Janus by Charlie Munro (free modern metal album, FFO Periphery, Gojira, August Burns Red, DevilDriver)

    Hi guys!
    Very excited today as I have finally released online a project that has taken me 3 years to complete. The album was 100% a one-man show (apart from the artwork) and it has been a great learning experience. The album was mixed in what is essentially a bedroom (although there is no bed in it) in my house.


    The guitar used for all of the recording was one of my Ibanez Prestige RG2570Zs. The guitar has DiMarzio Crunch Lab and LiquiFire pickups, and was either tuned to CGCFAD or AGCFAD depending on the song. The bass was my Ibanez SR305, tuned to either CEADG or AEADG depending on the song. All guitars and bass were run through the Kemper. Most of the rhythms are double tracked, but occasionally there is some quad tracking.


    All drums were written and fully humanised by hand with Superior Drummer. I do not own, nor can I play, an electric drum kit so this was done entirely by hand. The muiltitracks were then printed and treated from then on as if they had been recorded live.


    The vocals were recorded using an SM57. They were double tracked, and occasionally quad tracked for some parts.


    The keyboards were either played on a MIDI keyboard or programmed in by hand. I am not a keyboard player, so mainly this was a writing tool. All synths were created using plugins that are preinstalled with Pro Tools 11. The one exception to this is the strings, which I outsourced and had them printed through one of the EastWest libraries.


    If you want to check out the album in full, here's a link to the album stream on YouTube:

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    If you want to download it for free, visit my Bandcamp:
    https://charliemunro.bandcamp.com/album/janus


    So yeah, any questions and I'll be happy to answer. Thanks for your time, hope you enjoy my album!

    Huge effort, mate, and so-generous of you to share it for free!


    Thank you so much for sharing, and also for taking the time to outline the gear and methods you used to make this happen.


    I haven't done any recording or programming for many years now (that'll change soonish), but I too did all my humanisation by hand on MIDI grids back in the day. Some folks, like you and I, have a "thing" about "trusting" machines to do what we know we ourselves can do, and with greater levels of control and precision. My hat goes off to you for this. Dang, I remember spending weeks sometimes on drum tracks for single songs. Didn't bother me in the least; that feeling that one has embedded a piece of one's self into the music is priceless IMHO, and obviously is something pressing a button can't substitute.


    I like very much that you've created some decent contrast dynamically as well as tonally with piano and whatnot. This genre isn't usually my cup of tea, but as I've often said here on the board, I appreciate anything that's the result of hard work and the pushing of someone's self creatively, and you, sir, have certainly made the efforts in these regards IMHO. There's sufficient variety and complexity in there to hold even the most ADD listener's interest IMHO; it's unreasonable to expect any more than is evident. It's that "just-right" bowl of porridge Goldilocks would have been more-than happy to savour.


    Again, well done, Charlie! 8o:thumbup:


    EDIT:
    To clarify, it's the method of singing that I had in mind when I said I wasn't "into" the genre. If I substitute, in my mind's eye, the vocals with "conventional" singing, I have to say that I rate this very-highly overall. In fact, everything else is so delectable that I'm able to dial out the throaty vocals quite-easily whilst listening, something I've never been able to do successfully before! I can't think of higher praise, mate.


    Once again, superb effort, Charlie, and mucho kudos to you, brother!

    Thanks for your feedback Monkey_Man, glad you enjoyed it!


    All of my previous work had been vocal-less, but I decided rather than continue to make instrumental music I would learn how to do it myself. A large part of that decision was that most of the music I like features vocals, and as someone who mixes projects for other people I needed to practice and learn how to record and mix it properly as vocals have always been the hardest part for me. Plus the fact that I simply don't think the music would work as well as an instrumental. I know its not everyone's cup of tea, but the main goal here was to create something that could be played in a shuffled playlist with other songs by my favourite bands without sounding out of place, and the music would not have sounded right with 100% clean vocals!


    Thanks so much for checking it out!

    Hey, it was my pleasure, Charlie.


    FWIMBW, the vocal tracks lacked a tiny bit of definition IMHO, which would obviously be helpful when they're sung in that manner in the interest of intelligibility.


    I put that down to the SM57, at least in part. Would a large-diaphragm condenser have been inappropriate for that style of singing? I'm not up with what folks use for throaty vox...

    Absolutely yeah. Ideally I would have used something like an SM7b but incidentally the 57 is the only mic I own at this point, and I had already sunk a load of money into the Kemper I didn't really want to splash out £300 on a new microphone, especially if I wouldn't be using it again.


    I was actually quite surprised how well the 57 worked.

    This sounds totally pro. Really really good. The crunchy vox have a Randy Blythe vibe and sound great - maybe they could be up in the mix a smidge? Might be a matter of taste... I like where they are because I enjoy the panic of the track maintaining its focus. I was pleasantly surprised by the 2nd track's techno-drum intro. Fun stuff all around - it sounds like 3 years of effort in a good way. :thumbup:


    I just re-read the original post and can't see if you used Kemper on this? If so, which profiles?

    Thanks dude, glad you liked it and thanks for the feedback!


    Yeah the vocals were kept down slightly lower than some bands because I didn't want them to be the focus, but I did want them to be present. Interesting that you hear a Randy Blythe vibe from them, I hadn't deliberately tried to sound like him or anything but he is definitely one of the best vocalists of that style.


    As for what profiles I used, the main bass tone was a blend of a DI with a Darkglass B7K profile from Double Impact. The main guitar tone was one of Double Impact's Peavey 6505 profiles, and there are some additional layers in places that use various profiles from different places... I can't remember the amps or the sellers but there are some JCMs in there, a Krankenstein, and possibly a Dual Rectifier.

    Being involed in a non profit i live and see altruism daily, giving helping etc. Are we now in a new era where musicians can be creative even with themes in their music to change the world and educate people..plus can now give this art away with out the negative blood sucking BS of the industry....


    Well thats my fantasy for now...an album of this quality is GIVEN for free....dont let that go over your heads.
    I think your a pioneer man, we better keep our eye on Charlie..he is one of those may change some of the world types 8o


    3 years, talented and given for free.. does that speak to you...
    it should.


    Ash

    Have a beer and don't sneer. -CJ. Two non powered Kempers -Two mission stereo FRFR Cabs - Ditto X4 -TC electronic Mimiq.

    Like 3

    Thanks for all your support guys, definitely feels good working on something like this for so long and having people actually enjoy it!


    I am going to get a couple of playthrough videos up soon which I'll post here when they are done.

    Ok guys I have done a playthrough of the first track!


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    Enjoy!

    Did a playthrough for another track today. This is one of the tracks tuned to AGCFAD which allowed for some more unconventional riff ideas and sounds. This is one of the harder songs to play on the album, and also one of the groovier ones. Enjoy!


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    @AxelKay Glad you liked the album!


    All the rhythm parts are Double Impact profiles, and the main rhythm tone is one of their Peavey 6505 ones. I trialed a whole bunch of profiles and ended up coming back to this one.


    And no, I am not Greek! I am English, the song titles came from research into general themes I wanted to try and convey. Interestingly enough, one of the initial pieces of inspiration for writing the lyrics was my inability to write lyrics as I had never done so before... So a few tracks have themes of creators who are either unable to create or who are unhappy with their creations.


    Thanks again!