My heavy-power band's debut: MORTON - Grimoire (EP)

[Max Morton]

Greetings everyone I'd like to present you my new work. It's a short mini-album containing four songs and intro. I'd say it's heavy-metal the way i like it - and i love Saxon after 1992, Judas Priest and solo Halford. Sure I'm still too far to compare my work to these megadudes. But i'm working hard.

The project was created as the one-man project, so i did everything at my studio - guitars, bass, keys, vocals and drum sampling.
After that i've found great musicians, so we're preparing material for live shows and for recording an album.

Btw, I've just built the small but cozy drum room and hope it will work just fine for the upcoming album

Project's myspace: http://www.myspace.com/maxmorton

Download EP:
http://www.maxmorton.com/MORTON-Grimoire_EP-2010.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/372927702/MORTON-Grimoire_EP-2010.rar
http://www.sendspace.com/file/zgzh53
http://upload.com.ua/get/901525780

I'd be glad to hear any comments on sound and material.

 

[blueax]

Sounds awesome man, very impressed with what I'm hearing so far!

 

[Damian B]

Sounds great dude!

 

[BC666]

nice work

 

[Max Morton]

Thank you, gentlemen Such a pleasure to hear

 

[rvs0002]

I don't hear much in common with Saxon, Priest or Halford, but that's ok because you have a nice sound of your own. Nice work on the tunes!

What was the vocal chain?

 

[Brady k]

Sounds awesome man, very impressed with what I'm hearing so far!

definately man

the production is top notch !!

2:00 in on the first song on the myspace player sounds awesome !!
awesome and tight playing !

contrats man !

 

[Max Morton]

rvs0002:
That's great! I'd be really upset if I would just clone the ones I respect so much Although the "Black Witch" intro reminds me of "English Man'o'War" from Saxon's "Lionheart". Unfortunately, I listened to this album after the song was composed
Thanks for your interest. My vocal chain for this project is:
me > 10-20cm, pop-filter in the middle > AKG C414 B-ULS (audioupgrades.com customized), cardioid pattern > LONG StereoChannel mic pre , 80 hz hipass> Long ParaEq 4/8, sweet sounding highs boost, a small cut at around 1700 hz, a tiny 500 hz boost > back to StereoChannel's compressor/limiter and a few db of compression with ratio at around 3, just a bit of limiting at the very peaks > RME Fireface 800 line input.

Then, in Cubase just a bit of Voxengo Voxformer 2 two band compression, a touch of 112 dB Preamp tape 30 saturation with brightness cranked all the way up.

In send slots: 1) Voxengo Pristine space with cathedral impulse. Suits this mix just like i love it. 2) standard cubase stereo delay with Lowpass and Hipass filters and with latency set around 500-700 on left channel and 510-710 (when it's 500 left it's 510 right etc) on right channel.

LONG is the russian custom built gear. Very clean, very natural and really flexible, I use it all the time. The compressor is an RMS type, quite unique - i totally love it on almost everything i record. I've also got his summing mixer, Exciter and Deesser (a fucking sibillance killer box, in a good way). And six channels of his sweeeeeeeeet compression.

Wanna try another mic on my vocals. Something more flattering and opposite to C414, cos though it sounds really great on most of singers who come to my studio, it works just a bit dull for me. It can be cured easily, but still. I want to experiment with the mics

Brady k:
Oh, thanks, man! Glad to hear))
Now I'm eager to prepare the band to work like a single mechanism. Live and in the studio. The rock band must nail it live!

 

[zakky]

sounds great man i really like this type of production..cool songs too!..........guitar chain?

 

[Nuno Filipe]

Wow! I am really impressed with your mix. This sounds absolutely killer, this is one of the best mix that I have heard here in the forum. Usually I dont ask this, but I have to ask what you use for the guitars. They sound fat but with clarity and definition. Can you elaborate how did you achieved this sound? Real amps?
Btw, Werewolf Hunt rules

 

[Max Morton]

I love this forum

zakky, Nuno Filipe:
Thank you! I'll gladly explain the guitar chain. It's quite simple:

1)Dean Caddy usa custom '95 with SD JB in bridge. D'addario 10-46 strings for drop D.
2)MXR ZW Overdrive with tone at 14 o'clock, gain at min, vol at 13 o'clock.
3)1991 Peavey 5150-1, lead channel. As I remember, gain at 5, bass at 7, mid at 1, high at 7, poweramp at 5, resonance at 6, presence at 8
4)Weber Mass Lite attenuator in "High" mode, attenuating quite hard: LowsMids at 1, Mids Highs at 5.
5)Randall 4x12 oversized cab with v-30's.
6)Single sm57 on the most full sounding speakers, perpendicular, 3 cm from the grill, 2 cm to the left from the absolute center of the speaker. Somewhere around the place where the cone meets the cap.
7)Doubletrack
8)In this case i was equing quite drastically. I personally prefer to cut out some fizz then to use lots of mics or to move mic too far away from the cap. The sound becomes as warm and big as when using several mics, but less muddy and unfocused. Sometimes two or three mics are better. Sometimes not.

So, what i did was quite a rude raping of the raw track :
-95 hz hipass 24db/oct, 8 khz lopass 6db/oct
- 670 hz minus 6db
- 1900 hz minus 6db
- 3500 hz minus 2db
- 5640 hz minus 9db (this one and 1900 hz tend to be the shittiest frequencies when miking V30 with a single sm57)
- 7050 hz minus 3dB

I also used the stillwell vibeEq to add just a slightly audible amount of 820 and 2500 hz.

And a well-known thing with multiband compressing the palmmuted bass range.

I'm very glad you liked my tone, and I'll gladly share my experience, because I've gained a lot of knowledge from this forum.

P.S: sm57 went into RME Octamic preamp. among the micpre's I own this one works most correctly with this mic.
P.P.S: and I mixed it all on Dynaudios BM5a's with 60 hz hipass filter on them (I turn it off from time to time)) but it's usually on and let's woofers translate a little better). I'm planning to upgrade to Klein+Hummels O300 someday, but these younger Dynaudios seem to work fine for me still.

 

[demirichris]

This is incredible stuff man. Love the music and the production. I'm working on a big power metal project and this is inspirational!

Thanks for all the info on your recording!

 

[Max Morton]

demirichris: glad I could be helpful! good luck with the project you're working on

I'd like to take part in some international studio project, like Ayreon or Avantasia, I'll do it someday

 

[stilllifer]

This sounds fucking great man - I hear a little old skool Priest on Black Witch - that's a good thing btw!!! Mixes sound really great man - great job!!!

Cheers!

Geoff

PS. Protected, detective, electric eye... one of my fav Priest toons!!!

 

[jarenare]

Wow, I'm impressed! The production is top notch, and I love the music! Was listening the EP while working, and love it!

 

[Max Morton]

stilllifer: hell yeah, man! Priest rules, I'm planning to do a cover album of their songs, used to play and sing a loooooot of Priest.

jarenare: my huge thanks!!)

 

[barricade]

poweramp on 5 on a 5150... this had to be fuckin loud!

Great songs.. usually i don't listen to this kind of metal...but this is very cool!

 

[rvs0002]

Thanks for the info. Good luck on the release!

 

[Mago]

poweramp on 5 on a 5150... this had to be fuckin loud!

Not with that one between I guess

4)Weber Mass Lite attenuator in "High" mode, attenuating quite hard: LowsMids at 1, Mids Highs at 5

Great Work man!
Thanks a lot for sharing the Guitarchain, it will be usefull for me when I'm getting myself a reampbox and an attenuator for amping my 6505+ with my randall cab and my sm57
Do you have pics of the mik position? if so it would be a perfect starting point for me when I dig deeper into reamping

I think the mix is quite unusual for that kind of metal, but it fits the music anyway!
Great songs too

cheers

 

[barricade]

Not with that one between I guess

? not getting it...