Ceramic Nailbomb, Powerball, Pitbull CL. Rather heavy.

[MDV]

This is a track I recorded and mixed for some mates.

Its not my song or me playing. Not that the playing needs any excuses or anything, the lad did well. Just making that clear.

I engineered it, though.

SLSMG + C-Bomb (all parts) -> Powerball -> V30/SM57 + Swamp thang/MD421
Reamped and blended with Pitbull CL -> Swamp thang/MD421

The two amps are roughly equal, all told.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3702469/Compass.mp3

Here is the myspace of the chaps in question. The song should be up there tomorrow, but $%&# myspace playback right in the ear.

http://www.myspace.com/horizonshardcoreband

[gordiji]

the guitar on the first track sounds great, playing wise and tonally.can't dig the singing, but thats just a taste thing.
the production's great too.we really are spoilt with what's available gear wise nowadays.

[MDV]

Thanks dude.

Yes, we are. Very much so.

[Madsakre]

Nice playing, good tone, horrible genre.

[dheim]

i usually don't like deathcore but here there are a lot of nice twists in the genre and i actually like the vocals very much!  :)
very nice production, by the way... excellent work, mark!
i'm about to produce my band's demo and it's going to be a real pain in the @rse...  :P

[MDV]

Thanks guys.

Yeah, mad, brad did well (it was brad that tracked this). He was a bit green to the level of precision and attention to detail needed to get good recorded takes to begin with, but was enthusiastic, worked hard at it, good attitude and learned fast - within a few days (it was recorded in small chunks, taking the time to get it right) he was being as ruthlessly, dispassionately, objectively critical of poor takes as I was. Playing got better too.

The burning questions are, can you hear the bass and do you think the guitars are too loud?

[Kride]

Good shiteeezniz!  :)


I think that the geets and vocals could come down a tiny bit. The lead-ish around 0:45ish is barely audible. The bass could be louder as well, now it's barely audible in some parts.

And this being deathcore... no.

[Mr. Air]

Nice production there MDV. The guitar sounds really good. Not my genre, but the playing is very likeable, but the vocals lacks behind in my opinion.

[dheim]

oh yeah... heard it again with better headphones AND:

1) bass is barely audible
2) guitars are a bit too dry but i'm a reverb addict and so maybe it's me
3) some guitar and vocal doublings are a bit too evident and don't blend too naturally in the mix

but my first impression stays... really nice work, the guys can be green but are listening to your advices and it shows, because the "final" product is definitely decent...
i left my drummer with all settings done on mixer and cubase and when i'll come back from my vacation i'll find a bunch of terrible takes i'll have to convince him to redo a million times more, i'm sure...  :?

uh, i called it deathcore because is more or less the kind of thing that kids play these days, but i'm not completely sure... anyway i like the song, so who cares? ;)

[MDV]

1) The bass is plenty audible. FWIW I dont like current trends to have really high bass guitars and really low guitars, sitting at about the same level as the bass and just under the drums, so thats how I mix. It happens to be that these lads think the same way, and the bassist really liked how I mixed the bass.

2) I like dry gutiars, so the guitars are dry.

3) I'll give you that one, but yeah, green, tried hard, got better, did OK. I prefer to keep the criticisms of the guys performances to the tracking, and to the guys faces, because its poor form to malign the lads publically when they did as well as they did given how new to the recording lark they are, and  most importantly that they had a good attitude, they listen carefully to me and more importantly to the takes, and they want the best for the songs, not their egos.

I'm going into the studio with these lads shortly to record their EP. Looking forward to it.

[dheim]

i hope my observations didn't sound too harsh because i liked it indeed! :)

[MDV]

No, just saying, couple of things I didnt agree with, couple I did and was saying how and why.

Thanks :)

[dheim]

just to say,

i left my drummer with every setting done, all he had to do was to tie his girlfriend to that damn computer and tell her to push the REC button...
but he didn't so we're still recording the damn drum parts!
i know we'll never get it started, let alone finished... :(

[MDV]

If theres one thing I've learned its that you dont leave the drummer unattended! Or trust them to do anything, often including drum.

The drummer for these guys was here for some of the guitar tracking. In about 20 minutes he was just sitting mummifying his thigh in masking tape. Why? Hes a $%&#ing drummer, thats why. They're not right in the head.

[Roobubba]

I feel quite lucky with my drummer then! He's always listening intently and making useful comments.

Don't get me wrong, he's still a drummer: clearly a lunatic :D

I remember listening to this before - is this an updated version? Sounding good!