Grieghallen, 1994.

[Trollhorn]

Hello,

First of all, huge thanks to Cnoc An Tursa (and many others) for providing me files to have some fun with at my project studio.

As I was having some spare time this morning, I decided to go for a bit more "old school" version of the song, taking a rather huge influence from my favourite producer of all time, Eirik "Pytten" Hundvin.
This is a mix which basically has many things done way differently comparing to the more modern sound of the 2000´s, and should be taken as such instead of actually thinking how many things there are "wrong".

For what it comes to modifications to the actual source files: bass and half of the guitars are DI signals driven through Bias Amp and the snare has a sample on top due to the pitch I couldn´t achieve otherwise. Everything else is 100% mic signal.

Let´s see how you like it!

[dcp10200]

Haha your mix really has that old school wall of noise black metal sound, nice touch! The reverb and vocal delay is a little much and takes some of the energy of the vocals and drums. I would back the reverb down and use the double tracked lead vocals hard panned left and right just to beef them up and give a more surrounding sound. The toms sound is cool, they actually sound like cannons ;P and the kick has a nice snap to it.

I would say the bass guitar is non existant but that's really what the old school black metal sound is so I can't really say much there. The guitar tone has an almost fuzzy quality to it, like a DS1 on full tilt into a marshall, again really cool sound. The guitars need a scoop at from 300-400 Hz just to get them to fit them in some more to the mix and a low pass at 10 kHz to get rid of the stray noise at the top.

The backing vocals need to come down to fit with the leads.

Overall it's a very trve kvlt sound you've got going on and is an interesting take on a more modern sounding black metal band!

[Trollhorn]

Thanks!! Yeah, I have to admit I hate the modern BM sound so that´s why I´m always more into this more old school thing. Guess it´s because I grew up with the old sound. And that sound has no double- tracked stereo vocals.

I might do that lowpass for the guitars if I have time, though it might also be the reverb. The guitars are actually a weird thing- I noticed the same fuzziness myself when using my computer speakers. They sound perfectly normal with my both Yamaha HS8 and Genelec 8020A but when listening through my gaming machine setup, it indeed sounded like no cab, haha! Go figure!

PS: In case you want to check out what I had in mind, I was mostly thinking in the lines of the first Emperor full- lenght.

[dcp10200]

Thanks!! Yeah, I have to admit I hate the modern BM sound so that´s why I´m always more into this more old school thing. Guess it´s because I grew up with the old sound. And that sound has no double- tracked stereo vocals.

I might do that lowpass for the guitars if I have time, though it might also be the reverb. The guitars are actually a weird thing- I noticed the same fuzziness myself when using my computer speakers. They sound perfectly normal with my both Yamaha HS8 and Genelec 8020A but when listening through my gaming machine setup, it indeed sounded like no cab, haha! Go figure!

PS: In case you want to check out what I had in mind, I was mostly thinking in the lines of the first Emperor full- lenght.

I can see what you're getting at, the old sound is fun to toy with but I can't stand to listen to most early black metal. The modern sound I like more because it doesn't sound neutered and matches the extremity of the music, I'm also more of a Death Metal fan so that should explain my reasoning.

What amp did you use in Bias anyway, the tone actually had definition and isn't making the trem picked stuff mushy?

[Trollhorn]

What amp did you use in Bias anyway, the tone actually had definition and isn't making the trem picked stuff mushy?

I used a self- built patch with JCM900 as the starting point. The tone was originally built to match Dissection´s "Storm of the Light´s Bane", but it wasn´t finished yet. I cranked a Tse808 on front and then Slate´s VCC on Neve desk + some SSL Eq fiddling + SSL masterbus comp.
In Ye Olde Times, all we had were JCM´s anyway.

[dcp10200]

What amp did you use in Bias anyway, the tone actually had definition and isn't making the trem picked stuff mushy?

I used a self- built patch with JCM900 as the starting point. The tone was originally built to match Dissection´s "Storm of the Light´s Bane", but it wasn´t finished yet. I cranked a Tse808 on front and then Slate´s VCC on Neve desk + some SSL Eq fiddling + SSL masterbus comp.
In Ye Olde Times, all we had were JCM´s anyway.

That explains the marshall sound I was hearing haha. I ended up using guitar rig's Orange OR120 emulation for the rhythm guitar and an SLO emulation for the leads and it seemed to do the job with less fizz.

[Blitzzz]

Cool. A blast from the past so to say. That's good ... and also kinda bad, hahaha I think "that" sound was not made by choice, but because the guys who did those records didn't know how to do it better. Anyway, if you satisfy the people who like that kind of music - more power to you. And I think you have totally achieved that.

Personally, I don't like the sound of those old black metal bands. It might be cool for some people but let's be honest - it's awful on so many levels that I wonder why someone liked it in the first place. Maybe because it was totally underground. Whatever, I´m happy that most black metal bands have a better sound today =)