DAY MINUS 7 REVIEWED AT ROCK IN REVIEW.COM
April 24, 2009
April 22nd, 2009 Adam D Posted in CD Reviews |
Day Minus 7 – Day Minus 7 EPRed Rocket Entertainment
* * * *
4 Stars
There are a lot of bands on the mainstream circuit that keep me away from most of the mainstream acts these days and keep my ears in the past and on the underground, but every so often, I’ll hear a band that reminds me that there’s hope in new music. Day Minus 7 is one of those bands! All it took was the 4 tracks on their new EP, Day Minus 7 EP, to show me that there is still some enjoyable music that parallels the mainstream sound; it just takes the right approach. Honestly, I wish this EP was a full album because I can’t stop listening to these four tracks over and over again. With the small number of tracks on the EP, I can’t exactly choose which ones are my favorite, but I can tell you why I like each one. The overall sound of the EP is a pretty standard Rock sound that is best shown by “Hate You” (Track 1) which has a faster pace and really catches your attention to start off the EP. After that is a slower Rock-style song entitled “Alive” that has an overall slower feel with a more intense chorus and bridge. The third track is the classic “love” song entitled “All I Wanted” that starts off with the acoustic guitar part and breaks into another slow Rock feel with a slightly more intense chorus. To round out the whole package, the fourth track, “Never Free”, has a great, kind of slower Hard rock feel for the most part with that classic build up for the chorus with a great message in the lyrics to go along with the great music. Overall, this EP is a good one for any Rock fan. There’s nothing over the top or crazy on it that would drive anyone away, and it just sounds good.
ENSTRIDE EP RELEASE SHOW
April 23, 2009
ENSTRIDE will be playing with fellow Paul Trust Productions alum, ATOM SMASH, at The Note, in West Chester, PA to celebrate the release of their EP “Standing and Waiting” which was produced and co-written by Trust.
ATOM SMASH IN THIS MONTHS FMQB
April 22, 2009
BuzzBands Spotlight: Atom Smash
Formed in 2006 by frontman and songwriter Sergio Sanchez and producer/drummer/co-writer Paul
Trust, the team set out to write and record what would become the Atom Smash debut album.
Hundreds of ideas were spilled on tape before a record was even a consideration. Fast forward to
the present and the band has a legion of great radio support behind them and a touring schedule
that keeps them sharp and focus on spreading their music organically and realistically. FMQB chats
with frontman Sergio Sanchez about the band’s recent success.
KAYAK-A-THON 2009
April 19, 2009
My day started before sunrise. From past experience I knew to hydrate well ahead of time because cramping up half way through a trip is no fun. I had been watching the weather and when I saw a 15-20 mph winds forecast I knew this was going to be a little more of a workout. I arrived at the put in, got my kayak down to the water and realized that a lot of the participants were not very experienced and were using the rental kayaks which were those big Ocean brand kayaks you see at hotels and rental places. Those things are like paddling an Olds Delta 88 and I started thinking that this might be a little much for some of the participants. The organizers suspected the same and decided to trim the route down a little bit.
Well, we started out downwind and I don’t think anybody realized why the paddling was so easy. I worked my way to the front and tried to keep pace with a guy in some hi-tech kevlar Hawaiian racing outrigger but he was too fast for me. We stared out through the canals and waterways which gave us a nice wind block but when we turned east to head out into the large part of the intracoastal-Wham! The wind and spray kicked hard and I really had to dig in. I put my head down and decided to immediately make for the opposite shore so I could paddle in the lee, and that first crossing was a workout. Then I turned around and was surprised to see there was no one in sight. I guess they hadn’t cleared that last turn into the wind yet. The speedster in the outrigger was also gone. Luckily we were making for an island that I’ve been to several times so I took a drink and put my head back down and dug in again. Eventually I spotted Outrigger guy again. He had gone the long way around the island that I was currently just to the west of. He eventually pulled away again, man he was fast. As I neared the destination, Peanut Island, I crossed one of the main inlets and it started to get a little crazier. The wind picked since there is nothing blocking it between here and the Bahamas. The swells kicked up and I actually had to start paying attention. I thought these are not the kind of conditions for the once-a-year kayaker. I made it around Peanut Island and took a break in its lee, with my usual favorite trail mix. Dark clouds were starting to form out at sea and I thought that maybe it was time to start heading back. I kept my eyes out for manatee, which I had seen in this area before but none today. Coming out of the lee of Peanut Island I was blasted again and had to coax my muscles back to work. Still nobody. Outrigger guy was long gone and I thought maybe the group was on the other side of Peanut from me. I decided to just keep going and about 45 minutes later, lo’ and behold there is the guide boat with a string of about 30 kayaks behind it. It was on the opposite side of the intracoastal from me, which is quite wide here, but I decided to cross into the wind again to see how they were doing. I ran across a few kayakers that were in good spirits although looking a little worn out. I gave them the tip to hang closer to the shore and use the buildings as a windbreak, which I think they appreciated. A couple of minutes later I spotted the organizer and he told me he was considering cutting it shorter. He asked me about the conditions and I told him that the inlet might be a little tough and he said he would cut it short. I continued back stopping long enough to see a dolphin in one of the large bay areas. They’re amazing animals and I wish I could have gotten closer. This was a good trip and for a good cause and I thank everybody that supported it.
TOKYO MONSTER CONTROL MIXES FINISHED
April 14, 2009
Paul Trust has just finished mixing Miami’s TOKYO MONSTER CONTROL. The five song EP will be mastered by Thomas Aitzetmüller at Sun Mastering.
MELODYNE, ELASTIC AUDIO AND MULTI-TRACK SOURCES.
April 6, 2009
MELODYNE, ELASTIC AUDIO AND MULTI-TRACK SOURCES.
Welcome to the studio blog and my first post. This is where I will take the opportunity to discuss anything from advanced recording techniques to songwriting, to kayaking.
We are now presented with some incredible tools to manipulate, edit and “fix” our music but it seems like with anything it comes at a price. Programs such as Melodyne and Digidesign’s new Elastic Audio allow the user to time stretch/compress, pitch shift and vari-speed just about any audio source. In fact the new Melodyne is actually touted as being able to tune guitar chords. It actually can go into a chord and just change the wrong notes! But this doesn’t come without a price. I’m talking about artifacts. If you really listen to the tracks you can sometimes hear subtle clicking, popping and the worst-phase problems.
So after a longwinded intro, how do we now work with these programs and our multi track sources. I take all this time to multi mic a guitar cabinet. I use a 57 that is carefully phase aligned with a Royer 121. I thought it would be great to tighten up the timing with elastic audio but, Ouch. It cannot keep the phase correlation intact. My beautiful rhythmn guitar now sounds like the breakdown in “Life in the Fast Lane”.
I currently record bass with a mic signal, di and sans amp all going to separate tracks. It gives me the flexibility to adjust the sound at mix or make special fx using just the di or sans track. I decided to try tuning the bass in melodyne, which it does great. It can also spit out a midi track of the bass part so you can use the bass to play a bass synth or whatever. Sounds cool right. Except Melodyne causes phase problems between the three sources.
Now I know the solution is to bus your individual sources together before this kind of processing. But we have to give up the flexibility of being able to control the independent sources so we can do this kind of processing. That’s the cost. And don’t even get me started on what these type of programs do to drum sounds.
If you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them.