Mekanism - The Ruler of Ashes video

[Ermz]

Hey all,

Thought some of you might be interested. This is a brand new video released by Mekanism from the 'End of Fear' EP, which I reamped and mixed last year.



As always, let me know if there are any questions about production, but ahead of time: no, I don't know any of the girls' phone numbers from the clip.

 

[M. McMenamin]

You can pm me for phone numbers!

 

[osum]

Just listening to headphones atm but hell, I love that guitar and drum sound. Sounds massive.

 

[rapucore]

This is something truly amazing! Great production overall, love it. Great job Mikko and Ermz!

 

[M. McMenamin]

I'm glad you dig it, Aleksi!

 

[WATC]

can you talk a little bit about the production ?
Guitar amp/cab or simu ?
drum etc
sounds very amazing !

 

[M. McMenamin]

Thanks! Guitars were reamped through Ermz's 5150's, but I'll let him elaborate on that.
Drums were recorded at Finnvox studios through an SSL desk, not much happening, a bit of EQ on the way in.
All vocals are Sm7b into Apogee Duet. I think I'll continue recording growls/screams with that mic but for our clean singer there might be better alternatives.

 

[UncleBob]

REALLY like the opening riff, not so much the rest from 00:20 (just not my type of thing), sounds really good as usual though.

 

[Sloan]

Definitely not my style, but sounds very good. A+

 

[Ermz]

can you talk a little bit about the production ?
Guitar amp/cab or simu ?
drum etc
sounds very amazing !

The guys had quad tracked all the rhythm guitars, which was really cool as I rarely get to deal with that anymore. So the dominant EMG guitars were done through a EVH 5150III mini into Mesa OS, and the secondary passive Ibanez guitars were done with a Peavey 5150 into Mesa OS. Quad tracking really helps give the guitars more texture. I'm kinda sad it's fallen out of fashion in recent times, and many budgets don't allow for it.

The guys were vibing one of the Dead by April records at the time, so I went very Slate-heavy on the kick and snare. The idea was to give it a bit of that aesthetic. They had tracked the drums at Finnvox, so there were all kinds of really cool room tracks to deal with that I blended in alongside the artificial slate room on snare. I experimented with very ambient and 'big' snares on this one, but it didn't work on the faster parts, so I stripped it back and kept it quite dry. I EQ'd the ambiance tracks a lot more than I have in the past, which helped carve out a niche for them in such busy songs.

As a footnote, I remixed the bass guitar on this EP from scratch many times until I finally got it right with the least amount of processing. It's partially what led me to some new understanding which I'm sharing in the mixing guide update later in the year.

Let me know if there's anything else. Cheers for listening.

 

[Pxz]

Sounds great, and im looking forward for that mixing guide update for sure.

 

[indecizo]

How do you guys make that low B string sound that tight? I can get that exact tightness with my rig to sound very similar, but only from E to C #. From C and lower it always sounds flobby and loose no matter what string gauge, guitar or pickups, even with TS+6505.

 

[Ermz]

Oh, to those of you who like the music, here are the other two videos from the same EP:





I had a huge amount of fun working on this stuff. It's so multifaceted and layered that it became a real challenge and stretched my abilities to the max. It's also very well arranged, and the guys are immense musicians so there was no struggle with the fundamentals. The title track in particular was great because, as you know, I love euro gay-synth music.

 

[M. McMenamin]

indecizo, I think it depends a lot on how tight you play and how you dig into the strings, although I do agree it starts to get difficult to get sufficient clarity and tightness below C, especially with bass. Our guitarist used a 10-60 set on strings and I think I used a Circle K 130 on bass for the low B. Now I use a Elixir Heavy 135 which I think sounds better. Our guitarist recently upgraded to a longer scale Ibanez RGD and that has helped with the low end clarity quite a bit.

 

[indecizo]

indecizo, I think it depends a lot on how tight you play and how you dig into the strings, although I do agree it starts to get difficult to get sufficient clarity and tightness below C, especially with bass. Our guitarist used a 10-60 set on strings and I think I used a Circle K 130 on bass for the low B. Now I use a Elixir Heavy 135 which I think sounds better. Our guitarist recently upgraded to a longer scale Ibanez RGD and that has helped with the low end clarity quite a bit.

Something I found to gain clarity is that the lower the tuning is the closer to the bridge pickup I'll pick and chug. But it loses a bit of low end thump. When you do the chugging on the lower notes, do you place your right hand in a certain place that is close to the bridge and then the higher notes are picked a bit far from the bridge pickup?

 

[indecizo]

Oops, I just realized you are the bass player not the guitar player.

 

[M. McMenamin]

Something I found to gain clarity is that the lower the tuning is the closer to the bridge pickup I'll pick and chug. But it loses a bit of low end thump. When you do the chugging on the lower notes, do you place your right hand in a certain place that is close to the bridge and then the higher notes are picked a bit far from the bridge pickup?

I forwarded your question to our guitarist. He said that the optimal picking spot varies depending on the riff and the notes played. Getting it tight and in-tune is always a battle with these tunings. Too close to the bridge and the intonation suffers, too far -> the same thing. The correct palm mute technique is also essential to get it tight and big. We were changing strings often and tuning all the time between takes.

 

[sjcortese]

Man dig the tunes and the production is awesome!

 

[M. McMenamin]

Man dig the tunes and the production is awesome!

Nice to hear, sjcortese!

 

[sjcortese]

Nice to hear, sjcortese!

I'm glad Ermz posted this, I just hit up iTunes and purchased the ep.



~scott