New demo from my band done with a good chunk of DIY gear

[Curtis]

*potential spam alert!*

Hi chaps,

For those of you bored enough after reading my previous posts, you may have followed the link in my signature and noticed one of my side projects is a band called The Third Ending.  We're slow movers music-writing-wise (regular paying jobs, families and all that jazz), but we have had our debut signed to Prog Rock Records for about 18 months now.  As a one-off Christmas treat we've put up a new demo on our website which is a taster of the way things are shaping up for our second disc.

For those interested in the nitty-gritty, the drums were tracked with six channels of Green Pre (kick/snare/overheads L-R/room L-R), kick and snare going thru a dual Mnats G1176, room mikes crushed to death with a GSSL fitted with the Thrust filter.

Guitars were done silently via my Soldano X88R clone direct into the fx return of my Mesa Boogie Caliber 50 (4x EL84 poweramp), and via a DIY loadsoak into the DAW.

Vocals were done with a Nady LDC I converted to a G7-like tube mike, compressed with the G1176 again and de-essed with a DIY DBX902 (the XS902 located elsewhere on this forum).

Note it's technically only a demo, though for only a couple of evenings worth of mixing I think it's come out pretty good.  There are a few bits and pieces I'd tweak if I had the chance again (a couple of spots the master limiter pulls in on the mix a bit too hard), but bugger it, it's Christmas and we wanted to get something up on the website in time for the festive season.

So for those of you interested you can grab the mp3 from here 

And Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone!

 

[okgb]

Sounds pretty decent , nice size
[ not too many parts in the arrangment ]
drums sound a little close on my computer speakers
but that doesn't mean anything


I'm gathering parts for a gtr preamp , either the soldano x88
or the cae 3+ , How did you handle the ch switching ?
And for a cirect gtr also sounds decent  , what did you use
for a cab simulator ?

btw writing this while i listened ,i didn't get the jist of what the song was about [ why did someone else do something and the lover is confused ? ]

 

[Curtis]

Thanks Greg,

Strictly speaking the X88R is only a copy of the 3rd channel of the original.  I added a 4PDT relay to switch a couple of the triode sections out of the signal path, and also switch in and out two separate gain and master volume controls.  This gives me a pseudo-two channel preamp.

I'd be curious to see how you go with the CAE3+

Cab sims were a bunch of freebie impulses that I found somewhere on the net.  Can't recall where I found it, but there was a pack containing what must've been about a hundred different impulses with various combinations of mikes, speakers and cab sizes.  I use Voxengo's Boogex as the convolution plugin.

The song is essentially just a "person A has been wronged by person B, despite person A always knowing it was going to end badly" scenario.

 

[FerrariT]

;D
cool [something I could ride to ]
not my genre of preference, but umm up to 2:11 the vocals were overwelmed, drowned out.
If the intent was to have them subtle and then pick up at the point? then pardon me. [still didnt catch what was being said]
yes i know it was a demo.

 

[Mbira]

I like the drum sound.  Actually everything sounds really good IMO. I'd be curious to hear how this would shape up under the hands of a good mastering engineer. Nice job. 

 

[Svart]

Hey sounds pretty good.  There were parts where different instruments changed their volumes randomly and the snare is drowning in low mids.  Other than those, I think it's a great start!

 

[Moby]

I like the sound of the drums  Which drum kit u used?

 

[Curtis]

Thanks everyone 

Drumkit was some red shiny 6-piece Pearl thing (I dunno, I aint the drummer!)

 

[Svart]

being a drummer myself and being extremely anal about drum sounds, build yourself some 4 inch thick gobos out of mineral wool and put them on old mic stands so that when they hang from the mic stands they are roughly between the drums and the overheads.  This should seriously cut down on the amount of EQ you would normally need on the mid frequencies.  This was one of the single most important things I did to get awesome drums sounds.  Once you clean up the upper mids, the voice and guitars can sit much better and be brought down in volume some.

 

[gevermil]

Placement wise ,
How do you mean - between the drums and the overheads ?

 

[Svart]

nah like surrounding the drumset.  It keeps some of the room from getting into the mics and tends to even out the frequencies through absorption.

 

[Mbira]

I was amazed at what putting a gobo BEHIND the drummer does for the sound...