stoopid

I'm enjoying it [To the Bone] as well (also a preorder-er). It's like Insurgentes in the variety of styles, but has many Lightbulb Sun/In Absentia era PT sounding moments and songs. It's a nice change of pace IMO, obviously SW felt he needed to do something a tad lighter in content and musical ambition. It's fun (by SW standards), and well executed.

Link sent.

Big part of the reason I couldn't get into Sorceress was the production. I wasn't sure if I could easily remedy the overpowering bass, but it turns out it wasn't that hard. Looks to me like the mastering engineer pumped a few lower EQ bands, so I adjusted them (downward) and ran a mild limiter so levels between the songs were relatively the same. Sounds MUCH better IMO, now you can hear more of the other instrumentation previously buried by the overpowering bass. If anyone wants my remastered version let me know. A few of the songs are ovecompressed, this isn't something I can fix as that was done before it went to disc.

Since I'm not wealthy I started a Go Fund Me to help offset the advertising costs. We'd like to get this in front of more people than just friends, family, and a few fans. $5+ gets a free digital download of the album. :) https://www.gofundme.com/the-boogeymen

I came across this. Don't know if it's a full Pinnick side project or just a song from a few years back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiNFcAB0CUQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grinder_Blues_(band)

Solid! [this section is dead, and I've somehow missed listening to this]

You need to get off myspace! They were going to force me to watch a 90 second long ad before playing anything. Sorry, no. Soundcloud is at least free.

Geddy sighting, front row at the 4.50 mark. :hail: :smoke: I don't think she would find that amusing. :P

You did the same thing on the MOTH stuff. I can only imagine that that must be really hard when dealing with material that takes many months to produce/deliver. A lot can change even on the production side in a long-term project: gear, recording techniques, experience. I did end up remastering the first 10 or so songs as I gained some new tools and experience using them. Thankfully the mixes were good enough I didn't need to drastically remix anything. Did you face similar issues on your project, or did knowing that your project was going to take a long time mean you paid attention to being consistent from the get-go? I tried to use certain bass and guitar presets for particular tones (attitude) from song to song. Thankfully it's easy to save the preset as a file and launch it in the next song you want to use it, as you know. Did similar things with keyboard sounds, using bits of one keyboard effect in another to unify. The relatively faint, spooky keyboard tone during the chorus of Changing Tunes got used again in another track (forget which though). Many of the songs also have subtle musical progressions, call-backs, and themes that carry throughout. If I didn't know they were there it would be difficult to make some of them out due to the stylistic changes between the songs. I think subliminally it adds to the overall musical cohesiveness I was trying to achieve.

Old becomes new again. Too many producers are overproducing nowadays using every single trick and tactic in 'the book' on every single song to the point they all sound the same. There's still something to be said for being able to hear everything in a mix. :codger: I totally agree. I love a bare-bones sounding production. I've really been digging Family Style, by the Vaughan brothers. It was produced back in the 90s when just about everything was all about sounding "big", but that record has a very "small" sound to it, if that makes any sense. http://youtu.be/IlBxld-kvAQ I think "thin" (like Presto, Roll the Bones) would be how I describe those mixes. The Vaughan Brothers sounds better though than most thin recordings (most thin recordings lack any low end, it's literally missing, make the overall mix sound brittle). Paul Simon's Graceland and most of Steely Dan's albums are borderline thin as well, but raising the volume a bit reveals there's much depth and precision in the mix. Both are great examples of Mixing 101. But by today's standards wouldn't sell a single copy because they're too weak to be played on earbuds at the same volume as the other tracks in the playlist.

You did the same thing on the MOTH stuff. I can only imagine that that must be really hard when dealing with material that takes many months to produce/deliver. A lot can change even on the production side in a long-term project: gear, recording techniques, experience. I did end up remastering the first 10 or so songs as I gained some new tools and experience using them. Thankfully the mixes were good enough I didn't need to drastically remix anything.

It was also important to keep a consistent sound from song to song as we knew from the start this was a long term project and needed the songs to at least sound remotely similar when put together, in order, years later.

Old becomes new again. Too many producers are overproducing nowadays using every single trick and tactic in 'the book' on every single song to the point they all sound the same. There's still something to be said for being able to hear everything in a mix. :codger:

Been working on this album off/on in our spare time for almost 3 years. Long time friend and collaborator Scott performed the vocals and wrote all the lyrics, I did everything else. It closely follows Scott's real life engagement and breakup, so it became a living work of art as time progressed. A few times over the course of those 3 years he was writing lyrics for parts of the story that a month later became a chapter in his own life. Creepy! It's about an hour long, divided into (13) individual songs [no instrumentals] : Bandcamp if you're more into that: https://theboogeymen.bandcamp.com/album/missing-pieces Will be on Spotify and other streaming services soon too.

There's definitely some lo-fi mastering at work here, the kick drum 'pumps' on almost every track with drums, it's a tell that the mastering engineer (possibly mixing) didn't know what they were doing. I wonder why that is, their prior albums sounded okay. I also agree that this isn't my favorite of their last 3 or 4 albums. I got through two listens, then turned to KXM's album and haven't looked back. I was planning to come back to it, if only because I spend $13 on the album. :P But overall impression thus far is much like yours - a very mixed bag.

fixed that for you Well, yeah. The production was bad, but most 'fans' didn't even notice. They claim the music is actually different on Hardwired.

I have a long time collaborator and friend that fits that description. People love/hate his vocals similar to Neil Young, Dylan, Adam Duritz, etc. But for alt rock, most of the vocalists are unique. This has always been a favorite song of mine by an obscure band. Mike Mantione can't sing worth a damn, but he pushes what little he has to the edge: And a less obscure example:

I should add that I like the production (mixing, engineering). It's punchy, loud, and yet still mostly clear. It's a good example (along with Wasting Light) of how to do a loud album and still have some dynamics/clarity.

So this is some really good shit. Purchased this and Anathema's new one from Amazon. Thanks!! :) KXM checks most of my hard rock music boxes. Good vocals, solid rhythm, a sense of groove, and tastefully flashy leads. The only nit are some of the lyrics, but I have the same issue with some of King's X material. I just have to remember they're rock musicians, not poets. After 5 listens I'm digging nearly every single song on this album. For me, that's a rare treat.

You need one of these ;) : https://www.amazon.com/Leegoal-Stainless-Earpick-Curette-Removal/dp/B00AUDKETY?th=1

Here's a link to the FB live Q&A from yesterday if you're curious. Lots of good tidbits for the PT, prog, and of course SW enthusiast. ;) He also discussed music production, mixing, movies...

That belt is about as fake as the weight of his title. :P

Did you by chance see Soundbreaking? It's available on eBay (Bluray/DVD) for relatively cheap... http://www.pbs.org/show/soundbreaking/ It covers some studio specific stuff but gets into some of the nuances of producing and context of why certain moments (albums) in rock history were as important as they were/are. The studio spaces themselves were maybe 5% of the discussion in the entire Soundbreaking series, and they seemed to cover the subject fine. Music is made by people, and it's about a set of skills (technical, artistic and interpersonal). Geography is random. Only Chicago carries any true weight in historical context due to the movement north of African Americans during the civil rights (and pre civil rights) era. All the other places we deem 'important' as musical hot beds or springboards are mostly that way by chance. That's one of the reasons the entire principle for the documentary comes off as contrived to some of us.

So just watched the SW facebook live interview, and one of the questions was about him doing work with Trent Reznor if the opportunity presented itself. Steven was very enthusiastic to say he would love that, and went on to praise Trent as "one of the best producers of the last 25 or 30 years" [he was referring back to one of the already answered question about best produced albums of all time]. That would be something, seems like a logical fit to me. Let's make this happen, what do you say? ;)

One thing to illustrate the shittiness of Sonic Highways... and I hate using *this* as a guide, but in the context of the awards themselves this says A LOT... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Foo_Fighters 6 nomination, 5 wins for Wasting Light. 2 nominations, no wins for Sonic Highways. Mind you, one album followed the other. Same band lineup.