Spark of the Oldschool

Spark of the Oldschool

I have to say that I'm proud of this one. Musically and mixingwise. There isn't too much dynamics, but the sound is the best I've achieved so far.

Bass has one of my "usual" eq-presets; heavy bass-cut and a lot of mid-boost. In this song it fits perfectly to the soundscape and atmosphere. You can hear it, but it's not coming out to your face. Guitars have nothing fancy, just the preset I always use.

Drums utilize the same presets I mostly use, but with these samples the results were astounding. Easily one of the best drumsounds I've got so far. All are crispy'n'clear.

There's no great foundings with this one, just the same stuff I usually use, but this time it really hit the spot. So good that I thought I should make more songs with these sounds. Thrash-disk with these sounds would be awesome!

So, let yourself be caught in the mosh and enjoy this one, I have to say that I do.
That's all folks!

Phil Collins-hangover

Phil Collins-hangover

This one is very natural and pure when it comes to sound. No post-compressing or EQ. And the song itself has only Fender Twin-model from SimulAnalog's Guitarsuite VST-pack. I ran guitars and bass through it.
Drums have absolutely nothing. They are as is. I liked the sound that way, because the song itself is something I don't normally do. The sound turned out to be quite well balanced with these settings. I just got the volume levels right and that's it.

What comes to the making and composing this song, this was different in many ways.
First of all, this doesn't accompany my routines to the full, because I don't have the channels like I usually do. There's only one channel for the toms and one for the bassdrum.

Second is that this has only clean guitar, that's something I have done only once before, if I remember right.

The third and biggest thing was the composing and tuning. This is so far the only song that I've done using a tuning of my own. I came across it by accident and quite instantly saw the benefits. And this whole song is build upon those.
So the whole song is composed on 3 strings and it utilizes the changes between major-, minor-, sus2- and sus4-chords. Because of the tuning those 4 are really simple to achieve and play.

I haven't used that tuning anywhere else yet because it's hard to come up with stuff on that tuning, atleast for me. But it's still a fun tuning to play with.

So, enjoy this depressive piece of music and see you next time.

Oh, and the name for the song comes from a finnish tv-cartoon called Pasila. I took it from there after my girlfriend told me that this song reminds her of the Collins' classic "Another Day In Paradise".

The Modern Sound (of America)

The Modern Sound (of America)

Something quite different again. Tonally (and mixing-wise) this is something I don't normally do, but this time the song "demanded" it and I delivered.
Nu-Metal inspired piece, so the tone is middlescooped and dynamics are non-existent. So all-in-all this one was very easy to record and mix.

I talked earlier how it's easy to record a song when you know exactly what you're after. And this was it. I knew the sound I needed and I knew the way to mix, so there was no quessing games or tryouts. Just got into it and bam; finished.

This was done a little bit differently, guitar was "as is", no post eq. But instead I put it through a compressor. Bass in this one is tracked and put through some mild eq. Drums are done just like I usually do; no eq, just compressor.

After the whole thing was finished I ran it through a compressor once more and put the levels to max. Limiter came in handy and the result is what you see and hear.

I don't like the sound of this, but I just wanted to do one song of my own like this. I've mixed one other song this way too and don't like that either. :D
But I'm always looking ways to experiment and that's why I also do things that are out of my comfort zone.
I've also made one other nu-metal inspired song, but the mixing on that one is whole lot different than what I did here.

So, compressed middlescoop-shit for you. Enjoy! :P

Matilainen

Matilainen

I put my free time at the army to use and made a song out of frustration. Heh, that's what I usually do, in or out of the army. :D
So this one is from 2004 and the better ones from the oldies.

Mixingwise this was once again a bit more tricky one. As I didn't have the tracking routine yet (it started to form one or two years later and getting the final form in 2007). So once again I used the "one compressor hopefully fits all" method. Yeah, I know; I'm a lazy ass piece of shit because I don't rework the songs and go from there where is no fence. Oh well, these are old stuff and the new one is really what matters, right? :)

What comes to the song itself, I pretty much wrote it all down there. Playing the guitar upside down 'cause I didn't have my own there with me. This one has some punk/metal-feel to it, mainly because it's about a person that gets to your nerves.

Samples are kinda clear, except the bass. But guitars and drums sound clear and powerful. I'm especially happy with the bassdrum that comes out loud and clear.

Next up will be a spinoff in my catalogue; nu-metal! (Atleast inspired by nu-methul.) Middlescooped sound and flat-as-shit dynamics.
Also I'll work on an old bass-EP so I can release it after well... 6 or 7 years.

In the meantime, take a listen of this old piece of crap.

The Mammoth

The Mammoth

Ass-kicking sound with dynamics, this is the result I should get every time. The samples are not my favorite, except the guitars. The drums sound good and they're easy to mix, but the sound itself isn't exactly what I prefer. Bass goes pretty much the same, although it's bit harder to mix. Still I think I got it pretty good here.

There's a bit too much bass in this song, but with these samples getting it out would mean some eq:ing on the drums and different eq on the bass. That would mean some alterations to the way I work.
With these samples the song tends to get a bit more bass-oriented. That's what I was after when I started to really mix my songs in 2007. After listening a LOT of music and discovering the old records of Testament, Suicidal Tendencies, Slayer, Queensrÿche, Biohazard and many more I started to realize what "good sound" meant to me.

The real ear-opener for me was Overkill's album 'Horrorscope'. I had never heard sound like that. And to this day it still is an unique sound in my books. So, that became "THE sound" for me and I've tried to get that sound ever since.
The good thing is that I can't achieve it, so I usually end with a clear crispy sound of my own that is my "Horrorscope". :)

The second thing that started to affect really to my mixing was when I really got into Queensrÿche's album 'Warning'. That made me the big fan of the old records and ever since I've listened the oldies with totally different ears. With that album came the appreciation for dynamics and mid-gain sound. It has air in the sound and that's what I fell in love with.

The first time I recall noticing something about the way how music is mixed dates back to 2004 when I was still in the army, "serving" my country. I was listening to Metallica's '...And Justice For All'-album and remember thinking "damn, you can hear every instrument. Even the bass."

Ok, so this got "a little" off-course, but oh well, atleast now you know why I mix today the way I do. Enjoy the ass-kicking from this thrash-piece.

I'm Fucked Up

I'm Fucked Up (Original 2007 mix)

I'm Fucked Up (2011 remix)

Ok, so here's once again something a little different. You can make head-to-head comparision of mi way of mixing. Same song mixed in 2007 and again in 2011. I didn't care shit about dynamics back then. It was all just getting stuff as loud as possible and kick-ass bass too. But I've come a long way from there.

Nowadays I do care about the dynamics (even if it doesn't show too much) and I'm way into the "crispy" sound. I want my mix to be clear. That's what I tried to do here in the 2011 remix, but the bassdrum got sucked out pretty bad (except for the doublebass-parts). :(
Other than that it's shitloads more clear than the original.

Still, I have to confess that I like the original better. I won't remix this again, but I should've done a little bit better job with the remix, pay more attention to the single hits of the bassdrum.

Anyways, I believe I'm heading the right direction all the time.
Enjoy!

Flashback

Flashback

Hooray! So, another post of a song that has nothing to do with mixing. :P
If I remember right, this is "as is". I think I didn't even touch the volume levels. Well... The sound works like that anyway.
I made another version with eq and compressor applied, but it really didn't sound as good as this one.

I've made thrash many times, and I've got one coming up, as I talked in the post of my methods and routines. The flashback here is the way this song is made:
I fired up DOSBox and ran Fast Tracker 2 in it. That tracker is the one I started to make music in 1999-2000. Back then I knew almost all of the effect parameters and well, everything there was to know to make songs smoothly. I moved on to Modplug Tracker and been using it for almost 10 years now.

As I made this song, well, I came to realize that I don't remember shit of FT2. :D
So, this song doesn't have any frills. It's just straightforward thrash and that's it.
Enjoy!