Decontrolled - mo' modern metal

Decontrolled is a modern metal band from Belgrade. I recorded both albums for them. The first album was recorded before we had a studio. It was tracked on a Terratec EWS88, drums were recorded too. For the guitars we prepared a Randall RH100 but we realized that Digitech Genesys 3 combined with a BC Rich Warlock sounded better for the thing we needed. Bass was recorded with Warwick Rock Bass plugged into a Zoom506 bass pocessor. The record turned out to be phenomenal  and was publlished by Automatic Records so the guys returned for a part 2. The second album was tracked fully in the studio  and it took about 20 days to record all the material. For the guitars we used a LTD Dave Mustaine Signature through a Peavey 5150 on an old Marshall 1960 cabinet. Bass was tracked with the same Warwick Rock Bass. After the instruments were tracked, Mr.Metal took the synths into his hands and layed em down. With the mix, I wanted to make a difference this time. I wanted to achieve a more live-like sound so that the band could actually produce live what was on record. You could say for both myself and them that we've succeeded since they've open for In Flames in Belgrade.

www.myspace.com/decontrolledband

Mortero - melodic ethno metalcore

Mortero is a melodic metalcore band with an ethno feeling to it. Before I heard them play live the fans only said good things about them. When I met them I realized that these guys know how to party so we had a great time recording this material. It was a summer, need we say more? Beer and goulash  were a standard part of our diet since Mortero has 2 excellent cooks on the microphones. When we started recording I had a strange feeling since I've never heard such styles mixed in this exact way. You can always say some bands are death metal, some black, nu, alternative etc, but this is something a little different. The band brought the drums from Violent Chapter the 6505+ from Problems and the process  of recording started. The recording of the full material took about 30 days, not counting the post production and the mastering. You can check out the stuff we recorded on their myspace page below. My personal favorite is song is "Summer Breeze".

www.myspace.com/morteroband

Problems - no problem

Problems is a band led by 2 childhood friends who wanted to make music. I was introduced to them by Bob Macura (Nevergreen) when they were in need of making a demo. The demo was recorded back in the amateur days and it was a success. After a few years the boys wanted to record an EP with new songs, so by that time the studio was ready and we hit it. For guitars we used Peavey 6506+ and XXX amps, with a 7 string Ibanez and a Yamaha. Not long after the EP was done they got signed to Hammer World. Now that the full length album was recorded in our studio, we're over our third collaboration. The drums were recorded on a Sonor Custom drum set by my drummer Orko (Tiarah, ex-Nevergreen, Green Division). For the guitars we used 6506+ for riffs and XXX for leads. The bass was an Ibanez SR305. The album will be out in Hungary in 2011 under Hammer World.

www.myspace.com/problemsonline

Draconic - just... metal

You can read more about this band in the MY BANDS section. The album titled "From the wrong side of the aperture" was recorded in our studio after being demoed a year before in our bedroom. The drums were recorded on a Sonor drum set through a M-Audio Delta 1010LT. The delta was used because the Lynx Aurora 16 was on it's way and wasn't shipped when promised. After we were done with the drums, the Aurora arrived! Guitars were tracked through Aurora, thank god for that, using two amps at once. Peavey 6505 II and XXX were miked simultaneously with 3 mikes. The mikes used were Shure, Rode, ATM, Samson and AKG I think,  my brother miked the amps with all he could so we catch the sound well. The instrument used was mostly a Ibanez Universe 7 stringer but the pickups we're customized, and a Gibson Les Paul Studio and maybe some of my BC Rich Warlock Acrylic Series with EMG-Hz, but I`m not sure about that. I started recording the vocals in the studio but ended up re-doing them in my room using the Behringer Ultragain Tube MIC100 and a 40$ Samson hand-held condenser mike. The sick parts in Laudanum were recorded by Danilo of Consecration for the demo, but turned out to be so good that we just reused the tracks since that was truly artistic and there would be no sense of re-doing it. Draconic was signed by Austrian Noisehead Records. If you want to get a feeling of the atmosphere during the recording, be sure the check out the video below. You may not understand the Serbian parts and trust me, I don't think they're that important.

Check it out at:
www.myspace.com/draconic

Fadelow - nu metal

You can read more about this band in the MY BANDS section. This material was recorded at home basically. I figured I can mix the stuff my boys record if they do it as I say. So Ivan bought a little Behringer mixer, a Shure SM58 Beta and the recording was started. They couldn't record the drums since they didn't have a multi-channel sound card so the drums were done using Kontakt or Battery, I don't remember. The guitars are a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier recorded using Shure Sm58 Beta through a little Behringer mixer. The guitar Used was a US Ibanez 7 stringer. The bass was done trough Zoom 505, the instrument was a Ibanez SR 305 if I remember correctly. I recorded the vocals in Ivan's room in Belgrade on the same mike we used for the guitars. I mixed the material at home before recording vocals and it all came together nicely.

Check it out at:
www.myspace.com/fadelow

Queen of Fall - an alternative to rock

The idea of recording this band was spontaneous. During my stays in Belgrade while rehearsing with Draconic I met a few people there and two of them were in this band. Actually they only had demos done at home and they wanted to record an EP in a real studio. We made a deal and we set the date. The guys arrived with all the gear and the work was started. My bro miked the drums and the amp. Hes and expert for that so I let him do it. The guitars were recorded using a Peavey XXX with an LTD stacked with a Dimebucker and a Fender Stratocaster. Some acoustic guitars were used both miked and DI. The bass was pulled out of a Fender bass, the same one the Scar Symmetry bass-player had. It worked quite well in the mix finally. The keyboards were DI normally double tracked for precision and better stereo since some strings weren't wide enough for my taste. Finally the mix was done and it turned out to better than a demo should sound, actually it sounded better than most records.

You can check them out at:
www.myspace.com/queenoffallband

A video of some manga cartoon mixed with one of the songs:

Violent Chapter - melodic modern metal

I met this band in 2006?!?! when they asked me to do their album. Modern melodic metal / metal-core with a great vocalist. For this record we used Peavey XXX, Epiphone Studio Les Paul with EMGs, and I don't really remember how we did the bass anymore. The vocal tracking was the most fun ever, since Marko the vocalist is a great guy and an excellent singer. We thought that it would be great to relax before the sessions so we started drinking beer. Yeah I know alcohol is bad for the vocal-chords, and I know he should warm up. But we thought this should be done just like gigs are done so we hit it. This guy blew me away, he was laying the tracks down real-time with no cuts. Later we tracked what needed to be doubled an that's it. In general, this wasn't an easy task for me as I haven't done any bands like this before but I gave my best. Later I even remastered the album on my own and the band liked it and re-released the CD.

You can check em out here:
www.myspace.com/violentchapter

Get the remastered version of their album "Traces" legally for free here:
www.mediafire.com/?yxzctmjdwjz

Ashen Epitaph - death metal madness

Ashen Epitaph is a old-school death metal band made out of good friends who like booze and gigs. I had the pleasure of working with them in 2005 I think that's when we did their first demo "From Underground" in my bedroom. The recording process was pretty standard and it didn't take much time at all. My monitoring was pretty weak at that time so I had to mess around a lot with the guitars. The vocals were recorded both English and Hungarian. After a few years in 2008 they wanted to do another demo so they approached us. By that time had better hardware so my brother tracked the drums in our studio. Drums were recorded using Allen & Heath GL2 on M-Audio Delta 1010LT. The boys recorded the DI guitars at home and I reamped those. We recorded the vocals in my bedroom since the boys wanted a dirty roomy feeling and we could drink beer and smoke in there and my philosophy is: "If you can, you gotta have fun". For the vocals I used a Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC100 Preamp and a MXL 2001 condenser microphone.

You can follow these crazy dudes and listen to their tunes here:
www.myspace.com/ashenepitaph

Here's some clips of Ashen Epitaph, both new and old.

False Reality - my first hard-core record

My first work was for False Reality, a local hard-core band I recorded in my bedroom. That was my first full lenght album recording and that was the time I first met with these Hard-Core guys. You can say I was standing out by just looking at the picture. Guess who's the long haired sissy with those killers? A lot of alcohol and smokes was spent durring those sessions. Since we couldn't record drums cos nobody had a mixer we decided to do them in Kontakt. I found some samples my brother recorded in my bedroom and loaded em into Cubase on my AMD Thunderbird 1.2GHz on 256MB of RAM. Wow, that was a beast back then. I remember paying it for 2 years and by the time I was done it couldn't sell it. I still own that machine btw. The sound card was Terratec EWS88, yeah 8 in 8 out but we losers had no mixer. For guitars and bass we used a my then brand new Johnson J-Station and the album was made. I remember hearing my J-Station for the first time. I was blown away. It was a hardware worth gold back then, we even used it on gigs.  I used to run it through a Fliptop 50 watt Ampeg. Everything was monitored through my Sony Hi-Fi. It's ridiculous thinking about what I used just 6 years ago. After the album was done we figured this needs a bonus track. This track was done in total old-school rap style. I sampled the Night train track of Public Enemy from my newly bought Appocalipse 91 - Enemy Strikes Black remastered CD and mixed the hell out of it while Tevda (the singer) was layin' some lyrics down. It was all done in a few minutes but the track turned out to be a hit. This bonus track has a video so you can check it out below.

Check them out at:
www.myspace.com/falserealitysentahc

You can legally download the album here:
rapidshare.com/files/229912229/False_Reality-Senta_VS._NYC_by_nicpa.rar