Totally sweet rock song :-)

Hey Vince,

It sounds pretty good on initial listen. I am playing at a low volume with my bass turned off because everyone where I'm at is asleep, but I can hear the bass at low levels, hear the kick, and the guitars. It sounds like you have done a good job using complementary EQ. The snare sounds good in the mix to me (I know you were working to get it to sit right per the Techniques board). What kind of stuff did you do to process it? The vocals are sitting pretty nice I think too. Even though you are screaming, I can make out a lot of what the words are. The production is really good and I like the ending, kind of a "we don't care let's hit random stuff" ending. Nice touch for the punk genre. Also like how you alternate two different people for vocals.

I guess if I could give some suggestions, I would say maybe make the guitars sound a little bigger. I'm not sure if you cut a lot around the 250 range but the guitars sound a little tiny to me. I am not really familiar with this genre of music, so that might be the way you like them. You could also try adding delay to both the left and right guitar. Chaz suggested to me to put delays on guitars so the delay is happening on the opposite side it's panned, i.e. guitar panned left will have the delay on the right, and the guitar on the right will be delayed left. It worked pretty well when I tried it. Like I say though, if your intention is to have them this way, then that is fine. As I said earlier, I have my bass turned down so I can't offer any praise or suggestions on the low end.

Did you record vocals in one take or did you have to do parts, then regain your voice, and record the next part? Just curious. There is some serious strain on those vocal chords, I don't know how you screamer guys do it.

Best,

Brandon

fif

love the build up in the beginning. is seems the drums are a little bit low in the mix (not much though), but the snare is SO perfect and authentic to recapture that 80s hardcore sound. just that snare itself sound brings me back to my basement playing Minor Threat, DK, and Gorilla Biscuits. along those same lines, I wouldn't treat the vocals too much, especially for this song, might just end up detracting from the authenticity and make it sound a bit trite. maybe a touch of reverb to actually nab a small tight echo you'd get in a small venue/basement etc.

i dont know, the style, for me, is so intertwind with shows I saw in the 80s & 90s in Philly and that was sound that you heard, and wouldn't have wanted it any other way. don't know if that's what you're going for but that's what I took from it.

i wouldn't treat the vocals too much (other than a tiny verb) but would try and isolate that snare in the mix and boost its volume a bit, it is a very telling sound. The distortion on the guitar is nice really sounds like E Bay Ray of DK, pretty much the same sound he used on "Give me Convenience or Give me Death."

good stuff anyway you slice it, but the only i would say, is be careful in treating things too much, you've managed to capture a sound that (sadly) has long been expired and recreated in a mere shadow of its former self by bands with huge amounts of studio $$ behind them. If you treat the song too much, it may end up going in that direction.

Brandon,

For vocals, we actually did these over the span of about 3 weeks.

The band would come in, lay down the vocals, find the parts they didn't like, and redo them. I'm not quite sure if the vocalists felt any strain, they seemed not to show any signs of it if they did.

For the snare, I copied the track and put compressed it a lot. Then, I boosted the 4.5 KHz a lot with a medium Q. I then messed with the level of this track while listening to the whole mix, until I got the sound for which I was looking.

Thanks for all of your suggestions!
-Vince

ORIGINAL: M

But, beyond that, it's a very weird mix. The drums sound like they're in the house next door - very distant. And, there's almost no bass (instrument) on this. Even the guitars sound small and confined.

I have to agree. The drums don't stand out at all. The guitars sound like they were recorded from three feet away or something. Or maybe they should put some mids back up on their amps. The guitars should be right up in your face in this song, but they aren't.

It's a good song though, I quite enjoyed it. Keep at it!

Cheers,

Andy