http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/ONE__OF_US_UNMASTER.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/GRAPHITE_UNMASTER.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/KNIVES_UNMASTER.mp3

As long as they don't sound "local", I'm cool with 'em. The first one, I'm not sure if the bass sits right. And there's an error on the delays in the bridge- I might leave it. Whatever. Nothing really left to do with 'em now.

One Of Us opens with some vinyl noise, yes? The question sounds familiar to me, but i don't remember the answer. Will listen to the rest now.

I like the tuba-esque sound behind everything around 2:50 or earlier, i didn't notice that in earlier mixes.

This is again a very nice balanced mix. I would just send it off to mastering and be done, myself. All of the levels sound good to me, and i don't hear anything that ops out unpleasantly.

Graphite sounds good, but is sounds like you pushed the guitars back a bit further, also the breakbeaty bit?

It actually works that way, keeps moving, but coming from the other mixes i personally miss the "CHOOCHOO" guitar harmonics from the main riff, and i liked the offkilter-ness of the more prominent breakbeat.

Otherwise, taken on its own, as if i had not heard earlier versions or other elements before, it is again, a very nice mix.

Best of the batch may be Knives.

The handling of the backup vox is IMO spot on, and the lead vocal is sitting very well and seems to me to have the right combination of inflections and moods to it.

Plus the low end, kick, snare, and everything else is just slick as a very slick thing. The arpeggiator level is right on too, though it is a different bit than before, no? At least the one at the end?

Nothing wrong with this mix at all, to my ears.

They all sound great. Send them off for mastering.

To answer Chris's poasts:

Yes, yes it does. I took some samples of scratchy vinyl and cut 'em up. I don't remember why; it struck me as a good idea at the time. The tuba-noise thing @ 2:50 I think is just a fuzzy bass guitar? But I think there might be the B layer on the Prophet synth backing it up too.

Graphite is a flaming bitch to mix. I think I've posted like four different separate recordings of the thing in the past, never mind mixes. There is a lot of stuff going on in that song, much of it at once. I suppose in the grand scheme of things the guitars are comparatively recessed vs. being totally out front. That's one where the synth, guitars, and bass are all sitting pretty well in the same spot, and they're caked in filth. There is actually a minor change I want to make in this- the vocal that comes in at the end of the bridge needs to fade in more dramatically over the robotvoice. It'll take longer to print the mix than to change the automation.

The low end on Knives was really hard to get down, actually, because those sounds are mostly really low, low lows- the bass on that is all synth. The keyboards are mostly playing in unison with split layers on the Prophet and the K2000 doing this bassy thing that sorta sounds like it's from a Depeche Mode album. We re-did the synths, which probably took longer to set up than it did to play.

To answer Curtis's poast: They're already in the hands of some People Who Know People who may be able to hook us up. We'll see what happens; otherwise we were gonna go with Masterdisk Indie. I'm just happy to get 'em out of my hands... So I can hack away at the rest.

I find the lyrics to 'One of Us' a little ironic, seeing as one of you is a cop?

Sounds great. NOW MASTAR IT.

Freaky cool!

You'd never, ever guess meeting the guy he's a cop. Re: mastering- they are in the hands of someone who can hook us up.



Glad you liked 'em! I barely scratch the surface of my crazy pedal action on these. Well- a little bit. The floaty ethereal thing in the bridge of Graphite is not a synth. Rhythm guitars on that one are a bitcrusher and a guitar synth driven hard, straight in, no amp. There's really not much studio foolery going on with the guitars overall- we just kinda sound like that.