Epic Noise Wave - With Notes on the Recording Process

Bass, drums, synths.  I play synths.
 
For your consideration, "Leben Picchu":  http://vanishingislands.bandcamp.com/track/leben-picchu
 
This is from our latest EP,  http://vanishingislands.bandcamp.com/album/extended-player-3 , if you want to hear more.
 
Thoughts, critiques, praise, adulation, hatred?
 
All recorded in a converted, detached 2 car garage.
Sonar X1 Expanded (using mostly the ProChannel plugins)
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and OctoPre
 
Notes for the song I linked directly:
 
An interesting thing on this song is that it used to have an ending (went back to the surfy bridge thing) but the band liked the high "Ahh" I did at the end so I decided to loop the last couple of bars and fade it out. That was fun. I also took the bass solo and slowed it down across the entire ending for some lovely dissonance.  Live we just do it the way we wrote it.
 
Drums:
Yamaha kit that I Frankensteined together (got tired of drummers saying they couldn't make it to practice because they didn't want to set up their own kit).  Not 100% sure of the specs because I'm not a drummer.  Mostly Rydeen shells.  Drummer brought his own snare and cymbals.  Mic positions are estimated ... usually just try to find a sweet spot for the sound I'm trying to achieve.  In this case, we wanted huge aggressive drums.  I did my best.
 
While recording the drums we ran a scratch vocal, bass, and synth track which were not used in the final (sometimes I end up using scatch tracks if they are particularly interesting).
 
Kick:
1)  Shure Beta 52a pointed at the beater at about a 45 degree angle, four inches away in the (drummers perspective) 2 o'clock position .
2)  EV RE20 pointed at about two inches away from the hole on the outer head; off to the side, angled slightly to avoid the rush of air directly on the capsule.  Kick tunnel as well (blankets and chairs).
 
Snare:
1) Shure 57 pointed at the wires, about a 45 degree angle and 1 or 2 inches away.  (phase inverteted)
2) 57 pointed at a really funky angle at the sweet spot where the sticks would usually hit according to the drummer.  Just trying to keep it out of his way but still wanted as much thwack as possible.
 
Toms:
Shure 57 knock offs by some company that is probably long gone.  Would rather use 57s but I don't have enough.  Angled at the sweet spot.
 
Hat:
Cheap-ass pencil condenser.  I usally use the hat mic only as an effect (if I use it at all).  It's nice to have it if I need it.   Pointed at the bell, just behind where the drummer usually hits the hat with the sticks.
 
Overheads:
A couple of Apex 550s in XY in the usual position.  These mics are AKG 414 wannabes.
 
I don't use room mics because, frankly, the room sounds terrible (and I built it).  Everything is as close miced as possible so that I can use a convolution reverb to give the drums a room sound.  I use SIR2.
 
Kick and Snare are bussed together.
Toms are bussed together
OHs are bussed together
All drum busses go to a "room" buss.
There is a "squash" buss (parallel compression) that all the drum busses (as well as the drum room buss) go to.  For this aggressive sound I was really, really liberal with the compression.  I squashed the hell out of it and mixed it back in until it was "just right."  Also quite a bit of distortion.
 
EQs and plate verbs on snare and toms were all applied to the individual tracks as needed.  I try not to use gates on the drums (only on the kick).  I think that the drums sound better if there is a little bleed between the mics.
 
Despite all of my careful planning there are some overs on the toms as the drummer got a little excited.  I fixed a few with some Jedi editing (Jediting?) but some of them couldn't be avoided.  I figured the performance was better than stopping it and starting over.
 
Bass:
 
Hamer Cruise Bass
Ampeg SVT-III Pro
GK 2-12 (not ported)
Ported Frankenstein 15" cabinet that started out as an unknown combo amp and was cut down when the amp blew.  Speaker replaced a while back ... Eminence.
 
We tried several different combinations of mics and positions.  We settled on:
 
Apex 550 on the 15" just to the edge of the driver.
EV RE20 on one of the 12" on the edge of the cone.
As close as possible without touching the grill.
 
Also a DI (time shifted ever so slightly to match the signal coming from the mics)
 
He uses a lot of pedals.  Overdrive, octaver, delay, reverb (not sure on his order).  Brands don't matter much because he's modded almost all of them.
 
I ended up using all three channels.  The cabinet channels are panned hard left and right.  The DI is panned pretty much straight up the middle.
 
There is also a completely clean pass using pretty much the same mic configuration.  I ended up using only the RE20 track (on the 12") for the clean pass.  This was just to bring back some attack that gets lost by all of the effect pedals.  I also like that it's a completely different performance.  I could just as easily have taken a clean (pre-pedal) signal from the first performance but this way just makes everything thicker.
 
All effects bass tracks are bussed together.  The clean bass tracks are bussed together as well (even though I ended up using only one of them).  Both bass busses are sent to a parallel compression buss.  Again, aggressive compression here helps make the songs sound huge.  SIR2 to simulate a room sound on the clean pass only. 
 
There is a side-chain between the kick and the bass.  Mild compression here to get the bass out of the way of the kick as needed.
 
Synths:
 
With the exception of an Oberheim OB12 (which, sadly, is dying even as I type) I use mostly VSTi synths (even live).  CS80 emulator is my favorite.  I don't do much to them except for EQ and mild compression if needed.  Layers and textures and panning are important but the song dictates what happens with them.
 
Vocals:
 
Bass player is the singer.  EV RE20 up close and an Apex 415 a few inches back.  We use the RE20 as the main signal and the Apex with saturation to boost.  Again, parallel compression, although a little more subtle because his voice is really not aggressive and there's nothing I can do to make it that way.  It's an interesting counterpoint to the aggressiveness in the song.
 
I did the harmonies (both low and high).  Cascade Fathead (unmodded).
 
Multiple passes on both vocals to fatten them up (lots of Jediting to clean up unmatched sibilance).
 
Samples:
 
Freesound.org and the Prelinger Archives are your friends for all kinds of weird samples and phrases.
 
So, that's how I recorded Leben Picchu.  There's a million different ways it could have been done but that's how it happened during those particular sessions.  I still have so much to learn.  Our next EP is not going to be recorded in the garage (if I can help it)--all three EPs have been recorded there and it's getting stale to me.  I want to get out and try a real space (I have my eye on a recital hall).  I want to hear the drums in a real space.  We'll see.

Hey, thanks for the feedback.
 
It's a delicate balance with the singer.  I like vocals pretty hot but he gets a little shy. 
 
This was kind of a difficult song because he really does not have a full voice, and despite multi-tracking the vocal take it stays kind of head-voice-y.  I've tried having him do a whisper track and/or speaking track but I never really liked the way it sounds.
 
If anyone had any tips on a way to mix his particular voice a little better I am all ears.  Seriously.  Of course, not all of our songs are epic like this one.  I like the way his voice sits in the song called Dead Star, for instance.