Rosner

'Arche' has that wide drum panning too! I just remebered the intro fill from 'Soshaku' (the one where Shinya uses his whole tom setup while the groovy riff plays before Kyo starts singing) and it reminded me of the cringe worthy drum samples the toms have. There's a lot of toms on the verses too, and the panning really shines. Too bad they sound so fake and clicky... Rinkaku has some beautiful tom arrangements too, and they really shine with the panning (what a beautiful song, I can't get enough of it!). 'DSS' samples sound way better! They sound deeper and less fake. I think the mix also benefits the drums.

Thank you!!! I wonder why Jay Ruston was named too. Did some checking on Lancaster's background: he seems mostly an alternative rock/pop producer, and has worked with BMTH on their 'Live At The Royal Albert Hall' album. Interesting to see the band picking more pop oriented producers: hope it reflects well on the final mix (and also hope it doesn't sound totally brickwalled!). By the way, is there any good site where I can read the band's translated news or interviews? I remember stunbling upon a blog some time ago, but it was more focused on each member's personal life (especially on Kyo's); I'm looking for something that contemplates all factors.

I agree! I remembered about this: Personally I wouldn't do it (for me, reverb on distorted guitars is a no-no, excpet when working on black metal or shoegaze), but every producer has it's own style and sometimes their unorthodox methods surprisingly work. When it comes to music and mixing, there are no writteng rules (except for a couple of obvious ones). By the way, I just noticed Arche was mixed and mastered by Tue Madsen! Wouldn't have guessed it: it sounds over-processed but has an unpolished sound that I've never heard on any of Tue Madsen most recent works. I also checked out who mixed/mastered the 'Utafumi' and 'Ningen...' singles out of curiosity: it coul give a hint on the sound 'The Insulated World' may have. 'Utafumi' was mixed by Madsen, but it was mastered by Tsubasa Yamazaki (seems like a frequent collaborator of the band, mostly on live releases). Can't find any good info on 'Ningen...', though its Japanese wikipedia entry seems to have some interesting info about it's composition. Too bad Google translate is not very good... but for what I understand, it was mixed either by Dan Lancaster or Jay Ruston and mastered by Brian Gardner (interesting choice!).

Tue Madsen mixes are, on most cases, mids-centered. He reduces the low end as much as he can and thus, the mix gains clarity. The most bass-centered of his mixes I've heard is Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason', and ironically, the guitars are the ones that provide the low end. The drums, on the other hand, are heavy sampled and have that usual 'click'-ey sound that makes them cut through the mix. I think the best thing about his Uroboros mix is how beautifully panned the drums are. The original drums have more of a 'mono' mixing that is allright, but I'm a sucker for widely panned, stereo drums. This sometimes can bloat the mix, but the reduction of the low end helps for a better control of the glueing and positioning of every instrument. I think the way he reamped and reduced the guitar panning was in favour of that excellent stereo imaging the drums have. Still, they seem to have a wide pan, like maybe 80/80. The only thing I cannot forgive is the way he aggressively used the drum samples: that snare has no personality whatsoever. But well, that's what he does. I agree with kuyashii though: that weird snare with wires off really helps giving the album a Mr. Bungle-kind of vibe, which I think is very fitting for the overall nature of the album (especially on the funkier tracks like 'Stuck Man'). I think the unusual sound the original mix has (not only regarding the drums, but overall) contributes to the 'experimental' and 'progressive' feel of 'Uroboros'. I remember the reaction that a lot of friends who discovered the band thanks to Mike Portnoy's 'best of 2008' list had. They could sit through 'Leaving Your Body Map', 'Trout Mask Replica' or '666 International' without much trouble, but they were abhorred and confused with Uroboros, yet intrigued.

Honestly, I kind of agree with the 'if you want perfection, go listen to the studio albums' thing, but I really enjoy the band's live shows more than the albums, so in this case I want to see something astonishing when I watch the recordings. I don't care if they cannot reproduce all of the sounds that they use on the albums (the guitar and vocal layers, the synths, the samples, etc.): I just want to be able to watch a memorable performance that's not as cringe worthy as (for example) the one in Wacken 2007. I still have faith! The 'MODE OF...' shows have some of the most outstanding vocal performances by him yet. From a technical standpoint, I think the 'Uroboros' one is the most balanced, but the 'Vulgar', 'Dum Spiro Spero', 'Kisou' and 'The Marrow of a Bone' ones have incredibly tight performances too (that performance of 'Ryoujoku no Ame' may be one of my favourite live performances ever!). Watching the 'Withering to Death' one, he sounds strained and really weary. As Ozileras10 said, 'Withering to Death' is the most emotional one, and to some extent, the 'Macabre' one has also a lot of dramatism going on that makes the overall performance amazing, but I think they don't feel as good as the others. I think it may have to do with the way Kyo interprets the old songs that weren't remade, because on the newer tracks he sounds better (he really nails the new version of 'Rasetsukoku', which is also the last track). Or maybe it has to do with the emotional factor, and, as you said, the 'expressing myself' factor takes over the technical one. Regarding this, I think the 'Mode of Macabre' blends the drama and the good singing quite good. Anyway, I still have high hopes for his future: for a man in his forties who has sustained a lot of damage to his hearing, vocal chords, etc., it's a miracle he can even sing. Sometimes, he has average days; sometimes, he sounds amazing. The good thing is he doesn't seem to have any bad days (judging for this pro-shot live shows, of course). I still think that the band started to become really tight as a whole during 2011/12, with the 'Dum Spiro Spero' and 'Arche' shows at the Budokan being their finest moments. If the 'MODE OF' are an overall standard for what is to come and if Kyo can find the perfect balance between technique and emotion, then I'm more than happy.

My bad! I meant to say it was the calmest one of the 'leaked' tracks yet (those that you described -the ones played live-). Sad to see Kyo hurting himself again during 'Kodoku ni Shisu...'. That fish-hooking looks horrible. Hope it's just related to the overall feel of the show (some sort of 'throwback performance') and it does not become a live staple once again. Also, didn't watched the whole thing, but this feels like the worst Kyo performance out of all the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows I've seen yet ('Kisou', 'The Marrow of a Bone', 'Vulgar', 'Dum Spiro Spero' and 'Uroboros'). He sounds strained and really exhausted. Nice! I honestly prefer the new version, but both are amazing pieces. Also, it makes me really happy to see Kaoru's right hand healed!!!

Sounds interesting. I like the guitar solo and the ethereal/post-rockish vibe of the song. Reminds me of the calmer parts of 'Different Sense' mixed with one of the most atmospheric songs of 'ARCHE', like 'Tousei' or 'Kaishun'. I just hope that's not the true ending of the song: feels to abrupt (but well, better wait for the full song to judge that). Seems that the song isn't 'Ranunculus', which was reported to be the calmest one on the album. So, one thing for sure, 'The Insulated World' is going to have variety like 'ARCHE'. I was fearing they were going back to a predominance of the 'nu-metal grooves', but seems 'Ningen...' plays the same role as 'Sustain the Untruth' did before. Just hope the singles have at least a better mastering that glues them together to the overall feel of the album. This makes me really excited: whish they could release the samples already!

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy: As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage. Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...). The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead. This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal. Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars... I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other. If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars. The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'. That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem. I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records. I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song). I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.

From an audio engineering point of view (mixing/mastering process), there's a lot of things that I don't like: -Drums have a lot of problems. The triggering is becoming more and more mechanic with every release. Just check out how the snare sample behaves whenever there are some snare rolls or fills happening. That's a really serious issue that almost every mid-tier triggering software can solve (even with Drumagog you can get a better and more natural snare sound). Beyond that, I really like the snare sample, much better than the one used in 'ARHCE'. Bass drum is OK: I'm not a big fan of the 'typewriter ' sound, but it works on this song. Toms are the worst of all: they sound mechanic and 'out of the mix'. When triggering, and if going for a 'natural sound', one should always try and get the full samples of a whole kit. On this single, it feels like it doesn't belong to the same drum kit as the rest of the samples. Maybe the engineer was using samples of a kit that didn't have rototoms and ended up using that sample. Anyway, it sounds really out of place. Also, cymbals have no presence whatsoever: they sound really weak and I have the sad feeling that they are also sampling them! -Bass is barely hearable. Really weird: they dropped entirely the Korn-esque sound they had on the last previous albums in favour of a more regular sound. You can hear it "pop" during the choruses, but it sounds really bad. This is a real mistery: I wasn't a big fan of how loud and mid-fueled it was on previous albums, but at least you could hear Toshiya's amazing and clever bass playing. Here it is non existant. -Guitars sound horrible. I mean, not as horrible as the mid-scooped guitars in 'The Marrow of a Bone', but they still lack energy and presence. It's like they scooped mids and highs/trebles and boosted the shit out of the bass frequencies with a multi-band compressor. That way, it clashes with the poor bass sound and causes the whole mix to bloate. The cleans in the intro, on the other hand, sound really good. Too bad the dynamics are horrendous... -Vocals sound good; my only complain would be the wide-panned vocal scream in the section after the second chorus. They clash with the guitars and overpower the rest of the mix. It sounds really unbalanced. -Dynamics are TRASHED. Chorus has no dynamic impact, only emotional one (which is good but not enough). The song sounds very linear: just check out how the intro creates anticipation for the main riff but ends having no impact. The lack of DR destroys the build-ups. I would love a good WAV-rip of the song to measure the dynamic range, just to confirm my suspicions. -Overall, it sounds 'over-processed' and over-compressed, a problem that was already present on 'ARCHE'. The thing is, somehow, here everything sounds sterile and opaque. I'm no mastering expert, so I cannot really say if this is an issue that could be solved with just a better mastering. Mastering can do wonders (for example, I once worked on a record that had really poor toms that where miraculously enhanced with mastering), but I think 'Ningen...' is a real mess. I really feel the song should be remixed from scratch. From a music production point of view, there's just a couple of small things I do not enjoy; keep in mind this are more personal: -The transition from the verse to the first chorus does not work. It does not have flow and feels really forced. On the other hand, the transition from the verse into the second chorus is flawless. -The vocal layering on the second bridge sounds really bad. Same thing happens with the vocal layering on the section after the second chorus. I applaud the audicity to innovate, but I think the mixing does not favor it. It sounds badly recorded and the metrics feel wrong. Don't get me wrong: I really like the song and I am very excited for the new album, but I feel like the band could do so much better in terms of production and engineering. I hope there's a lot of variety in the thirteen songs, just like on Arche; I also hope the final product has a superb production and not an average/mediocre one.

I think the terrible sound of almost every Dir en grey release is something most of us agree upon. There doesn't seem to be an appropriate answer for it, and I'm sure it is not budget related. I've always theorized about the band's role as their own producers, having total control of their music. Maybe this affects the recording and mixing engineer's work and we end having weird sounding albums. I do not know how much knowledge about music production the band has, but sometimes I think they like to experiment with the recordings and the results are very hit or miss. One thing for sure: since 'Uroboros', elements like, for example, vocal layering have gotten better. Other elements, are really getting weirder, like the rhythm guitar's hard panning, the loud and clicking bass sound and the mechanic and heavy-triggered drum sound you've already noticed. Sometimes they really work, sometimes (most of the times) they don't. I agree 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds really amazing: I think it is their best and most modern album production-wise, but the 'deathcore' style sometimes makes the things weird and opaque (just compare how the album version of 'Hageshisa...'' sounds contrasted to the single version). I also love 'Uroboros' production: it really fits the 'acoustic' and weird approach the album has and I think the remixed/remastered edition kills it's mood with the crystal clear production and the ultra-triggered drum sound (the bass drum sounds like a basketball and I really miss the Danny Carey-esque snare sound). 'The Unraveling' also has a similar production to DSS, and I think it is also one of the best sounding ones. What happened with 'Arche' is really a mystery... Regarding previous albums, I think the band's identity crisis could also provide an answer. As you said, 'Gauze' and Macabre' sound pretty good, especially for being their first albums, but 'Kisou' sound really weird (though the 'garage' sound really works in songs like 'Bottom of the Death Valley'. Since their shift to a more 'westernized' sound (especially with 'Six Ugly'), they seem to have been struggling with finding a balanced mixing sound. 'Vulgar' is definitely the one that sounds really thin, and the bass drum sample is truly annoying (but well, I got used to it). 'Withering to Death' is maybe their most balanced pre-Uroboros release, sound-wise of course. To me, it sounds really pleasant and 'calm': it is good for the dynamic range, but at the same time it draws back the power of the heaviest songs on the album. Regarding ''The Marrow of a Bone', I kind of like the rawness of it, because it seems to mimic Ross Robinson's style, very fitting for the album's sound. Now, for 'The Insulated World' singles... It seems to be in the same direction as 'Arche'. 'Utafumi' sounds like it was live recorded, with vocals, synths and extra guitars overdubbed later. Reminds me of what a traditional doom metal band would do in studio with producers like Jaime Gomez Arellano, but I think it doesn't work really well for Dir en grey's present style. On the other hand, 'Ningen Wo Kaburu' has a better quality, but still has that weird 'Arche' sound (specially the drums... The tom samples are horrible!!!). The mastering also seems bloated, but I think it's a consequence of the lackluster mixing...

I totally agree, but to be honest, I feel like almost every Dir en grey album is bloated not only by its length, but also by it's filler.

As always, really excited for a new Dir en grey album... But I have the feeling this is going to be a disappointment. Hope I'm not right! I hope 'Utafumi' and 'Ningen wo Kaburu' aren't overall examples of what the album is going to sound. The first one was really lackluster for me; I expect them to re-record it properly. 'Ningen...' was ok, but it still feels average for what the band was doing on the last albums (the lack of cohesion between the verses and the first chorus still bugs me). The description for those two new songs (the DSS-like and 'Ranunculus') sound promising, but I still have a bad feeling about this album. I hope they do not sacrifice their recent experimentation and 'weirdness' in favour of a more straightforward and back to the root's approach: a balance between both would be great (as 'ARCHE' seemed to hint). Also, with just 13 songs, I'm hoping there's at least two songs that are over 8 minutes like 'Vinushka' or 'Diabolos" and have a progressive feel to them. Sadly, something tells me that they are going full 'VULGAR' or 'Withering to death.' and the longest song is going to peak around the 5 minute mark. By the way, remaking 'Kigan', 'The Deeper Vileness', and 'Wake' sounds great! I wonder if they are going to downtune the earlier songs and reconstruct them just like in 'The Unraveling' EP or if they are just going to remake them in a similar style to the originals just like in 'VESTIGE OF SCRATCHES'. I think the remakes of 'Beautiful Dirt', 'The IIID Empire' and 'Fukai' didn't bring anything new to the table (to be honest, they feel like a missed chance to me).