Please check out my EP! (Sneapster guest solos + re-amp)

Metaltastic · March 17th, 2010, 01:38 AM

Well dudes, at long last, my EP is finished, and I'd really appreciate it if you all would check it out! The band/project is called Apex Predator, and you can listen to the Undivided EP on myspace, or download it here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/332050/Undivided%20EP.zip (note: if you downloaded it before ~8 PM EST on Thursday March 18th, then you probably don't have the most up-to-date mix, so I'd recommend re-downloading it to be sure!)

Basically, this past school year, me and my good friends Mike Bauder (guitars) and Sean Blaney (vocals) wanted to start a band, but couldn't find a steady drummer before Sean and I graduated in May '09. However, during that time we had written 4 songs that we wanted to immortalize; I wrote the majority of the music for them, but Bauder (as he's affectionately known) definitely had some essential contributions in terms of riff ideas and directions for certain sections of the songs to go in (except Abaddon, which I wrote around 2 years ago) that I never would have thought of, so he certainly deserves a fair share of the credit as well

And Sean wrote the lyrics for all of the tunes (except The Hedonist, which I made some minor contributions to, but hey, I fucking suck at writing lyrics, so I gotta give myself credit whenever I can get it

).

I recorded all the rhythm and lead guitar parts (except where noted below), as well as the bass (which was kindly re-amped by Ermzasaurus), and used Superior 2.0 for the drums (except for the kick, which is Slate 5+10). Here are pics of the amp setup and cab/mic'ing position, and the solos that weren't played by me are as follows:

The Hedonist - 2:53 - 3:03 - Mike Bauder

Abaddon - 3:01 - 3:13 - Kimon "Keregioz" Zeliotis

Architect of Fate - 2:59 - 3:12 - Felix Neumann

Honestly, I'm too goddamn tired right now to type anything else, if anyone has any questions just ask, but more importantly, I really hope you guys dig it, I couldn't have done it without all that I've learned here!

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I personally feel the solos in each of the songs are among the best I've ever come up with, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be my Gothenberg-tribute harmony in "The Hedonist"

EDIT 2 THE RETURN OF EDIT: And of course, big thanks to Jarkko Mattheiszen for his awesome logo design!

Sickan · March 17th, 2010, 01:56 AM

Great guitartone and playing Marcus!
The vocals are sick aswell, sounds like a blend of Chuck Billy (the lows) and Jesse Leach (the highs).

findingthesound · March 17th, 2010, 02:38 AM

Listening right now: very cool tunes!
Really like this classic mesa tone, good settting and set up, and as Sickan said the vox is great too, low and high screams are well controlled.
Solo and melody a great too.
The mix seems too be great too, but can't really juge cause listening with headphones (dt770 pro). Maybe I would had some more lows/sub to the kick.
I'm downloading your ep for listening with a better quality than myspace.

Good work!!

Ermz · March 17th, 2010, 02:43 AM

Awesome, can't wait to hear it! I hope the bass was ultimately a bit easier for your to seat in the mix than it otherwise may have been.

findingthesound · March 17th, 2010, 02:52 AM

I think a bit more db from the bass, and lows generally, would be cool.
Got your EP!

Ermz · March 17th, 2010, 03:03 AM

I agree actually, definitely needs a bit more low, and bass guitar in particular. But all that aside the music is really cool, spinning it now. Thanks for sharing it with us for free

findingthesound · March 17th, 2010, 03:12 AM

Ermz, I was listening to your myspace one more time (love to listen to your work) to compare your work on the lows, and F****! How do you manage this? Really, that's my main problem on my mixes, giving lows some consistency.
Do you put kick lower than bass or the other way?
it depend a lot of the tuning I know, I work with low B tuning, so around 61Hz, what should I do? Cutting around 61 Hz the bass, keep the kick below, or let the bass with a filter at 40Hz and make a hole (where?) to let the kick in the middle of the bass?
How do you work on the bass generally? Lot of editing/chopping? Autotuning? Add sub?
Sorry for the out topic, but I think both Metaltastic, other members and I would benefit from your help getting the lows right, even if metalstatic mix is actually better than mine!

Ola Englund · March 17th, 2010, 03:21 AM

Awesome marcus! sounds really good...

JeffTD · March 17th, 2010, 03:33 AM

Haven't listened all the way full, but the bass is definitely too low and there's a lot of work needed in the drum programming + vocal production dept.

The tunes are really cool and have a lot of potential, hope you work on these more and release them with something later.

Gtr tone is pretty fucking beastly, you need to get another Recto and start reamping asap!

blackbird · March 17th, 2010, 03:35 AM

Great guitar sound Marcus!
Love the solos = great playing!
Thanks for sharing it

recemgsol · March 17th, 2010, 03:53 AM

really diggin this marcus! you should write a book on how to "smooth shred" haha

Jarkko Mattheiszen · March 17th, 2010, 04:08 AM

Listening to The Hedonist right now and I'm loving it. Reminds me a lot of some of the older Gothenburg stuff which originally got me back to metal

AudioPhile777 · March 17th, 2010, 04:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffTD

... the bass is definitely too low and there's a lot of work needed in the drum programming + vocal production dept.

I agree with this.

Keregioz · March 17th, 2010, 04:48 AM

That's some pretty cool riffing and great playing! Your solos are awesome too, although a bit short. The other two guest solos are great too! I feel like Felix's gets lost in the mix though, maybe try panning a little more towards the center?
+1 on the bass being too low.

John_C · March 17th, 2010, 05:35 AM

Abaddon as in Abaddon the despoiler, warmaster captain of the black legion?

cool stuff, vocals remind me Johan Hegg. In fact the whole thing makes me think, imagine if Amon Amarth had started in the 80s

Harry Hughes · March 17th, 2010, 05:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by findingthesound

Ermz, I was listening to your myspace one more time (love to listen to your work) to compare your work on the lows, and F****! How do you manage this? Really, that's my main problem on my mixes, giving lows some consistency.
Do you put kick lower than bass or the other way?
it depend a lot of the tuning I know, I work with low B tuning, so around 61Hz, what should I do? Cutting around 61 Hz the bass, keep the kick below, or let the bass with a filter at 40Hz and make a hole (where?) to let the kick in the middle of the bass?
How do you work on the bass generally? Lot of editing/chopping? Autotuning? Add sub?
Sorry for the out topic, but I think both Metaltastic, other members and I would benefit from your help getting the lows right, even if metalstatic mix is actually better than mine!

Having his Event Opals, a well treated room and a good set of ears is a start in the right direction

Felix Neumann · March 17th, 2010, 06:05 AM

Waaaahh just downloading!

ParsonsMatt · March 17th, 2010, 06:28 AM

Downloading, gonna put on my mp3 player and listen to on the way to work!

Felix Neumann · March 17th, 2010, 06:38 AM

Okay so far I have listened to "Architect of fate", I really diggin this song! The rythm guitar is absolutely perfect, playing wise and sound wise. Your solo is totally win, but my solo is much too quiet

(as far I can be objective enough about it).

You´ll get some more feedback in the next days, dude! Great work

Dalinkwent48@aim.com · March 17th, 2010, 06:42 AM

Sounds pretty fuckin sweet...I do agree though bass is a little low but aside of that this is some cool shit

findingthesound · March 17th, 2010, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Hughes

Having his Event Opals, a well treated room and a good set of ears is a start in the right direction

That's for sure!

Besides, my room is now treated, have some good stuff (lynx converters, preamps...), just waiting for my pair of MM35!

For the ears...surely need some training but begin to see how the whole mixing thing is working (maybe near the end of the "Ermz circle"!).

But really, I think that getting this kind of lows need some usual techs, but wisely used! Hence my questions.

Mikaël-ange · March 17th, 2010, 07:21 AM

Just listened one song on my lapstop speaker so I didn't want write anything sound related right now... But I dig songwriting and playing, well done (as usual

)

Norris-wf · March 17th, 2010, 07:46 AM

These are awesome. I love the solos! Great playing as always Marcus, It's definitely your style. Parts of the volcalsa really remind me of Devildriver. Awesome stuff

SocialNumb · March 17th, 2010, 07:51 AM

I like it a lot. Some old school chugging vibes in there. Love the ending of "Architect of Fate"

caught me by surprise. I'm digging "Forever Bound" the most. Specially 2:36ish on. The singer sounds good imo, for some reason I thought it was going to be that "gay" soaring vocal style from the 80's which would have ruined everything.

Good work overall dude.

Thanks!

bigsargeshameless · March 17th, 2010, 08:59 AM

skeksis268- The Chaos gods of the Warhammer 40k canon were a very big influence on my writing. Abaddon is also the name of an ancient sumerian god of destruction. (I think at least, it's been a while since I researched it.) Each song is based loosely off one of the four gods of chaos. So, I guess that makes me a total nerd.

March 17th, 2010, 01:38 AM	#1 (permalink)
Metaltastic Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 19,937	Please check out my EP! (Sneapster guest solos + re-amp) Well dudes, at long last, my EP is finished, and I'd really appreciate it if you all would check it out! The band/project is called Apex Predator, and you can listen to the Undivided EP on myspace, or download it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/332050/Undivided%20EP.zip (note: if you downloaded it before ~8 PM EST on Thursday March 18th, then you probably don't have the most up-to-date mix, so I'd recommend re-downloading it to be sure!) Basically, this past school year, me and my good friends Mike Bauder (guitars) and Sean Blaney (vocals) wanted to start a band, but couldn't find a steady drummer before Sean and I graduated in May '09. However, during that time we had written 4 songs that we wanted to immortalize; I wrote the majority of the music for them, but Bauder (as he's affectionately known) definitely had some essential contributions in terms of riff ideas and directions for certain sections of the songs to go in (except Abaddon, which I wrote around 2 years ago) that I never would have thought of, so he certainly deserves a fair share of the credit as well And Sean wrote the lyrics for all of the tunes (except The Hedonist, which I made some minor contributions to, but hey, I fucking suck at writing lyrics, so I gotta give myself credit whenever I can get it ). I recorded all the rhythm and lead guitar parts (except where noted below), as well as the bass (which was kindly re-amped by Ermzasaurus), and used Superior 2.0 for the drums (except for the kick, which is Slate 5+10). Here are pics of the amp setup and cab/mic'ing position, and the solos that weren't played by me are as follows: The Hedonist - 2:53 - 3:03 - Mike Bauder Abaddon - 3:01 - 3:13 - Kimon "Keregioz" Zeliotis Architect of Fate - 2:59 - 3:12 - Felix Neumann Honestly, I'm too goddamn tired right now to type anything else, if anyone has any questions just ask, but more importantly, I really hope you guys dig it, I couldn't have done it without all that I've learned here! EDIT: Oh yeah, and I personally feel the solos in each of the songs are among the best I've ever come up with, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be my Gothenberg-tribute harmony in "The Hedonist" EDIT 2 THE RETURN OF EDIT: And of course, big thanks to Jarkko Mattheiszen for his awesome logo design! Last edited by Metaltastic : March 18th, 2010 at 07:48 PM.

March 17th, 2010, 02:38 AM	#3 (permalink)
findingthesound Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: France Posts: 191	Listening right now: very cool tunes! Really like this classic mesa tone, good settting and set up, and as Sickan said the vox is great too, low and high screams are well controlled. Solo and melody a great too. The mix seems too be great too, but can't really juge cause listening with headphones (dt770 pro). Maybe I would had some more lows/sub to the kick. I'm downloading your ep for listening with a better quality than myspace. Good work!! __________________ http://www.myspace.com/deathbyelectro4propaganda

March 17th, 2010, 02:43 AM	#4 (permalink)
Ermz Mix Guideus Authoritus Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 19,935	Awesome, can't wait to hear it! I hope the bass was ultimately a bit easier for your to seat in the mix than it otherwise may have been. __________________

March 17th, 2010, 02:52 AM	#5 (permalink)
findingthesound Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: France Posts: 191	I think a bit more db from the bass, and lows generally, would be cool. Got your EP! __________________ http://www.myspace.com/deathbyelectro4propaganda

March 17th, 2010, 03:03 AM	#6 (permalink)
Ermz Mix Guideus Authoritus Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 19,935	I agree actually, definitely needs a bit more low, and bass guitar in particular. But all that aside the music is really cool, spinning it now. Thanks for sharing it with us for free __________________

March 17th, 2010, 03:12 AM	#7 (permalink)
findingthesound Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: France Posts: 191	Ermz, I was listening to your myspace one more time (love to listen to your work) to compare your work on the lows, and F****! How do you manage this? Really, that's my main problem on my mixes, giving lows some consistency. Do you put kick lower than bass or the other way? it depend a lot of the tuning I know, I work with low B tuning, so around 61Hz, what should I do? Cutting around 61 Hz the bass, keep the kick below, or let the bass with a filter at 40Hz and make a hole (where?) to let the kick in the middle of the bass? How do you work on the bass generally? Lot of editing/chopping? Autotuning? Add sub? Sorry for the out topic, but I think both Metaltastic, other members and I would benefit from your help getting the lows right, even if metalstatic mix is actually better than mine! __________________ http://www.myspace.com/deathbyelectro4propaganda

March 17th, 2010, 03:21 AM	#8 (permalink)
Ola Englund Only gay in the village Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 3,971	Awesome marcus! sounds really good... __________________ / Ola Englund Check out my Blog! My videos on Youtube My Facebook page

March 17th, 2010, 03:33 AM	#9 (permalink)
JeffTD Ballclap Supremus Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: San Luis Obispo, CA Posts: 10,922	Haven't listened all the way full, but the bass is definitely too low and there's a lot of work needed in the drum programming + vocal production dept. The tunes are really cool and have a lot of potential, hope you work on these more and release them with something later. Gtr tone is pretty fucking beastly, you need to get another Recto and start reamping asap! __________________ Arcana Recordings

March 17th, 2010, 03:35 AM	#10 (permalink)
blackbird Toltec Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 441	Great guitar sound Marcus! Love the solos = great playing! Thanks for sharing it __________________ http://www.nalbantov.com

March 17th, 2010, 03:53 AM	#11 (permalink)
recemgsol the sauce. Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: San Deigo Posts: 815	really diggin this marcus! you should write a book on how to "smooth shred" haha

March 17th, 2010, 04:08 AM	#12 (permalink)
Jarkko Mattheiszen The FU guy. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Lappeenranta, Finland Posts: 6,416	Listening to The Hedonist right now and I'm loving it. Reminds me a lot of some of the older Gothenburg stuff which originally got me back to metal __________________ WWW - FACEBOOK Recording - Mixing - Mastering

March 17th, 2010, 04:48 AM	#14 (permalink)
Keregioz Kimon Zeliotis Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Athens, Greece Posts: 1,928	That's some pretty cool riffing and great playing! Your solos are awesome too, although a bit short. The other two guest solos are great too! I feel like Felix's gets lost in the mix though, maybe try panning a little more towards the center? +1 on the bass being too low. __________________ Kimon "Tzek Keregioz" Zeliotis Psycrence Official Website Free Escalation Demo CD download: MP3, WAV Free Psycrence Demo CD download: MP3 Escalation myspace, facebook, soundclick Detached soundclick Last edited by Keregioz : March 17th, 2010 at 06:44 AM.

March 17th, 2010, 05:35 AM	#15 (permalink)
John_C formerly Skeksis268 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Coventry, UK Posts: 3,437	Abaddon as in Abaddon the despoiler, warmaster captain of the black legion? cool stuff, vocals remind me Johan Hegg. In fact the whole thing makes me think, imagine if Amon Amarth had started in the 80s Last edited by John_C : March 17th, 2010 at 05:43 AM.

March 17th, 2010, 06:28 AM	#18 (permalink)
ParsonsMatt Alas, Tyranny Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 2,124	Downloading, gonna put on my mp3 player and listen to on the way to work! __________________ Alas, Tyranny Guitars: Edwards E-FR-120GT (EMG 89/89), Carvin DC727 (X2N/Liquifire), Yamaha LS6 Amps: Mesa/Boogie Mark III, Mesa/Boogie Rectifier cabinet Mics: Shure SM7b, Shure SM57, Shure SM81 Other: Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6, M-Audio KeyRig 49e

March 17th, 2010, 07:46 AM	#23 (permalink)
Norris-wf Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Durham, UK Posts: 624	These are awesome. I love the solos! Great playing as always Marcus, It's definitely your style. Parts of the volcalsa really remind me of Devildriver. Awesome stuff __________________ www.myspace.com/enemylogic

March 17th, 2010, 08:59 AM	#25 (permalink)
bigsargeshameless Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 15	skeksis268- The Chaos gods of the Warhammer 40k canon were a very big influence on my writing. Abaddon is also the name of an ancient sumerian god of destruction. (I think at least, it's been a while since I researched it.) Each song is based loosely off one of the four gods of chaos. So, I guess that makes me a total nerd.