Finished this just yesterday. It was one of four demo tracks I mixed/ghetto mastered in a day for the band and it's my favourite heh

Everything (except drums) was tracked using our Buzz ARC channel. It stacks very well.

Mixed in the box using Nuendo 3, a UAD card for comps/ eqs and a Powercore card for the verbs.

On the stereo buss I put a touch of top end using UAD Pultec and brought the level up with a lot of my powercore Sony Inflator and -3db on Waves L2.

Lemme know what you think.

Cheers,
Rich

I really like the snare sound, but i think at certain points, it has too much body to it. I don't really think the sound of the kick fits well with the song. At times, it gets drowned out, and at other points, it gets right up front, but not in a good way. I like the sound of the bass. It's really crunchy sounding, for lack of a better term. Did you mic it or DI it? The guitars sound nice, but i think they carry too much bottom end on them. It sounds as if they're fighting with the bass a bit. It's a good song, and i like it. Good job! I think there's too much room sound in the overheads, and it makes the cymbals sound a bit distant. Nice production, but recording just needs a bit more. Make sure to post if you redo it, I wanna hear it. This is just fine for demo purposes, but if you should want to properly release it, I would fix some stuff up.

Thanks for your comments man.

The snare was tricky, in the mix I eq-ed it to ****, compressed it with a UAD LA-2A, eq-ed it again, gated it and added a touch of verb. Before that it was in 'St. Anger' territory

The bass sound was a combination of DI thru the Buzz ARC and a 57 on a Trace Elliott bass rig. The bass itself was a Warwick Thumb.

The mix is far from perfect (nor some of the playing) and thats what you get for mixing 4 songs in a day.

I doubt anything else will be done with this track as the band are happy with it but who knows, I may get another chance to tidy it up.

Cheers,
Rich

Just to let you know, I saved this to my hard drive, and i've listened to it about twenty times already. Actually, I'm listening right now. Ok, so i really wanna recreate that bass sound. I have an Esp B104. What should i do to get that sound? Should i just compress the hell out of it, or what? Also, this may sound stupid, but for a sound like that, after processing, do you need to slap or can you pluck, and still get that effect? I'll be putting this song on my iPod very soon. It has major potential, and so does this band. This reminds me of the scene where i live, but a little dirtier. I live in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and every band here is into the hardcore vibe, but alot of them touch on the whole emo vibe too, which is definitely not my thing.

Yeah, gets in your brain doesn't it? heh

Should be do-able with your ESP. It'll depend on your front end though. What would you be recording the bass through? (pres, comps)

I compressed the DI feed on the way in using the Buzz ARCs compressor, it is killer on bass.

In the mix I added a touch more compression to both DI and Mic using Waves Renaissance Comp and their bass guitar preset believe it or not. Works pretty well.

I then subgrouped both channels and dialed in about 4-5db of 'clank' and 'pluck'.

It works great for plucky or slap sounds, on one of the other songs we mixed the bassist slaps a lot and it really cuts through the mix.

Cool. The band will be blown away that someone is digging their stuff in the states.

Cheers,
Rich

I'm going direct into an art tube mp which gives me a real smooth tone. I have a digitech Rp200 guitar fx pedal. I don't have any outboard comps right now. I do all of my compression Itb. (waves, or cubase dynamics) I go from the pre to an m-audio ozone, into my computer, into cubase. I'm listening to the song again!

Hey, cool stuff man! ( count me as another fan fron the USA! ;-)

I agree the snare sounds good but doesn't quite fit . . . I might try to reduce the ring a hair and increase the the punch and crack if possible. And probably put a little reverb on it . . . . maybe . . .

Listening a little closer I think it actually sounds fine during the heaviest of sections but on the lighter to medium sections it sounds too up front . . like there is another guy in the room listening to the track with me while he plays a snare drum.

Keep up the great work!

WOW... what a cool rocksong! Nice work Rich. I'd like to here some more presure on the guitars (some db on hibass/lowmids) and in the verse the vox up a lil bit more in front (just my taste).

Andreas