My Slavic FOLK bands album teaser online now

[Nebulous]

Some of you may know that since early this year I had been working on an epic project with my European (Slavic) Folk band: our debut album.
This was dragged out for way too long and took more time to edit it all to the standard it is today then it did to actually record it, but in the end I am very pleased with the results. Only one member in the band had previously performed on an album and that was the drummer who was a pleasure to work with. Another 3 of us had worked on afew random songs (as performers) myself included and the other two members had not recorded a single note before.

Given that, I am quite pleased with the end result and the creative input of the band. All the songs are 100-200 year old folk songs recorded with a modern take.
It was all done at my place, in my ghetto room into an Onyx 400F. All mixing was ITB. The final CD press was not mastered, the album teaser has just some maximising to ensure people don't get scared by having to turn their volume knob too much to compensate :Smug:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/966723/Zmena 5 - Album teaser.mp3

It has already been pressed and delivered, though as always any feedback is much appreciated.
If you would like any details or to hear the full version of any song feel free to ask.

I can now be free of it!

 

[Rimantas B.]

I was shocked
Somehow I assumed "by default" that it would be folk metal...

It sounds very clear, however, rather synthetic most of the time... Which instruments were played by a synthesizer and which were recorded "authentic"?

 

[azistenostora]

I agree, apart from 1 or 2 songs everything is too synthetic for my taste. Should have used more real instruments imo.

 

[Ermz]

Hey Dan,

I was kinda expecting to tear into this one because you well know this kind of music is the antithesis to every reason I listen to music.

But i think you've done fairly well, all things considered. I mean I can imagine the approach to mixing stuff like this wouldn't be all that well documented anywhere, so props to you for forging a sound that works. The only thing I can say about this particular teaser is that your limiter seems to be really killing those transients, so you're losing a bit of punch. Other than that I would say that the vocals are a bit too loud for me. They don't seem to sink into the music. They consistently sit way on top.

Other than that dude, I'm glad it's finally done, for your sake.

 

[Nebulous]

I was shocked
Somehow I assumed "by default" that it would be folk metal...

It sounds very clear, however, rather synthetic most of the time... Which instruments were played by a synthesizer and which were recorded "authentic"?

I agree, apart from 1 or 2 songs everything is too synthetic for my taste. Should have used more real instruments imo.

I know where you guys are coming from. The only instrument that wasn't "real" was the keyboard and the only problem is that all the patches on said keyboard seem to overpower/ kill the other melodic instrument, being the harmonica.
I guess for anyone who knows the music from a strictly European perspective would have preferred that there were more wind/ string instruments filling in the gaps, where due to our bands lineup it is filled by the keys.

I guess from that end our local followers know that it's our sound live too.

Hey Dan,

I was kinda expecting to tear into this one because you well know this kind of music is the antithesis to every reason I listen to music.

But i think you've done fairly well, all things considered. I mean I can imagine the approach to mixing stuff like this wouldn't be all that well documented anywhere, so props to you for forging a sound that works. The only thing I can say about this particular teaser is that your limiter seems to be really killing those transients, so you're losing a bit of punch. Other than that I would say that the vocals are a bit too loud for me. They don't seem to sink into the music. They consistently sit way on top.

Other than that dude, I'm glad it's finally done, for your sake.

Yeah, I hear you on the limiter. I guess I wasn't really that fussed about it since the actual CD was basically uncomperessed on the master bus, so anyone who then buys the CD will have a feeling of it being better quality. I may go back and change the bus limiter on this one, I'll see what my ears say tomorrow.
The vocals were a hard thing to sit in this mix honestly. I think that I could have gotten the balance of the vocals themselves a little bit better if the PC hadn't crashed in the last week before the deadline, though I was tending towards a vocal forward mix anyway. I hope I didn't go too far with it for our target audience.

I appreciate the constructive and relieving feedback. I was abit weary of what you may have picked out. It's far from technically perfect, though again, does the job for our target audience, budget and unfortunate time restraints.

 

[Nebulous]

Just realised I forgot to put all my gear used in the title. Surprised any one has even viewed it haha.