February- Rules And Downloads

[brandondrury]

This Months Prize:
Your choice of Slate Digital Trigger, Slate FG-X Mastering Processor, VCC, VTM, or Steve Slate Drums 4.

This song was tracked by joshertw The fun story on this one is it was done without electricity. Alright. That's a lie. It was obviously done with electricity, but it was entirely done off the grid with solar power. Check out his blog for details. Home Recording Forum - JoshERTW - Blogs

Band name: Willow Smoke
Website: Willow Smoke
Song Name: Rattlesnake (The Ballad of Bill Tilden)
Key: I'm guessing A because the Bass player wrote it but "I have no idea - I just sing on this one" says . Tuning reference is A = 432 Hz, rather than the Standard A = 440 Hz.

What You Are Going For In The Mix/Song:

This is the epic tale of Bill Tilden, a personified "force of nature" who gathers an army to fight back against the encroachment of careless humans and environmental destruction upon the woods he calls home. A few notes:

- The song is meant to be very dynamic, when its big, it should be really big, and when things get mellow, they should be really mellow - Atmosphere is important!
- We didn't close mic the toms, but they do play an important role in the song so you will need to get creative here
- Lots of guitar tracks - some are doubled rhythm parts, some are compilations of little "accent" parts, two solo's, plus an acoustic part - feel free to mute some elements if you feel it serves the song.
- There are some sound effects and weird stuff in the "Harmony" tracks - feel free to use these in fun and exciting ways

Contest Rules
You can find all rules for the entire Slate Digital Cup here: Rules, Details, Prizes, Questions, and Comments

That's the place to go if you have any general questions.

Deadline
Last day to enter is the last day of the month. More details.

Downloads
There are 3 zip files. I've done this because it reduces upload errors.

Part One will require you to go through the usual propaganda. http://recordingreview.com/lib/verif...n/february.php

Download Part 2 and Part 3.

Brandon

[axxessdenied]

WOOHOOO! Super excited to start mixing this. Reading the summary sounds like this will be a fun song to mix!

Can't wait to download the stems

[JoshERTW]

Hey all - Stoked to hear what people are going to do with this song. These tracks are from the solar powered session referenced on my blogs & website.

NOTE: If you go to the band's website before the contest starts you will likely notice there is no audio there - The contest mix is the B-side of the single which is coming out January 31, 2013, so be sure to check it again once the contest is live to hear a hi-fi sample mix (perhaps while you wait for your downloads )

Also, thanks to Brando for using this tune in the contest, will be a lot of fun to hear all the interpretations!

[wireman957]

Cool, Josh. Can't wait to sink my fangs into this one...sorry, couldn't pass that up.

[Radukku]

And what a suitable final month mix!!!
Epic? Can hardly wait! Lots of tracks? Excellent, bring them on!
Sssssmooookeeeeeeyyyyy!

[Radukku]

Hey all - Stoked to hear what people are going to do with this song. These tracks are from the solar powered session referenced on my blogs & website.

So am I Josh!

NOTE: If you go to the band's website before the contest starts you will likely notice there is no audio there - The contest mix is the B-side of the single which is coming out January 31, 2013, so be sure to check it again once the contest is live to hear a hi-fi sample mix (perhaps while you wait for your downloads )

So where will the complete hi fi mix will be?

Hey, proud to have a Canadian band and a Canadian song to mix for the last hurdle of this insane year long war of "the Lords of the Faders"...(myself more of a humble Hobbit though...)
And is it me or one of the guitarists and the bass player are LEFTY?! I didn't notice that in any of the photos you posted!...ohhh

Sir McCartney would be proud and happy! So am I (and a lefty too...)

[JoshERTW]

Yeah, one of the guitar players is indeed a lefty - he did the solo's that are dual mic'd.

[Radukku]

Yeah, one of the guitar players is indeed a lefty - he did the solo's that are dual mic'd.

Smokeyyyyy!

What instruments did you all play and amps/mics used ? Include the bass player too please!...

[JoshERTW]

Smokeyyyyy!

What instruments did you all play and amps/mics used ? Include the bass player too please!...

Check out the solar powered blogs in my signature - particularly part 2 - there's pictures of most of the gear in there too, but here's a summary:

Rhythm guit's are an Ernie Ball through a Traynor combo with a compression pedal, leads are either the lefty Tele thru a Traynor Head/4x12 and a special sauce distortion pedal (custom made for 3 members of a famous band - we got #4) or my Ibanez RG thru a Randall combo. We might have done one of the rhtyhm guits using the music man thru either the Randall or the half stack.

All guitar mic's were 57's except the lefty tele lead which I dual mic'd with an Audio Technica 2050 and a 57. Acoustic Guit was a Taylor 414 (DI) and we added it like last week at the Red Room.

Bass was a nice Yamaha with active circuitry and a combo amp - also a Yamaha I think - that amp had an XLR DI output so we pulled all the bass tracks from the Amp DI - I love that amp, the tone you hear in the room is the tone you get from the DI, I'm definitely buying one someday for the studio.

Drums were a Pearl 5 piece kit with a variety of cymbal brands, he kind of upgrades them one piece at a time (i.e. it's not a full set of any one brand) - B52 on Kick, 57 on snare, crappy Apex pencil condensors as overheads - they are the most "embarrassing" piece of my recording rig (if I gave a shit about that kind of stuff) but they sound decent enough on OH's and micing acoustic guitars so I haven't bothered to upgrade them yet.

[brandondrury]

Alright fellers. Slate Digital Cup: February is ready for rockin'.

Brandon

[bobbybovine]

Alright guys and gals, the last one. Should be a doozy to finish it off!

[belleym]

Just loaded the session and NO TOMS MICS!

This month will separate the men from the boys for sure!

I'm taking my time with this one...

[JoshERTW]

Just loaded the session and NO TOMS MICS!

This month will separate the men from the boys for sure!

I'm taking my time with this one...

Yeah sorry bout that - it was a very "rapid fire" kind of session - needed to keep mic's up on the amp's at all times so guitar players could jump in and do their takes right after drum and bass with no lag time. I had one extra mic but figured it was useless to mic one of the toms and not the other 2.

We had decided at the time to go with an school, stripped down kind of sound, which is why I basically said "screw it" and 4 mic'd the drums. The end product ended up more modern than I thought it would and next time I'll be bringing some extra preamps or something to get a few more channels for tom mic's

[brandondrury]

Just loaded the session and NO TOMS MICS!

When I heard the rough mix I said, "Oh yeah. I'm gonna pump those mics up, enter under a fake name, and see if I can't win this mow fauka." Then when I noticed zero tom mics, I decided that my plate was pretty full.

A person with a certain inkling for sound design could scrape up tom power in multiple ways. It's in there....it's just gonna take some work to get it out.

I'm curious why JoshERTW didn't use the tom mics. I did two or three recordings in such a fashion because I read enough of those articles that said only need 2 mics on drums. This sound is fun and classic under the right circumstances. I find about 2% of my projects call for this and I'm HAPPY to have toms (top AND bottom) and mics for everything. Nothing feels cooler than not using all the drum tracks in a mix. Nothing feels worse than inventing these tracks out of thin air.

Brandon

[m24p]

Yeah, I had some struggles with the no tom mics thing. I might just go for something fun and self gratifying this month anyway, since it's the last one. Maybe Josh could release it as a remix if it comes out interesting.

[wireman957]

Yeah, one of the guitar players is indeed a lefty - he did the solo's that are dual mic'd.

Does this mean we need to reverse the panning? (Sound of drum roll and kit crashing to the ground...sorry, it's been a long week)

Seriously, Josh, just downloaded the tracks and started listening through them before I went to work this morning. Cool sounds. Very earthy - gonna be fun. I think it's going to be interesting to fight any urges to "pretty" things up too much! This is the closest to "old school" tracking I've heard all year, and I like it! If you were here I'd offer you a nice scotch, but since you're not I'll just drink it for you...

[bobbybovine]

I haven't listened to the tracks yet, but after hearing Josh's mix I feel like this mix will be similar to creating a sculpture. I am with Belleym on this one, as Alexander Keith said.....taking the time to do it right

[JoshERTW]

I'm curious why JoshERTW didn't use the tom mics. I did two or three recordings in such a fashion because I read enough of those articles that said only need 2 mics on drums. This sound is fun and classic under the right circumstances. I find about 2% of my projects call for this and I'm HAPPY to have toms (top AND bottom) and mics for everything. Nothing feels cooler than not using all the drum tracks in a mix. Nothing feels worse than inventing these tracks out of thin air.

Shit B, you could have told me that in September... mind you I was cut off from the universe at the time so I wouldn't have heard you.

Seriously, Josh, just downloaded the tracks and started listening through them before I went to work this morning. Cool sounds. Very earthy - gonna be fun. I think it's going to be interesting to fight any urges to "pretty" things up too much! This is the closest to "old school" tracking I've heard all year, and I like it! If you were here I'd offer you a nice scotch, but since you're not I'll just drink it for you...

Thanks for the compliment man, "earthy" is the EXACT vibe we were going for some I'm glad that's what your picking up. The 'earthy' approach is also why I figured it would be acceptable not to mic the toms. I was clearly wrong (and realized it about 10 minutes into the mixing process... DOH!)

If you listen to the mix on bandcamp, I did get them pumping pretty decently - It really didn't take that long either because the toms are only played at the start and end of the song in big long sections - the A-side took WAY longer since the toms are interspersed and sporadic. Small price to pay though, the performance was what made this song what it is IMO (on drums and bass) and for all I know if I'd said "hey guys give me 10 minutes to mic up the toms and get levels" while they were in the zone I would have killed the vibe?

At Motherpine, there are no such thing as mistakes (just shitty takes)

I hope the above is enough of a hint at what you should be doing to accentuate the toms - or least with regards to how I did it - I am confident there are people here who will come up with something way better.

[ncls]

And what a suitable final month mix!!!

Maybe we could have one extra month

[ncls]

I'm taking my time with this one...

Well, this month is a trap: only 28 days!! I want my money back, cheaters!!

[gruzina]

hey all
this is nice song to close this wonderful year of mixing !
I just finished to DL the stems , and I am trying to mach the project BPM , the BPM is between 144-148 sort of... but as my observations goes the song is not recording with a click or just the drums are out of tempo every now and then .... my count and also Logic Pro's BPM counter shows 148 BPM...
please correct me if I wrong ...

[Radukku]

Okay began ground work on some tracks...specifically drums. So my question is : what is the tempo of the project ?
I read somewhere something about 144 bpm but the thing is they don't align to bars and beats at this tempo...
Josh?

[Radukku]

Maybe we could have one extra month

Ha!...I honestly wouldn't mind another YEAR! Huh, what about that Brandon? Idea: a new year long contest with pieces of hardware as prizes (cables, etc) and Waves plugins!!! Now those I'd LOOOVE! Any Waves and ALL the Waves plugins...mmhmmm...Waves..plugins...yummy

[Radukku]

hey all
this is nice song to close this wonderful year of mixing !
I just finished to DL the stems , and I am trying to mach the project BPM , the BPM is between 144-148 sort of... but as my observations goes the song is not recording with a click or just the drums are out of tempo every now and then .... my count and also Logic Pro's BPM counter shows 148 BPM...
please correct me if I wrong ...

Oh so it looks like I'm not the only one...Did you record this WITHOUT a click track Josh ?

[JoshERTW]

From memory, I believe we had the click set to 12/4 time and 94.666 BPM

Also when you play the song backwards it just says "praise satan" over and over again - I'm excited to hear the Willj mix which I presume will go this route

There are some "offtime" hits but we were'nt shooting for grid perfect polish here - it's meant to have imperfections, though feel free to correct anything that offends your own sense of musicality.