Legend (Rise Records) "Proven"

[RandomAwesome]

interesting tidbit: Dylan's hihats are actually 2 bottom hats, haha. Those of you who don't play drums, bottom hat cymbals are usually much heavier than the top ones, so it has a really cool, chunky sound to it. Kinda kills the sustain a bit, which is a good thing with them. Never would have thought of that one, haha.

 

[the decline]

Diggin this production josh immensly. Keep it real

 

[chrism3006]

I love this man, love how the vocals sit! Great job!

 

[jimwilbourne]

Josh. you're the man for this.
I actually love the lower vocal approach. it does very much replicate the front row in your face experience.
you don't find that much.

thanks for posting! can't wait to hear more from you!

 

[AllanD]

I'm pretty surprised at how that garage sounds. Would never know it was a garage!

 

[RandomAwesome]

Thanks guys! Yeah man, "keeping it real" is exactly what I'm trying to do with my productions these days. More and more so as the trend moves towards chopping everything and make it robotic sounding.

I'm glad to hear a bunch of you guys like the slightly lower vocal volume approach. Another way to look at vocal volumes is like this - would the audience listen to the vocals by themselves? For someone like Christina Aguilera, definitely, she's got some great pipes! So her mixes tend to have the vocals pretty much 50/50 with the music. The music is just there to serve the vocals, so SUPER high in the mix is the right move. For a band like Green Day, sure, some people might want to hear Billy Joe by himself, but he's not exactly a great singer. Listen to a classic album like Dookie and pay attention to how far back the vocals sit (especially on the tracks that were not big singles). It will probably surprise you. Yet, 16 million copies later and no one would have it any other way So with that said, who would listen to a hardcore band's vocalist by himself? Some, haha, but not many. The instruments are extremely important to punk and hardcore bands to drive the energy of the song, and so the vocals become a bit less important as you ask yourself "would someone listen to this instrument by itself?"

 

[Charles J]

god DAMN those drums sounds fucking AMAZING in the garage!!!!

is it just a bog standard 2-car garage?

mind uploading some pics of it? the garage in our studio looks exactly the same size as yours from what I can see. Are the ceiling raised or anything?

Cheers!

ALSO, did you set his kit up basically in the center of the garage? looks that way...

 

[RandomAwesome]

Thanks man! Yeah, it's a 2-car garage with a 12' ceiling, so it has some space to breathe. The drums are a little pushed back to give the room mics in the front some space for the sound to develop. What does BOG mean?

 

[Black neon bob]

I wish every band would appreciate the volume level of how you did these vocals in the mix! it sounds awesome this way, as does the rest of the mix.. well done Josh!

 

[RandomAwesome]

Thanks Robert! It's really interesting to hear how many people like the vocal mix or think it's too buried. Here's the thing - this ain't pop music, so why the heck would anyone want screaming vocals in this type of band to sound crisp and clear? n00bs think every genre of music should be recorded absolutely pristine and clean... where's the soul in that? Where's the character in a perfectly polished white wall? I want my bands to sound like one cohesive unit, not 5 separate parts. It's all about finding a recording process that suits the style of the band, instead of forcing the band to fit into a style of recording.

Human beings are pattern-recognition machines, and overly polished recordings are way too easy to figure out/get bored of. A little grit goes a long way into keeping things interesting even after the 20th listen.