MarkIV atonal pummeling

[mrd]

Hey guys, recently I've been experimenting with recording my MarkIV straight in with no pedals or other stuff out front to see how the change translates through the mics. I got some pretty killer results, I think.

Yesterday at work one of my bosses pissed me off immensely so the first thing I did when I got home was fire up my amp and start chuggin' out. I came up with a pretty basic idea of a repeating atonal motif. I got to recording and one thing led to another, this is what I came up with. It's not really a song, per se, as much as it is an exemplification of my anger towards my ******* boss. Listen to the clip and I'm sure you will hear it.

I think I did a good job of bringing every instrument together to create a very tight and cohesive rhythm machine. To me, when I hear the rhythm surging below the solo, it makes me thing of a giant mechanical machine working tirelessly at a breakneck pace. I tried to spice up the rhythm with some odd-ball breaks of 2/4 bars thrown in at random.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber... check out the track, let me know what you think of it. If you don't like the music, that's fine, I know it's pretty extreme, but if you could at least comment on the production quality that would be cool. BTW, if you have a sub, definitely turn it on for this.

Cheers guys.

http://members.shaw.ca/mrduplicity/vday.mp3 - 6.52mb

 

[dodger916]

I liked it! I'm love that classic Mark IV bite used in the solo...and excellent riffing over the chugs. Were you using any particluar key modes?

 

[atonal]

Sounds good! Reminds me of Meshuggah a little.

 

[mrd]

@dodger: Thanks man. Yeah, it's a great tone, I just wish I could turn it up really, really loud. The only problem is that I record about 6 feet away from a 3/4 stack so if it's super loud then I start going deaf lol. I need some way to remove my head from my stack so I can crank it and not have to worry about retarded volumes. The riffing is based loosely in E... I mean, I'm only playing four notes. There's two chords that I switch between in 4-chug intervals. First chord is E, B, E, just a power chord. Second chord is E, Bb, F which is a fugly flatted-fifth thing. So, you can play a lot of modes on this and it sounds OK, depending on how you resolve. I was basically sticking to a lot of modes of E and just throwing in passing tones. E minor, E phrygian, E major mostly. Even then, nothing really sounds particularly "in key". If you want I can upload the song without my lead playing so you can experiment with some stuff. Let me know.

@atonal: Thanks, yeah it does have a Meshuggah vibe for sure. I won't say that Meshuggah isn't an influence on my playing. I think their grooves are more complex and resolve better to create actual rhythmic tension and release. But definitely the drive behind it is very Meshuggah-esque.

 

[eltrain858]

not really my style of music but i thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.. nice work

 

[fpoon]

Nice work like always. Was this just mic recorded with no mixing or w/e? Sounds great, what preamp are you using?

 

[mrd]

@eltrain: thanks bud, glad ya enjoyed it :lol:

@fpoon: I used an Apex 460 (with a low-gain ECC81 valve, instead of its regular ECC83) set to omni-directional about 3 inches out from a speaker on my 4x12. I was playing through the 4x12 and the 2x12 so the bleed from all those plus the room sound was going into the mic due to the omni-directional pattern. Ran that into a tube mic preamp, then through my Mackie board, into Cubase. There's three rhythm tracks, each one is playing a different note in the chord, all on the low E string for that extra fat tone. I did mild EQ-ing to the rhythm tracks, basically just bring down some bass frequencies. There's no compression on individual tracks, I applied a multi-band to the entire mix to bring out the kick and the bite in the guitars. Drums were EQ'd a tad, nothing extreme. No compression on those tracks either. For the lead track I just did some mid-range and high-end boosts.

 

[mrd]

fpoon, I just noticed you have an almost identical recording setup to me, with regards to hardware, software, plugins, etc. I'm running a Delta 1010 into Cubase with EZDrummer as well. PM if you want any tips for mixing anything or whatever.

 

[chris_EIT]

Guitar --> Lead --> Mark IV ---> Mic!
It's the only way to record a Mark IV! XD

 

[dmt]

That snare sure is snappy.

 

[Darden]

Excellent!

 

[mrd]

Thanks for all the comments guys 8)

The snare is just EZDrummer with a smidge of compression.

My entire family is out of the house all week so I'm gonna try and get a ton of recording done this week, I'll post up anything I finish here.

 

[fpoon]

Sounds good. At the moment I have just started direct recording but I should be getting a mic soon hopefully. I'm getting pretty good results, however, I have a few certain questions such as how to make the guitars and drums stand out in the mix more but a preamp and mic will most likely make all the difference. PM's shall come soon. :wink:

 

[Machine Gun]

Sounds cool! I like your lead work!

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds good! Reminds me of Meshuggah a little.

+1

I kept expecting those gnarly *** vocals to come in.

 

[dmcguitar]

MRD, sounds good.

If i read this correctly you run the Mark IV into the standard (oversized) 4x12. do you experience too much bass, or not enough tightness, or any of the negatives that people mention with that cab. or do they pair well?

i have found that most people here are using the IV with the traditional stiletto cab, and would like to here more from the standard/IV combo.

i have the standard cab and keep coming back to the idea of getting a IV. (the other ideas that float in my head are a roadster, and now pitbull 50 cl)

 

[mrd]

The cab is fine... you just have to know how to EQ the amp. When I recorded this I ran my 80hz and 240hz sliders just below the middle line. This is because I triple-tracked three guitars and they were all on the low E string, which means there is naturally a *****-load of low-frequency information going on. Adding to it is just redundant and ruins the sound. Once you add in the bass and the kick drum...you get the idea. The louder you push the amp, the more the cab adds to your sound, and the more you should drop your bass sliders.

Of course, this is only really for recording where you can get proximity effect, etc. If you're just playing, crank that **** up and get a nice fat chunky tone.

This cab is tight as hell, so anyone who tells you otherwise is lame. I just bought a Soldano 2x12 cab which is bigger than my Recto cab, and it's STILL tight as hell, so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[EirikBrandal]

bothers me that the files are down now

 

[mrd]

Hey bud, I put it back up for you.

http://members.shaw.ca/mrduplicity/vday.mp3

 

[EirikBrandal]

Thanks! Tight sounding you are. Just felt that the lead sound was a bit thin, a boost would have done it.