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Old 11-27-2018, 08:36 PM   #1
smueske
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Default Is Life a Dream? (old school progressive metal)

I mastered the second song from an old demo tonight. This was recorded at Breezeway Recording Studios in October, 1987, to two-inch tape, using the same setup as "Raining Fire." I'm singing on this one.

https://soundcloud.com/user-178390736/is-life-a-dream

Last edited by smueske; 11-27-2018 at 08:42 PM.
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Old 11-27-2018, 10:01 PM   #2
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Another awesome one! Would be sweet if you could also post a pre-mastered version for comparison...
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Old 11-27-2018, 11:35 PM   #3
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Cool tune! Voice was really good as was the guitar playing. I'm not a fan of that much reverb but that's just a personal taste thing.

Good job!
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Old 11-28-2018, 12:23 AM   #4
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Quote:
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Cool tune! Voice was really good as was the guitar playing. I'm not a fan of that much reverb but that's just a personal taste thing.
Well, it's 1987 after all, there probably were fines for not drowning your snare in reverb back then. That, again, sounds great, OP you were shredding in the 80s
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Old 11-28-2018, 09:44 PM   #5
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foxAsteria:

Thanks again! Basically, all I did was separate the stereo track into mid and side channels, compressed the side channel, mixed it back into the stereo source at about 30%, then rolled off the highs and lows, boosted the upper mids, the limited (pretty conservatively) with a multi-band limiter.

Jeffsounds, I hear you. There are a lot of things that make me shiver (in a self-conscious way) about this. I agree there's too much reverb, but that was kind of an 80s thing. This mix was based on the stuff Shrapnel was putting out.

Zeekat, thank you!
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Old 11-28-2018, 10:15 PM   #6
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Thanks for posting more of this awesome material! Sounds great to me.

And I kind of dig the huge reverb. Just couldn't stand listening to it ALL day, hahaha. But every now and again is totally fine. So you only have access to the mix (two channel)? No separate tracks?
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Old 11-29-2018, 01:18 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smueske View Post
Thanks again! Basically, all I did was separate the stereo track into mid and side channels, compressed the side channel, mixed it back into the stereo source at about 30%, then rolled off the highs and lows, boosted the upper mids, the limited (pretty conservatively) with a multi-band limiter.
Ah cool, is this why I sometimes see a mid-side decoder and encoder wrapped around the mastering chain? Is that just a trick to enable regular processors to work the mid/side channels?
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Old 11-29-2018, 10:51 PM   #8
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I don't know about the chains you are talking about. I use this free utility from Voxengo.

https://www.voxengo.com/product/msed/

You put your source audio on one track and route to three other tracks. Track one should have mid inline with side muted, two, the sides inline with mid muted, and the third is a reference track. Take the tick off the master for the source audio and route the audio through the three new tracks. Mute the reference track until you want to compare. Now you have mid and sides separate and can eq and compress them separately. Ordinarily, you just use the mid and sides, the third being only for a reference. This time, I thought it sounded better to mute the mid track and compress the sides. I unmuted the reference track and compressed the sides. Then, on the master track, I used a multi-band limiter followed by an eq with low and hi shelves. It's a lot like parallel compression, except the compression is only on the sides.
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Old 11-30-2018, 12:15 AM   #9
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I knew I was using that plugin wrong...
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Old 12-01-2018, 09:23 PM   #10
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smueske - was this Breezeway Studios - Waukesha, WI??

lol.. if it was. I was there. Sheesusss.. what a small world.
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Old 12-01-2018, 09:47 PM   #11
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Ha! Yes. The drummer in this demo was the drummer from Raven Bitch, who was playing around Milwaukee a lot at the time. Breezeway was such a killer studio.
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Old 12-01-2018, 10:02 PM   #12
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ha.. what a small world.

Yes, thought Greg's name was familiar.

I was going to school in Waukesha at the time. Breezeway was my internship. Music/Bus.. I worked a lot with Lee Crooks (I think that was his name). I was there about 6months, and then left b/c I couldn't afford rent with what they were paying me. Good times though.. I helped with the Raven Bitch album they were making. Just 'studio runt' stuff like fetching coffee and positioning the mic in front of the 120Db cabs of bitch.. lol... Hearing's still off a bit from those days... Good times though.. Everybody wanted to be a rock star back then, including me. Long hair and the whole 9 yards..
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Old 12-02-2018, 02:43 AM   #13
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Really good. Pro work. Had no idea you did this kind of music. I totally like progressive metal with strong melodies and harmony.
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Old 12-02-2018, 08:12 AM   #14
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Thank you, Jorgen! I stopped playing shows in the early 90s. When I came back to music in the new millennium I wanted to try something completely different. I've been having an itch to try some kind of post-industrial post-metal electro stuff, but haven't touched my guitar in 15 years. I got it out and set it on a stand. Stare at it every day, but haven't done anything more than change strings.
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Old 12-02-2018, 08:24 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smueske View Post
Thank you, Jorgen! I stopped playing shows in the early 90s. When I came back to music in the new millennium I wanted to try something completely different. I've been having an itch to try some kind of post-industrial post-metal electro stuff, but haven't touched my guitar in 15 years. I got it out and set it on a stand. Stare at it every day, but haven't done anything more than change strings.
I've kinda taken a similar path (post industrial) but I still play guitar and now a lot more drums and bass. I typically use guitar more as a texture nowadays than a foundation for songs. Are you not singing anymore?

Btw, I'd be down for a collab... I consider electronic drums and creepy, psychedelic sounds to be my forte. I like your ambient stuff!
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Old 12-02-2018, 09:33 AM   #16
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Cool, I'll check out your Soundcloud. I just setup a new email at

whoisthemuesk@musician.org

I'm up for collabs, but most of the time they don't work for one reason or another.
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Old 12-02-2018, 10:51 AM   #17
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This is really good and old school.
The only thing was the high freq's sounded harsh to me
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Old 12-02-2018, 12:56 PM   #18
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Old 12-04-2018, 10:04 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smueske View Post
Thank you, Jorgen! I stopped playing shows in the early 90s. When I came back to music in the new millennium I wanted to try something completely different. I've been having an itch to try some kind of post-industrial post-metal electro stuff, but haven't touched my guitar in 15 years. I got it out and set it on a stand. Stare at it every day, but haven't done anything more than change strings.
That's wasn't some weekend plucking, that's some guitar hero-ing just getting put down and left behind one day with no sentiments. Gotta say it's hard to imagine, pretty hardcore 180 turn.
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