Massive amounts of saturation?

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themagicmanmdt
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Post by themagicmanmdt » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:47 am

warning: soapbox!

i think going to a nice studio and wanting to get that times new viking sound are two different things.

if you want it to sound like you're blowing up cheap gear and distorting an sm58 to all hell, then why not go overload lots of prosumer IC's - as mentioned above? those records are beautiful and sound great because of the honesty and spirit of how they recorded it - not the studio they went to. that's the magic that's created naturally.

but, glad it went well!

(it's kindof like the runway models in zoolander - modelling in trash. if you want it to be trash, make it hobo covered with trash. otherwise, it's heidi klum with paper mache.)
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Post by chris harris » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:58 am

Well, they don't want exactly the same sound as Times New Viking. If they did, like I said, I could do that shit on cassette 4track in my sleep.

Times New Viking was the band's way of communicating to me that they wanted a really saturated sound. After listening to TNV, and knowing that the lead singer for the band I'm working with is the bassist, with 2 amps and 3 cabs, I was pretty sure that they'd want considerably more low end in the recordings than TNV had.

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Slider
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Post by Slider » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:04 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:all of them in one room bleeding like crazy is definitely the way to go. maybe mic a little closer than you might otherwise, since the hot levels will bring up the ambience? and i dunno if you'd need to since you're gonna track through the tape, but you could certainly push the fatso for some nice saturation on drums.
Totally agree.
Room mics with bleed. Maybe push the mic pre's into distortion if you have some that do that nicely. A tube altec would be perfect for this.
I'm guessing they're looking for an updated "sister ray" sound.
That was tons of bleed and some overloading signals.
Don't forget to try some rack mount solid state devices pushed into distortion and blended too.
I've always liked the way the delta lab and even a midiverb II sounds when you send way too much signal to it.
I also like the distorted farfisa on the reference track.

I think this project could sound fucked up and good at the same time if you know what I mean. Should be fun either way.

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trodden
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Post by trodden » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:22 pm

Can't wait to hear this. My style of rock and noise!

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Post by chris harris » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:33 pm

They put up a rough mix of one of the songs at their myspace page. It's the first one, Blown Amps and Bloody Noses. It was a real quick rough mix for one of the guys to take to mardi gras and play for his friends.

It's not quite Times New Viking... but, we did plenty of sonic destruction. I'd say that the sound was abused in pretty even doses during all of the recording, mixing and mastering phases.

Still much to be done. I'm getting the relapped heads back for my mixdown deck this week!

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Post by Corey Y » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:52 pm

Sounds cool, not quite sonic destruction, but pretty damned gritty. The production (and style/vocals a bit) reminds me of the last Death From Above 1979 album.

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xpulsar
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Post by xpulsar » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:19 pm

Sounds Fucking Great! I like how it is not boring sounding. Good Energy!

Good Job!

-Collin

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Recycled_Brains
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Post by Recycled_Brains » Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:50 am

This shit is rad as hell man. Great job. I really like rock bands with this sort of punk aesthetic. Bass tracks sound great. What amp/cab combos were you working with?

I was going to suggest checking out the Massey Tapehead plugin. I use the it all the time for saturating tracks. Just crank it to 10, and trim it back.

BTW, if you haven't already, you should check out the new Boris record ("Smile"). Takes "blown out" to a whole new level. Talk about unorthodox mixes.
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trodden
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Post by trodden » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:50 am

subatomic pieces wrote:They put up a rough mix of one of the songs at their myspace page. It's the first one, Blown Amps and Bloody Noses. It was a real quick rough mix for one of the guys to take to mardi gras and play for his friends.

It's not quite Times New Viking... but, we did plenty of sonic destruction. I'd say that the sound was abused in pretty even doses during all of the recording, mixing and mastering phases.

Still much to be done. I'm getting the relapped heads back for my mixdown deck this week!
sounds great! totally raw and big. I dig it. love the sound of the guitars and vox.

how were the drums and vox tracked?

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trodden
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Post by trodden » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:52 am

subatomic pieces wrote:Well.... the tape machine hasn't been used in a while. So, we chose to skip it and abuse some preamps and compressors instead. The band also wanted to go with a "always rolling, all the time" session. So, the digital route was the best for this session.

Here's what we went with for basic tracks:

Drums - 4pc. kit, hat, ride, 2 crashes

Kick - D112 - API
Snare - sm57 - API
Snare Bottom - i5 - Daking
Rack Tom - md421 - Daking
Floor Tom - md421 - Daking
OH Hat - m160 - Neve Portico - Fatso
OH Ride - m160 - Neve Portico - Fatso
FOK - 414 - Neve Portico
FOK SMASH - 414 - Neve Portico - Distressor

Bass - 2 amps, one crossover, 3 cabs

Bass Clean - re27 - GTQ
Bass Hi Dist - Fathead - GTQ
Bass Low Dist SMASH - sm57 - API - 1176

Gtr - 2 drool-worthy pedal-boards, Fender Twin

Gtr - r122 - API
Gtr SMASH - sm7 - Daking - 1176

Sounds awesome.
The nuked FOK mic is pumping beautifully with all of the bleed in the room.

We're finishing basic tracks tonight. Probably won't have vocals and mixes finished until the new year. But, I'll definitely post again when I've got something you guys can listen to.

Thanks!

ahhh..

yeah still interested in the vox approach.

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Post by chris harris » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:15 am

Recycled_Brains wrote:This shit is rad as hell man. Great job. I really like rock bands with this sort of punk aesthetic. Bass tracks sound great. What amp/cab combos were you working with?
He uses two rigs simultaneously...

Both rigs are powered by GK RB800 heads. The "dirty" rig feeds a crossover and then a 1x15 + 2x10 cab. I miced one of the tens and the fifteen. The fifteen was the one that was squashed and wrecked during tracking. The dirty stuff is panned pretty hard, as if it was another guitar. The "clean" rig is run through a single 15 cab. That one is mixed pretty much up the middle and compressed like I would typically compress a clean bass track.

Guitars are through a Fender Super Reverb.

Both guys use a shitload of awesome pedals and samplers/loopers.
Recycled_Brains wrote:I was going to suggest checking out the Massey Tapehead plugin. I use the it all the time for saturating tracks. Just crank it to 10, and trim it back.
Yeah... I'm in DP for this stuff... so, I only have access to the "medium" tapehead plug. But, I'm using the shit out of that thing! Hope he ports more cool stuff to AU.
Recycled_Brains wrote:BTW, if you haven't already, you should check out the new Boris record ("Smile"). Takes "blown out" to a whole new level. Talk about unorthodox mixes.
I caught about 10 minutes of their set a few years ago, while I was on a tour that stopped in Boston. It was pretty killer. I'll definitely check out the new record.

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Post by chris harris » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:19 am

trodden wrote:yeah still interested in the vox approach.
For vocals, we typically go with an MD421, with a foam clown nose on it, into his Boss delay pedal, then to a DI into a Neve Portico preamp. We get some pretty great stuff with this chain... but, sometimes, that's still a little to "good" sounding for them, so we take the output of the delay pedal and run it to a little Gorilla practice amp with the bass and treble all the way down and the midrange and spring reverb cranked. Then, we'll mic that up with a 57.

Thanks for the kind words, guys!

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Post by KennyLusk » Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:33 am

Heroic freakin' track man!

The energy! Good god!

Nice work man.
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Post by cjmnash » Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:38 pm

man...if it was me i'd try to f*ck my gain stage as much as possible...console pres cranked, faders just cracked..that sort of thing.

i'd also align the machine at like +10/250 and throw on some 456, hit it at zero, just to see what that would bring to the table..that would get you total tape saturation without overdriving any electronics or freaking people out cause you're bending needles! LOL seriously tho-it would take like 2 minutes to do.

what the hell, right?

-chris
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