13/11/2023
Happy release day for The Nations Dust!
I couldn’t be happier about how this album turned out!
Here are some details regarding the production and mixing process:
The drums and the majority of the rhythm guitars and bass were recorded live in the band’s own rehearsal place, while all band members were in the same room. We recorded the guitars and bass direct, with a real-time amp sim from the interface for monitoring. The goal was to get a live feel and the right vibe. Therefore, we made sure that the tempo and the drums were as intended and didn’t care much about any minor mistakes. If there were any mistakes in the guitar or bass performance, we punched in the section afterward. We comped the master takes as we went along, and the process was effortless.
The main vocals were recorded in my studio in Vienna a few months after we recorded the main instrumentals.
The lead guitars, acoustic guitars, backing, and gang vocals were recorded in the band’s rehearsal place, again a few months after the main vocal recording. The guitars have been reamped using the band’s own Marshall amps and cab (more on that later).
Mixing wise, the goal was to keep it real and find the right balance between a raw and polished sound. We wanted to keep an old school vibe, but still wanted the fullness and power modern mixes bring with them.
There is a kick and a snare sample hidden to achieve a certain consistency. If I’d muted the samples, I bet you would barely notice it, since they are really low in the mix and were processed together with the real snare and kick channels. On the toms, I didn’t use samples per se, I only replaced a single hit here and there where the drummer hit the mic and the tom together unintentionally. A big part of the drum sound is the room sound. The room, we recorded in, was a former chicken stall next to a vaulted cellar in an old Tyrolian farm house, and we had room microphones up in both rooms. The rooms are by far not optimized for recording, but they sound phenomenal for drums!
Fun fact: Since the band was in the same room while recording, the pickups on the guitars and bass picked up the drums as well. I had to automate a high cut during a ring out on the bass DI, but besides that, this wasn’t really an issue.
The main characteristics of the bass sound come from Fabfilter’s Saturn and an Ampeg SVT from Brainworx. We didn’t reamp the bass with a real bass rig, due to the acoustic characteristics of the room.
The guitars were reamped using the band’s Marshall amps and an old Marshall cab, but the final guitar tone on the record isn’t the reamped one. The reamping was the last step in the production and meanwhile, all wip-exports were done using an amp sim. I think the band got used to the sound of the amp sim that way and after a few revisions, we decided to ditch the reamps and go with the amp sim. We ended up with Neural DSP’s Nolly, with amp 3, but the cab is a blend of cab 2 of the Nolly plugin, which the band was used to and the band’s own guitar cab. After the reaping process, I took some IRs from the microphone setup. I’d say that the blend between the Nolly cab and the Marshall cab is just about 50/50.
Thanks to all the wonderful people who contributed to this record! Especially, Fabian from Oakpath Audio for engineering and co-producing during the live recording sessions.
Congratulations Hard Excess for this masterpiece, and thanks for the great collaboration.
Credits:
All songs written and performed by Hard Excess
Produced & engineered by Fabian Rauter (Oakpath Audio)
Mixed, mastered, produced & engineered by Mattias Girstmair (Echopolis Productions)
Additional production & additional engineering by Hard Excess
Cover Artwork by Gina Holzer
