Rebel Yell/VHII - upbeat progressive rock

[Nolly]

My buddy Adrian came to visit from Canada, so we wrote a little ditty (essentially an excuse to get a bit proggy with some rock riffs). The mix is pretty basic, thrown together quickly but I don't want to change anything in case it all comes crumbling down..
All guitar tracks recorded with my Blackmachine, kitted out with a Rebel Yell bridge, VHII neck

http://soundcloud.com/nolly/spectres-the-thing

[Nadz1lla]

Sounds really nice, mate! Good effort.   :)   Really enjoying the prog rock sounds here, and really nice, clear solos too.

[ericsabbath]

great

[Telerocker]

This really sounds great. Like the VHII-neck tone very much.

[gordiji]

very good 8)

[llJasonll]

Sounds great, man!  Very colorfull sounding.

[Tellboy]

Excellent  PDT_003

[Johnny Mac]

Sounds very good  :D

[fltlll]

This is a hell of a song! Love that riff... and the tone is perfect for the feel.

[Ian Price]

Very good!

[fltlll]

If you don't mind me asking, what do you use to master (add loudness) to your tracks? It sounds REALLY well done. I'm using Ozone on the entire mix at the moment, but I'm not sure if that's the best method / plugin.

[Nolly]

If you don't mind me asking, what do you use to master (add loudness) to your tracks? It sounds REALLY well done. I'm using Ozone on the entire mix at the moment, but I'm not sure if that's the best method / plugin.

I use a chain made up of Stillwell Audio plugins most of the time: www.stillwellaudio.com
The Bombardier is an excellent mix bus compressor, while the Event Horizon is a very transparent limiter :)

[fltlll]

I'll have to look into that! I've only started mixing and whatnot, but the loudness factor is always shy of "big name" productions, probably because I haven't spent much $$$ on it, haha. I'll post some clips up soon of my stuff so peeps can critique it. At the moment, none of my recordings use BKP's, so I'd feel rather dirty posting :p

EDIT: So, are you using the plugin to compress your entire mix, and THEN add loudness? I've just been adding loudness without compressing first... Do you add the limiter to individual tracks, or the entire mix? Sorry for the random topic within thread, just that I'm really curious about all that and your song sounds tight as all hell!

Keeping it back on topic, I love the sound you got in that clip. I just ordered an AM, which I'm hoping will be able to yield similar tones (for a mahogany guitar tuned to drop C). I don't know why, but it reminds me of a better version of the guitar tones on Controller by Misery Signals.

[Nolly]

I only use a limiter to achieve loudness at the mix bus stage (though I occasionally use limiters on instrument tracks to prevent them from peaking/clipping). I compress lightly first, usually using two compressors set differently to first smooth peaks then "glue" the mix together. The resulting smoother waveform is easier for the limiter to work as transparently as possible. Of course, good frequency management at the mixing stage is crucial to achieving a loud but transparent master, something that this mix is a little lacking due to the short amount of time that went into it :)

Aftermaths should work great, I'm sure you'll dig them!

[fltlll]

I only use a limiter to achieve loudness at the mix bus stage (though I occasionally use limiters on instrument tracks to prevent them from peaking/clipping). I compress lightly first, usually using two compressors set differently to first smooth peaks then "glue" the mix together. The resulting smoother waveform is easier for the limiter to work as transparently as possible. Of course, good frequency management at the mixing stage is crucial to achieving a loud but transparent master, something that this mix is a little lacking due to the short amount of time that went into it :)

Aftermaths should work great, I'm sure you'll dig them!

Great tips, sir. I hope the AM lives up to it! Currently I use a Seymour Duncan Jazz neck model, but in the bridge... weird. This is what it sounds like:


 www.soundcloud.com/fltlll