Circa Survive Band • Page 31

So glad we get the stems. OLG is a legendary record, but the production could've been a lot better.

Just importing the stems into Audacity, making a few minor tweaks, and mixing them down to stereo sounds a lot better than the CD for some songs. If someone with real equipment/software and know-how spent some time I'm sure they could make the whole album sound considerably better.

 

Anyway you can share? I've always thought OLG was one of the few McTernan records he didnt ruin, but maybe the songs are just that good.

 

The stems are up on KL. PM me if needed as I can't view your profile.

 

Fine I'll do it

 

McTernan did a fine job on those albums. Considerably better than the rest of their production jobs. Hard panning the guitars left and right is perfect for this band. And the ambience was captured brilliantly. He also got perfect performances out of them in prepro (hearing the differences between their demos and what became of the albums) which is obviously nice but maybe it just speaks to the brilliance of the bands songwriting in that era. No doubt the production could be even better with those releases had the band went somewhere else though. Given the bands situation looks like we'll never know what they sound like with someone engineering that's truly capable.

 

My issue with the McTernan records is the muddiness of the vox and drums (worse on OLG than Juturna).

As I went through the stems and compared with the CD tracks, it was also striking how much the quality of the mix seemed to vary from song to song. "Semi Constructive Criticism" and "1000 Witnesses" are examples of where a straight mixdown of the stems sounds far better than the official releases, to me anyway. Others, especially the less heavy tunes, the CD sounds good relative to the stems available. The drums are also pretty compressed/loud already on the stems - not sure if that's how they were recorded or not.

Like you said, though, I don't think they've ever had a production team that truly did them justice, which is really sad. Bottrill probably had the best mix with BSN, but then the mastering was ridiculously loud and clipped.

 

The heavy songs really took on a new life live. The production works on In The Morning and Living Together, but kinda misses it on Semi Constrictive Criticism

 

Mcternan is notoriously muddy. Olg and juturna are no different

 

just bought the deluxe LP. Had a panic because I thought I did it back in October. Thank god it didnt sell out

 

"the oldest magician returns to steal your soul"

 

Going to the show in Detroit tonight! I'm getting pretty excited. I still can't believe two out of my three all-time favorite bands are playing on the same bill.

 

Yep. They were fantastic last night. It was the first show back after a 2 week break so all the bands sounded re-energized and refreshed. My girlfriend and I were able to snag seats in the front row of the balcony which was great, she has a lot of back problems and is pretty short so I always worry about finding a place where she can both see the show and mitigate her pain. I selfishly wish they would have played just 2 or 3 more after Your Friends Are Gone, but getting out of there relatively early was nice too. What a spectacular band. Now I contend with the post-concert depression of today, haha.

 

If anybody is curious about the new song they've been playing for their VIP sets on this tour, a couple videos have surfaced of their set from Orlando. Go to around 4:38.

For what it's worth, when I spoke to Nick about the new song after the VIP set he said it will still have the same kind of mood and atmosphere to it and told me to just imagine it with more layers of guitars and a drum kit.

 

That guitar bridge screams Radiohead.
Love that he is hitting that high note without the growl.

Color me excited.

 

Woah, cool version of Descensus

 

I was getting some In Rainbows vibes from the guitar work in this song

Yeah I thought it was cool too! I didn't recognize it at first but once I did I was like "Wooooaaaah." It's too bad the song got split between two videos from whoever posted it

 

Truth. I'm curious what they do for that last section of the song, if they jam it out or if they cut it off after the last chorus.

 

You can find the second half of the song in the search bar to the right on YouTube. They didn't play it for the full nine minutes, but they did jam the bridge for a bit before Anthony came back in to sing the outro. All in all, it must have been five minutes long or so

 

are their polos white or pink there? lol in their Florida attire

 

I think they're pink

 

Surprised no ones posted the latest Circa tour vid. Are you all watching them? They're always a great watch. Really well shot and edited.

 

I watched the first two but I still gotta watch this one. They're fun to watch

 

Saw the OLG tour last night and man I vastly underestimated how wild that crowd was going to be. I thought i was in a good spot right behind the front row dead center but I got squashed for like 20 straight minutes before I went off to the side to watch the rest haha

 

Highlights from the SF OLG show.

Semi Constructive Critiscm thru On Letting Go + the 2 B Sides.
Maybe the best set design they've ever had as well

 

the stage design is cool no doubt. but man they've had some amazing stage designs....