JOEY STURGIS/RISE RECORDS MIX TEST

[FrontlineGuitar]

Here's what I can remember...

Guitars: Guitars were Dual tracked and both ran through the same. I believe it was actually Revalver but just with some incredibly heavy EQ going on afterwards to match it somewhat to the new BOO guitar stems. This was all done by ear btw, not Ozone Match EQ or whatever.

I think I also did the Haas trick to make them sound bigger.

Drums: All midi.

Kick: The Panzer Kick by Charles J Wall on the Sneap forum put through a fair bit of Maxxbass and clipped just a tad with Gclip.

Snare: I shamelessly stole a one shot from the BOO stems and blended it a fair bit with the natural snare put through some SSL.

Everything else Drums was natural and probably put through the SSL at some point.

Bass: THIS WAS FUN.

Bass was all midi to start off with, and so I put it through 4FrontBass to make it sound like an actual bass, albeit a rather shoddy one.

Then, split into two tracks. 1: The first was the usual, 3rd Bass VST amp with Sub bass turned on and mids cut a fair bit.

Now the second I got a bit creative. Pitch shifted it +12 semitones (octave) to be same as the guitars, then put through a similar (not identical though) guitar chain. Then a bit of EQ (ie. boost at 1-2K etc.)

Vocals were pretty generally processed. Screams were all through the Haas trick a million and one times Left and Right while still being central to make them all beefed up and more powerful

Cleans were nothing new either. Just, normal processing through a few Waves plugs.





Again, any questions and crits will be greatly welcomed!

 

[Vicioushead]

Sounds good for what you are aiming for

What the hell is the Haas trick?

 

[marios.blythe]

no no..midi bass makes it sound to ''thin''..otherwise good job!

 

[FrontlineGuitar]

Sounds good for what you are aiming for

What the hell is the Haas trick?

Cheers

If you haven't heard of the Haas effect, it started basically from I believe an old analogue delay unit that was broken. It sent back a signal on top of the original one sent that instead of just being a straight, normal, regular delay, actually varied it's delay time just slightly and randomly, and so when the delay time was set to a minimal amount, it would seem to double up on top of the original signal, just as you would double track vocals or guitars etc.

With new digital plugins and all that this has been simulated really well... There are various different plugins but I honestly just use this free one: http://www.vescofx.com/vfxFreeHaas and it works perfectly.

Now I think most people actually use it on their entire mix to widen the stereo image, which I only recently realised.

But I normally wait until I've finished all the processing and everything on (screamed) vocals, then bounce it down, and duplicate it onto three different tracks, turning down the last two. On these last two, you put this plugin, and use whatever setting you think seems best. The "Background Vocals" preset works fine for me. Then, on one of the two tracks choose the "L" side for the delay, and the other choose the "R" side, just don't pan the actual tracks themselves. Just doing this so you have one either side of the original main louder track just beefs up the vocal an unbelievable amount, but you can go further as well and do it 4 times etc.

Also, on guitars, to thicken them up you can use it as well. So, if you've dual tracked, you can take the Left guitar, and 'Haas' it to the 'R' side, and vice versa. This way, you get four tight layers instead of just two, without having to track them again.

Let your creative side go wild with this. I've only ever used it on Gtrs and Vox, but I can imagine it being good for a bigger snare, maybe a thicker bass tone. Hmm.. I should try that.


I would post example clips but it's nearly 2am..

 

[Vicioushead]

Thanks for that great explanation

 

[FrontlineGuitar]

Thanks for that great explanation

No problem!

 

[JeffTD]

I think you'll find fewer people than you think employ the Haas effect. It collapses in mono and sounds awful.

 

[FrontlineGuitar]

I think you'll find fewer people than you think employ the Haas effect. It collapses in mono and sounds awful.

Maybe if you use it excessively and rely on it to widen your mix, then mono compatibility would be non-existent, yes. But it's like flipping the phase on one of your overhead tracks to make it sound 'wider'. Lots of people do it, and in stereo it sounds great but it's really up to you whether you want to use it extensively and frequently enough to risk the mono compatibility of your mixes.

However, on a side note, most bands that people on this forum mix are not really counting on getting on the radio any time soon, and so unless some gibbon of a video producer renders a lyric/music video in mono instead of stereo, then I find you shouldn't focus too much on making a 'Good' mono mix and a 'Good' stereo mix, when you could make a 'Great' stereo mix and forget all about mono!

 

[Mashreef]

I think you'll find fewer people than you think employ the Haas effect. It collapses in mono and sounds awful.

Strongly agree

 

[oroinvictus]

I think you'll find fewer people than you think employ the Haas effect. It collapses in mono and sounds awful.

+1, hass effect is bad juju