Check Out Our Clips! Modules Galore!

[EWSEthan]

So, (RockStar)Nick and I spent the day in the studio today tidying up some loose ends on some existing songs and tracking guitars for a new song. We have decided to post them for you guys to all check out. Heres the link:

https://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... dID=899075

Grounded, Home at Night, Do It Again, and Distance are all done and downloadable on mp3. "Jesus Saves (But the Devil Spends)" is the new track we just tracked guitars on today. Its pretty rough but the core tones are our best yet we think and its just a 57! No bass or vocals on that one yet.

In general it goes like this:

Heavy Rhythms for Grounded, Home, and Jesus are E-Rect and EG5 hard left and right, usually an SL or BMan channel B up the middle
Heavy Rhtyhms for Do it Again and Distance are SL2 and E-Rect hard left and right, with BMan channel B up the middle
All leads are EG5
SL or BMan channel B for mid gain stuff basically (Any mid gain stuff on Jesus is all SL - we didnt use any BMan today)
Cleans are either T/D or BMan.

I believe the lead in Grounded is mic eliminator.

If you want to know modules for specific parts just ask as we'll try to remember! Looking forward to feedback from our fellow Egg-heads! You should have seen the scene today! 2 MOD 50s, a 2x12 and modules all over the place. it probably looked like the amp lounge!

Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[rynnce]

Nice songs! Everything sounds great. The one thing that might be missing is some substantial bass under the clean sections, but maybe it's the computer speakers not translating that on my end. Nice vocals too. Everything was very catchy & easy to get into.

 

[fuzzyguitars]

great songs.

surprisingly mature!

sounds like a mellow version of the band LIT.

THrow in at least a few more solo's. and hell, i will buy the album.


but need more solos!

can you tell us more about the recording chain?

mics, preamps, etc!

 

[RockStarNick]

Dudes, my basement today was basically the East Coast Joizey Amp Lounge. It was two Mod50s, a mod2x12, and just modules scattered about. Vintage marshall plexi, toss in the SL. Heavy rhythm, grab the E-Rect. I swear, the modular system makes recording different tones an absolute breeze.

There's quite a bit of bass on the tracks actually... but it just doesn't come across on the laptop speakers. Let me tell you, mixing for multiple sources (i.e. laptop speakers, iPod, Car stereo, etc) just plain sucks. This is probably the 10th mix we've done on these songs.



RECORDING STUFF:

Drums were recorded at Portrait Recording Studios in Lincoln Park, NJ. The owner, chris badami, has just great, great ears, and a million and one awesome mics and outboard gear. Loves to use the distressor. Snare and kick has samples blended in, but they're samples of our drummer actually hitting HIS stuff. Chris's drum sounds are, in my opinion, some of the best in the biz. He's a drummer, and knows how to get great sounds, and he has a great room there too. And I, like him, love to mix the kick drum LOUD and have the snare just punch you in the face.

Bass: Squier Vintage Modified Jazz Bass into Sansamp Bass Driver DI, then into a Carvin 10 band EQ. We spent a good hour tweaking the tones, and especially the EQ, so that the tone of the bass was naturally even. No super low mud, and lots of good low-mid frequencies to fill it out. (Basically, made the bass sit in the "hole" that we carved out of the bass drum around 130-200hz.)
The Sansamp, I've found, sounds AMAZING solo'd, but sometimes in the mix, it's too mid scooped. I like to bump up the low mids, and take out the extreme lows down at 60... leave that frequency for the kick drum.

Recording Chain: GUITARS Home at Night and Grounded

Celestion Vintage 30. SM57 pointed at the center of the cone, Sennheiser e609 pointed at the seam. Both into the Mbox, using the built in preamps, into protools. That soundcheck took just about forever. Every combo of on axis, off axis, this mic, that mic... for those two songs, those two mics worked good for us.

Recording Chain: GUITARS for JSBTDS

Celestion Vintage 30, SM57 pointed at the seam. Preamp was a new Presonus Eureka. No comp or EQ, just a touch of analog sim. Into protools. That's it so far. -2db at 1.5khz on the main rhythm guitars. For the leads and overdub parts, we switched to a Beta57 just for the hell of it. A bit brighter and thinner, but it worked well.

In my opinion, we still haven't found THE ultimate way to capture our guitar tones, but we're getting closer and closer. The Presonus Eureka helped tremendously.

 

[MarcoR]

Great material guys; guitars of course sound very good, the vocals are excellent. Nice work!

 

[muudrock]

Sounds great gentlemen. Very nice results. I do really dig the drums--they sound very in control of the song which is so important for this type of music, yet they don't take over.
Of course the guitar tones sound great! I listened through a good set of headphones and the overall guitar sound is very full and even with no annoying frequencies that I usually hear. Can't beat a 57 on a V30.

Anyway, I really dig it! Reminds me some of my old band. Ahh memories.

 

[RockStarNick]

Thanks guys. I'm relatively satisfied with the way we captured the tone on "Grounded" and "Home at Night". That being said, I'm loving the tone on "JS". More present and better note definition. That Presonus Eureka is incredible so far. I feel It's brought our recorded guitar tones to another level.

For me, the hardest thing so far, has been telling myself "OK Nick. This song is DONE. It is what it is. Your next song will probably have better tone because you're going to buy better gear, but stick a FORK in this one and just get it OUT there..."

That's the hardest thing for me. To accept that because we're doing songs in bits and pieces, each song will sonically sound better than the last, due to GAS and subsequent gear purcahses!!!

 

[Val]

So, (RockStar)Nick and I spent the day in the studio today tidying up some loose ends on some existing songs and tracking guitars for a new song. We have decided to post them for you guys to all check out. Heres the link:

https://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... dID=899075

Grounded, Home at Night, Do It Again, and Distance are all done and downloadable on mp3. "Jesus Saves (But the Devil Spends)" is the new track we just tracked guitars on today. Its pretty rough but the core tones are our best yet we think and its just a 57! No bass or vocals on that one yet.

In general it goes like this:

Heavy Rhythms for Grounded, Home, and Jesus are E-Rect and EG5 hard left and right, usually an SL or BMan channel B up the middle
Heavy Rhtyhms for Do it Again and Distance are SL2 and E-Rect hard left and right, with BMan channel B up the middle
All leads are EG5
SL or BMan channel B for mid gain stuff basically (Any mid gain stuff on Jesus is all SL - we didnt use any BMan today)
Cleans are either T/D or BMan.

I believe the lead in Grounded is mic eliminator.

If you want to know modules for specific parts just ask as we'll try to remember! Looking forward to feedback from our fellow Egg-heads! You should have seen the scene today! 2 MOD 50s, a 2x12 and modules all over the place. it probably looked like the amp lounge!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Sounds excellent! Seems like you guys know where to hang the frequencies....that's very important! To make the song....Thanks for letting us hear it! A couple more solos like someone else suggested would work, but keep it simple...some low register single note harmonies, chord harmony (power chord harmony), may work in some sections of new material you may be trying, but it has to be done right. I say this because you seem to have the tone to try and hang some of these type of harmonies, bass included and the fullness of it all, just a thought.

Hope it doesn't snow up in Michigan for the rest of the year so I can't have my MOD50 shipped sooooon...I'm Jonesiiiiin!
Happy Holidays!

 

[broknstuff]

I'm still listening through them but sounds great guys! I know what an absolute pain in the ass it is to record guitar tones, at least for someone inexperienced like me I get what you're sayin nick about "when am I done?!". This, and for ease of getting the tone, I much prefer playing live to recording, but you guys did a great job.

If you're ever doing a south florida tour you got a roadie

 

[Fallout Labs]

this is the exact reason bands pay producers and engineers. we're the exact same way. however we're starting to limit ourselves to 3 or 4 mixes before calling it quits on a song. plenty of time to fix things when you land a deal

 

[Jeff Hilligan]

sounds great and I totally feel Lit! Love it guys! Really sounds great!

 

[EWSEthan]

Thanks Guys! Wow. Glad you guys are digging it! Like Nick said, we had such a hard time mixing the 4 that are "done". We could still use some mastering as they are not nearly as "loud" as commercial mixes but we just dont know how to do that and arent't willing to pay someone...yet. We have thought about asking Ty Tabor if he still has mastering services at Alien Beans and I brought the guys CDs, which I gave to them at the New Jersey show. But Ty was sick that night so he didnt come out to sign so I didnt get to ask him about rates for mastering, etc.

Anyway its frustrating when you work so hard on something, then it comes on your ipod next to something Brendan OBrien mixed!! The difference is so noticable. But I just keep telling myself that we dont have racks of pres, compressors, etc, and that we arent professional engineers. I think we are pretty good about producing ourselves (in that we can get what we want to hear down to tape), but sonically we probably could use an engineer!

Thanks again for checking it out!

 

[jmgman69]

I just listened,that's some cool tones guys Nick man,you can sing dude

 

[Jeff Hilligan]

Thanks Guys! Wow. Glad you guys are digging it! Like Nick said, we had such a hard time mixing the 4 that are "done". We could still use some mastering as they are not nearly as "loud" as commercial mixes but we just dont know how to do that and arent't willing to pay someone...yet. We have thought about asking Ty Tabor if he still has mastering services at Alien Beans and I brought the guys CDs, which I gave to them at the New Jersey show. But Ty was sick that night so he didnt come out to sign so I didnt get to ask him about rates for mastering, etc.

Anyway its frustrating when you work so hard on something, then it comes on your ipod next to something Brendan OBrien mixed!! The difference is so noticable. But I just keep telling myself that we dont have racks of pres, compressors, etc, and that we arent professional engineers. I think we are pretty good about producing ourselves (in that we can get what we want to hear down to tape), but sonically we probably could use an engineer!

Thanks again for checking it out!

Nothing against Ty..since he will be in Europe on tour, his time is, well non existent. I would suggest Wally Farkas from the Galactic Cowboys. If you would like to talk to him he will make this recording even better call me.

 

[Doubleneck]

Very nicely done guys.
All the tunes are really catchy, the vocals sound great and the guitars sound great. I really like the drummer.
If you are trying to get your music out there to get signed, I think the mix is good enough. Let someone else pay for the re-mastering after you get a label!

 

[evink1]

Get the Izotope Ozone 3 plug in. It is such a good mastering suite that they are now bundling an LE version with most of the current pro tools sets. It does an awesome job and is all I head for now that I have used it for about two years now. Here is a great read on how to master and how to use Ozone 3 to get these results. http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/guides.html

I printed this sucker out 2 years ago so I could read it even if I wasn't near a computer. I had been doing this stuff for years and still learned a ton from this guide. We never will know enough about recording in my opinion because there are just som many angles to getting a particular sound. This guide just rocks.

For 250 us dollars it was the best money I spent on software next to my Celemony Melodyne auto tuner software. I use Melodyne for even creative things not just touching up a vocal or guitar solo. Good stuff indeed.

The tracks you guys have are slamming. Hey if you want I could pop some of this into my studio and shoot you out a master of what I can do. Just PM me and I can work out details. It is the least I can do for guys on here who are as helpful as all of you are and this is killer music.

I am serious I would do it for you guys in a New York minute. All I ask is if you guys like the final results that you spread the word about me and Overture recording Studio in Pekin, Illinois. Getting files is so easy with the internet that long distance work is the normal.

What happened to simpler days.

 

[RockStarNick]

Kevin, we may have to take you up on that offer! PM sent in a few, bro!

Guys, thank you for all the kind words. I'm hate my voice, so to hear you guys say that the singing is good gives me a great boost of confidence!

 

[evink1]

Some people were asking about what types of music we work with and who we have recorded in the past. We will work with any style of music at Overture Recording. You can track here or you can merely send your tracks to us to mix and or master depending on your needs. Here are a few of the famous people who actually came into Pekin, Illinois to record vocal tracks for a compilation CD call Liberty and Justice.

 

[evink1]

We also had Jani Layne of Warrant there and that made headline news on Metal Sludge.com last but not least was Leif Garrett. It has been truly a wild ride over the last couple years that is for sure. Never thought big guns like that would grace the walls of our place in Pekin, Illinois of all places.

You just never know from day to day what will come your way that is something I have learned from life.

 

[EWSEthan]

Very cool Kevin! Thats a pretty good "Who's who" of 80s metal right there!