IS SOOOO FUCKING AWSOME
the productions shatters everything!!!!!
It is like killafornia but sounding more real.
Holy shit
the productions shatters everything!!!!!
It is like killafornia but sounding more real.
Holy shit
@Zack Ohren new first blood CD
- Thread starter gabriel g.
- Start date
The StabbinCabin
Member
Do Zach or Aaron post on here? I do recall seeing a post by the username Seizure but I could be mistaken.
+48762398476598347 to Castle Ultimate
+48762398476598347 to Castle Ultimate
Zack posted some great infos about the faith and forgivness recordings, but I dont know in what thread that was...
I would realy like to know what you guys used for guitars and bass. The sound is sooo thick and tight I realy feel the air pushed.
Vocals sound amazing too!!!!
I would realy like to know what you guys used for guitars and bass. The sound is sooo thick and tight I realy feel the air pushed.
Vocals sound amazing too!!!!
hey there! thanks for the kind words. you want production info on this record? I can try. It was actually 95% recorded and mixed last october. I did some WEIRD things on this album. I'm not in love with it but on the other hand feel it succeeds in being 1. The loudest yet punchiest master i've ever done without any distortion on the master or anything and 2. an extremely unique sounding record. All the weird shit i did on this record added up to it having a tone not too similar to anything I've done.
Drums: First thing I should note is that Carl shwartz played 95% of the drums, with their old drummer Brandon Thomas playing exactly one track. You might wonder, "but wait is carl a drummer" and the answer is no. He hadn't played drums in like a year and is just somewhat of a musical phenom. He realized after 1 song of trying to show Thomas what he wanted, in order to get stuff done in the 2 days we had booked to do drums at a fancy studio(www.sharkbitestudios.com is where drums were tracked) he was going to have to play it all himself. There is a difficult fill here and there that was played by me or brandon since like i said...carl isn't a drummer. This is basically the process taken for the drums...and no i'm not joking about this:
1. We recorded 20 tracks. Carl had made perfectly detailed pre-pro drums in fruity loops and wanted the real ones to sound the same but real of course. I did a pretty normal setup. I wanted really badly to keep the natural room sound very loud and intact on this album. Keep in mind the decision to have carl play the rest of the songs did not occur until after 1 song and struggling through the 2nd, otherwise i probably would have made a few different decisions:
-Audix D6 and Sharkbite's own homemade "subkick" from a NS10 speaker on kick. Chameleon Labs preamp and DBX comp i can't remember name of
-A Vintage Beta 57 on snare top and a modded octava on snare bottom. Used 1176 mildly on input along with EQ from the trident board.
-Toms were various dynamic mics, not sure which, with just EQ from the Trident.
-Overheads were a set of KM184s for the basic overheads and another set for hihat and ride mics. It should be noted that at carl's request, there's a bunch of added in china sounds that are from drumkit from hell 2 i believe. This is because the china cracked half way through the recording and we just kept going haha. mild EQ and UREI compression was on these on input
-Rooms I believe I used just a pair of AKG 414ULS mics at about 10 feet away. Heavy EQ on the dan alexander neve channels i had them inputed on and heavy compression from the UREI comp.
So all that stated above, this record is very unique from my average production because after it turned out it was carl playing drums, the snare/kick became useless since he's not an experienced drummer and didn't hit consistant/hard enough to possibly use these tracks. In the end all the snare/kick is from Drumkit from Hell 2 I believe. Strangely the toms are totally and completely real. It was a long time ago at this point so i don't remember exactly which kick/snare samples. To try to keep that real sounding, i am using a LOT of that awesome room mic sound on the album. The drums are also quite obviously completely quantized by hand by me. This is probably one of the most insane drum tracking processes I've done but i feel it worked out better than we could ever hope for considering time constraints and well....lack of a drummer. The totally triggered kick/snare let me keep those dynamics "at 11" pretty much the whole time which is what I would say first blood is all about.
2. Guitar was a lot more simple though still a little tricky. I kind of wanted to recreate the tone from the last album but that's a tall order. I ended up tracking everything the same way I did before, with Carl's old beat up almost broken sounding dual rectifier and mesa cab. I used a room mic about 10 feet away in addition to having a BETA57 and MD421 on the cab. For whatever reason when I was done tracking guitars, i was very unhappy with the amount of crunch/djent sound on the album. Carl is a very solid player and i felt i should be able to get better. I ended up reamping it all with the exact same weird mic setup but with the a fulltone OCD pedal in front of the amp with the gain on the amp down. this totally did the trick.
3. Bass was straightforward. I don't remember his setup, but the sound on the album is a mixture of a sansamp and his exact live setup miced up with D112 I believe. Both are going through 4:1 on my distressor on input with little post processing after that.
4. Vocals are crazy how they were done on this record. Basically, due to time constraints/lack of finished lyrics/money issues i decided best course of action since Carl had some basic skills using Cubase was to simply loan him a mic and have him track vocals himself. I loaned him my cheap but trusty old SE2200 mic and a M Audio fastrack interface. While this took FOREVER(close to a year) for him to get done since he kept tinkering with stuff what I got back worked quite well. I took the projects he made and ran the raw tracks through my better compression/etc and i can barely tell the difference between what he did and what I would have gotten done with my nice M149/distressor/chandler setup i typically use for vocals in house. More importantly, he got EXACTLY the takes he wanted on the album.
5. The mixing/mastering on this record has some crazy weird tricks on it. I don't wanna give away all my secrets, but I will say that the mastering was done all on 1 plugin that was last updated in Nov 2003. It's the only record i've done this way but for some reason it just worked better than my normal tools. I tried right before we sent it to press to do a better master using my typical multiband comp and Slate digital FG-X which turned out a lot clearer and fuller, but for whatever reason, I really liked the harmonic distortions and extra meanness that the other plugin gave this record. I also tried a very in TC electronics MD3 which was a totally fail. It just punches through awesomely even if it's not the clearest thing, i think it's more "first blood" this way. The FG-X master sounded like a whole different album, very dynamically open a every bit as 'loud' but i actually really ended up liking the overcompressed sound that the other plug gave. it's just more extreme. Hope you like it.
-zack
Drums: First thing I should note is that Carl shwartz played 95% of the drums, with their old drummer Brandon Thomas playing exactly one track. You might wonder, "but wait is carl a drummer" and the answer is no. He hadn't played drums in like a year and is just somewhat of a musical phenom. He realized after 1 song of trying to show Thomas what he wanted, in order to get stuff done in the 2 days we had booked to do drums at a fancy studio(www.sharkbitestudios.com is where drums were tracked) he was going to have to play it all himself. There is a difficult fill here and there that was played by me or brandon since like i said...carl isn't a drummer. This is basically the process taken for the drums...and no i'm not joking about this:
1. We recorded 20 tracks. Carl had made perfectly detailed pre-pro drums in fruity loops and wanted the real ones to sound the same but real of course. I did a pretty normal setup. I wanted really badly to keep the natural room sound very loud and intact on this album. Keep in mind the decision to have carl play the rest of the songs did not occur until after 1 song and struggling through the 2nd, otherwise i probably would have made a few different decisions:
-Audix D6 and Sharkbite's own homemade "subkick" from a NS10 speaker on kick. Chameleon Labs preamp and DBX comp i can't remember name of
-A Vintage Beta 57 on snare top and a modded octava on snare bottom. Used 1176 mildly on input along with EQ from the trident board.
-Toms were various dynamic mics, not sure which, with just EQ from the Trident.
-Overheads were a set of KM184s for the basic overheads and another set for hihat and ride mics. It should be noted that at carl's request, there's a bunch of added in china sounds that are from drumkit from hell 2 i believe. This is because the china cracked half way through the recording and we just kept going haha. mild EQ and UREI compression was on these on input
-Rooms I believe I used just a pair of AKG 414ULS mics at about 10 feet away. Heavy EQ on the dan alexander neve channels i had them inputed on and heavy compression from the UREI comp.
So all that stated above, this record is very unique from my average production because after it turned out it was carl playing drums, the snare/kick became useless since he's not an experienced drummer and didn't hit consistant/hard enough to possibly use these tracks. In the end all the snare/kick is from Drumkit from Hell 2 I believe. Strangely the toms are totally and completely real. It was a long time ago at this point so i don't remember exactly which kick/snare samples. To try to keep that real sounding, i am using a LOT of that awesome room mic sound on the album. The drums are also quite obviously completely quantized by hand by me. This is probably one of the most insane drum tracking processes I've done but i feel it worked out better than we could ever hope for considering time constraints and well....lack of a drummer. The totally triggered kick/snare let me keep those dynamics "at 11" pretty much the whole time which is what I would say first blood is all about.
2. Guitar was a lot more simple though still a little tricky. I kind of wanted to recreate the tone from the last album but that's a tall order. I ended up tracking everything the same way I did before, with Carl's old beat up almost broken sounding dual rectifier and mesa cab. I used a room mic about 10 feet away in addition to having a BETA57 and MD421 on the cab. For whatever reason when I was done tracking guitars, i was very unhappy with the amount of crunch/djent sound on the album. Carl is a very solid player and i felt i should be able to get better. I ended up reamping it all with the exact same weird mic setup but with the a fulltone OCD pedal in front of the amp with the gain on the amp down. this totally did the trick.
3. Bass was straightforward. I don't remember his setup, but the sound on the album is a mixture of a sansamp and his exact live setup miced up with D112 I believe. Both are going through 4:1 on my distressor on input with little post processing after that.
4. Vocals are crazy how they were done on this record. Basically, due to time constraints/lack of finished lyrics/money issues i decided best course of action since Carl had some basic skills using Cubase was to simply loan him a mic and have him track vocals himself. I loaned him my cheap but trusty old SE2200 mic and a M Audio fastrack interface. While this took FOREVER(close to a year) for him to get done since he kept tinkering with stuff what I got back worked quite well. I took the projects he made and ran the raw tracks through my better compression/etc and i can barely tell the difference between what he did and what I would have gotten done with my nice M149/distressor/chandler setup i typically use for vocals in house. More importantly, he got EXACTLY the takes he wanted on the album.
5. The mixing/mastering on this record has some crazy weird tricks on it. I don't wanna give away all my secrets, but I will say that the mastering was done all on 1 plugin that was last updated in Nov 2003. It's the only record i've done this way but for some reason it just worked better than my normal tools. I tried right before we sent it to press to do a better master using my typical multiband comp and Slate digital FG-X which turned out a lot clearer and fuller, but for whatever reason, I really liked the harmonic distortions and extra meanness that the other plugin gave this record. I also tried a very in TC electronics MD3 which was a totally fail. It just punches through awesomely even if it's not the clearest thing, i think it's more "first blood" this way. The FG-X master sounded like a whole different album, very dynamically open a every bit as 'loud' but i actually really ended up liking the overcompressed sound that the other plug gave. it's just more extreme. Hope you like it.
-zack
CatharsisStudios
trcksngsrpbngs
- Jun 25, 2008
- 2,198
- 10
- 38
I love the sound design on that album.
That airplain sounds in the song about 9/11 is just so intense!!!
Cant believe the vocals were done with an fast-track-pro preamp.
its just insane
The vocals sound so rich, super clear and powerfull !
That airplain sounds in the song about 9/11 is just so intense!!!
Cant believe the vocals were done with an fast-track-pro preamp.
its just insane
The vocals sound so rich, super clear and powerfull !
the decline
Save your liver
- Oct 20, 2009
- 71
- 0
- 6
Thank you soooo much for these details. I discovered this album bout 48hours ago. Holy shit its massive. Killer man
The StabbinCabin
Member
+90834790684
So awesome you are on here... Seriously- thank you for the details.
Followed the Consider The Thief blog when they went in with you guys a while ago- love everything about it man that must have been a lot of fun
lol @ my huge numbers
DestroyTheColossus
Member
- Mar 18, 2008
- 280
- 0
- 16
Im really enjoying this recording. It took me a little bit to get used to the different sound, especially the reverb on the group vocals, but it adds a unique character that I like. The vibe is so thick I cant imagine it being different.
That's really funny. Carl did guest vocals on a recording I did and he recorded his part with the set up you gave him and sent them over. I heard it was an expensive and fancy microphone that you had loaned him, haha. Never would have thought it was an SE2200. Sounded way better than my SE2200.
That's really funny. Carl did guest vocals on a recording I did and he recorded his part with the set up you gave him and sent them over. I heard it was an expensive and fancy microphone that you had loaned him, haha. Never would have thought it was an SE2200. Sounded way better than my SE2200.
+ 10000000
Price of Existence is still my favourite album ever. The production had a lot to do with that as well! So raw and energetic. Pure awesomeness.
yeah but please not that loud again -9rms should do it
the kids here in germany love that cd!!!!
I got the first band asking me yesterday:
"can you make our guitars sound like the nu first blood?"
did Carl all the gangshouts alone?
his voice is so present in them.
epic album and epic production!!!
-9rms should do it the kids here in germany love that cd!!!!
I got the first band asking me yesterday:
"can you make our guitars sound like the nu first blood?"
did Carl all the gangshouts alone?
his voice is so present in them.
epic album and epic production!!!
Incredible mix and album...Carl is a beast. I love the Sworn Vengeance style riffage in 'Detach'.
Sorry I didn't see all these replies till now! let me try to field everything here
-It was actually a M-audio Firewire solo. I generally just use it here to open up pro tools for when bands send me projects that need to be converted before i mix them. It should also be noted that i still used my outboard gear(distressor etc) and that I hand picked that mic for Carl's unique voice out of my collection of $300 and below mics i could loan him. In retrospect, a SM7 might have been better.
-Yes doing new all shall perish. Very strange recording we have scheduled to save them cash. They're going to program drums, then record all guitars/bass with a quality DI themselves and take their time. After that, they're going to come into the studio, track the real drums, reamp all the guitar/bass, and record vocals with me(we think, we may use some home recorded vocals as well we haven't decided). It also sound like I'll be mastering this one not sure.
-I didn't master the last All Shall Perish, Alan Douches did. I actually liked the master more before some last minute complaints the band has about wanting it brighter. I still have and cherish the warmer master we have of one song from before that haha.
Thanks for kind words.
-It was actually a M-audio Firewire solo. I generally just use it here to open up pro tools for when bands send me projects that need to be converted before i mix them. It should also be noted that i still used my outboard gear(distressor etc) and that I hand picked that mic for Carl's unique voice out of my collection of $300 and below mics i could loan him. In retrospect, a SM7 might have been better.
-Yes doing new all shall perish. Very strange recording we have scheduled to save them cash. They're going to program drums, then record all guitars/bass with a quality DI themselves and take their time. After that, they're going to come into the studio, track the real drums, reamp all the guitar/bass, and record vocals with me(we think, we may use some home recorded vocals as well we haven't decided). It also sound like I'll be mastering this one not sure.
-I didn't master the last All Shall Perish, Alan Douches did. I actually liked the master more before some last minute complaints the band has about wanting it brighter. I still have and cherish the warmer master we have of one song from before that haha.
Thanks for kind words.
timislegend
Member
- Jun 8, 2010
- 1,654
- 1
- 38
Would love for Eddie to get back that raw sounding vocal like PoE again. He sounded so fucking killer on that album. On the new album he just sounded like everyone else does these days... too polished and clean.
Love your work Zack. Just checked out First Blood and damn thats some raw, pummelling shit. Just the way it should be.
Love your work Zack. Just checked out First Blood and damn thats some raw, pummelling shit. Just the way it should be.
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