New music by Enceladus. Prog Metal. Critique Please!!!

[sanchazm]

Hey everyone. My band and I, Enceladus, just finished our demo and I was wondering if you guys would give it a listen. We are a Progressive Metal band from Norcross GA. Our influences include BTBAM, Periphery, AAL, DEP, Ever Forthright, and many others . I would love to hear some critique on the mix/music/whatever so lay it on me everyone. Here are my favorites off of it.

SVoD
<object width="100%" height="81"> SoundClick artist: Enceladus - page with MP3 music downloads
</object>
My Best Friend
SoundClick artist: Enceladus - page with MP3 music downloads

City (12 min )
SoundClick artist: Enceladus - page with MP3 music downloads

and here are the website links if your interested in befriending us:

SoundClick artist: Enceladus - page with MP3 music downloads
EnceladusTheBand's sounds on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
Enceladus | Facebook
Enceladus | Free Music, Tour Dates, Photos, Videos

Thanks

[sanchazm]

no love?

[RedChord]

Thanks for critiquing my song dude. I will be sure and come back here tomorrow and critique yours, but I can't hear shit right now. I just got back from the Atticus Metal Tour with Born of Osiris and As Blood Runs Black, so my ears are ringing like shit. I'll hit this thread back for sure though.

[grog50]

Great instrumentals on SVoD, and goddamn those vocals are good! The song is very quiet for me, not sure if thats soundclick or your mix though. My main problem with the mix is the drums. They are very under mixed, and lacking any punch. The kick and the snare especially. The kick definitely needs some major compression and eq help. Pretty much everything could use a bit more high end for some crispness too.

[sanchazm]

what kind of compression should i use for the kick and snare. This is my first time mastering live drums (or live anything for that) so i was kinda overwhelmed by all of the options lol. Im glad you like it though. As far as quietness is concerned its def my mix. Everything is as loud as it can go without peaking. when i throw some compression on my master track it seems to give me fluctuation of volumes like a bad limiter. Any suggestions?

Anyways, Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it.

[RedChord]

First off these songs are really cool. The musicianship is really good so there are no complaints from me in the song writing department.

As far as the mix, I agree with everything grog50 has said. Vocals are very good, and the drums are probably the weakest link. I'm still pretty noob at mixes so you probably already know about a lot of what I'm gonna say.

You can eliminate a lot of unnecessary frequencies by eq'ing them out, or high or low passing, on each mic. Example, the bass drum mic can be low passed pretty heavily. This will allow you to turn up some of them since theres no background fuzz or noise that you didn't want there anyway.

I've never actually mixed or mastered real drums, I've only used SD2.0, but this is what works for me when figuring out compression for each drum (when trying to bring out the "punch.") I first turn up the ratio and threshold super high until everything after the attack is totally drowned out. Then adjust the attack until only the initial Thump (bass drum) or Crack (snare) is audible. There is your ideal attack. Then readjust the ratio and threshold to the desired effect.

What are you using to compress the master? Is it a regular compression or one intended for mastering? I've found that regular compressors do cause pumping on the master unless its very light.

[sanchazm]

Thanks for listening.

I did actually know a lot of that but this cd is the first cd where ive been doing the mix so i didnt really know what extremes to do everything. I like that method of starting from the top and easing off of it until its right. im gonna have to try that on my next tune.

Im using a linear compressor made by sonar for my master track. Its called the LP64 multiband. Im not really sure if its a good one for the task but one of the presets is called mastering so i just rolled with it lol. When i messed with all the settings i would get that pumping sound so i just left it alone. what compressors do you use. I have a few that i like but it seems like every instrument or type of track needs a different compressor lol.

[RedChord]

As far as master compressors I literally just the other day started messing around with mastering when I got the free trial of Izotope Ozone 4. It comes highly recommended by many of the board members here so I tried it out. I've only messed with it a little bit but it really does kick ass so far.

[sanchazm]

Im gonna have to give that one a try. I have a shit load of different Compressors but I dont think any of them is really meant for mastering (with the exception of the one i was using). Thanks bro!

[sanchazm]

Oh BTW i just realized that the sound click is actually cutting off some of the longer songs so here are the sound cloud links in case anyone else is interested in hearing these jams.

http://soundcloud.com/enceladustheba...ental-value-of

http://soundcloud.com/enceladustheband/my-best-friend

http://soundcloud.com/enceladustheband/city

[paleonluna]

Dude, you guys are the first band I've heard that actually sounds like btbam and does a good job at it. Your non-melodic guitars riffs are so creative, I really appreciate that. Your guitarists must have learned a lot of btbam songs. And your vocalist is really good too, I really like the part where he is talking in the middle of the song, that is so tommy rogers, but I still really like it.

Do you guys play live too or what?

I would definitely see you.

But yeah, I guess the drums are the only thing that need work, but its hard when you are doing them live like that. I prefer that sound to the superior drummer sound honestly. Good shit bro