"Mercurial" Metal

C

ceaserin

New member
Ok. Here is our latest project. We've been working on it for over a year now and its finally done. The first three songs on the list are radio edits of the actual cd. I played the guitars and handled all the enginneering right up to the mastering. Hows the mix?

www.mp3.com/ceaserin
 
Hear the phone ringing? It's Dream Theater's lawyer, he says you should have asked before stealing their licks! :p

This has a lot of good stuff going for it! "Embracing..." is pretty hard stuff to play, lots of noodling and stop action. I love this type of heady stuff, you certainly pull out all the modern prog rock stops.

The kick drum is a little too crisp, some people like it, I do, but in this case it's just got too much clarity for being the bottom end to the kit (and I think the crispness kinda makes it too drum-machine-esque).

The mix is damn good, plenty of stereo seperation.

What tracking software did you use? (cakewalk, sonar, more expensive stuff?)
 
"Embracing"... Sounds like some masterful stuff here.... but gotta comment on the phasey cymbals (the "washy, swishy" effect)... they're messing up an otherwise very TIGHT recording, IMO... (alTHOUGH... seems like Pearl Jam did use a phasey sounding snare sound on the first track from "Yield"... if ya like the swishy-swishy... eh... keep it in there...)

Okay... this thing is growing on me big-time... I love those guitar rhythms that refuse to just go with the 4/4... you guys manage not to fall into the speed metal rut, and do your own thing... man... guys on this board are gonna eat this up... I got a feeling SLuiCe is gonna be one of your biggest new fans ...

Very nice recording... you know, those vox could come up and not hurt my feelings... this is a much cleaner sounding metal than as per average... not as much sludge, bang-bang-bang on those detuned 6th strings...

You approach Rush, Black Sabbath, Megadeth, Tool, AC/DC and many other bands without becoming those bands. A hellluva lot of talent. Lots o luck fellas... and hopefully we'll hear ya someday on alt radio!!


Chad
 
Didn't like Embracing.........too disjointed....Meridian's Tear is cool but my favorite is End of Silence. I thought the voice could come up some and in places I also thought the guitar could come up.
End of Silence is major cool.
 
Ok. A little more info on what I did here: The tracks were recorded and mixed with Samplitude 6.0-6.05 through a Motu 1224. I used different Presonus pres for many of the instruments and the vocals.

The drum samples are from Q-Up Arts "Heavy Hitters" Library. We used the Tommy Lee Ambient kit. I like the samples for the most part but I agree that the cymbals leave a little to be desired.

The guitars were recorded direct with the Pod Pro. I recorded 4 rhythm tracks using two different sounds. For leads, I did the same except I ran the Pod's "Unprocessed Out" into another old Boss preamp that I had and tracked both pres. The two radically different sounds worked well together and the ability to do that is what I like most about the Pod.

I did the mastering in Wavelab using several instances of the Sonic Foundry multiband which I find works best for me in terms of controlling consistently-hot frequencies. Then capped it off with Waves RenEQ and the L2. I think its important to note...I did this in an entirely different room from the one I tracked and mixed in. The room used a Hi-Fi monitoring system that I wasn't completely familiar with but I think it helped me to approach the finishing touches from a fresh perspective. I also had the studio owner there giving me his neutral opinions. These are things I feel are important in the mastering stage.

We did play some live shows recently mainly in Houston but most notably, we played the pre-show at the Prog Power Festival in Atlanta a few weeks ago. The band is no longer together at this point but me and the songwriter will continue to do studio work.
 
Embracing the Absence:

Nice crisp guitars and the drums are pretty good too. It's just that there is this weird echo thing on the snare that kinda gets on my nerves a bit.

Very dream-theater like that verse riff somehow. The guitar harmonies are pretty good here and there. Maiden-esque :D I think you have some mp3 compression problems, because sometimes it makes the cymbals go wabbly (or is that a word?). There's definitely a good balance in the mix. That snare echo (or reverb) thing is too loud, though. But... you've got killer riffs and all those nice time signature changes. I'd definitely call this prog-metal, and really not bad prog-metal either. Oh, you've got reviews from Metal Hammer and all. I think you'll do just fine :D

Meridian's Tear:

Not a big fan of screaming vocals, but they don't bother me that much here. I guess it's the same as with Opeth for me. The music is so good that it doesn't matter :D And I hear there's some "normal" singing here too :D I guess I'm old fashioned or something, so forget everything I said about screaming vocals. Some nice prog-riffs here too, and those stop-go-riff styles (I don't know what I'm saying here, but...) One thing, in the middle part of the song (at about 4:30 or so) when it gets more quiet, the kick sounds a bit artificial. I think that little part could have used a softer mix on the kick, but I'm too nitpicky now :D

The End of Silence:

Mix is great here also. Kinda similar as in some Nightwish records. Crisp and powerful. I think you don't have that much mixing problems after all, I'm usually nitpicking on "real" album mixes also :D And this sounds very much like a real album mix should sound like. In fact, it sounds better than some out there. I'll be damned if you don't get more recognition with your cool stuff.
 
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