METAL FANS - My recent master job

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John
Member Since: May 06, 2007

So, I recently finished up a 4 track E.P. with my all origianl Metal/AlternativeMetal/Hardcore Metal band Light the Shadow. With the help of some of you here (a special HUGE thanks to noize2u for all his help), we came out with what we feel is a pretty solid 4 track E.P.

We used a solid PC with Sony Acid Pro 7 as our DAWS. We used a Line 6 Tomeport UX2 as our audio interface for Guitars (bass as well) and vocals. We used Toon Tracks SD 2.0 setup with an Alesis DM5 and Roland triggers for drums, and use a couple extra trigger pads we needed for cymbols from my Yamaha DTXplorer kit.

I used a MXL v63m condensor mic for vocals. I have a pair of smaller Samson Resolv 40a studio monitors, and a nice collection of polugins from WAVES.

I am posting the songs here for everyone to check out if they wish. The CD has been burned off and given away already, but I just wanted to get some general thoughts production wise and music wise from anyone into our kind of music here. We are sharing these for free with everyone and anyone, so please feel free to download these and share them online anywhere. If anyone has any comments, please feel free to post. I'm always open to suggestions about the over all sound as well, but for what we had to work with I think its pretty solid.

If you decide to share these, please credit our band name Light the Shadow and point anyone to our website at www.lighttheshadow.com If none of these links below work, just use the website address I just typed and download them there. Just scroll down the page to where it says "FREE MP3s".

"Die Alone"
www.lighttheshadow.com/au...Die%20Alone.mp3

"Mouth of Ashes"
www.lighttheshadow.com/au...0Of%20Ashes.mp3

"The Golden Needle"
www.lighttheshadow.com/au...en%20Needle.mp3

"d.r.e.a.m."
www.lighttheshadow.com/au...0d.r.e.a.m..mp3

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Tim the Enchanter
Member
Since: Feb 17, 2008


Apr 14, 2009 06:37 pm

Dude!!! That f'n rocks! I will be downloading these for sure. Very nicely done. I like the blend of the clean parts thrown in as well.

Is that you doing the screaming vocals? They sound pretty kick *** for this style of music.

John
Member
Since: May 06, 2007


Apr 14, 2009 07:54 pm

Hey Redneck. Thanks for the kind words for sure man!

Yea thats me doing the vocals. The beginning part of the "d.r.e.a.m" track is my guita player, with me doing the lower backups behind it, but yea. The other stuff is me. All the clean singing parts are me as well. A few of them turned out a bit off key, but we wanted to keep it some what raw and not over produced like.

Thanks for checking them out. We posted them on garageband.com and I guess some of it changes up to much and doesnm't repeat the same boring riffs over and over again, because we basicaly got a set of good reviews, and then others just ripped us apart. Its the way we write I guess. Either way, its good to hear more solid feedback after some of the low blows we took on that site.

The only thing I had some issues with that annoy me about the final mixes where the snare drum. Sometimes it pops in and out of the mix, and certain parts you can't really hear it as well. Other the that, we were pretty happy with it.

Again, thanks for checking them out.

http://www.reverbnation.com/2ndg
Member
Since: Nov 27, 2007


Apr 14, 2009 10:28 pm

Metal Fans?, hey! thats me!

keen as to hear this but it wont work for me atm.

Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006


Apr 15, 2009 11:38 am

Ok, your mix sounds very nice on my craptop speakers. That's usually a good sign.

The music, me personally I need more double time in my metal (yet little/no blast beats) but I think you guys did a great job at the style. Reminds me of Poison The Well.

Now, I am at work on a slow connection so could only listen to the first track (which took 12 minutes to buffer), I will check out the others later on.

John
Member
Since: May 06, 2007


Apr 15, 2009 11:43 am

Hey thanks Tripps. Some of our stuff has more speed to it. Other songs don't. Hence why we got rippped apart on garageband.com with the reviewing sections because we have so many styles we like to mesh together. A lot of people felt our stuff didn't belong in the catagory they were reviewing because of the different styles. But we write that way because its what we like. And its not so boring.

We go from straight up old school hard core, to the newer hardcore, into alternative matal Tool-ish style. And we do so many change ups witnin each song and hardly repeat parts, some people just shut it out and can't get into it.

Either way, thanks for checking it out man. Let me know what you think of the other tracks for sure!

Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006


Apr 15, 2009 11:53 am

See, that actually interests me quite a bit, I love changing up styles as it shows multi levels of talent and an open mind. I will definitely check out the others later on. The PTW was not a negative either as I have one of their CD's, it's just not my goto metal CD when I need a fix.

On the styles note, my "thesixtyone" page is ridiculous. It has black gospel rock, rap, folk, emo, latin jazz and blues. About to add some metal to it and really screw up the genre lists :)

Member
Since: Nov 19, 2008


Apr 15, 2009 01:09 pm

Like your stuff! Totally in the realm of 36 Crazyfists, Killswitch, Mudvayne etc. The drums are well polished, the guitars a little too overdriven and not enough distorted for me but thats just my opinion
http://www.homerecordingconnection.com/images/icon3.gif



If I was to be completely to be frank, I'd say some of the singing is a bit of a let down. Have you considered using a vocoder over some of the parts, maybe some background areas? It might add a bit of depth to your sound - hardcore and post-hardcore bands are fairly open to them in general.

Overall its a killer set of recordings. Good to see Acid Pro isn't dead yet either!

Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006


Apr 15, 2009 05:38 pm

Hey, a 36CF reference! Those guys are from Alaska. I grew up with the guitarist in Kenai , he is one of my best friends and the reason I started playing music. He was already good when we started hanging out in Jr. High, I saw the chicks dug it, then I started playing pronto :)

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Apr 15, 2009 09:14 pm

Well, indeed you know I like em.

Nuff said.

I pointed Tuna to them and I think he was gonna DL em and make sure the metal guys in the barracks all checked em out.

And of coarse Ray still digs em and gives a slight reference to Slipknot.

Congrats dude for sure.

http://www.reverbnation.com/2ndg
Member
Since: Nov 27, 2007


Apr 16, 2009 06:35 am

awesome **** man!
i particularly like the drum sound, the snare is really woody sounding, just perfect.

you have a very similar vox style to myself although im not into the clean singin with heavy too much, it rocks mate.
keep smashing it.

John
Member
Since: May 06, 2007


Apr 16, 2009 01:01 pm

burningcircle, Thanks for the reply man. And thanks for being honest on the singing vocals wuthout being a total prick about it! You wouln't believe some of the ignorances on some of our garageband.com reviews. I know I have a lot of work to do on them, but I'm not taking our msuic to seriously. So I did what I could and thats where it stayed.

Either way, thanks for checkin' em out. I hope Acid stays kickin' for a while, as its the only program I know inside out haha. I don't have the will power to learn another piece of software on this stuff!

And Deon, thanks for checking them out. Like I stated above, we are all about smashing all our influences together in our work. Its just our thing. I know its not for everyone, but we're happy with it and thats all we care about for the most part! Hahaha.

If anyone has any websites or anything they could let me know about to help get these tunes out more, feel free to share! We're giving them all away. We just want it to be heard, as this is the last all original band for pretty much all of us. Getting into the late 20s and early 30s and we won't be doing it to much more. I know I won't be if I have to start over... haha.

Thanks again for all the feedback guys. Means a lot. And as always, thanks for the kind words Noise!

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Apr 16, 2009 04:01 pm

You can upload em at The sixty one www.thesixtyone.com as well.

Metal is not huge there but it does git played and bumped. And being that it is different from a lot on there it might get some attention.

Its at least another venue to get it heard, even if its not 3000 hits per day its still something.

John
Member
Since: May 06, 2007


Apr 16, 2009 10:59 pm

Thanks Noise. Already a step ahead of ya though. I went ahead and started that a couple days ago. Kept your e-mail about it so I wouldn't forget.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Apr 17, 2009 08:20 pm

Sweet, I'll go lookin for them and share some bumps later. I'll be watching for them in the rotation of The Rack as well.

Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006


Apr 21, 2009 01:08 pm

What is your "thesixtyone" artist name, is it simply "Light The Shadow"? I have a couple thousand points to spend atm and would be happy to send some your way.

John
Member
Since: May 06, 2007


May 02, 2009 07:30 am

Hey CptTripps. Sorry for the long awaited reply. I have been out of the band loop recently. Took a break from it all. This recording whooped my *** for sure haha.

My screen name there is liberty610 and the band name of course is Light the Shadow. The points would be awesome. I'm still not 100% sure how that site works though, as I have not spent much time on it yet. So if you guys wanna fill me in, that would be awesome.

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