More folk/fantasy metal (one of my best mixes ever)

[Ermz]

Another single release from Lorenguard's 'Eve of Corruption' album.

I didn't want to clutter the main sections of the board with more news about this one, but I thought it worth showing, as from an automation/balancing POV this is one of the best mixes I've ever done.

 

[Matt Smith]

Sounds great as usual, dude. We're actually playing a show with them next summer; looking forward to it.

 

[MAXMEDLOW]

The drums sound just a little flat in my opinion, the snare should really punch much more. But apart from that this sounds great!

 

[MAXMEDLOW]

Also what vocal mic are you using, vocals sound nice!

 

[Ermz]

Cheers, Matt. I noticed that you guys are on the Pathfinder fest together. Thought that was really cool. I'd love to watch you guys play, but it's a bit of a trip out...

Thanks for the comments, Max. I'm actually quite happy with the drum sound on this one - but it's still cool to hear another perspective. It's not a particularly heavy song, so I personally don't feel super punchy drums would've helped the delivery.

I'm unsure about the vocal mic, as the band tracked this one themselves. There was a bit of work to be done there, as the raws were a bit mid-centered and peaky. I'd probably just fall back on the SM7 if I were tracking vocals like this.

 

[AllanD]

Sounds good, but the guitars are a bit too quiet for my taste. In fact, I think the orchestra sections are too prevalent.

 

[The Front Studio]

I like this, I like this a lot. And I get you on not having (too) punchy drums on this. I don't really like it when you have soft instrumental parts where the drums just snap through and there's close to no velocity. Good mix man, sounds amazing!

 

[Ermz]

Here's a more aggressive song:



I've been trying to get clearance from the band to post this in higher quality on my site, but no word as of yet.

 

[sawtooth]

Great work as always Ermz! Love the drums.

Also what vocal mic are you using, vocals sound nice!

There's a video of them recording on their website and they used a SM7.

 

[Ermz]

Ahh, there you go. Had no idea.

 

[Skinny Viking]

sounds awesome man

 

[MAXMEDLOW]

There's a video of them recording on their website and they used a SM7.

I'm getting one of those for xmas, so that's good

 

[brianhood]

awesome band! Pretty much a perfect mix for this style imo(guitars are not too quiet).
I didn't like the snare at first, but it definitely grew on me.


what did you do for guitar?

 

[Ermz]

Lasse reamped. I believe it may have been a Bogner of sorts - possibly Uberschall.

Speaking of which Brian, I actually hit you up for some reamping on FB, if you get a chance to check.

 

[Uros]

I 'have a problem' with nearly all your mixes regarding rhythm guitars (excluding Memnoir, which really has fitting guitars). They are clean and everything, sitting on their own cloud, but somehow they are not 'metal' enough, not enough aggressiveness (I should point out that they don't sound thin at all, it's not that).
It could be because you tend to over-process them (as you have said it yourself a couple of times). It seems like if you tend to set LP too low, and kill too much bite. So they end up sounding nice and round (again, it fits Memnoir so well), but not enough bite. It is a taste thing tho, so maybe it's just me. On the other hand, I really like how you treat the bass guitar on your stuff.
Generally, the mix is, like your other mixes, balanced and 'pro'.

 

[Ermz]

Good thing I waited to respond - it seems like you edited that post like 3 times to 'nicen' it and spare my feelings! haha. I appreciate that.

It's true that I'm often forced to process guitars much more than I would like. It's always born out of necessity, not desire. I just don't get the kind of raw tracks that I can keep close to natural very often. The Memnoir single was an exception, since there is so much going on layer-wise, the guitars just became another part of the mold, so I was able to stick them with some saturation, one compressor and EQ.

If we go back to this particular project, if there is any 'tameness' to be heard on the guitars, I'm afraid it's a source thing. There were 3 main factors, which included the use of a Tonezone on the rhythm guitar (cloudy sounding pickup), the use of an LA-610 for DIs (telephonic sounding preamp) and perhaps not the level of aggression on the pick attack that one would find desirable to really cut through in a metal context. I know Lasse tried very hard to get the best tone he could, and I most definitely tried very, very, hard to get the most from it in the mix. The end result, I feel, is actually phenomenal compared to what could have been. The guitars are one of the main reasons I'm so proud of the end product. In terms of processing & improvement, I feel this is probably the most successful mix I've ever done! It's also probably the best master Plec has ever done on one of my mixes, so it all worked out really well.

Thanks again for listening and sharing your thoughts.

 

[Uros]

Haha, no man, there was no 'nicening' involved, I was just trying to articulate my thoughts a bit more.

 

[Mago]

I don't know why, but usually I don't like those mixes of you at all that most people seem to dig a lot..was the same with the IMW mix...the lorenguard mix reminds me a bit of the imw mix too, but I can't even say why.

Also was the same with the teaser you posted, keys are really really too loud for me, it's like they get thrown over the whole mix to cover it rather then sit in it...and that's mostly for the volume I think, cause the mix sounds
like you worked around them a lot...getting a feeling it's pretty scooped for some reason.

I had to listen to the 2nd song here http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/eve-of-corruption/id481396252 cause YT vid wasnt available anymore.
So I only got a short snippet, but the first part without keys sounded pretty cool to me.
And then BAM, suddenly nothing but keys, and the rest totally drowns.

I imagine that it must be really hard to mix something like this, but it doesn't sound balanced at all to me (when the keys come in).
I took some time to comment on this cause at first I thought my ears are shot cause a lot of the other guys didn't mention that (also in the other thread), so I thought it must be me.
I still hear it though.

Tho my opinion probably doesn't mean a lot to you anyway....at least I'm not bitching about the bass on that one lol

FWIW the Orpheus, Untruth (both single and ep) and Vision Devine mixes are still mixes I gladly take as reference and totally dig.
Just so I don't sound like a total arse here^^

 

[Ermz]

You're totally within your rights to feel that way. There are obviously folks who disagree, and others who may agree. The first thing James Murphy said when shown the title track the other day was 'the keys sound well balanced with the mix' (in roughly those words). So I think one person's 'keys are drowning everything' are another's 'yeah, I can hear everything well'. Many criticized the Orpheus record for having the keys too buried - others for the exact opposite thing... so it's one of those situations where I'm content with the idea that you can't make everyone happy. The band, in this case, seemed very happy with the balances, so that's good enough for me!

 

[AStudio]

You know your getting good when people start to hate your work haha (if that makes sense at all). Great job, you are one of the best mixers ive heard to date.