Rate my 'fix-it-in-the-mix' job (ENGL e530, 5150, Slate etc.)

Ermz

Ermz

¯\(°_o)/¯
Apr 5, 2002
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Melbourne, Australia
www.myspace.com
Hey guys,

Sorry I don't have something a bit more pro to show after all this time, but what I have at the moment is an EP mix I've just done and tried to get the best out of that I could.

Most of the raw tracks weren't really 'on the level', but I suppose you can draw your own conclusions about it all.

Catharsis Studios reamped the rhythms with his e530 into a 5150 power section, and I reamped the leads into a 6505. If the drums sound really robotic, it's because they're replacing the raw sounds 100% :)

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285689/slave-no-more.mp3

EDIT: Another track: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285689/failure-to-faulter.mp3

EDIT: The band's myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=135247840

Cheers!
 
This track rocks, everything is nice leveled, the ENGL 530 has this really recognizable character and it can be heard in this recording aswell.

If there is anything to improve it might be the bass. You can't really hear more than the lowend on there, maybe raise some roaring bassmids. Double the track and distort the shit out of it and add it to the original track.

Overall kickass!
 
Awesome job man, sounds really cool. And don't worry about the drums. They don't sound that robotic. Really natural. I'm wondering the first version though.

Man, I love 21st Century!!!
 
I'm jealous of how you've learnt to mix vocals Ermz! The mix sounds great, especially compared to your early versions of it and what I could imagine you had to use!

Maybe just a tad heavy on the auto tune in some places.
 
Thanks guys. Glad the feedback seems to be generally favorable. Makes the time spent worth it!

@Gabriel: That's cool, what is it about the intro that you don't like?

@Ronnie: Thanks! There's definitely a reason that there isn't much bass there. If you want I can upload a snippet of the raw bass playing solo if you want, then all will be illuminated :)

@88mph: For sure, if it wasn't for the crazy salvaging abilities we have these days, a lot of our work would sound closer to what the bands actually give us (ie turd) :lol:

@Dan: Thanks man, though the vocals were one of the hardest elements to mix. They inherently had this thin/bright sound to them. I actually boosted the mids.... a lot! .... and cut highs!!!! And they still sound somewhat thin when comparing to most pro releases. You really gotta wonder what happened... The autotune was running in auto mode, simply because I realized that the Melodyne plug-in was a total piece of shit, and didn't have the patience to go into Melodyne Studio to do it all by hand then re-export etc.

@Mart: It's not the SSD! It's the 1.5 Elite Mixer Edition that I use.
 
Ermz said:
The autotune was running in auto mode, simply because I realized that the Melodyne plug-in was a total piece of shit, and didn't have the patience to go into Melodyne Studio to do it all by hand then re-export etc.
Click to expand...

Heh, would've figured :p If you have to auto tune it manually, it's not worth the time spent recording. It came out decent though.
What you've got down pat that I like is the balance of level and EQ in the backing vox.
Can you spill afew details on that? I've got some recording with Rob that could use similar treatment. I might give the track another listen tomorrow morning and try get some details myself.
 
Hey Ermz, let's see - first off, I really like the hi-hat definition; close-mic'ed I assume? The guitar tone is pretty good, though I hear that e530 dryness that I'm not overly keen on, but it doesn't bother me too much. I do feel they're too loud though, especially when everything kicks in. And yeah, I hear some autotuning on the vox, but it's not that bad. Not a big fan of the kick sample, once again too thin-clicky (rather than full-smacky) for me, but otherwise drums sound good (I really like the cymbal definition, I doubt you replaced that ;)) Also, I can't really hear the bass, at least not independent from the guitars...
 
Ooh, some nasty clipping on that solo center guitar at like 3:28 though

And oh my god, this second guitar solo is like listening to a warmup routine :erk:
 
About the intro:

the clean guitar is boring and the cymbals sound cheap.
But when the song realy hits in, everything is fine!!!!

I would try a delay on the clean guitar and put in a reverse cymbal....
 
LMFAO, sorry dude I didn't even realize I did that. Happens when the brain is in autopilot. Apologies!

@Dan: The treatment on the bvox was pretty standard fare. From recent memory it was a the Waves SSL Channel doing the EQ and filtering, some fast attack compression taking off about 6 to 10dB. Waves RDesser for killing the sibilance, and Waves L1 for taming errant peaks. I don't think there was anything more to it, aside from the standard send to verb and delay. I think I may have engaged a slow phasing chorus for some of them because I thought I heard that effect used on one of the Nickelback records. Makes them sound a bit wider and cooler.

@LosingReality: Thanks a bunch.

@Marcus: Thanks for the criticisms. The hi-hat is all from the OHs. It was at least 4 times louder than any of the crashes and hence made mixing them immensely hard. There is no direct HH track in there whatsoever, and a lot of EQ trying to suck out strange, brittle-sounding nodes. I felt the guitars were too quiet when referencing against EOH and The Ascendancy. The full-bodied kicks didn't work with this material. I tried them first but the low-end became mud central. There is a lot of double bass going on and the definition was more important than the fatness. The bass was mentioned above, but essentially if you're curious I'm happy to post an almost raw sample of the bass solo'd so you can hear for yourself why it isn't audible in the mix. The clipping on that solo guitar is intentional - there's a dist plug-in running over the top to grunge it up, as a contrast to the 'open' next section. Yeah, the 2nd solo is a bit pedestrian.

@Ro... ummm Ola: Sorry again :lol:
 
Yeah, I more meant full-bodied as far as the attack goes; there are some kicks that are really clicky, and others that are "splatty," and I prefer the latter. But yeah, sounds good overall duder! Though I really can't say I'm a fan of the clipping on that part I mentioned; digital clipping to me just sounds, well, unpleasant, rather than grungy ;) (I'd just run it through an instance of TSS or something if you want it grungy)
 
Ermz said:
LMFAO, sorry dude I didn't even realize I did that. Happens when the brain is in autopilot. Apologies!

@Dan: The treatment on the bvox was pretty standard fare. From recent memory it was a the Waves SSL Channel doing the EQ and filtering, some fast attack compression taking off about 6 to 10dB. Waves RDesser for killing the sibilance, and Waves L1 for taming errant peaks. I don't think there was anything more to it, aside from the standard send to verb and delay. I think I may have engaged a slow phasing chorus for some of them because I thought I heard that effect used on one of the Nickelback records. Makes them sound a bit wider and cooler.

@LosingReality: Thanks a bunch.

@Marcus: Thanks for the criticisms. The hi-hat is all from the OHs. It was at least 4 times louder than any of the crashes and hence made mixing them immensely hard. There is no direct HH track in there whatsoever, and a lot of EQ trying to suck out strange, brittle-sounding nodes. I felt the guitars were too quiet when referencing against EOH and The Ascendancy. The full-bodied kicks didn't work with this material. I tried them first but the low-end became mud central. There is a lot of double bass going on and the definition was more important than the fatness. The bass was mentioned above, but essentially if you're curious I'm happy to post an almost raw sample of the bass solo'd so you can hear for yourself why it isn't audible in the mix. The clipping on that solo guitar is intentional - there's a dist plug-in running over the top to grunge it up, as a contrast to the 'open' next section. Yeah, the 2nd solo is a bit pedestrian.

@Ro... ummm Ola: Sorry again :lol:
Click to expand...

:lol:
 
This is one hell of a mix.
Catharsis reamps seriously good sounding tones, jesus fucking christ..
Drums sound great, pretty natural considering its all 100% replaced. :D
 
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