Orchestra + Metal + Synth (Live Drums/5150+Mesa/EWQLSO/Synths/Vox)

colynomial

Member
Jan 15, 2008
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Tracked by Adam Wathan at The Batcave, produced by yours truly :), final mixing and mastering by Jordan Valeriote at Sundown Studio- a true Sneap Forum effort all around! Lots of info pulled from this board to make this thing happen...

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/818500/06%20Golgotha.mp3

Here's another in case the first doesn't really float your boat (more riffs):

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/818500/12%20Monolith.mp3

Recorded 12 tracks over the last few weeks of the summer. There's a sampler in the "Monolith" Myspace link in my sig if you want to hear some of the other tracks. Let us know what you think!
 
Awesome.
I would have liked the synths a bit more in the background and the drums a bit more raw/aggressive but that`s just my personal preference.
Did I say it`s awesome ? Some very cool Samael like parts.
 
Sounds great! It sounds to me like if you get Soilwork and add the orchestral part to it;) Good work.

well, after some more listenig I would also prefer the orchestral part more in the backgound, and maybe with more od longer reverb, the strings part mainly.
 
Thanks a lot guys!

Orchestra was tough for sure... we found that if we pushed it back further in the mix it just didn't feel as "big". Personally I agree that it might feel better if it were behind the rest of the mix but somehow it just didn't seem quite right compared to other orchestral acts like Nightwish or Dimmu Borgir (not that it sounds as good as them now haha). I've never actually put any verb on the EWQL stuff since there's already a lot of room ambience in the samples but I'll try that next time!
 
I've never actually put any verb on the EWQL stuff since there's already a lot of room ambience in the samples but I'll try that next time!

well, I think that's the point (for next time;). I realy feel the orchestra too roomy and too close. I would try to add some bigger space to it. Some longer 2 - 3 secs hall or plate with some predelay could help to push it a bit into background and even make it bigger (the recorded room than will be less audible as it will blend with longer reverb). And maybe some equalisation could help. EWQLSO is generally a bit flat or dark equed with more lower mids and it sounds not realy natural. I often add a lot of higher mids to it.
 
sounds cool man, sounds like there was a lot of work put into these,,, in the song monolith , what did you use on the vocals at the end of the song to give him distorted vocals ? . they sound sick.
i always have trouble with distorted vocals, yours sound great ! good work man !
 
This is one of my favorite mixes I've heard on this forum.

Could you tell me more about the guitars? Double tracked? How much Post processing? I'm getting an SM57 next week so I'm pumped to start micing my 5150.
 
Erik likes it- my life is complete! Haha...

Thanks guys.

Distorted vocals were just run through Amplitube on some "metal" guitar setting with the gain backed off a little bit. I'm not sure if Jordan did anything else special to it afterwards- probably just lots of delay.

Guitars were quad tracked. One pair was LTD EC-500 through Mesa Single Rectifier and the other was a "Dillion" Les Paul (Les Paul knock-off) through the 5150. Both heads were through the same Mesa Oversize 4x12 with a 57. I can't remember the angle- maybe Adam will provide some more details on specific amp settings. Everything was tracked direct and reamped. Oh there was also a Maxon 808 in the chain and some general high lifting to get them upfront in the mix. No other post processing- just EQ.
 
I'm loving the drums, can you tell us a bit more about them?

We tracked the drums at my place, won't get into much of the micing details since there was a lot of replacement going on...

Snare is 100% replaced with a blend of a Slate snare and a sample from the D4

Kick is a home brewed sample that Jordan had

Toms are mostly natural (D2s and a D4), slightly augmented with Slate toms

Overheads were captured with NT5s, Royer R121 on hihat and AudioTechnica ATM450 on ride
 
great record and a very fun but challenging mix. lots going on. glad people are digging it... props to Adam for a good job on the tracking side and colynomial for the arrangements!