Lies

[joeym]

Hey guys,
here's a track I recorded a few weeks ago....was waiting for Chris to finish shredding.
This is a first mix, so the final version will probably need some tweaking. I'll rely on your thoughts.
And no, this track is not on the CD....maybe on the next one...in about 1 & 1/2 year's time....

lies_master mp3.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Joey

Mix 2: http://www.box.net/shared/vucm8dk9bh

 

[karumba]

joe, nice track! (als always)
great guitarsound! the closed high-hat (the one in the quieter parts ) is a little bit sharp & too loud for my taste. try to saturate it, could help. crosscheck with high resolution FFT for peaks. cymbals are fine. the synthsound is also cool. the short strings @3:58 are irritating me. the mix is fine

 

[ido1957]

Wow - another great tune Joey! Mix sounds pro to me. The writing and performance are top stuff!

 

[kcearl]

yup another wow song...modern and clean sounding...nice guitars, vocals are sterling..dont have anything on the mix..the high hat stuck out at first...love the breakdown, very well done...the synth sounds good at swells but not so much the stabs...maybe just too big a patch for those staccato parts..

as consistent as ever mate

 

[joeym]

joe, nice track! (als always)
great guitarsound! the closed high-hat (the one in the quieter parts ) is a little bit sharp & too loud for my taste. try to saturate it, could help. crosscheck with high resolution FFT for peaks. cymbals are fine. the synthsound is also cool. the short strings @3:58 are irritating me. the mix is fine

Jan, do you mean that short orchestra burst, where the solo starts? I thought they would add some colour to the arrangement, but I can always remove them. I don't mic the amp for the guitars anymore, I use my Sansamp GT2. That little box is amazing! I'll check that hihat again. This time I used Andy Sneap's snare and kick samples in Battery and tried some parallel compression. I copied the drum track and put Seventh Sign from Entress on it and mixed it in with the untreated drum track. Thanx for the comments!

 

[joeym]

Wow - another great tune Joey! Mix sounds pro to me. The writing and performance are top stuff!

Thanx Gerry!
Nah...it's not pro...but now I have Jan's masters to compare to when I mix

 

[joeym]

yup another wow song...modern and clean sounding...nice guitars, vocals are sterling..dont have anything on the mix..the high hat stuck out at first...love the breakdown, very well done...the synth sounds good at swells but not so much the stabs...maybe just too big a patch for those staccato parts..

as consistent as ever mate

This time I had some help from Tibetan monks in the breakdown....
Yeah, those staccatos sound kind of like they don't belong don't they? I think I'll chop them out. Thanx Keith!

 

[maximusbs]

Great one Joey! I like the modern dark vibe. I detect some Stone Sour influence here. Just a thought - If you down-tuned some on the next song like this, I believe it would make it much heavier and modern. Good guitar sound though. I like that break-out ending - hmmm.... sounds like something vaguely familiar... I really like that.. I don't know what to call it....double-time solo build up thingy don't know, but very original and just damn cool ! I'm at work with the Poo-pod headphones - I wanna put this on the monitors and possibly pick on your (program) drum sound. Don't go anywhere...

 

[PDP]

Sounds great, the song gets really creative around 3:00 the arrangement works very well through all the parts. Mix is full and clear, Great work!

 

[Greg_L]

Nice bass presence in this one. Great vocals as usual. Thick guitars. All that is good. I can personally do without the orchestral parts. Really good thick mix overall.

My only nit are the drums. Particularly the snare. It doesn't fit. It's way robotic and roomier sounding than the rest of the kit. That doesn't happen in real life, and always sticks out to me. The actual tone of the snare is pretty nice, but it sounds like it's in a different space from the rest of the kit. Other than that, it's good.

 

[joeym]

Great one Joey! I like the modern dark vibe. I detect some Stone Sour influence here. Just a thought - If you down-tuned some on the next song like this, I believe it would make it much heavier and modern. Good guitar sound though. I like that break-out ending - hmmm.... sounds like something vaguely familiar... I really like that.. I don't know what to call it....double-time solo build up thingy don't know, but very original and just damn cool ! I'm at work with the Poo-pod headphones - I wanna put this on the monitors and possibly pick on your (program) drum sound. Don't go anywhere...

Aha, you've noticed....I get inspired by some things I hear.
I do down-tune, but only a half-tone.
So I guess I'll wait for your comments on my drum programming.
Thanx, Brad!

 

[joeym]

Sounds great, the song gets really creative around 3:00 the arrangement works very well through all the parts. Mix is full and clear, Great work!

Thanx for the comments, bud!

 

[joeym]

Nice bass presence in this one. Great vocals as usual. Thick guitars. All that is good. I can personally do without the orchestral parts. Really good thick mix overall.

My only nit are the drums. Particularly the snare. It doesn't fit. It's way robotic and roomier sounding than the rest of the kit. That doesn't happen in real life, and always sticks out to me. The actual tone of the snare is pretty nice, but it sounds like it's in a different space from the rest of the kit. Other than that, it's good.

Well, that makes it 3 against those stabs, so they gotta go...
I'll check that snare again, Greg, gotta trust your ears on that one....!
I was worried the bass could be a little loud but I think it's OK.
Thanx for the comments, bro!

 

[Greg_L]

Bass is definitely okay.

 

[maximusbs]

...continued...I got no problem with your programming - It's off the freakin hook! What I heard was your cymbals swishing (around 2:51 is a good example). Why does it seem like I'm the only one that hears that? I was at a post awhile ago and if it wasn't for Greg confirming that he heard it too, I'd have thought I was loosing it I get this swishing problem when I use dithering sometimes. You might want to crank it and check. I also am bugged by that closed hat at higher volumes. The drums as a whole don't sound bad (however, I think I preferred the old sound), it's just when you program those fast snare hits that it tends to 'expose' the programmy nature of them. That's it.
Oh , and the tuning thing - I'm just curious, since your recent writing has been much more modern (old-school is still the best though), what it would sound like if you tuned down to say D or Db with drop D. Not that I want you to be like these faggety 2k, hard-rock bands that write every song about "You looked at me all hard, now I gotta kick your ass because my daddy never loved me" You can't be like that cuz your songs have good lyrics and you have talent and experience .

 

[rayc]

Cool one Joe.
The stabs - they are in the right place but the wrong sound. PERSONALLY I'd replace them with 1/2 doz guitars to gain the desired result - & I get what you were after - the placement is good.
The bass is GOOD to stay as it is - don't fiddle with it.
IF you could replicate the synths'n'things from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath it'd be cool too!
I'll be back to listen again soon as I let this wash over me for an impression rather than detail.

 

[joeym]

...continued...I got no problem with your programming - It's off the freakin hook! What I heard was your cymbals swishing (around 2:51 is a good example). Why does it seem like I'm the only one that hears that? I was at a post awhile ago and if it wasn't for Greg confirming that he heard it too, I'd have thought I was loosing it I get this swishing problem when I use dithering sometimes. You might want to crank it and check. I also am bugged by that closed hat at higher volumes. The drums as a whole don't sound bad (however, I think I preferred the old sound), it's just when you program those fast snare hits that it tends to 'expose' the programmy nature of them. That's it.
Oh , and the tuning thing - I'm just curious, since your recent writing has been much more modern (old-school is still the best though), what it would sound like if you tuned down to say D or Db with drop D. Not that I want you to be like these faggety 2k, hard-rock bands that write every song about "You looked at me all hard, now I gotta kick your ass because my daddy never loved me" You can't be like that cuz your songs have good lyrics and you have talent and experience .

Don't worry Brad....my daddy loved me. I used play 2 of the guitar tracks in dropped D before but I got tired of it and resorted to playing normal chords. Those fast snare rolls are really bugging me, I'm gonna change them or have them sound human. Thanx for the analysis!

 

[joeym]

Cool one Joe.
The stabs - they are in the right place but the wrong sound. PERSONALLY I'd replace them with 1/2 doz guitars to gain the desired result - & I get what you were after - the placement is good.
The bass is GOOD to stay as it is - don't fiddle with it.
IF you could replicate the synths'n'things from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath it'd be cool too!
I'll be back to listen again soon as I let this wash over me for an impression rather than detail.

Thanx Ray!
I'll see what it sounds like first if I remove the stabs, cos Chris is soloing on half of them anyway. I'm not that good with synths, Keith's the man there...

 

[TripleM]

Real nice sounding guitars. Bass was a little too strong for me during the big power sections, but most people will probably like it that way. lol

Good vocals and vocal tone.

My only other complaint is the verb on the snare. Sounds too 80's hair metal to me. Personal opinion - I hate 80's hair metal.

edit - I thought the kick might be a little too slappy. Too much attack and click to it. Just a bit.

 

[karumba]

Jan, do you mean that short orchestra burst, where the solo starts? I thought they would add some colour to the arrangement, but I can always remove them.

yep, these ones. color yes, but maybe the wrong one for this track ;-)
i would just remove them, only the short ones from 3:58 - 4:04.

I don't mic the amp for the guitars anymore, I use my Sansamp GT2. That little box is amazing!

wow!

I'll check that hihat again. This time I used Andy Sneap's snare and kick samples in Battery and tried some parallel compression. I copied the drum track and put Seventh Sign from Entress on it and mixed it in with the untreated drum track. Thanx for the comments!

i think your drumsound improved. you are doing very well in hushing up that you don't use real drums. it sounds quite realistic.

btw, i think parallel (upward) compression is overrated. i used it a lot before, but found out, that you can achieve *nearly* the same effect with conventional downward compression. i've examined this in detail on recording.de (german forum):
http://recording.de/Community/Forum/Recording_und_Studiotechnik/Mixing/142070/Post_1440006.html

...and later i saw on GS, that someone found that out before:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/mastering-forum/284381-parallel-compression-under-microscope.html