Mix question on Strapping Young Lad's "Alien"

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DrewPeterson7

DrewPeterson7

Sage of the Order
I'm having the sort of day at the office where SYL seems about the right soundtrack, and something kind of odd is jumping out at me in a few points on the album - I'd noticed it before, but kind of forgot about it and now I'm just curious.

There's a few points in the album where the low end just becomes absolutely thunderous - it sounds like the kick drum is sucking all the air out of the room, somehow, and it seems to be done as a sort of effect. For anyone who has the disc, a perfect example is the first drum roll at the very beginning of "Shitstorm," where there's a quick snare fill that ends on this kick drum hit where the bottom just drops out of the sound. Or, and this is probably going to get eaten alive by YouTube's compression, on "Love?" at about the 10 second mark (on the CD - the YouTube site is blocked at work so I can't check it on the video) when the bass comes in...

[video=youtube;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeG-6bpeUkA]video[/video]

I'm not even sure I particularly like the effect, but it's got me curious. What exactly is he doing? Thanks!
 
Bump - I realize I'm asking about the mix on a somewhat obscure, very extreme metal album, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts. Thanks!
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Bump - I realize I'm asking about the mix on a somewhat obscure, very extreme metal album, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I've been looking for that album for ages. If I can ever get hold of a copy I might be able to provide some speculation. All I have is a crappily compressed mp3 of 'Love'.


Related but unrelated question....have you heard Devin Townsend's 'Ki'?
 
legionserial said:
I've been looking for that album for ages. If I can ever get hold of a copy I might be able to provide some speculation. All I have is a crappily compressed mp3 of 'Love'.


Related but unrelated question....have you heard Devin Townsend's 'Ki'?
Click to expand...

I'll be honest, "Love?" is easily my favorite track on the album - it's sort of where he most fully crosses the line between his jarring SYL sound and his more melodic, textural solo material.

I have - it's, eh, some of it I really like, some of it's kind of meh. I think his newest, "Addicted!" is a bit better - he was evidently trying to go for a Nickelback style of production, and while objectively he failed horribly (it still sounds like a DT album), there's some pretty phenomenal stuff on the disk. "Supercrush!" is one of his best tunes in, well, ages.
 
It's called either a "sub kick" or "bass drop": generally, a super-low (<60-80hz) sine wave of decreasing frequency and volume, sometimes with an accompanying kick drum-like attack. Depending on volume and mix bus compression, this thunderous explosion will have a ducking affect on the rest of the mix: thus, the "suck the air out of the room" effect.

Great album, btw!
 
steve.h said:
It's called either a "sub kick" or "bass drop": generally, a super-low (<60-80hz) sine wave of decreasing frequency and volume, sometimes with an accompanying kick drum-like attack. Depending on volume and mix bus compression, this thunderous explosion will have a ducking affect on the rest of the mix: thus, the "suck the air out of the room" effect.

Great album, btw!
Click to expand...

Thanks dude! You just use a fairly pure synth tone, I assume...?
 
steve.h said:
It's called either a "sub kick" or "bass drop": generally, a super-low (<60-80hz) sine wave of decreasing frequency and volume, sometimes with an accompanying kick drum-like attack.
Click to expand...
+1 - It's usually a sine wave or a couple stacked sine waves, sometimes double with an 808 kick... which is basically a sine wave.
 
Hmm, that half explains it. I know what it is, now can anyone tell me how it's done?

Thanks :D
 
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