To our very own BACKMASK...

Virgil.

¯\(°_o)/¯
Jul 12, 2005
3,192
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Seattle, WA
Alright Kazrog and doc... I've been spinning Dark Fiber many many times over, and keep wondering when we're all going to get to hear from our very own Backmask again and their new album? Any studio updates or clips to hold us (me) over? :p

Keep up the good work boys.
 
Well, he just got DFHS 2.0 yesterday, so it may a little while longer as I'm sure Shane will be exploring the sounds of it and trying to find a good mix template to use.

~006
 
Do not fear. We are actually working (although it doesn't seem like it). We have several songs completed structurally, and we're working on some other, interesting ideas. This past Sunday we actually shot some video of our songwriting and drum tracking/programming process for a brand new idea. We will be posting clips as soon as I get off my lazy @$$ and write some bass lines. We are pretty confident in our new tone (gotta love the Engl!) and were confident about our drums (until DHFS2.0).

Thanks for the votes of confidence!!! We are actually really glad that people care enough to bug us about it.

Cheers,
Richard
 
At this point I'd say it's realistic that we will release in the Fall. We've been doing a lot of sonic experimentation this time around, as I totally redid my studio this year, etc. And yes, my DFHS 2.0 upgrade got here yesterday and I am very much digging the sounds, but if anything I think that will help us get the album done faster and better. We've got a lot of music written, one song in particular is 10 minutes (and counting) as we're still adding sections to it, and most of the other songs are in the 5-6 minute range. There's also some more straightforward, brutal stuff in the 3 minute range.

We're really happy that we have this kind of demand, it's actually grown leaps and bounds since we put out "Dark Fiber" in ways neither of us anticipated. Thank you so much for being patient!!!
 
Sweet!!!

BTW, I don't think your new stuff should be free. I loved the fact that you sold loss less tracks last time around via the net.

We'll definitely be selling CDs still. As for the download pricing, that's something that's still being worked out, but we will be on iTunes again at their prices. We also plan to keep our direct web store going as well.
 
Thanks for the update Shane and doc! I can't wait to hear what you've been working on. :rock:

BTW - I'd pay whatever you charged for your new album. The songwriting and production on Dark Fiber is truly amazing and is far better than 90% of the shit that's put out today. Keep up the good work!
 
Is the e530 used in the songs on your myspace? Sounds greaatt ( songs and production :P)

The songs on our MySpace are from our debut album Dark Fiber which you can listen to in its entirety and purchase at Backmask.com. We recorded the album in 2006, and the guitars were quad tracked through my 6505+ head into my Mesa 4x12 cabinet, with an Audix i5 mic and a Neve 1081 pre. I didn't have the ENGL yet and wasn't doing impulse stuff yet at that point.

For the our second album that we're currently working on, I'm using my ENGL e530 direct into my Firepod, then running it into some impulses I made myself. I've discovered that all of the speaker impulses I've tried are flawed, and sound phasey and weak. After some research and experimentation, I discovered a better technique for making impulses of guitar cabs, so I'm actually going to release a product through my newly formed software company, Kazrog LLC, which will be a collection of impulses released as an affordable download, with more impulse packs being released every few months through the website I am setting up for it. Starting small with this, just as Slate and Toontrack originally did in the drum sample business, but I have some goals to grow the product line over time into some other areas of music production software and tools. But for now...

Hearing is believing, and I've made a couple quick clips one night while writing a new Backmask riff, slightly sloppy playing as I had a couple of glasses of wine and I'm a total lightweight geek, but it shows the difference between my impulses and a popular impulse that people are using:

Absolutely zero processing, just the guitar direct into the ENGL, direct into the Firepod, direct into impulses, double tracked with two performances hard-panned. It sounds even better quad tracked, but this is just pre-production after all...

The impulses you hear in my clip were created from the same Mesa 4x12 oversize cabinet I used for Dark Fiber, hence the rather thunderous tone. With some quick EQing you can roll of some of the extreme cabinet rumble and get it dialed in just right with plenty of mids and highs - and that's just one of several impulses I made of that one cabinet, and there's more cabinets to come.

So... getting lots of cool stuff going at once. I've always thought it's cool how much Meshuggah gives back to the musician community and we'd like to do the same thing in our own way.
 
Cheers for bagging me dude. Appreciated. :kickass:

I'm sorry if I came off that way. It certainly wasn't my intention, but I can see now that I read over it again how you are understandably put off by what I said. I guess I'm fairly direct in my opinions about how things sound, and I intended no disrespect to you personally, but it was still a totally dick move on my part regardless of my intentions. I guess I was typing too fast and sometimes I tend to lack tact or an internal monologue, particularly when I'm fired up about something.

Your impulses are highly touted for the reason that they have been the best and most prolific ones out there for a very long time, and that in itself is something you should be proud of. You obviously put a lot of hard work into it, expecting nothing in return, and I wasn't trying to belittle that. In fact, that is amazingly cool of you.

It's not about competition for me, or trying to one-up or bash anybody. Like many other people here, you included, I have just been trying to get the best tone I can, in the box without having to mic anything up. I sincerely apologize, and feel pretty lame now. :(
 
Not a fair comparisson, IMO, since different cabs/impulses require different settings. I would rather say that the second clip is boomy and has a bit too much room whereas the first would be great if it had more lows and less highs. Not trying to fuel a flame war but such a comparison is misleading.

On another note, I'll definitely be happy to hear some of your new stuff, Dark Fiber kicks ass!

Cheers and no hard feelings I hope :kickass:
 
The songs on our MySpace are from our debut album Dark Fiber which you can listen to in its entirety and purchase at Backmask.com. We recorded the album in 2006, and the guitars were quad tracked through my 6505+ head into my Mesa 4x12 cabinet, with an Audix i5 mic and a Neve 1081 pre.


I'd been meaning to ask -- was y/our MH400-NT used on the album at all? Do I own a piece of Rock History?! ;) :rock:
 
Not a fair comparisson, IMO, since different cabs/impulses require different settings. I would rather say that the second clip is boomy and has a bit too much room whereas the first would be great if it had more lows and less highs. Not trying to fuel a flame war but such a comparison is misleading.

On another note, I'll definitely be happy to hear some of your new stuff, Dark Fiber kicks ass!

Cheers and no hard feelings I hope :kickass:

Yeah, I agree. Really misleading... Besides the obvious big EQ differences, Kazrog's is also louder...

Still interested in those impulses whenever they are done though