Bang's newest mix.. NEOTEK ELITE.. hell yeah

[Bang]

Originally Posted by Prickstein

Hmmm, dunno dude. Where's the danger? It's a very "safe" sounding, well polished demo to me. Reminds me of the recordings the kids at the local uni are doing, which are pretty damn good i might add, but not yet sounding like a big release. I really couldn't get past the sound replacing on the drums. It doesn't yet sound quite finished to me, there is a lot of space for creativity with subtle delays coming off the vocals etc.
It sounds like it was recorded with some very nice gear though, very good clean signal. Now go f&%k that s#@t up and make it jump out man! Rock n Roll aint suppose to be pretty.

Its funny you said "pretty" because in a conversation Bill (lead singer) and I had about the first track, he said, "I want it to be a pretty song, but with balls" after all, the song's about his girl, who is quite pretty I might add. So thats what I had in my head when I mixed it... When I mix I have an idea of how I want the final product to sound, and for these mixes I think I matched the ideas pretty well, and the band is ecstatic...... except for one thing... they want me to lessen the subtle delays that I have all over the vox, especially in the choruses... rock is getting drier and more inyourface again, I like that sound a lot. Luckily, I had already done a pass with less vocal effect so the band picked that for the final master. I don't know what a "big release" sounds like anymore, but I'm quite satisfied with the stuff coming out of the new room. The new webpage is almost done as well..
Steve

[everybody's x]

Originally Posted by i51423

Jesus. Great work.

thats my take, you got SKILLZ bro. You're work sits right in there with the big dogs as far as Im concerned.

you just piss me off when I spend hours on mix, post it up, A/B it with whatever you just posted and think "sh*t!, back to work"

[Prickstein]

Hey Bang, I reread my comments and realised it may have come across a bit harsh. Sorry dude, wasn't rying to be an a#!hole. Your stuff is consistantly good from what I've heard on here, and I think you've got what it takes be an "A" Grade mixer but it's just that last little piece that was missing for me. I could tell you that I think you the man like many on here before but instead I'd like to see you push the limits of your abilities even further by letting you know why I don't get the same feeling as listening to an Andy Wallace or Terry Date mix. Damn dude, it's a good mix- don't get me wrong. Everything is definately in it's place eq wise. The subtle delay thing I was talkin about just adds another dimension when at a level where you can't really hear it, but you already know that. I've heard you pull better drum sounds before, not so noticeable on the triggering. The roll 2 minutes into it reeks of triggers. Keep it up and I look forward to hearing your next mix.

[Bang]

Prickstein, I didnt take offense to your comments and I apologize for not thanking you for sharing your opinions, as well as everyone else on this thread. I don't post mp3s on this forum to have my ego stroked, I do it because getting feedback from other engineers is a totally different experience then from getting it from the "normal folk". Its great to hear specific opinions on the elements of a mix... most normal folk can't distinguish the quality of a song from the quality of the mix so it can often be hard to get good feedback.

So again, thanks for you comments, I value them whether you love what I do or hate what I do. And I'm sure we can all agree that you never stop learning in this craft and thats why its exciting as hell.

Steve

[Ahellam]

bang, can ya give me some insight on your overhead technique? mics/pres/any dynamic processing?

[Bang]

Overheads were two MXL V6s, they have a nice shimmer and don't make me drink heavily if they get whacked. spaced pair, equidistant to the snare. Compressed with the Renn Comp on opto and eq'd with neotek eq. The hi pass on the Neotek works great for overheads. And they are automated all over the place, I just listened to the mix and rode em to do what they needed to do. I liked your foo fighterish track btw.. good stuff.

Steve

[Ahellam]

thanks, its interesting, alot of people wont dare put compression or limiting on overheads but I find it neccesary at least to catch the peaks of the snare hits to keep it under controll and tight sounding.

[Bang]

A lot of guys I know will compress their overheads, I first got the idea from Drew Townsend who has a great drum sound. I found the waves opto renn comp did what I wanted. My goal when compressing overheads is to make the cymbal decay a bit smoother and less peaky, as well as taming the snare and bringing an overall bigness and more character to the whole kit.

Steve

[Absolute]

Hey Steve

Real nice.

On the first song did you gate the Rhy Guits or edit the waves to get that abrupt chugg? For drums..Did you use only room mics for ambience or any verb?

[cfdrumr]

can u please list all the gear used?!? Kick sounds pretty good. What mics did u use?

[opentune]

Man, what can i say... I would love get my mixes on that level one day!

It´s a cool tune and the sound matches perfect. Nice AND dangerous. I really
like it. Sometimes i have clients that want me to get them a sound like this.
Then i have to say: sorry guys, even if i would own a big studio i wouldn´t
be able to deliver a sound like this. Not even close.

Excellent work that makes me work even harder on my skills!

Why don´t you just kidnap djui5 and come over to my place for
a nice mixing session?

[Bang]

Thanks guys, very good to hear you guys are enjoying these mixes. I've been quite happy to, between the Neotek and the new room, all is going well. For those interested, I'll be taking orders for the Super Stereo Limiters soon as well as other gear that I use in my daily mixing duties on the new page which will be announced asap.
To answer some questions, I did edit the guitar waves which enhances the tightness of the CHUGG. For drums I combined a very compressed room mic with a tiny bit of of digital reverb. This was tracked a while ago but I know that Sytek, Trident, and Midas pres were used straight to digital which for me at that time was Lynx and Ramsa converters at 44.1khz. I do everything at 24bit 44.1khz. I rarely compresso anything to tape, with the exception of vocals which I'll only do a tiny bit. Guitars were probably a room full of Marshalls and Mesas with one 57 on each cab, even the clean stuff I love using 57s on. Vocals were Behringer B-2Pro. Still think that is Behringers best product to date. Mixed through the Neotek with some modded dbx 160s and mostly Neotek and URS eqs.

Steve

[Chrisac]

This sounds really great. Not my bag musically but I can still tell good when I hear it. But damn, I just cant get anywhere close to that sound mixing in the box. Ive known for a long time I need to get back to mixing with a console. Whats stopping me...... .

I dont suppose you did an ITB mix. Would be interesting to hear the difference.

Great mix :)

[drew]

it's not ITB vs. console, Bang's ITB mixes sound pretty much the same. He's posted them before. He's just good.
drew

[largeunit]

Sounds really good. I feel like I'm hearing much more of the Manley Vari-Mu than the Neotek. Sounds to me like a good Vari-Mu setting on the quieter parts of the song, then on the loud part everything is overly smeared together - and sounds like the Vari-Mu doing that to me. I'd experiment with a different setting on the loud part, FWIW. Nice job.

[Bang]

You must have misread one of my posts, I am just receiving the Manley, it was not used at all for these mp3s. You are certainly hearing a lot of the round and punchy Neotek character. Even running two track mixes into its channels provides a nice musical overtone.

As for itb, its a whole different animal. Things sound cleaner and more precise, but lack musicality, that is unless you add the musicality. When I mix in the box I like to use plugins that will add some grit and juice... unfortunately there are not many that do it all that well.
Steve

[largeunit]

Interesting.

In any event, the loud part sounds overly "smeared" or blurred together to me - if it were me I'd try to address that..

[Bang]

I don't know if I would call the loud parts smeared, but the overall articulation of the track will improve once I put it through an analog mastering chain rather then just a few software plugins. But I still like the sound. I'm not sure its humanly possible to retain all fluidness when mastering stuff as loud as we do these days, I'll admit that. But I'll still try to make it the best I can. But again, I'm not going to take a stand against the loud wars when labels want me to make this shit LOUD.

[drew]

Steve Lintz is now Steven Slate?

c'mon man. that's pretty showbiz. I'm disapointed.LA did that to you already?

[Bang]

Hollywood, it'll get you by the balls.
Now if you'll all excuse me I have to go snort a few lines of coke off of Paris Hiltons stomach before she comes to...

[Chrisac]

Originally Posted by drew

it's not ITB vs. console, Bang's ITB mixes sound pretty much the same. He's posted them before. He's just good.
drew

Yes I know its not an ITB vs console mix. I merely asked if he had done an itb mix.

[Chrisac]

Originally Posted by Bang

As for itb, its a whole different animal. Things sound cleaner and more precise, but lack musicality, that is unless you add the musicality. When I mix in the box I like to use plugins that will add some grit and juice... unfortunately there are not many that do it all that well.
Steve

I completely agree. So for arguments sake if you had mixed this track in the box do you think you could have achieved the same results.?

[Bang]

I'll try to fit in a quick in the box mix over the next few days. I'm eager to try out the new Voxengo Marquis compressor.

[Jax]

Hey Bang, another great sounding mix.

About your gripe with mp3's (can't say I blame ya) - have you tried encoding to AAC yet? I can't hear as much difference between a .wav and .aac as I can with mp3's. Infact, I'm hard pressed to hear the difference between a .wav and .aac.

All you'd need for aac is iTunes if you don't have it already and you can post aac's here.

[Bang]

I do have itunes and tried the AAC thing but for some reason didn't follow through with it. I think with the whole iPod craze its more mainstream now so I'll start using it. So you like the built in converter in iTunes?

Steve

[djui5]

.ogg is a great format...

[stickstome2]

Both songs ---great---are you jesus the engineer --I love the sound Dream Theater gets and you got that sound!!!! congrats dude ---WHERE can I buy the CD and what is the Bands name???

[Bang]

No Jesus was a carpenter and when he dabbled in Pro Audio he used ADATs I believe, what can I say, the man is old skool..

The band is September Twilight, there are a few labels fighting for em right now and I'll post more info on them as I find out more.

[Bang]

Update 11/15.. few things here.. Here is the first mix again with a bit bigger drum sound.. I didn't think the first one was not big but I guess after mixing my drums so loud for all these years, people have come to expect it... Its an AAC file (thanks Jax) that I think you will need itunes to play.

http://www.blacklinerock.com/music/a...edomaster2.m4a

This next mix I found in a rough mix folder for the same band. The notes on the mix were "mixed in DAW w/Sonalksis EQs to RMS Folcrom to Trident S20 to Super Stereo Comp". I ran it through a quick software mastering chain and you can hear it now... Figured this was relevant since you can now get these two fine pieces via my website, so you might as well hear em in action.

http://www.blacklinerock.com/music/a...edomaster2.m4a

[Absolute]

Hey Steve

on the rough mix folder song could you talk about the guitar

Its very hifi. I know the cymbal hits along with the chords are helping it have that hifi sound ...but anything else? Like..are the cymbals or guitars processed in a different way than usual?