EventHorizon on the two bus. Also on certain drum tracks to tame the one off nasty note.
MajorTom… everywhere… vocals, bass, overheads, over all drum mix, toms, some guitars both acoustic and electric…
TransientMonster: Drums, acoustic guitar
PsychoDither: 2 bus dither
Honorable mentions from the JS series (all of which should be in VST for sale over here!)
1175: Drums
Ozzifier: Vocals
SStillwell Exciter: Overheads, snare, 2 bus
SStillwell Hugebooty: some bass, some 2 bus (combine Hugebooty with the Exciter and stereo width of a heck of a plug ala a few other hardware units…)
SStillwell StereoWidth: 2bus
OK…just listened to this on a pair of crappy Dell PC speakers and all I can say is Wow! I don’t quite know where to begin. Songwriting? Production/engineering? Instrumentation/arranging? Overall performances of everything? You guys have put a lot of time and thought into not only the bigger more obvious things that a song needs but you have also laced those recordings with plenty of ear candy and subtle details that will make these songs a good listen ten years from now. My hats off to you on pretty much everything. In a way I’m jealous of what you have going and I sincerely hope that you are able to keep the pace and enjoy the ride along the way. Commercial success would be great for you but retaining creative freedom to continue down the path that you have already begun would be as equally desirable. Whatever you are doing right now you just need to continue doing. How soon do you anticipate having the EP released? These are going into my mp3 player for jogging. Can’t wait to hear these tunes in my studio. Dang.
BTW…what are the SSTillwell JS series plugs? Got Mac versions? I could really use a good Stereo Image plug beyond what came free with beyond what came free with Logic.
Unfortunately, the JS versions will not work in any Mac host except for REAPER. There is an alpha/beta-ish DirectX version for Windows hosts, but no love for the Mac.
The kewl thing is, some of those JS plugs are eventually going to wind up as VST/AUs, as I find time and find a way to add more value beyond what’s already there.
JS is the plugin scripting language inside Reaper, a good number of those provided with the program come from SStillwell and Schwa. So, not usable outside Reaper I’m afraid.
I’m telling ya…a good Mac friendly (Vst/AU) multiband compressor/expander with some sort of frequency band stereo width control would be killer if it had a similar vibe and personality akin to the rest of the Stillwell range. The waiting line starts here…
Thanks for the kind words! I reposted a few as the masters were a bit off on a few (loudness a bit uneven and a few had a bit of subtle EQ work that was necessary.) So pull down again and have fun.
I have said it before, and I will say it again… VSTize 1175 and Ozzifier at the very least. Heck, over sampling is a damn good value add. Or incorporate the MicroSchope-esque metering into 1175 to see what is done to the signal much like Sinus does in his plugs. There is a lot you can do.
Got the new mp3’s downloaded and yes they do sound slightly better (tighter?). I’ve listened on cheap Gateway PC speakers (no sub), a couple of different headphone sets, an older smallish boombox that is usually a real pain to get mixes to sound right on (but it is an iron clad test of a good mix) , and my old Roland DS-90 studio monitors. All is at it should be on every medium which is no small feat. Once again, great job! These songs are now in my head.
So tell us what sort of hardware/software you guys are using (mics, DAW, mic pres, amp sims, DI boxes, monitors, Mac/PC, etc). The mix and production/engineering is definitely on par with anything else I have ever heard in that genre (Third Eye Blind, Motion City Soundtrack, OK Go, etc). Same goes with the songwriting. “Nothing but net” on these songs…
I recorded, mixed, mastered everything, so luckily I can tell you all the details you want.
Software, I use Reaper as the main DAW and SoundForge for the final end slicing. I do my masters in Reaper too. The only thing I use SoundForge for is literally trimming ends and maybe fade in/outs at the ends to make sure the zero crossings are happy.
Hardware: I use an EMU 1820M for conversion. Pres are a combination of a Mackie Onyx 800R, UA LA610, and UA4110. I use the Onyx on miscellaneous things, the LA610 for vox, and the UA4110 for nearly everything else.
Ampsims: I record the amp and always take a DI track just in case. Many of the guitar tracks are me through an old school original POD. A few are the DI tracks through Amplitude 2 panned with the miced track. Most of the leads are just an i5 or MD421 on a Fender Deluxe which I add some ping pong delay to in the box. (Delays are your friend for adding space in a mix)
Bass: Just run the bass into a Radial Jenson DI to the LA610 and smash the snot out of it with the T4 compressor… then some more compression with MajorTom in the box.
Monitors: Event 20/20bas
Let me know what other questions you might have as I can tell you all sorts of things, but I don’t know what details you may be after.
Thanks for the links and for the info! It is rather inspiring to hear something as good sounding as your songs coming from mainly “pro-sumer” gear and a do-it-yourself attitude. Just goes to show you that hard work and dedication can do about anything. I’m guessing that you could do a production justice even on an old 4-track portastudio if it came down to it. Again, I envy (in a good way) what you have going with The Slang. I’m sure I’ll give another stab at something similar when I get a couple projects finished up and honestly there are times when I’d like to chuck the producer hat and just be a guitarist in a band, but there isn’t very many folks in my neck of the woods that are as dedicated to it. Plenty of talent in my neighborhood but very little commitment or chemistry. Lots of talk but very little substance with some. And other seem very driven and enthused but have poor skills and no clue about the big picture as far as the recording process goes. So in the meantime it seems like production jobs are less hassle for me to take on and I usually have a short waiting list (and the pay is usually good). But it would be fun to be in a band again someday…