So this blog is about the breakdown of a thrashmetal mix of a song by the band Cannabalistic Sqvirrel.
The song is called ‘’Verkoopmannetje’’ and is one of 5 songs Cannabalistic Sqvirrel recorded on the 8th of September 2019 which were released on their First Ep. Check it out here:
https://cannibalisticsqvirrel.bandcamp.com/releases
Cannabalistic Sqvirrel Recording Setup:
This was the first recording done by the band and if I’m correct also the first recordings done by about every band member.
So the setup to record the band was one I use more often and which is liked by quite a few bands I record, which is to have all bandmembers in the same room and record together.
The White Noise Sessions I do here are of course all recorded like that.
Usually I use this setup to record the basic tracks and do some overdubs like vocals later.
This has the great benefit it feels like you’re in a bandrehearsal and you’re thinking less of the actual recording.
Of course, a lot of sessions I do also involve every bandmember overdubbing over eachother, but that’s for a different time.
Cannabilistic Sqvirrel drum mix:
The kick and snare of both have a triggertrack. For the bassdrum it’s used to open and close the gate on the bassdrum.
For the snare it does the same, but also triggers a sample which is included in the snare sound.
Both snare and bassdrum went through the Warm Audio wa273-eq before being compressed with a dbx160a.
One thing i usually do it to edit the toms, hihat and snare to remove bleed. Especially with toms in a louder mix, you want not that much bleed and tom resonance.
Bassguitar:
After doing all recordings, we checked the bass and planned on some small fixes. So we used the warm audio wa273 to DI the bass, since the bass was also di’d during recording. But I felt the Warm Audio DI and EQ sounded better so we ended up re-recording the entire basspart. So that’s what this is.
Before doing the recording I always planned and explained I intended to re-amp the bass through an amp to get some real amp and speaker sound in the basspart.
I reamped the basspart with a small guitar amp, a Crate GX15r . It was mic’d with a Neumann TLM 103 in front of the speaker and a Yamaha Subkick at the back.
Because the distance of the mics to the speaker was different I time aligned the tracks to avoid phasing issues.
And since I wanted the bass not to be dry in the middle but have more of a roomy presence I added this little stereo chorus plugin on the basstrack, which fills some stereo space very nicely without smearing the sound too much.
Guitars:
Cannabalistic Sqvirrel Vocals:
Eventide SP2016 Reverb:
This plugin is used on drums – snaredrum, guitarsolo and the vocals. With it’s setting on vintage room, it really added a great, old skool thrash vibe.