Reviews for TDF - Sleep is for the Weak

[CWN]

REAL Band... NICE. hehe

First of all: The end is fucking awesome. I especially like the part at 2:05 with the overlapping grinds/screams... Love it.
Did you quad-record the guitars? The guitar sound in itself is awesome, it's just missing a little depth... A little reverb perhaps, or said quad recording... I got the chance to see some Meshuggah recordings, they use fucking 6 tracks for one guitar... How long does it take to fucking record an album?!?! hehe
The vocals have a little too much reverb for my taste. I think they would blend in with the mix far better if you take it down a notch. They seem to stand alone in the room at some parts. Impulses of small studio rooms work wonders!
Although i really like the DFH sound, i think if you'd like to sound pro, you'd have to get your own samples or different ones. The average listener won't notice, but everyone with a guitar seems to have DFH nowadays... But it's not a bad thing! The drums on this track are well mixed, the snare could be turned up a little, though...
The part at 2:26 could come in with a lot more BAM if you automate the volume beforehand, so that it soothes down and then comes up suddenly... Err.. hope you know what I mean, haven't written anything in English for a while!
Volumes and levels are good, except for the things I mentioned...
Mmm.. One more thing; The master is too compressed and/or limited. That's maybe also why the part at 2:26 doesn't come in with a bang... The velocities of the entire piece suffer if you turn up the sound... But I think you know that better than I do probably :D
On Second thought, nevermind. Just about every modern metal band compresses their songs to shit. Must be great to be a modern metal studio engineer... TURN THAT BITCH UP!
lol
Awesome song, Mixing close to perfection, mastering close to awesome. How many times can I say awesome in one review.. I think I broke my record :-)

Anyway, those were my thoughts after listening to the song for 30 minutes... haha
I've been gone for a while, too.. Just moved to a new city, taking up studies... Fucking sucks.

-Carl

TwilightNecrosis responds:

Guitar sound: just two tracks, hard left and right. There's some reverb on them, but it's really subtle. I could make it a bit more pronounced without hurting anything, I think; I'm always scared that I'm overdoing it, haha. I also added a slight rise in the high end around 3500Hz on the newest mix, which I haven't updated here yet.

Vocals: most of the reverb is the room we were in while tracking. There's some additional delay and a flanger (both very low in the mix, but it's there), but my living room is very big and has no carpeted surfaces. Awful, I know, but that's the price you pay for cheap recording. XD
Also, in the previous mix, the vocals didn't pop out enough, so they got lost at some parts; I wanted to make sure that didn't happen anymore, so I mixed and effected them differently, to add some dimension.

Drums: I also brought the snare up on the newest mix. And I'm working toward a new drum program, just haven't gotten there yet.

Mastering: believe it or not, the multiband compressor and limiter aren't working very hard at all. The multiband is set so that it compresses the piercing highs of the snare by about 2dB, and just barely compresses the low bass of the kick (about .3dB). That's pretty much it.
The limiter is set so there's about 1.5dB of signal gain, which really isn't much, all things considered. I could probably take out the limiter completely and not hurt anything; I just like having loud, energetic masters. I mix REALLY low (my mixes usually peak around -9dB), so I have to make it up somehow. XD

Thanks a lot for the high-detail, in-depth review. This is what I was looking for, and you delivered with flying colors. I'll keep what you've said in mind, and try to ease up on the vocal and add some depth to the guitar; maybe I can make it work.

Good luck with your studies, man. I wish you all the best.
\m/

[sixstring98]

evil. just evil

this song is just amazingly evil. kinda makes me want to punch a baby in the throat.

TwilightNecrosis responds:

Sweet, bro. Glad you dig it. \m/
Thanks for the review.

[TheBardOfBlasphemy]

great stuff

congrats on getting into a band, dude... it's sounding awesome!

good luck getting gigs etc and work hard at it... it won't come easy no matter what TV makes us think :D

TwilightNecrosis responds:

Getting 'into' a band?
I pretty much FORMED the band, haha.
Glad you like our shit, man. Lots of new material coming out soon.

[Jeffaro]

Good Structure

It seems that you took your time with this one and planned each step carefully.The structure is smooth and each riff fit perfectly.Even then, I still have some gripes with this song.The first riff sounded atonal, as if it wasn't following a particular scale.I could be wrong.

Another thing, I think you should fix the rhythm guitars that were under the solo at 1.27-1.37, during your sweeping.Figure out what scale you are on and try to hit the notes that the rhythm guitars are playing.If you wish to become a lead guy, try to learn the basics of keys,scales and time signatures.

As far as becoming pro is concerned, I went to your myspace to listen to your other songs as well.With the material that you are creating I think that it is a possibility.

TwilightNecrosis responds:

Yeah, I didn't write the song, just the solo.
As far as the sweeping, I'm playing a D minor shape, and the rhythm guitars ride the D for most of that passage, so it fits. I know quite a bit about scales and time signatures, but I don't always go by them; some of the coolest metal guitar solos ever written have off-notes and weird phrasing (Slayer fits that category well, haha).
And the going 'pro' thing... I wasn't talking about being in a professional band, I was talking about being a professional recording tech. I guess it says something about my recording skill, that the quality was transparent enough for you to make that mistake. XD
Thanks for the listen-through, man; I appreciate it.