New A Clean Getaway Track - Check it out!

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EWSEthan

EWSEthan

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Hey guys, we just wrapped up the last track for our 5 song EP "Grounded" (which will be going up for sale on iTunes and Amazon mp3 shortly). We posted a link to an early version a few weeks ago, which was just guitars and drums. The final mix was wrapped up Tuesday night and we just got the master back from fellow forumite and Eg-head, Kevin (evink1). Many thanks to Kevin for a SLAMMING job mastering this track (and the 4 others!). The final title is in jeopardy, but we are thinking "Souls for Sale". However, its listed at our soundclick page as "JS". Check it out here:

http://www.soundclick.com/ACleanGetaway

Of course ALL guitars are MOD 50. Heavy rhythms are Suhr Standard w/ DSH+ pickup into EG5 (L) and E-Rect (R). I believe we have Les Paul into SL2 up the middle as well. Intro (before it kicks in) and breakdown part guitars are Tele through SL. Outro solo is Suhr Standard w/ DSH+ pickup into EG5.

This is definitely one of our heaviest songs and we were going for a real Lostprophets kind-of vibe on this one. The gang vocals were a blast to record and are my favorite part!! :D Let us know what you think!
 
EWSEthan":v1i6tpfq said:
Hey guys, we just wrapped up the last track for our 5 song EP "Grounded" (which will be going up for sale on iTunes and Amazon mp3 shortly). We posted a link to an early version a few weeks ago, which was just guitars and drums. The final mix was wrapped up Tuesday night and we just got the master back from fellow forumite and Eg-head, Kevin (evink1). Many thanks to Kevin for a SLAMMING job mastering this track (and the 4 others!). The final title is in jeopardy, but we are thinking "Souls for Sale". However, its listed at our soundclick page as "JS". Check it out here:

http://www.soundclick.com/ACleanGetaway

Of course ALL guitars are MOD 50. Heavy rhythms are Suhr Standard w/ DSH+ pickup into EG5 (L) and E-Rect (R). I believe we have Les Paul into SL2 up the middle as well. Intro (before it kicks in) and breakdown part guitars are Tele through SL. Outro solo is Suhr Standard w/ DSH+ pickup into EG5.

This is definitely one of our heaviest songs and we were going for a real Lostprophets kind-of vibe on this one. The gang vocals were a blast to record and are my favorite part!! :D Let us know what you think!
Click to expand...

I still say that you guys have the "IT" that it takes for success,
(plus if you continue to work hard).
GREAT job
:thumbsup:
)
 
Solid mix man. Engineer did a great job letting the drums "breath" while maintaining thick guitars!. Where did you track? How were the drums mic'd and what are they?

As far as guitar tones go... they are excellent. I am not a big fan of this type of rock but I think you guys have some great tones and that gives this a diff edge. Coolness. Master seems cleaner and less chopped off at the knees than most moder records. What RMS did you end up at overall do you know? Hard for me to gauge true fidelity from a compressed mp3 but it sounds good.
 
Hey telefied.

Well, the drums were recorded at Portrait Recording Studios in Lincoln Park NJ. Chris Badami, the engineer there, gets AMAZING drum tones. He is a drummer himself, so he knows what to look for.

These are all the drums details I can remember:

Drums were DWs. Our drummer, Mike Monaco, hits hard, but has very good control. He's a drum corp drummer, a music teacher, rock drummer... he just drums all day long, its his life. He knows how to get a good crack out of that snare.

Kick: Beta52 inside and a large dia condenser in front, covered with a packing blanket
Overheads: Shures SM81s I think
Rooms: 2 room mics really far back and up (the room is friggin amazing sounding there)
Snare: 57 on top, another dynamic on bottom, and some sort of overhead snare mic... an earthworks looking mic pointing down from about 6" above
Toms: ???

The main thing is that amazing room there.

As far as the mix, I guess you could say *I* engineered it. EQ'd, levels, compressed, etc. The drums, bass, guitars, vox, in protools. This recording session taught me the most I've ever learned about mixing. It was pretty awesome.

The guitar tones on THIS track: Egnater Mod50 into Celestion V30s. Single Shure SM57, into a Presonus Eureka preamp. I'd have to say, getting that preamp was a real eye opener, as far as guitar tones go. It totally transformed the way the SM57 sounded. It was like a new mic.

Mastering credit goes to our very own Evink1 here on the forums, Kevin Schmitt, head engineer at Overture Recording studios. He did an amazing job at the mastering. I don't know what he did, but he made it loud, punchy, full, but kept it really dynamic. i.e. perfect to my ears!!!
 
Thanks for the detail. Nice room for sure thus why you used sooo much of the room mics in the mix. Makes the drum track very organic I dig. I agree a good pre can make a SM57 sing
 
Great job guys! After hearing the first tune, I ended up wanting to listen to all of your songs. You've got some really cool tunes with an attention to detail in the arrangements that you don't hear in a lot of pop/rock music today. The engineer did a great job, and of course the guitar tones rock. I want to hear more!
 
Telefied,

I have to go with the cleaner mastering on good rock tones like this. The record labels are in a quest for the loudest track and all it does is sucks the life out of the dynamics. I could have made these tracks even louder yet but at what cost??? I just can't get into the whole volume wars thing.

Sure I will do whatever a record label or band wants but Nick was smart and wanted this to keep the dynamics yet have a decent punch and volume to it. Music needs to breath to sound natural and sqeezing it to death to make it loud just kills the vibe and tone in my opinion. I do it all day long for the death metal stuff and it doesn't suffer too much. Can't do that on pop and rock and expect to have a breathing song.

I ran the RMS to a very conservative +3.5 Most hot albums are near the +8 to +12 for the extreme side of things. Nick did such a great job sitting in the engineer and producers seat that I only did a slight EQ curve in the 500hz range and it was a little +0.8 bump. I used a stereo enhancer and multi-band compressor on it as well. Then I put it through the final master compression and very slight master verb to blend it all to taste.

It was some of the easiest tracks I have worked with do to Nick's mixing. He did an excellent job getting a very balanced mix that made these songs sit nice together. I merely added a little sheen and punch to them. Of course I can master up a radio version that is loud enough to kill the neighbors cats if we need to go that route.

Yes I am a dog lover to death. :yes: :yes:
 
Kevin,

If you ever have time, you should take one of the masters for our songs that you did... i.e. the ones that sound GOOD...

and do another one, and make it like a record company would request. Loud, obnoxious, clipping, etc.

That way we can all see what the "loudness wars" can do to kill dynamics.
 
Nick,

Your in luck bro. I am heading to the studio tonight to work on some stuff and I can slam that out real quick for you. I will ftp it tomorrow and pm you when it is out there. It will be freaking loud that is for sure. I will probably use one of the slower ones that labels would jones to destroy. :thumbsdown:

The weird thing is they all want us to make it this loud and then the radio stations sqeeze it even more before they broadcast it. It is part of how they broadcast. Sounds like a dead 64bit MP3 by the time it hits our FM radios. :cry: :cry: :cry:

It will be fun to do a really hot master to show you what happens to it. I have actually heard music pumping before because of the compression set so high. How could a label EVER release an album that has compression pumping is beyond me.

I wish I remembered the band name. I will have to go back to the archives and listen again. It is a major label band who tours at that. Like Panic at the Disko or one of those bands. Weird world we live in man. :confused:
 
evink1":df3c38ws said:
Telefied,

I have to go with the cleaner mastering on good rock tones like this. The record labels are in a quest for the loudest track and all it does is sucks the life out of the dynamics. I could have made these tracks even louder yet but at what cost??? I just can't get into the whole volume wars thing.

Sure I will do whatever a record label or band wants but Nick was smart and wanted this to keep the dynamics yet have a decent punch and volume to it. Music needs to breath to sound natural and sqeezing it to death to make it loud just kills the vibe and tone in my opinion. I do it all day long for the death metal stuff and it doesn't suffer too much. Can't do that on pop and rock and expect to have a breathing song.

I ran the RMS to a very conservative +3.5 Most hot albums are near the +8 to +12 for the extreme side of things. Nick did such a great job sitting in the engineer and producers seat that I only did a slight EQ curve in the 500hz range and it was a little +0.8 bump. I used a stereo enhancer and multi-band compressor on it as well. Then I put it through the final master compression and very slight master verb to blend it all to taste.

It was some of the easiest tracks I have worked with do to Nick's mixing. He did an excellent job getting a very balanced mix that made these songs sit nice together. I merely added a little sheen and punch to them. Of course I can master up a radio version that is loud enough to kill the neighbors cats if we need to go that route.

Yes I am a dog lover to death. :yes: :yes:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the run down I am a mixing/mastyering engineer as well. Seeing as these were compressed mp3 I could not get a true read as to the RMs etc. I love how dynamic it is even without the La Vida Loca loudness treatment haha. I am sick of the loudness wars myself. It is cool to know that the mix was so good most of the time we are asked to fix the mix in the master and as you know that is not generally the best idea nor always possible.

Can I ask what you are listening on (monitor wise) for you main refrence and as alternate refrences.

Thanks again!
Ross
 
Right now I am using Sampson's 6a's for near field and some high dollar, was already built into the wall full range hi-fi speakers with 15 in wof's, 12 in mids, 6 1/2 in hi mid, and a tweeter.

I say as long as the speaker is relatively flat and your listen to a ton of reference CD's your good to go. If I am shooting for say a megadeth sound I listen carefully to several megadeth songs the band wants to sound like and then I start my mixing and mastering.

As long as you know what the reference material that works for a band sounds like you can spot on nail it with a little work no matter what you monitor on. Yeah I agree some high dollar speakers make it way easier and more acurate but you can get by if you listen to the reference material and shoot for how it sounds on your particular system.

I for one am going with the JBL's soon that you can set to the room acoustics your in. I think it doesn't get much better than being able to tune your speakers to the room. They are pricey but tons of pros love them things.

I have been using the same stuff for so long I just know what it transfers to the real world like. Hate to change what is working so well for me but I am gear whoring for those JBL's. :lol: :LOL: :lol: :LOL:
 
Hell yeah man you gotta learn your room and your monitors I agree. Even if you have the most amazing John Sayers designed control room and Genelec main near feilds you will still have to "learn" that sound in comparison. Bottom line is if you shit sounds good and translates well then you could mix/master on Logitech desktop speakers and it is no big deal. OK maybe not really but you know what I mean. I have seen but not heard those JBLs. I will say don't waste you cash on the IK Multimedia ARC room correction plugin pack thing. I have used it and it is a joke. I am curious about the KRK room correction box they have called the ERGO.

Anyhoo back to the A Clean Getaway master. I know you said the RMS increase was like +3.5db but what did the overall A weighed RMS come out to. I mean back in the day Zepplin stuff was mastered to like -22db RMS or so and these days I want to say MEtallica's Death Magentic was like something crasy like -6db or -5db RMS. I can't download the JS tune because they guys have not realsed it yet but my guess is it has to be like -13db to -10db RMS which is great to me. You speak the truth about the loudness wars brother.
 
Telefied now I see what your asking. I am running this master at -11 to keep the dynamics. I think it sounds bigger that a louder more squeezed sound. I gave Nick a "radio hot" and he hated it.

I had to agree with him but boy was it radio hot. Loud as crap but did nothing for me dynamically. It really lost a lot of it's luster.

I hear you on knowing your equipment and room acoustics. I could sit down at a multi-million dollar studio and until I hear some comparison tunes I can't say I could release a do all master. You just have to have seat time in your enviorment and then your ready to rock.

I laugh at your talk about teh room plug in. that is as bad as the mic simulator programs out there. I mean I have an AT 4040 and this magic plug in makes it a neuman 87. :no: :no: I don't think so man. :lol: :LOL: :lol: :LOL:

They sure throw the sells pitch that keeps this kind of software on the market though. All those programs are are a alogrithm of EQ filters that some programer was told makes this sound like that. Crazy idea in my mind.

That is why I stayed away from Anteres Auto tune and went with the real company Celemony and their Melodyne products. I never tune a vocal to 100% perfect usually a very consevative 83 to 90%. It doesn't sound natural to make it perfect and I can also let some drift be kept. I usually tighten the drift up more like 92% or close to it.

Really sounds like the singer nailed his part as naturally as possible. You would be hard pressed to tell when I fix Vox. I usually shoot for the retakes to make it right. If a singer is just getting to tired and wearing out I will then shoot for the fix, or if they just flat say it is good enough fix it I will do it. I still try to shoot for the re-take though.

I am not a real fan of the fix it in the mix per say. :confused: :aww:
 
evink1: We are from the same foundational thoughts on more than just Egnater amps haha. -11 is a good goal to shoot for I try to stay arounf -10 for most material for dynamics sake too. With moder albums coming in at -5?!?!?! WTF haha. I am a Melodyne guy too!!!! For similar reasons. haha coolness. Anyway props for the master on these dudes track man! Cheers.
 
Ha! I can't believe it took sooo long to make the connection Matt, and RockStarNick are in the same band! Hehehe Cool stuff.

I think I added you guys on myspace when I was checking out the music. If I forgot, I'll do it soon.
 
Kiteboarder":1c5qv4xt said:
Ha! I can't believe it took sooo long to make the connection Matt, and RockStarNick are in the same band! Hehehe Cool stuff.

I think I added you guys on myspace when I was checking out the music. If I forgot, I'll do it soon.
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Yep, I am directly responsible for Nicholas discovering Eggie. If it werent for me, hed still be slumming it with a Shiva. :D
 
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