My latest radio-rock project, as heard by Dave Grohl (VCC, Eddy, Plec etc.)

[Ermz]

Hey guys,



This is from a sampler CD I was working on heavily on the back end of last year. Produced, tracked & mixed it myself. Reamped by Eduardo Apolonia & Masterd by Thomas 'Plec' Johansson.

This is the first 'real' project I ever used VCC on instead of Nebula, from the ground up all throughout completion. I capitulated in the end and put a 'master bus' instance of Nebula on the mix to bring it all together as VCC just felt too clean. It's the most 'analogue' mix I've ever done. About 95% of the tracks were bussed through my outboard for compression and EQ.

We were fortunate in that this band know the Foo Fighters to some degree, so these songs were handed over to them when they were down here at the end of last year!

 

[Adrian Warren]

Great production. Already listening to it the third time.

 

[aramism]

very nice. this is def your most "ben grosse" work yet as far as radio rock and analogue sound go.

bravo!

 

[The-Zeronaut]

Epic mix is epic.

 

[Soundlurker]

I love the vocals apart from the abrasive 'sh' sounds in the beginning of the song... kind remind me of Sean Connory or Herbert from Family Guy

Nice fluid mix if that makes any sense, but are you using some go-to drum samples or is it just a sound you end up with in a lot of mixes?

 

[osum]

Not my music, but as always great production. Very organic sounding.

 

[Skaldir]

Sounds great. Once again you're the snare champ!

 

[Melb_shredder]

I love the vocals apart from the abrasive 'sh' sounds in the beginning of the song... kind remind me of Sean Connory or Herbert from Family Guy

Nice fluid mix if that makes any sense, but are you using some go-to drum samples or is it just a sound you end up with in a lot of mixes?

I said the EXACT same thing so +1

 

[Mago]

Awesome work man!

the only thing I don't like is the hihat.
Great snare again, and the mix fits the song perfectly.
Even if I heared a bit more radiorockish mix approaches of yours in less radiorockish songs....if that makes any sense

 

[Ermz]

Thank you all for taking the time to listen.

I forgot to mention that this is the first project I ever automated entirely by hand. All the volume was fader-ridden throughout the songs for maximum analogue feel.

Fair call on the hats, Mago. I wasn't a big fan of them in the room, so they must have translated accurately!

@Soundlurker: A lot of the drums are natural here, but there are some 'safe' samples blended underneath to bring the drums up a bit. Only on kick and snare though - toms are all natural. I think it's mostly that I dig a certain aesthetic with drums, and unless I'm actively trying to mix them differently, I end up with a particular balance.

 

[LeSedna]

So your call in the VCC thing compared to nebula ? Will you still use it or go back to printing nebula instances on your raw tracks ? Or is it just on the masterbus that you felt VCC was too clean ?

 

[Joshua Wickman]

This mix fucking slays!

What is your Overhead processing? They cymbals and ride sound so clean and bright (the perfect amount of top end and is not harsh) and just amazing. I struggle with this 8-10k area that has this harsh ringing that drives me crazy on my overheads. Not that this really apply's to you at all.

Be proud of this Ermz!! Your going places.

 

[Ermz]

LeSedna, the call on VCC is tough... I find it a very different beast to Nebula. It's a lot less 'effortless' to mix with. I actually felt like I was doing an ITB mix all the way until I instantiated Nebula on the bus in the end. Something about the spectrum response of VCC makes it sound very transparent and digital to me. It doesn't add an immediate 'back to front' depth and high-mid gentleness like the Nebula instances do. It does, however, control transients much better than Nebula does.

It's very likely that I'll play each project by ear, and process appropriately. For instance, the real fast techy metal stuff will probably be more VCC than Nebula, and the more rocky, groovy stuff will be more Nebula than VCC. But I'll continue using them in concert with each other.

Thanks Josh! I can't recall the overhead processing too much, though I think I may have printed them through a GSSL. EQ would've just been eQuality and Nebula SSL. I generally use Nebula programs often on sources with prominent high frequency content, because it controls high-end like no other plug-ins on the market do, to my knowledge. The instances of VCC printed on the overheads, as well as the busses were all running at 4x oversampling too, which has an inherent 'subduing' effect on the highs.

 

[AndrewB]

Wow. That really sounds amazing. I'm in love with the snare sound.

 

[Ermz]

Awesome!

For those who missed the 'more tracks' section, the band have actually uploaded another song from the CD. This is where the EMGs really show how they don't work for rock music, but otherwise I think it's quite good!

 

[Ataraxia2320]

.

 

[exoslime]

ermz,both songs sounds very good, and the music itself is great too!!
i really dig it alot!!

 

[Soundlurker]

Last time I checked Soundcloud streaming was still 128kb/s. Has that changed or are you OK with it? Hearing one of my mixes through that site was enough to make me look elsewhere.

 

[Mago]

In the 2nd song are some note choices in the vocals that make me cringe a bit...

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

Sounds really good Ermz! Everything is breathing very nicely. I think that "even even" on the second song sounds somewhat weird, apart from that, music is quite cool!

What verbs are you using nowadays?