight on the palm mutes for your style.

Good song but I think I prefer your previous mixes (not comparing them though, just by memory, the individual parts of the other ones sounded better. THis one may gel better tho).

No problem, I want the criticism! When you say 'previous' mixes, are you talking about the previous two mixes in this thread, or just my older mixes of other songs in general? The drum mix templates are all the same as all my other songs, but the overall level of the drum bus is definitely down a bit by comparison. I think its because I am still finding the balance with the new guitar tone.

 

[narcossintese]

Dude, you´re such an inspiration. Your stuff and Bob´s are by far my favourites on this board. These bass driven tunes are awesome, and your bass tone is godlike. Everything sounds really really good and I appreciate your care of sharing the details on how you achieve it. I´ve read on another thread that you got Dammit Distortion. Have you done any test mix or something with it? I would love to hear it.
Congratulations and thanks again for all the info.

 

[P-Zilla]

I want that snare to hit just a smidge harder.

 

[Splat88]

I´ve read on another thread that you got Dammit Distortion. Have you done any test mix or something with it? I would love to hear it.

Yeah, I recently bought Dammit Distortion and I really like it a lot. I don't reall think it would be very suitable for this style of music, but I guess I would have to give it a proper attempt before I completely ruled that statement out. It seems to really shine with thrash based material. It is fun as hell to play on though, that's for sure. I'll have to take some time to put a song together with it.

 

[Splat88]

Can we get drum details?

I'll try to be as concise as I can. All the drums shells are DFHS 2.0 and all the crashes/hats are DFHS 1.0 run in their respective samplers. This means I have access to the DFHS 2.0 room mics without crashes in them and vice versa for the DFHS 1.0 crashes. The room sound of the kit is playing a large part of the overall sound here, especially the mid room ambient mics and there's also a health dose of the bullet mic brought up the middle. No major EQing is done here at all.

The crack of the snare sound is 100% DFHS 2.0 while the sustained portion is Slate's snare 7Z4 that is heavily compressed with a fast attack to get rid of the attack and drag the sustain out like a reverb.

One cool thing I suggest for people with DFHS 2.0 to check out is changing the snare hits from 'snare center' to the 'snare muted' sample. There are two completely different snare tones for each snare in the sampler between the center and muted hits. The muted samples have no ring and seem much deeper and meatier. I used the maple snare with muted hits, and also tuned it up just a hair. The snare top mic is boosted a lot at 2.5k, 7.5k and 150hz, then compressed with a 30ms attack, 1ms release, 5:! ratio, -6 to -10dbs reduction max. Then its run into a clipper to shave off the peaks.

Like I said in an earlier post, the kick is a mix between the Superior kick with no EQ or compression and a Deftone's kick sample ripped from Around the Fur.

I route all the outputs of both 1.0 and 2.0 drums into a group where its compressed 1 or 2 dbs, then driven with Cubase's VST soft clip, then parallel compressed with Voxengo's Marquis compressor just enough to glue things together.

I hope this info helps!

 

[Damphire]

Reviving the thread... How did you get that warm sound with 8505 and SoloC? I've been trying and I can't get any good results.

The last updated mix rocks BTW

 

[Rex Rocker]

I really like it A LOT, but yeah, I agree with some of the previous comments in the sense that your POD Farm mixes felt a little more glued-together. I think I prefer this guitar tone, tho. I definitely see more possibility in it.

It still doesn't take away from this mix being incredible. Nothing short of professional.

Are you still using the Ibanez with the Duncan Distortion or did you get around to swapping the Super Distortion in it?

 

[Splat88]

Reviving the thread... How did you get that warm sound with 8505 and SoloC? I've been trying and I can't get any good results.

The last updated mix rocks BTW

Thanks! A big part of the sound is Catharsis' Fredman Awesometime impulses. Do a search for them if you don't have them.

 

[Splat88]

I really like it A LOT, but yeah, I agree with some of the previous comments in the sense that your POD Farm mixes felt a little more glued-together. I think I prefer this guitar tone, tho. I definitely see more possibility in it.

It still doesn't take away from this mix being incredible. Nothing short of professional.

Are you still using the Ibanez with the Duncan Distortion or did you get around to swapping the Super Distortion in it?

Yeah I kind of agree with you about the 8505 mixes not having that glued together vibe. I'll have to fiddle with it a little more.

I did not use the Ibanez on this one, but regarding the pickups, I now have a Dimarzio D Activator in it that I'm enjoying at the moment. I hated it at first but now I like it a lot.

I used an 1980s Fender HM Squier with a Dimarzio Tone Zone. Its a cool guitar, its not strat style, it looks more like an old school ESP and has a Floyd Rose trem.

 

[Ermz]

Hey man,

Sorry I didn't catch onto this thread again sooner. As far as master bus compression templates go, there's really not much room to move in general. Most folks either use 10ms attack and auto release or 30ms attack and auto release. You seem to like it when your drums pop so 30ms may be the winner, but keep in mind that this way you get less 'glue' as you're essentially letting most of the transients poke through. I like to do 10ms whenever I can get away with it and only have the needle moving slightly. Good job on the l2. That thing is THE transient sucker, so it was perfect for your purposes here

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Thanks man! I LOVE Big Wreck. "That Song" practically brings me to tears everytime I hear it and The Pleasure and the Greed is just amazing. Great rock drum and guitar tones.

Shit - How'd I miss this one man!

Definitely - They are an excellent band. Shame that they didn't get at least one more album out - The two albums they had out were so diverse - I would have loved to have heard what they put out for a third full length.

Anyway - awesome man.

PS - I let my wife listen to this song, and she loves too. REALLY good song man - this song has been jamming on my iPod for a few days now - hope you don't mind!

 

[lolzgreg]

This song has actually been stuck in my head. Make sure to let me know when your album is available for download. I don't use itunes, so I'll simply pay you for mp3's?