Graphite (Graphene Mix) test 1

Remixing the very first Garda track (well, the second iteration thereof that was done in a Proper Studio). Tampered with the arrangement somewhat. Stripped a lot of extraneous crap out of there track-wise. Kinda burnt on it for the day, so the bridge is a bit unvarnished at the moment. Sounds like victory.

I dig it for its different-than-the-other-version -ness. I always love hearing stuff remixed and re-thought.

I miss some of the guitar harmonic/noise extra things. And i don't know if i like it with the keyboards being such a big section of the mix, but that is probably more just because i tend to me somewhat anti-key and pro-guitar in just about any mix.

Cymbals seem way too classy. Is that reverb sourced via room mic from where you recorded, or are you doing something to them to glossify and space them?

Interested to hear what more you aim to do to/with it.

Well, I wound up tampering with it a bit as per some suggestions from the crew involved. It seems there's a local indie film guy who's keen on some of these noises, and a shinier mix is in order. Round 2.

Apparently the initial concept was the Prophet lead line in the chorus and the snare driving the thing, so the synths get emphasized. I like the guitars myself- they're nasty and bigdumbriffy. I may adjust the balance of DI and amp tracks (which are just the DIed track reamped) as I like the noisiness of the DI, but it blends too nicely with the synths with most or all DIed fuzzguitars. I like having some distinction between the two.

I'm doing, if not quite fuckall to the cymbals, close to it. A bit of saturation, and a clean transparent digital compressor on the overheads taking off 2-3 dB on the snare hits only. So that is all the room. It's a pair of Coles 4038s however far back from the kit... Probably 6 feet or so IIRC? and a Neumann M149 in the center of the room. So... Almost 8k of room mics in this room. The far room (Neumann SDC) and ceiling (Sennheiser shotgun) pairs didn't get used at all, nor the Green Bullet, which sounds cool but I couldn't find a use for. Actually, a lot of the space/depth is from the overheads- a Telefunken M16 spaced pair, which I'm really wondering if they were run omni or fig-8 or something not cardioid. There's a Neumann KM184 center overhead, which I used a good amount of, but it's mostly snare drum. In the second version, there's some EQ on the hat and ride mics, boosting mids and cutting top end. Otherwise, there's no EQ at all on the cymbals save for what may or may not have been applied in tracking, probably with the SSL desk. No EQ on the OHs or room in the mix at all, though the saturation from Waves NLS boosts the low mids & lows.

That's a cool mix. You always get things to sit well. I feel like the gang vocals could be a little quieter, and there's something about the hihat I dislike, but otherwise, cool! The electronic sounds are particularly neat.

Why thank you sir. There's something about the hats I'm not fond of myself (too bright/thin, IMO) but there's not a whole lot I can really do about it. It's a close mic up on the hat, and it's pretty prominent mostly out of necessity. I'm sorta stuck with that sound, and I can't really EQ it into something drastically different and keep its presence.

Well, here's what the final mix turned out to be. It's not as loud, but I think it's punchy, clear, and has some weight to it. Less dry, thicker guitars and lots more low end: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xexsh08hw70j91n/GRAPHITE_2014_final_video_48k.mp3

Though the gang vocals are probably louder.

The gang vocals are the only element of this mix that i fundamentally disagree with. That is for sure one of my pet hates in general though. Too many hardcore bands in my history. Even when i played in them, i was pretty anti-gangvocal. I just have never really played well with others or something. It is the cave-hermit in me, i am more or less sure.

The rest of it is a good scene though.

I can see years in the hardcore scene turning one off from gang vocals. In my case, I think this is the first and only time I've ever used them in my own band. So they're a bit of a novelty to me. I'm sure I've recorded them, having recorded a bunch of punkrawk demos for people in my younger years.

Having done this mix, and working with that crew on a regular basis again, I've decided for my own amusement and edumacation (to say nothing of the practical value of it) to attack the rest of the first EP in a similar manner.

So this was my project yesterday evening: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e13307pe4jbarbo/PROMISE_2014_rough_6_20.mp3

Notable is the almost complete lack of EQ on the mix. I EQed the kick drum, hats, and bass. There's a highpass filter on the main synth riff- the Prophet again- at 50 hz and the lead vocal at 80. That's it. Also not a ton of compression either: kick, snare in parallel, bass, lead vocal, synth pad. Both of these things are significant changes from their previous incarnation. The guitars are just what came off the amps, with a bit of room 'verb on a send. Apparently one of the dirty tracks is a Dual Rec. Sounds like it. Like a dumbass, I didn't label the rest by amp, just guitar/mic, so I'm forced to guess as to what's an AC30 and what's a Fender Super. I think the solo and baritone parts are the Super, and everything else is the Vox.

Still some editing I'd like to do on a couple things, and one edit I need to do on the vocals. I confess to having done a good number of edits on the guitars to tighten them up- I was basically making shit up as I went along. Still, given the comparative lack of processing, we must have done something right.

The drums, I may hack something up that's closer to the way it was played live, which is the way I'm used to hearing it. Going back over the tracks, I realize how incomplete this was when it was recorded and how fudged together in the studio it became- and why the live version differed from the recorded version a lot more than anything else we did.

Re: drumsounds, I realize in retrospect the ton of mics used was actually kinda useful, in that I have a lot of options to shape the sound with multiple, totally different sounding room mics, and I can feel free to ditch things as necessary. So I wind up not using many or most of them as necessary. Here, I went with a totally different room pair than Graphite- Neumann KM184s in the far corners of the room, as opposed to the Coles 4038 ribbon pair close in, which sounds liek Huge Rawk Action!, but isn't so great for a less heavy sound. Also used the outside kick mic here. Still loving the close mic on the hat. Lots of expansion, gating, and judicious use of "Mute".

Also, overdriven 5-string fretless bass played with a pick, which is a totally sensible thing.

This is more like it. I had to build the chorus drums by hacking up other drum parts, but it works. It does pick up the pace a bit, and is pretty much how we played it live, at least there. The bridge/solo is different, but I'd have to re-cut that whole section to copy the live version, and I like the studio arrangement better there anyhow.

Everything else got tweaked a bit- compression, EQ, some fader automation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hyifurhqniko7jg/PROMISE_2014_rough_6_21.mp3

That sounds really good. I really like the open drum sound you have here, and as usual loving the wumpy snare. I like the bright single coil guitar tones a whole bunch.

Considering the gear involved, getting a dark guitar tone would be a bit of a chore. So I'm glad the bright ones worked.

Glad you dug the drum sounds - I've found it's actually pretty easy to get a cool drum sound going with this stuff, especially now, having a li'l better idear of what I'm doing.

This next one may take a while yet. Still in a very unrefined state yet, just sorta dialing in sounds: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zyve7udblxki6o/CON_ED_2014_rough_chunk.mp3

Better: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4qxzad4iw5smakg/CON_ED_2014_electric_bastard.mp3

Yes, Limiter Smash Snare!, and Metallica wants their drum sound back. Noise-y band wants to make some noise, and that is what's happening here. Dynamics will be sorted when they're sorted.

I definitely like this approach to the mixing, with regards to the EQ of the thing. I actually don't know if it is even accurate as a perception, but it seems to me that you might be doing a little less EQ than the first time around? Seems a fair bit more low end, and less elevated high end? Are you highpassing less and lowpassing more? Or just leaving more things as they are in general? Or am i just imagining things?

To my current ears, it has kind of a nice tape compression boominess to it. Which for electro/dance/pop, i am into as a vibe.

A little from column A, a little from column B. More inclined to leave things as they are, in general. If there's anything added, it's probably low mids, and if there's anything taken away, it's probably top. At least as far as stringéd things are concerned. Overall, there's generally a whole lot less of, well, stuff, and what there is is less obtrusive.

Re: actual highpassing, guitars and keys at 80hz, mostly. The exceptions being "not at all", mostly the clean guitars. Oddly, those lost something when highpassed. But as a whole, yeah, wide swaths of things not highpassed/lowpassed/EQed or compressed at all. Sounds fine that way.

I've found myself boosting around 2-300hz on the bass, which seems counterintuitive, but works here. Maybe it's the "modern" sounding basses- Musicman and Carvin 5. It winds up adding definition.

Re: tape-y-ness, the last thing poasted seems to have it, whatever it is. If you'd told me that was tracked to and mixed completely digital, I'd be moderately surprised.