Last record I mixed.. (James Murphy, Jeff Dunne, Plec involvement)

[Ermz]

Hey guys,

I put up a track from this record on the main board a while back. The guys have finally released another song - one I prefer to show off (more gangs!)!

At the moment it's only up on YouTube and Facebook, but when I get up I'll put it on my site in higher resolution. Anyway for now you can hear it here:

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2090446736459&oid=160041880707811&comments

or



Credits:

Tracking and mixing: Yours truly.
Drum editing: Jeff Dunne
Guitar Reamping: James Murphy
Mastering: Plec

Some straight aggressive 80s thrash for you there. Hope you dig! As always, any questions - just ask.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Oh my god! I love it!! Especially the lead sound This is pure fucking metal! Without trying to sound modern as fuck. Great job ALL!

 

[CubanDude]

This is.. awesome, badass, stunning... both, mix and music. i'm gonna pick up the album

 

[Ermz]

Sweet, guys. Glad you like! Thanks for listening.

 

[Donovan S.]

The bass and drum interaction, the guitars, vocals. Everything is just amazing. Cool tune as well.

The gang vocals are especially bad ass. Love the roomy feel on them and how up front they are.

 

[Ola Englund]

agree with everyone, sounds great... I'm a huge testament fan so this is my kind of music!

well done guys!

 

[Ermz]

I always think of the gang vox in this album as a scene from 300 or something, with the Spartan gang shouts. Had to make sure they were audible.

Cool stuff about Testament Ola. The band are also huge fans, and love 'The Gathering'. So what I tried to do with this record is fuse the sounds of that album with TWoAF, and then put my own spin. Appropriately, James used a 5150 III on the rhythms, so we got all the right ingredients for it.

 

[Zombietakeover]

yeh any info on the group vocal processing?

 

[Ermz]

I think it was fairly minimal on this record. We tracked 6 layers of gangs for most sections, so what I did was take two each time, pitch shift up slightly, take another two and pitch down. Then I think I offset their timing to each other (because I had VocAligned them so they were all perfectly in time, and quite narrow sounding). So that differentiated them from each other to start with and increased the perception of size.

After that it was a fairly standard run of EQ and compression. I can't remember whether I did any distorting/saturation beyond the standard Nebula stuff. Sometimes I use one of the Overstayer compressors on backing vox, because they inherently have a distorted sound. Other times it's basically just LA-2 and L1. I think with these gangs it may just be LA-2 doing the bulk of the work, with the L1 chopping peaks. Bearing in mind the gangs were tracked through a Distressor taking off around 10dB.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I used some widening chorus on those gangs too. Helps a ton. Got that one from CLA (champion!).

FWIW the only 'gang' vocals on this song are the 'Fuel for the Fire!' ones. The rest of the backings are just multiple layers of the vocalist.

 

[Felix Neumann]

I can only repeat, what Ola said....

This is My kind of music!! With a 10/10 production.

 

[Ola Englund]

Listening to it again, I think that this is probably the best mix I've heard from you!

 

[Fama]

I like pretty much everything about this except for the guitars. It is a taste thing, but I'd prefer something less... clean? Maybe it's got something to do with your style of cutting with a lot of narrow bands. On the other hand, everything is very clear (and the bass grit is awesome).

But yeah, overall it's great

 

[slayercannibalsuffohead]

Must be youtube or my shitty room I'm in, but the drums sound a tad buried and the kick drum sounds like a weak Pantera type kick! Digging the vocals and guitar sounds.

 

[Charles J]

not my favorite from you but the gang vox are definitely epic as fuck!

maybe im just impartial because this genre' isn't too much my thing...

 

[26]

I think that this is probably the best mix I've heard from you!

+1

for the leads.

 

[zakky]

yeah the old skool production rules, better than the dried up modern stuff we hear nowadays at least for me...good job guys!

 

[Widekmusic]

Great job man, love it

 

[Ermz]

There we go, some differing opinions!

Big call there Ola, cheers! One thing I dig about this last year is that everyone seems to have a different favourite record that we've done. It seems quite evenly split.

Not sure about the drums being buried. That certainly wasn't the case on any system I've ever heard them on.

CJ, fwiw this wasn't really 'my' kind of mix. I made a judgment call early on that in order to make such fast music work in any capacity with standard tuning I'd have to do something a fair bit cleaner, and stock standard. So the SSL saturation was toned down, and I went more for clarity rather than pump/vibe. It was more about doing what felt right for the band and music, rather than what I generally want to hear. Ultimately you're just not gonna swing anything massive on thrash - it's impossible because 90% of the battle is just keeping clarity.

 

[Charles J]

CJ, fwiw this wasn't really 'my' kind of mix. I made a judgment call early on that in order to make such fast music work in any capacity with standard tuning I'd have to do something a fair bit cleaner, and stock standard. So the SSL saturation was toned down, and I went more for clarity rather than pump/vibe. It was more about doing what felt right for the band and music, rather than what I generally want to hear. Ultimately you're just not gonna swing anything massive on thrash - it's impossible because 90% of the battle is just keeping clarity.

You're exactly right man and I totally understand. Doing whatever you have to do to convey the bands music in the best, most FITTING way possible in 95% of our jobs!

After another listen, I do have to say you really out-did yourself with the mix as I know it's hard to force yourself to kind of stray away from the sound you'd usually hear in your head.

Job well done.

Oh, and the leads fucking SCREAMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!! How did you go about those?

As always, much love for your work.

 

[NattyJ.]

Awesome mix Ermz!

I do understand what that fellow above was saying about the drums being buried. They arent really THAT present in the mix like most modern metal (often overpoweringly so). They're at a good volume\eq imo. They've got punch and are present when they need to be and they have plenty of room for the guitars to stand out, and gives the vocal reverb room to breathe, which sounds REALLY big!

The mix definately serves the music!

And +1 for Testament!
The Gathering and Low are 2 of my favourite albums!

Just a quick question about how you did it; I've noticed you write alot about your automations in your mixes on this forum. Could you please give me a quick example of any automation you've used in this track so I can try and listen to how you use it, cause so far when\where automation should be used just eludes me at the moment haha

Cheers, Nat.