New and improved. Better mix and some new drums and vocals.

https://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/sta ... h-w-o-keys

Except ya know, the DM growls are really quite because I am retarded.

Song is not done yet by any stretch, but I just gotta share it anyways, BECAUSE: Drums are very much to my liking in both tone and even performance. After some tweaking, I'd say I am 90% happy with these levels and shiz. Dem drums is KSMs in GJ and the ubiquitous D112&012 kick/snare pair. Also gotta 990 on the other side of the room and a PR40 on the shell of the floor tom just because I might want it later, it is fairly quietish here. I am about to snag some character VSTs as my last venture at acquiring such things was a halfbakedhalfailure. Gotta a couple things, but no fun compressors or EQs.

https://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/ooh ... z-finished

https://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/out ... t-of-brain

Thinger is almost done-zo.

What's going on for the guitars here? There's some interesting noising going on.

Sounds like the kick and snare are being spanked pretty hard with the compressor. But it works; it's not "splatty", it sounds "hard". I like the snare a lot actually- very punchy.

You have a really odd sense of arrangement. Especially with the vocals. I mean that in the best of all possible ways. The beatboxing and pitchshifted vox just add to the fun.

Though listening back to the without-guitars version I might actually like the drums better there if only because they're so OTT ridiculously huge. The bass tone is pretty cool, hearing it on its own there.

It is all AC15 maxxed with KSMs on both cabs per main rhythm track, bridge pickup for the first to come in, middle position for the second. Volume rolled down here and there. Super fuzzy things are me raping the poor signal with that Apple plugin I was talking about.

Yeah, I am maybe smashing it a bit too much. Particuarly the snare, it's just like.. Shit gets pretty dense with the stuff that I like do, this might not be the best example, and I need the thing to be loud all the time. And I am no ace drummer nor incredibly consistent on my snare, so it's just like. Fuck, crush the thing. Though, I could back it off. I have just got into the habit of crushing the shit out of it.

And thank ya, man. I'd like to think I am beginning to grow into this a bit. As for the odd sense of song structure, I suppose that would be all the wonderously fucked music you dooders have provided me with over the past 6 or so years. Plus, the fact that I am growing more and more certain I am some sort of mentally insane.

'Twas the GJ maximization I was speaking of.

Whatever's going on with the snare is cool. It's not ruining anything- which is pretty easy to do- so go for it. The kick sounds to me like it's losing low end? Slower attack on the compressor is generally better for preserving the lows, if that's anything. Large drums is large, though, especially in the guitar-less mix. What it all winds up being in the end- well, your guess is as good as mine.

Hanging around this place too long will drive one mad if you're not mad already. So in the end it doesn't make much of a difference, does it?

Drums are fine as is unless you want to hide them/shove them backwards in the mix. Too much compression doesn't sound like that. Too much sounds like most of the things i have recorded. Main issue to look for is the pumping swooshswoosh that seems to suck the guts out of everything when the cymbals go. You don't have that at all here.

Nah, it's not crazy like that at all. I just figure, it's not incredibly accurate. Definitely brought up lots of room and whatnot, in a surprising way. I just know how much parallel smashing is going on there, even though it might not sound too compressed. I suppose it's because there's not a ton of "mastering" going on. If you ran this thinger through some limiting action like will likely eventually happen, it could get a little pumpy without care.

I should mention the bass is D112 and 012.

There doesn't need to be a ton of "mastering" going on- this stuff needs dynamics. (Most things, these days, I feel could do with a lot more)

Parallel smashing is a good way of doing things and it's especially effective on drums. If you were really shitting on that snare, it wouldn't have any punch worth mentioning, and that is certainly not lacking here.

You mean 'not incredibly accurate' as in not true to the sound it made when you recorded?

Because if so, i would suggest that it shouldn't be. I forget who said it but some famous dood(maybe Geroge Martin?) once said something about how one really shouldn't be concerned in making records, with how sounds were made in real life, only with what they sound like in recorded life. That is actually a heavy paraphrase that probably changes the meaning of what he actually said, but that altered meaning is one that i believe in.

Kind of just another way of saying: if it sounds good, it IS good.

I very much agree with you on the dynamics, I figure though if I am going to put this on a short run of vinyl for the sake of fuck like I am thinking it might need some extra tending to. Besides, I mean, eventually you might end up mixing this stuff anyways? Not this particular cut, as this was probably just for fun. Just another cover throw on top of the pile. Speaking of which, I really need to finish that Misfits cover. SO MANY LOOSE ENDS.

Oh but anyway, what I was trying to say was: I have a hard time judging what too much or too little of really anything is. All the time. Sometimes I will think something's cool and then not at all the next moment. Especially when it comes to mixing.

There is great truth to this. I just sort of have this naturalistic thing that I impose upon myself because ya know, I am an elitist prick bastard and I think that is what I am supposed to be doing. Though I mean, there are obvious exceptions to that naturalism. I clearly use a lot of unnatural sounds.

Yeah man, just push things around until it sounds cool.

Then it will sound cool, and it won't matter if it is right or wrong, the way it does it.

If I wind up mixing these, I will keep your dynamics safe. I could probably squarsh my own stuff or the Garda material a lot more than I do and still have it sound not-inappropriate for the genre(s). Re: mastering for vinyl, that actually has specific requirements imposed by the physical limitations of the format, which are a whole lot different than just sitting on it with a limiter to "make it loud" for iTunes. If it's going on vinyl, the mastering really needs to be done by a professional; I would assume the duplication place would at least have someone on staff who'd be able to do it for a comparatively nominal fee.

Bringing up the issue of mastering starts to get into gain staging and headroom, which opens up a whole 'nother can o' digital worms. (One that will clean and clear up your mixes, though probably at the expense of overall level... That's where the mastering d00d comes in.)

I think naturalistic recording is a worthy goal- and you clearly have good sounding gear and a good space to record it in. Furthermore, being able to do it well is a useful skill to have. A very useful one. And one that would, I think, make it easier to make things "wrong", too. Microphones don't hear the way our ears here though and that's where it starts to get interesting and you can wind up severely manipulating something to make it convincingly "in the room" sounding. Chris's George Martin paraphrase, even if it's totally inaccurate, is right.

I've no worries of that. I am very excited to hear what it sounds like when you get ahold of these raw files. If they sound like this with me just using simple compression and the very limited knowledge I have, then they will be gnar in your hands.

I will have to look into that when the time comes. It is kind of a whore in a half trying to force yourself to fit songs into the format of the 7". I am trying to get a third song in on one of the halves and my songs are juuust pushing it for decent sound quality. But, it is my cream songs, so fuck it. I will probably print 250 or so and do the sleeves DIY style with my buddy. We will print them and them fold them up all ghetto like. Some of them will be handed out for free, I think. Not sure yet.

I've never worked with vinyl before- what's the deal, other than length, with the 7" format that yer on about re: getting decent quality? Can you try and cram a bit more onto one side time-wise but the sonics will be degraded as a result?

One thing I have noticed at shows as of late: the vinyl sells when people have it. If you wanted to try and move some for cash, do you have any hipster art boutiques or local guitar stores (or, god forbid, an independent record store? I'm fairly certain those still exist) in the area that sell local music? I figure if I have them- and this is not the hippest town on the planet- than there's gotta be something in your area? And DIY ghettopunk is totally cool at those sorts of places.

4:30 is the maximum length you wanna shoot for, I guess. I dunno how much of difference it makes in ratio to time over, but I just figured out how to make one of the songs about 10-15 seconds shorter and I will hit about 4:30 exactly. I am sure 15 seconds would make a minimal if not undetecable difference, but I I don't like the idea of fucking with that one bit.

Oh yeah, tooons of shops in Seattle (of course) and I even know of a place more suburban like where I live who has already expressed interest in buying a few of my records, nice dude who runs the place. Honestly, on a really nice day I could just stand outside in Seattle with friends and sell/selectively hand out records just hanging out on any of the busy boulevards/parks/wherethefuckevers.

Cam, I think you're on to something. Something very specific. It has been developing steadily.