Some of you may have seen Zach’s Dirty Brake video and wanted the song it contained that Lars started. Welp here it be, re-mix’d, re-mastered, slightly re-arranged, and at last complete.
We were going to have a singer do the vocals in a studio but she never got around to actually going to the studio. Oh well, computer generated vocals will do!
Can you upload the older version? I think it sounded a little better.
This will sound like the older version if you upload it to youtube, except the guitar in the beginning became strums instead of straight chord hits. The rest, except the end (since the old didn’t have an ending) is the same, despite EQ additions. Oh yeah the vocals were redone as well, old ones had no attack or vibrato and the low freq’s (around 260hz) had a constant hum to them that was removed.
Alas, to answer your question, no I can’t. The project was overwritten by the new. Lars might have the old project still but I don’t think he’ll render and upload it.
OMG compression city! Is that the standard Reason compressor going?
I actually love the sound of the synthetic voice sound though, that’s awesome, and the middle-eight break, that’s good too.
Pretty cool sounding. Added to my playlist.
However, the vocals are a bit too distorted and covered up…
But besides that, cool!
@Oggyb, there actually wasn’t a lot of compression, -4db gain reduction peak on the master compressor, -2db most of the time and the only other asset with compression were the drums which were fed into a dry/wet compression signal. And yes, it’s Reason’s MClass compressor. I think the large number of instruments going at once is creating the over compression illusion. I like the voice as well, but it is such a bitch to setup all the vocals, add attack, vibrato, etc… takes forever.
@Deco, since the vocals were synthesized we didn’t really want them to be too present and up front, it sounded worse if they were. Really gotta get our hands on a REAL singer! Ladies? Anyone? :)
I WANT FREE ICRECREAM
YOU WILL SIT DOWN AND WAIT
I’m absolutely mortified!
I like ze older verson!
theres not much difference from the old to the newer Armageddon, just improvement to the sound (EQ, Mastering shit etc). Its still all the same (ecept the vocals)
Holy crackers! A corncob pipe!
@Brian and Larsa: I see. I just thought the MClass was supposed to be transparent (being a mastering class compressor. . . ) and it’s actually breaking the sound. Try increasing the attack duration, that way it might sound smoother by letting the kick through. You could very easily get the same loudness with much less pumping. Most commercial records that reach -10dB RMS like yours sound pretty smooth. Pendulum’s Slam, for instance, reaches -8dB RMS in places yet the compression is nowhere near as evident. True, commercial records get the best of everything, but there’s still room for improvement imho.
Also, icecream plz :)
@Oggyb, you’d think so huh, but sadly mastering in Reason is often too much of a challenge than people want to deal with, hence why a large amount of Reason users export a 24bit wav render and master it elsewhere, albeit by themselves using other software or sending it off to an engineer. If it’s a Reason track I do everything solely in Reason just for the challenge. And yes, commercial records get the best of everything, if I had years of experience under my belt as a mastering engineer and sat in front of a sexy SSL console (actually probably wouldn’t be behind one of these if I were just mastering) with great monitors and gear at my fingertips than perhaps I’d be able to make this track competitive to those -10 or -8db RMS songs that have a smooth, transparent compression sound. However the sad reality is quite the opposite, with very limited experience and low budget hardware, lack of acoustic treatment and so forth I gotta make due and hope the song sounds ‘good enough’. But I totally agree that there is ALWAYS room for improvement. The day you turn your mind off to that possibility is the day you stop learning and you always learn new things every day in audio. I tried your suggestion and brought the attack up. It made the track sound more thin, could still hear the compression but it was as if I applied a dip in the low mids. Very slight of course, but still notable if listening closely.
Seriously where is the ice cream?
@Brian: Interesting that changing the attack brought about such a tonal change in the audio. I suppose it is very much down to the way PH designed the algorithms in the MClass units, “old-skool” valve effects, etc., being very popular right now. I don’t know anything about that, not being a regular Reason user.
Of course the track sounds “good enough” ;) it sounds awesome compared to some efforts and it’s obvious you know how to use what gear you have. No denigration there. Possibly in light of this you might consider pushing slightly less hard, I mean the waveform when I looked in Audition was just a solid mass of green, which it doesn’t need to be. There’s always sidechain (stick everything in mono through that except the kick drum) or multiband.
Anyway, nice to talk to someone who really appreciates the value of learning good practice :). I’m beginning to think that the ice cream, like the cake, is a lie.
The only thing I don’t like are the vocals, :)
@oggyb, yeah the MClass devices aren’t great especially when relied on for mastering, but they’re not horrible either. I was also surprised at the effect the attack alteration had on the overall mix, definitely makes you wonder about the algorithm in comparison to other software based compressors. And yes, the mix was rather loud, I had the input gain on the maximizer/limiter at 0db when I probably should have taken it down a bit, but hey that’s how we progress, learn from past mistakes and keep on improving every time.
@Arma, do you have a sister that can sing? ;)
No. I mean I just don’t like them there…
HOLY CRACKERS!
Er, a more Off-Topic question… Erik, is this your submitted song a few months ago for the Black Mesa Modification: http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/community_projects/cp12_Larsa - Alone.mp3
I just figured there aren’t many composers with the title ‘Larsa’.
Dang it, silly URLing and no Editing ting: http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/community_projects/cp12_Larsa%20-%20Alone.mp3
Yeah Otto, that’s Lars.
haha yeah, i sendt like 10 songs to them. And they picked out the worse
Ah, dang. Thanks for the confirmation, but now that the thread archives are misplaced since their site crash, I can’t look at the other submissions. Cheers though, I still loved it. Heck, if you’re looking for stuff to put on the Blog, just submit all your old scores. :)
FUUCK ME GOOD, this was nice and relaxing. :) Good job.
Hey, sorry if this is a tad old and I’m a bit late to responding to the blog entry, but would you happen to have any lyrics on hand?