My Latest Work. Modern Hardcore ala The Ghost Inside

[tempe]

This is my first Mix only job working with my new studio partner, so it kind of can't suck! Guitars are 5150, drums are programmed with a mixture of slate / truth / sturgis samples.

I'm really happy with how this came out considering the programmed drums which made the mix process pretty painful. Let me know what you think!

Edit: Updated with a new mix, changed a bunch of things and fiddled with the balance a bit.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39073940/TrenchesMix4-Pre Listen.mp3

 

[barricade]

Tits!

Sounds like you used a lot of Decapitator(or similar saturation plug) on the master bus / mastering stage... or am i wrong? I like the saturation though!

 

[tempe]

Slate VCC pushed pretty hard actually. The mastering chain I used was pretty pathetic as this is just a "get it up to level so the band doesn't rage" job, I couldn't use FGX as I was pushing my CPU to hard, so after my mix chain of Waves SSL comp + JJP Puigtec its the API2500 taking off like 0.5db, with the output gain pushing a t-racks clipper, then a L2 doing like half a db followed by another clipper. OLD SCHOOL

As for the mix saturation, there's VCC on every channel (hence my CPU problems), with decapitator on busses. I think I ended up using it on snare, my drum parallel bus, bass, guitars and vocals. So yes there was a lot of saturation!

The guitars one this one were the biggest pain, my studios tracking engineer enjoys mids a little to much. There was almost no top end to the guitars at all, hence having to put decapitator on them to brighten them up a bit.

 

[amarshism]

overly saturated and i like, adds to the aggression imo...how much are you usully boosting and where with the eqp1a? i love that thing on my master buss, havent exactly gotten it to a science yet or any form of standard setting however it has now become my go to eq there

 

[tempe]

I'm using it in two places. First one is on the master bus where I'm boosting 2dB at 60Hz and around 1.5dB at 8kHz. Completely stolen from Chris Lord Alge where he spoke about "warming up the SSL." I'm doing the poor mans version with plug-ins.

I'm also using it on my Drum and Bass bus. To give this a bit of context, what I'm doing is I'm using a stripped down / modified version of Michael Brauer's multi bus technique where my drums and bass go to a bus with the waves API2500 doing around 2dB at the absolute most then the EQP1A boosting and attenuating 3dB at 100Hz. The guitars and any other mid range instruments go to a B bus which in this case was just guitars and gang vocals, which have CLA2A on limit mode taking off maybe 1.5dB on the peaks. C bus is all vocals with a L2 not really doing anything just making sure the vocals stay where I want them. D bus is FX with nothing on them. A and B bus go to a "Music Bus" where I have another L2 doing around 0.5 dB of reduction with the ceiling around -6. Then the music bus and Vocals + FX go to the stereo bus where it hits the SSL comp + EQP1A. Each of these busses has VCC on them.

I started doing this because this way I use way less individual channel compression as I mix into the chain, I originally calibrated it with a test tone so that each compressor isn't doing anything at -18 so that way as I push my channel faders up I get more compression and vice versa. I think this technique is really cool because you know pretty quick if something isn't right about your balance because it starts freaking out of one the compressors in the chain. I feel this technique really shines ITB as pushing individual compressors ITB starts sounding pretty grainy, so its basically sending your entire mix through staged compression before it hits the 2-bus. I just wish I could use the send part of the technique and send things to multiple busses, but it just starts turning into a phasey mess.

 

[tempe]

Also what does everyone think of the gang vocals? The band just said they didn't sound big enough... They came to me with a printed version with some crazy modulation and doubling going on which I thought made them sound a little phasey, but unfortunately I think the band is used to the rough.

 

[tempe]

Hello all, just updated the OP with a new mix. Changed a bunch of things.