New Fireland track - test mix!

[SteveFireland]

Well, it's taken us a while to get it this far (started in Dec 06!) but we've almost got the album done.

Basically, after doing an analog version of the album in a studio earlier in 2006, we had some problems moving the tracks to the studio's new ProTools HD system - there were a lot of problems with levels randomly changing and high-end dropping off on things all over the show. So, with our already meagre budget gone, our singer and myself got Pro Tools setups and we decided to give it a blast ourselves.

So, the drums were done with a Roland electronic kit (not sure which one, I'm not a drummer! ) which we used to trigger EZDrummer, the guitars were done through a V-Amp Pro, the bass through a Bass POD, and the vox through a Samson dynamic mic into an MBox2. As you can see, it's big budget stuff...

We had problems with just about every aspect of recording (we'd never recorded anything for release before - although I've been knocking out rough demos for the other members using Cakewalk for years)... from all the drum hits all having a velocity of 127 for some reason and needing manually adjusted (on 15 tracks, argh!), to the vox coming out really sibilant, the guitars sounding not so great, the bass sounding even more not so great , etc etc... the list goes on. I've had just about everyone (wife, friends, band members, guy that runs the first studio etc) point out the problems and I've been learning and fixing them one by one, as best I can. It seems that experience definitely is what you get just after you needed it!

So, check out the first track - http://supra.stevemoore.tv/Fireland-BetrayedToTheNight.mp3

It's squeezed more than I would have normally but the mastering side of it is just head-melting so I'm still trying to figure that all out. Let me know what you think - be gentle though, my ego has taken enough of a bruising over the last 10 months

Cheers,
Steve.
http://www.fireland.tv (go there and watch a video of us supporting Dragonforce in Belfast last year! )

 

[AStacy2]

I'd like to hear some more cymbals, vox are a little too loud on top of everyting for me. Sounds like you could cut some more lows on the vox really. The vox kill it for me, they never really go anywhere. The parts where he trys to "rap" like Mike Patton in Faith No More...it's a good impersonation but it just dosen't work for anyone besides Mike Patton. But for this being your first mix you did a really great job for what you had to work with, nice!

 

[SteveFireland]

Thanks for the feedback! Do you mean more crashes or more hihats? I've had a world of problems getting the hihats to sound decent (probably the biggest problem I've faced on this whole project!) so it's entirely possible that I've buried them slightly... I can crank the crashes up no probs though...

Cheers,
Steve.

 

[AStacy2]

Yeah, listening again maybe bring the guitars down or the entire drumkit up. And definately chill out on mastering it so loud, I know why you did it since everyones first few mixes have to be the loudest ever but seriously...

 

[ScottCash]

Hey man, I thought the instrumentation part of this sounded great. Did you use Megadeath for a reference CD? It sounds like them. Anyway, nice work. The only comment I would have is about the vocalist. I think he has a great singing voice but the metal rapping does not fit this song. So either scrap that, or at least use a different vocalist for that part or use a "telephone" effect or something to differentiate the part. Did you use a vocoder or Melodyne on the vocals? I hear a little bit of that type of effect going on.

 

[meul]

Hey there,

Nice song, Just listen to it on my samson resolv 80A monitors.
It's always a personal taste thing, but in m.h.o the drums can have some more DB's. but I can see problems in that because there is (relative) so much low end on the bass and guitars that when drums are loud enough, there will bea chance that vox will be not cut trough the mix anymore.

 

[SteveFireland]

Thanks for the comments guys! Lessee... yup, Megadeth was one of the references I used. Also Trivium and Iced Earth. Though the differences in instrument levels and sounds between those three alone were substantial! But grabbing a frequency curve of each using Ozone definitely gave me a good target to aim for during mastering. We've spent the past few weeks burning mixes with the vox up, down, drums up, down, guitars up, down - what a pain! I'm pretty happy with the levels although a few people have mentioned the drums now so I'll maybe give them a bit of a boost - but it's the old "turn up the drums, now turn up the guitars, now turn up the vox... why do the drums sound quiet again?" that I keep getting, hehe

We originally had a distorted telephone-y style effect on the rap vocal but we reckoned it sounded a bit dated, so I just used a different EQ to make it a bit of attack-y... I'll maybe fire up some sort of halfway house between the two and see how that works.

Yeah, the low end on the guitars & bass have been something of a problem - we started off my cutting the guitars up to about 120hz and the bass to about 80hz... we had some expert advice that we needed to cut them harder than that so (contrary to what we thought - but we are learning this stuff after all!) we went up cutting them way up to 160hz and 100hz or so - which was still a lot less than they recommended!! And the arse fell out of the whole mix for a week or two. Then I found Colin's guide to EQing guitars on here and it sort of validated what we were thinking - stuff about bossting around 70-100 to get a bit of that cab sound and stuff. It's amazing how you will do things that are counter-intuitive just because someone tells you it's the right thing to do!

Anyways, I'll bounce down another mix and fire it up... I'll maybe do one that has no rapping in it too...

Thanks again, guys, much appreciated!!!
\m/
Steve.

 

[MetalJonesy]

like it steve!!

 

[SteveFireland]

New mix - drums up slightly, effect on the rap vox, not squeezed quite so much

http://supra.stevemoore.tv/Fireland-BetrayedToTheNight3.mp3

And another track:

http://supra.stevemoore.tv/Fireland-GodsOfLove.mp3


\m/
Steve.

 

[meul]

Hey Steve,

Drums are better nou, louder, but still to far away. I still think guitars are to prominent in this mix. I think the song will get more drive by lowering the guitar level a tiny bit so there will be more room/space for the drums? I think this can be done by cutting low end a little more or just pull down de guitar track a little more.