'Hellucination' - final mix

Hi fellas,
I posted a raw version of this track a few weeks back and only got a chance to tweak it the other day (had tinnitus and wife just had a baby at the weekend!).
Anyway, I went back to the drawing board and redid all of the EQ, added some compression, tweaked the dynamics, reverb, de-esser and completely rebuilt the drum track. I posted it on Monday and it has just made it to No.2 in the metal charts at mp3unsigned.com :)
If you have just under 3 minutes check out 'Hellucination' - it's pretty complicated and shreddy, shows off a load of my influences mixed with my own style including a one bar nod to Mozart :p
Hope you like it!
http://www.mp3unsigned.com/Showband.asp?id=4890


Gear used:
Rhythm guitars: Ibanez Jem
Lead guitars: Ibanez Prestige (customised)
Bass: Washburn Bantham BB5
All tones: Rocktron Prophesy II (including bass)
Drums: EZdrummer DFH
Sequencer/mixer: Cubase SX3 with UAD-1 card for fx and compression

Once again you have created an absolutely amazing song.
Congrats on the arriving of your baby. :)
The track sounds fantastic as it is, the only suggestion would be to either cut the master volume by 0.4 dB or place a Limiter on the Master track. Not sure If you added compression to the snare drum, but it would sound much better with less compression on it.
Cheers man.

Cool advice, will check that out this evening if I get the kids to sleep! Is the snare too loud with regard to the rest of the kit? I'll certainly work on the Limiter too. Thanks man, always appreciate your input.

For some reason the snare sounds unnatural.

The Limiter is so that the levels do not jump to the clipping zone.
So, either cut the master volume a little (0.4dB) or place a limiter that prevents the track from going to that zone. :)


Edit:
One thing that you can do is, check the equalization of the Snare drum.
The snare has the tendency to sound “plastic” when you boost the 1600-1700 Hz.
By cutting those frequencies you can enhance the sound of the snare.
Hope that helps.

Congrats on your newly born Super KID :D

I love it man. I think that Snare sounds great, it sound just right for this type of track - METAL.

The mix on the drums sounds is just right, nothing to loud or soft.

I really like the quality of this song production wise AND the licks and riffs and all that goes with it.

I really love this one mate... Keep it up. I wanna hear more songs of this quality.

GREAT WORK

Shaz

I just gave you a thumbs up on your site ;)

Hehe.. you left out what gauge [why is that word spelt like that.. it has always bothered me.. hehe] strings you use in your gear "persons" comment at the bottom. I am currently using Elixir 9 to 46.. but don't like them this thin.. I was reading somewhere that Yngwie Maelmsteen uses gauge .07 for his top-E.. ridiculous! :p

I seem to prefer, as do my guitars, 10 to 52.. may be when I get the Ibanez I will finally be able to use .09 gauge with correct intonation!

Dave..... man.... that was amazing.

I must be getting better though - that didn't sound as fast as some of your other stuff :p . Loved it though mate. The snare started off seeming a little loud but when the track got going it fitted in fine I thought.

The Mozart inspired section was sweet.... ;)

Light: I use Super Linky 9's - used to use Elixirs but noticed a huge difference in 'brightness' and a sweeter tone when I switched back to Slinky's. 7 on the high E is pretty damn thin, I heard Vai uses the same - or use to at one stage.

Ren, thanks for checking it out - not a lot of fellas here have heard your stuff but the last post you made blew me away. Great to hear positive comments from a player like you! Re the speed - it's certainly not my fastest track, only 160bpm - most of my other stuff was around the 200 mark which was getting a bit out of hand. Now that I'm a dad and supposedly 'mature' ( :eek: ) I find myself getting away from pure speed and concentrating on melody - much happier with this direction but.... now that you mention it... I might just fire out another over the top track - always good to keep a toe hold on the those roots :D

When are you going to post another track??

PS Cool that you recognised the Mozart part;-)

Originally Posted by: Superhumanonly 160bpm - most of my other stuff was around the 200 mark which was getting a bit out of hand. Now that I'm a dad and supposedly 'mature' ( :eek: ) I find myself getting away from pure speed and concentrating on melody - much happier with this direction but.... now that you mention it... I might just fire out another over the top track

Wooo! 240 BPM!!!!!!!!! :) Go for it! :)

Superhuman, Sounds Absolutely Fantastic. When's the CD coming out?????
Congrats on the Baby.......................
I wonder what it would have been like if you were in my neck of the woods a few years ago with this sound.... I had the opportunity to fill in for a friend's band when his Lead Guitarist just vanished, strung out shooting Dope.
I got to play gigs at The Whiskey-a-go-go, The Roxy and Rainbow in Hollywood, to name a few. The Band just really wasn't my style, They're Hardcore with kinda Punky influenced sound. I was free to introduce part of my style, but felt limited with options in keeping within the boundary of their material. I stuck around about six months, helped bring a new flair by writing a few pieces for some new material and then the Guitarist made it through rehab and wanted to re-join the Band. I was happy to step aside and encouraged him, this was his band, his style and it was good to see his recovery....
Playing those gigs made a great life time experience, but I wonder how much more the outcome would have been, even playing a cover of your sound and just blew the house down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great work........Love it..

Yea I played in a few bands over th eyears too. The besat was a band called NExus, we released two demos and got some fairly positive radio exposure - played universities and a couple of good sized gigs in Dublin. We were like a cross between melodic punk and thrash metal with loads of solos - problem was the drummer and singer/bassist didn't get on. Every practice session ended up with the drummer jumping over his kit onto the singer!
I also played keyboard in a tripped out Doors style band - it was fun for a while but they took the whole 'sex drugs and rock n' roll' thing way too seriously. Glad I left that band, years later the singer ended up dying from a heroin overdose and the rest of the guys messed their lives up too.
If I knew back then what I know now I would have got about things a lot more seriously and probably given the whole music thing a bigger shot - maybe tried for a course in Berklee. Still though, recording in my home studio when the wife and kids are asleep is pretty good fun too!

Just out of curiosity.. does anyone know the fastest (in bpm) song ever written/played? That is not including any form of electronic stuff or speeding up an original.. I mean a song that had an extremely fast tempo from the first instance.. Is 400bpm possible? 600bpm? I somehow doubt 600.. but may be 400? As I say.. just curious.. I'm not a huge fan of speed-geeks.. but it's still interesting to me.

Good stuff!! One more to update on my soundclick radio station. Love your tunes man!