Okay, I've listened to your recordings, here are my comments...

Tormentor

'Bugrit!'
Apr 17, 2001
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Shinra Inc. - Sweden
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Okay, ladies and gentlemen. This is going to be a long-ass post, cause I'm going to comment on each song on the CD that Nefilim sent me, with your recordings. Both good things and bad things.

AND PLEASE, LEAVE YOUR EGOS IN THE WASTEBASKET, OKAY?
My comments is not meant to put somebody down, or anything like that.
It's just my own thoughts and comments as a musician….to musicians (ya all).

Who sets the tempos? Drummers?
Much is generally too fast. Singers struggles to catch up cause they are the first ones to suffer…
I would record drums first, with him/her listening to the original song in headphones, so the drummer is playing along with the CD. That way you secure the tempo and timing, too. It is possible, technically, but it takes at least 2 people, I would think, when you record the drums.
Singers, oh what a seemingly impossible task to do Bruces job. But yes, you've done a pretty good job, anyway, I think. Alright, you don't have the lungs of old BD but you come pretty close, I must say. Good job! Sometimes you're pretty out of tune, tho. Probably depending on bad monitoring

Bassplayers, what happened to the clickety-clickety sound of Steve? Is it buried in the mix?
I did notice it tho, on some occations like Alexander…, and Hallowed…
Guitarists, very good job in general, but you do have a problem sometimes: guitar 1 and guitar 2 are not in sync. Worst example is Rime…
Alright, here we go.

Alexander the great,
Great intro!!
It's played a little bit too fast, eh? Guitar melodies and singer struggles to catch up the tempo. Good Chorus!!

Flight of Icarus.
Hey, sounds good 'nd together!!

Powerslave,
Good tempo!
Good sound!!
E_C (?), brilliant bassplaying! Rushing tendencies sometimes, tho. Watch it. ;) What bass are you using? Not a Fender, is it? And was that the correct notes you played at the end?
Good singing!! (Jim?)
Ah….wonderful maniac on the drums!! Watch timing, tho. Rushing tendencies every now and then.

Loneliness,
Wonderful intro, lads!! Wow!
Good sound, over all. Are the vocals distorting? Not sure.
Really good mix! Congrats on that.
Bass, (Constantine is it?) wonderful playing, really! Good job!….except in the end…you're way ahead of the drums (timing) when you're playing that octave-thing, at the end. Listen to the drums!
Singer,….hmm…generally good, I know it's hard to reach Bruces level on this one, but you did a fine job! You're out of tune on some places tho.
Guitars, Excellent lads, excellent!

Wicker Man "live",
Interesting beginning… :D
Equally interesting "live" sound! Excellent! Chanting and stuff…
Hey, good sound, again!!
Tight playing!
Good harmonies, lads!
Good "H" solo! Sounds nice!
Pity the last singing part was a bit out of tune.

Hallowed,
Wow, you've copied the sound perfectly, in the beginning!! NICE! Bells and all.
Spotless job by singer (Jim?)!! Nice reverb on the vocals, also.
Very nice tempo, lads!! It sounds so much better this way. Best played song on the CD, if you ask me.
Good drum sound and bass sound.
Bass, Finally some "string"-sound (the rattle, if you know what I mean). Thanks. Brilliantly played, btw.
Drums, GREAT SOUND! :) It seems like you enjoyed playing it! Sounds very good, also.

(food and coffee break)

Prowler,
Ah, Strange stereo-pan on the vocals compared to the music….but a good performance indeed.
Drummer….you like to speed, huh? ^_^
Next!

Wasted Beers..
Hmm…who has put reverb on everything?
It sounds so far back… ;)
Especially the snaredrum. Due to tuning, perhaps.
Not so tight, this one. Worth re-recording. Sorry, that's what I think.
Nice overdub (?) on the solo!!

Aces High
Jeeeeees, what is this? Punk Rock?
Easy boys, easy!
Bass is a little bit high in the mix, I think. I would have played with more accents so it complemented the drums. Just a note, but anyway.
What else, well….it's a bit messy, but fun to listen to.
Cheers for the delay on the vocal, on chorus. Nice, but his timing could be better.
But it's for fun, right….who cares…. ^_^

Rime of the ancient mariner,
Bad timing problems, guitar 1 and guitar 2. Re-record the guitar on the right, I say.
It's not fun to listen to, when it's 3 miles apart in timing.
I know I'm picky, but it's THAT important.
Great drum sound!! Whacky, kinda. Snaredrum especially! ;)
Good singing, indeed!! But it's too low in the mix. Push it up.
Brilliant Bassplaying!!
Wow! that middle eeri sequence is just GREAT!!! Great job, lads!!
You must a had fun on this one.
Whoevers bass that is, he/she needs to check if the intonation is ok (judging by the solo-part). :D
Good guitar solos!! Excellent!
Singing is absolutely excellent on this tune. Cheers for the overdubbing, at certain places.

Deja vu,
Every thing is really together and relatively tight. Good job!
Good tempo, also.
Bass: what are you doing when the song kicks in? You're actually playing the melody-part, not the bass-part. …Am I right? It sounds kinda empty now. Listen to Steve, he plays his typical F - C# - D# - F, solid 8-notes.

Where's the synth? I kinda miss it, in the melodic-part in the middle. It brings the feeling of the song. It's missing, I think.
Good guitars on this one. Cheers for that! Nice harmonies!
Good drumsound! Especially bassdrum!
Singing is okay too, btw. This is a very very hard tune to sing, I think. It's very high in the chorus. Even Bruce struggles on the original recording.

Wrathchild,
Wow, nice bass sound! String-rattle! Yes!
This recording is nearly spotless in other aspect.

Well, there you have it.
My thoughts…and before you decide to never speak to me again, let me just add that I'm equally hard on myself when it comes to recording stuff. I'm a perfectionist, maybe you can tell… ^_^ Thanks for letting me listen. And thank you for reading, if you've read it all...
 
well, I'll speak for my self but I think we can all take the critisizm. It's good for us.

I would be the "maniac" on the drums, lol, You hit it right on about Hallowed. Thats our most recent recording and I think it's our best to date. We keep getting better, so that's really all thats important.

oh as for prowler..yeah I was a bit over the top on that one:)

I'm looking forward to doing a few tracks with you. You and Rabs( our resident perfectionist:) )would work well together.
 
That was great! Keep the comments coming!

In the future, it would help if you were provided with the names of who did what, since we have a lot of versions, its hard to tell who your commenting on....

 
You rule Tormentor. I appreciate the fact that you had the balls to say it like it is. I don't disagree with a word you said. Actually..I disagree with somethings...but those were when you said 'Good Guitars' on songs I did where i was not too happy with them myself! ;)

This whole post was excellent. I really appreciated this one. We have needed an outside musician come in and really give us the once over like this for awhile. Man. Best post on this board in a long time. Thanks!

Maidenman - Resident perfectionist huh? :p I'll take that as a compliment. ;)

I'll also answer some questions...and make some comments.
1. Drummers always set the tempo. More recently, we have started always using the original as a reference track. There are some songs (that you didn't get) that suffer even worse from speed issues (Sign of The Cross is the tops there I think).

2. Clickety-Click on bass! Yes! I love that! I would love it if was there!

3. Guitars out of sync. I noticed you mainly pointed out songs where there were two different guitarists. Problem in the past was that they would record seperately and then try to put em together. More recently, we let one guitarist record first (preferably over bass...but, alas, not always) and then the other will try to match.

4. Flight of Icarus - Thanks mate. :)

5. Lonliness - That was Medsy on guitar all the way. I am jealous that I haven't laid down playing that good - yet. ;)

6. The WickerMan - He sent you that version? :lol: I did the live thing as a joke afterwards. hee hee.

7. Hallowed - our most recent. MM pretty muched summed it up here. - I am not happy with my guitar playing in parts...timing was off....but those are all my fault.

8. Deja-Vu - Thanks Man. Thats all me on guitars. I learned it and recorded it in 3 days. I cringe on my playing on that one in many sections now. Oh well. Constantine was having fun by modifying the bass line on it. It was more modified than that at first! :D I was trying like heck to get synth in...but alas, no keyboard players..and nobody volunteered to do any. I even had a mix where I played the keyboard parts on my guitar for awhile..but it sounded awful..so I whacked it. Which singers version did you get?

Yea.. I read it all. Three times. We need to get you in the loop sooner on songs. It would be really cool if you could hear working mixes (before we post the final version) and gave your opinion!

Nefilim - Thanks a bunch for sending him the CD!:D
 
WOW... i agree....that type of honesty is awsome...... keep it up......

...although there are a couple of things i want to add.....In defence here.....The ancient mariner guitar timing sync was not the guitarists fault....( THE ALMIGHTY IRONCROSS.... ;) ... but moreso my fault.... i totally screwed up his sync in the mixdown process...mainly in part 1.... Im not sure what version you listened to but there is a very recent remix around somewhere with the syncing issue resolved and some serious equing of bass and drums..... ill check to see if it has been put on myplay....!

Same with alexander.... should be a cool remix around also.....

You may find that there are finished versions of...
Sign of the cross
The prisoner
The trooper
Can i play with madness
For whom the bellz toll
Wrathcild..??
.....floating around also...you may want a listen on them too...although they were completed fairly early in the process so quality is slightly less than the kickass ones of hallowed,flight,dejavu and co.....

Enjoy...
 
oops.....

turns out that the mix of alexander was the remix...oh well...hope u liked it anyways....

And turns out that the only remix of mariner so far is the karaoke version..... I totally forgot about the full versions....ill get round to the final remixes asap....... but the guitar sync is much much better in the karaoke version....for starters..... :)
 
Yes, very nice of you to make thoose comments, it`s great to have an objective view on the songs :) He he, I thought you were gonna slay Prowler..I`m not happy with that song, maybee we`ll redo it one day :)
 
Hey guys. I just wanted to say that I whipped together this CD for Tormentor using some of the tracks that I think are the coolest so far. They are in no particular order on the CD, and I gave Tormentor very little information on who did what and in which order the tracks were recorded. So Jim, it's my fault that he hasn't used any names when giving criticism to the tracks. Unfortunately, I was too lazy when putting the CD together so I didn't bother to check Rabs' list of tracks to see who played what... The only info I gave Tormentor was who did the vox on the various tracks.

Here's a little list for ya:

1. Alexander the Great (Jim)
2. Flight of Icarus (7thSon)
3. Powerslave (Jim)
4. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (7thSon)
5. Wicker Man "live" (Jim/7thSon)
6. Hallowed be Thy Name (Jim)
7. Prowler (7thSon)
8. Wasted Years (Jim)
9. Aces High (7thSon)
10. Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Jim)
11. Deja Vu (Jim)
12. Wrathchild (Jim)
 
I'm going to send in a bass track using my Carvin to give you the wonerful sound Steve
has.

I was playing a 1973 Fender Jazz on the weekend, Wow, this bass kicked ass.
I was so close in buying it, but I've got my eye on a Rickenbacker.
Time will tell, what's next!!

When I use Carvin to play at home, It could just me my cheap computer speakers but it sounds like shit through my
computer, but kicks ass through my amp.

Give me a couple of days and I'll post something. Let me know how it sounds.

Tormentor, on Powerslave I'm using my Steinberger bass.

Thanks for the comments,
take care
Constantine:eek:
 
Stefan, you rule! The consummate musician's musician! :D

I'm awfully beat right now as I've been in very tense negotiations for our house today, so I'll keep it short for now and summarize my thoughts by saying I'd pretty much agree completely. I'd imagine that you could after hearing them now, lay these tracks out in chronological order judging by thier level of sophistication. That's a good thing though I think because it shows the improvement that we've all been striving for. Think of it as an evolution of sorts. :)

- I think you missed out on Sign of the Cross, which I thought was really excellent.

- Yes, my "clickity-clack" has often been lost under the mix. It's hard to bring that out without coordinating all of the sounds BEFORE any tracks have been layed. If you listen carefully to Maiden, you'll notice that certain guitar frequencies are noticably missing to leave room in the spectrum for Harris's "clickity-clack". It's one of the luxuries of having a full studio, lots of time, an engineer and a good producer. We CAN achieve it ourselves though, it's just a matter of me finding the "magic" frequency that will cut through the mix without damaging the overall sound (i.e. cutting up the bass drum). I was able to improve it somewhat on Hallowed, but it remains to be seen if I'll ever achieve the full bass Nirvana of a fat tight bottom end with searing highs. I will certainly continue to try however! :D

Hmm... so much for "short" huh. ;)

Anyway, your thoughts are much appreciated and well heeded. Like I've mentioned before I respect your opinions very much. :)

CHEERS!
 
Well well, thanks everyone!! :eek: :)
You all make me so happy!! :D
Hah, I thought you were goin to execute me for this one...

Some personal notes:
rabies, thanks for your kind comments.
I appreciate it very much.
Yes, drummers should set the tempos and be VERY careful not to play too fast, although it's tempting.
Ok, so the out-of-sync was a technical matter. I thought so, because it was fairly consistent! :)
Deja vu, yes you did a great job on guitars, but the synth is a part of that song so it should be there. But if you have no synth-players....whaddayado...? ;)

Medsy.
On Rime..., I like the fact that the guitar sounds are so different. That's excellent.
I hope the recording of The Trooper is a good one. It's a hard tune to do justice. Speeding might be a problem.

Adde,
Slay Powerslave? No no, it was great, I think.
Good sound, good tempo, good bassplaying, good singing...etc... :)

Constantine,
Yes, a Fender Jazz is a dream to play for peeps with not so big hands, I reckon.
Btw, Steinberger basses kicks major ass.
The basses I've enjoyed in my life are these:
Fender Precision (well DUH! ;) )
Yamaha Attitude, Standard 5 (5-string, a sound-engineers dream: lots of bottom and crunchy high-end)
Musicman Stingray (wonderful bass and sound, but oh so expensive...out of my range in most cases)
Rickenbacker (a dream to play, but I find the sound not so versitile as the Precision)
On another note, you certainly scored on the Ampeg-deal, Constantine! Hope you enjoy it.

E_C,
Congrats on the house, mate!!!!
You fought long and hard to find the right one, I know.
Yes, being a musician is all about getting better, to evolve, listen and learn.
And you're right about the magical frequence. I've often wondered how they did it.
Takes a lot of sweat from the sound-engineer I bet, before you've found it.
Thanks for respecting my thoughts and opinions. You don't have to agree, however. ;)
I know you're (or were) beat, but you still took your time to answer. Thanks.

I hope you all understand, I had so much fun listening and I think all my comments were valid.
It's just my opinions after all.

And bassplayers, if you're going to play Maiden, you MUST have string-rattle, I think. it's part of the music, I reckon.
It's Steve's style. Getting it out in the mix is the tricky thing, tho.

Again, thanks everyone!
Cheers! :)