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This is the first in a series of classic KISS album remixes I have been working on. I thought HOTTER THAN HELL would be an excellent starting point since it has what is almost universally considered to be the worst sounding album of the original line-up. Yes, the murky mix gives it a bit of dark atmosphere and most of us fans have been as forgiving as possible since it contains some of the best of the best of the makeup-era material. I would argue that next to the ELDER, it is the most musically diverse album the band ever assembled. DESTROYER (thanks mostly to Ezrin and especially “Beth”) covers a lot of territory as well, but with HTH we have everything from mid-tempo rockers, power pop, proto-metal, classic RnR, heavy grooves and even a dark ballad. It really is a great picture of everything the band was capable of at that time. On top of that, the performances are fantastic all around.

For all its sonic flaws, I believe there is a LOT more good than bad when it comes to the raw recording. The kick drum sounds great especially for the time, the toms are also very clear and powerful, the bass is good and present and the vocals are very clean and crisp. The guitars are tracked fine overall though the mic placement does sometimes give them an odd tone particularly with some of the solos.
The bad? Mostly the very harsh snare and cymbal mix combined with the overall brittle EQ of the entire album. But that is enough to make for an unpleasant listening experience for most fans and unfortunately does not let these great songs shine like they should.
We know the master tapes are “lost” and many have done “remastered” versions which basically is just endless attempts to change the EQ and compression and never really helps much so I wanted to try something different by stripping it down and recreating the biggest sore thumb which is the drums. I did not want to lose the atmosphere of the original completely or give the album a “modern” sound.

I have completely re-done the drums using a mixture of the original tracks and custom polyphonic samples I have created of Peter’s real drums from various other sources. The kick drums and toms are all from the original album (tweaked and remixed) and the snare and cymbals are mostly recreated to match what Peter plays on the album. For the hi-hat and ride I decided to take Peter’s parts from Alive! and sync them piece by piece to the album to give it a looser, more energetic feel. But they too are edited to what he was playing in the studio. This also includes the non-Alive! album tracks which were recreated piece by piece.

For the bass I added a bit of distortion to give it more of Gene’s live bass sound which they rarely tried to reproduce in the studio for some reason. That is the MAIN reason why the studio recording never sounds as heavy as the live albums, BTW.

The guitars are mostly just re-EQ’d and sometimes the panning is changed a bit. I also added acoustic guitar to “Goin’ Blind” and “Comin’ Home” borrowing Paul from some later-day sources. I added the last chorus to “Parasite” like they play it on Alive! and added a hard ending to “Got To Choose”. I also changed the fades/ending on a few of the other songs. I added a bit of reverb and delay to the vocal in “Goin’ Blind”. You’ll also hear a bit of tambourine and a delayed snare verb on that one. Other than that I wanted to leave the rest alone and keep the original performances intact.

There are also 3 “bonus” mixes at the end.

1) the extended version of “Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll”. I have used the Bell Sound Studio demo version along with a few bits of the Alive! to create something closer to what the band played live in those days. The original album version is heavily edited and leaves out the extra solos, bass break and more.

2.) A (mostly) acoustic version of “Goin’ Blind” which uses the original drums and bass but highlights the acoustic guitars with only the solo being electric. I also used a bit of Gene’s unplugged vocal doubled with his symphony vocal to make it a little different than the regular mix along with a little of the orchestra from the Symphony version on the choruses.

3.) “Parasite” featuring Ace on lead vocals. A “what if Ace had sung from the beginning?” version which I did a live version of earlier. This blends Ace with Gene’s original vocal and is done to match the sonics of the rest of the album. Ace’s vocal comes from the version he recorded for his Origins Vol 1 album.

My goal with this project was to create a clear mix for these songs which sound closer to the KISS we hear on the Winterland '75 concert in all their bombastic glory.

These mixes are not for the purists and are never intended to replace or erase the originals we've all known for decades, but for those who have been longing for a more listenable version of this great album...Enjoy!

PM me for a link to download lossless FLAC or MP3 versions

Preview the album on YouTube:

KISS - HOTTER THAN HELL (franKENstein 50th Anniversary Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... UGkIxKe7Q5

p.s. if anyone else in not banned from the FAQ maybe you can share this over there.

This sounds awesome!!! Exactly how this album should sound. Great clarity!

Black Stuff wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 9:41 am This sounds awesome!!! Exactly how this album should sound. Great clarity!

Thanks!

I would have preferred you invested your time in something usefull, like an Anacruisis tour.

superglide88 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 10:23 am I would have preferred you invested your time in something usefull, like an Anacruisis tour.

been there, done that

This is called "closure" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09TEK7-CnTM&t=7074s

NIce job! Lots of praise in the comments, too!

Fat_Elvis wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 11:54 am NIce job! Lots of praise in the comments, too!

Looks like the trolls were sleeping in and are just now getting their pitchforks sharpened to come after me for messing with the OMG VINTAGE KISS albums. Who do I think I AM? Edd-EE kR@merZ?????

...wait for it

Well done, good work. That album was unlistenable because of the murky sound but now it's quite ok.

Would someone now please "remix" Back In Black and replace Brian with Bon? Always wanted to hear how it would sound.

Sounds good.

EuroJR wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 2:21 pm Well done, good work. That album was unlistenable because of the murky sound but now it's quite ok.

Would someone now please "remix" Back In Black and replace Brian with Bon? Always wanted to hear how it would sound.

Sorry, but I’ve always been Team Brian so someone else will have to tackle that, haha. Besides I’m not using AI to generate dead guys’ vocals. That’s a whole different thing.

I was offered this early this morning, since I'm a Kisstard who had watched your prior stuff.

Sounds good, but I never really had a problem with Hotter than Hell. It's the first album that sounds like limp dick shit, but luckily all the good songs are on Alive and are redeemed.

My fave bit is you putting Aces vox on the choruses to Parasite. I wonder why they didnt do something like that earlier. If he was too shy to sing a whole song, at least let him get his feet wet with some verse or chorus lines.

HueyRamone wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 3:40 pm I was offered this early this morning, since I'm a Kisstard who had watched your prior stuff.

Sounds good, but I never really had a problem with Hotter than Hell. It's the first album that sounds like limp dick shit, but luckily all the good songs are on Alive and are redeemed.

My fave bit is you putting Aces vox on the choruses to Parasite. I wonder why they didnt do something like that earlier. If he was too shy to sing a whole song, at least let him get his feet wet with some verse or chorus lines.

He’s actually singing the verses too in the bonus version at the end. He did a version on his Origins Vol 1 and I lifted them from there and combined them with Gene…about 70% Ace and 30% Gene. That’s the vocal I also used on the earlier live mix I did a couple years ago.

I listened last night and was very impressed with your efforts!

Keep up the fantastic work , and don’t let the few vocal detractors get to you , as there are way more of us that appreciate your hard work than those that don’t. \m/


So many great songs on this album , even my kids will put this album on and sing them unabashedly in our vehicles.

CanadianMetal wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 1:21 pm I listened last night and was very impressed with your efforts!

Keep up the fantastic work , and don’t let the few vocal detractors get to you , as there are way more of us that appreciate your hard work than those that don’t. \m/

The irony is that the same tards who will shit on it, will swallow up any substandard bullshit that has the Gene n Paul seal of approval and ask for seconds.

HueyRamone wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 2:29 pm

CanadianMetal wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 1:21 pm I listened last night and was very impressed with your efforts!

Keep up the fantastic work , and don’t let the few vocal detractors get to you , as there are way more of us that appreciate your hard work than those that don’t. \m/

The irony is that the same tards who will shit on it, will swallow up any substandard bullshit that has the Gene n Paul seal of approval and ask for seconds.

Fact

Gotta love the comments @ the FAQ like "While a nice effort I'll stick with the original."
like you can't possibly listen to both.

NeonKnite wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2024 1:48 pm

I saw that. some funny KISS hate on those comments.

Gotta also love the Neolithic purist-audiophile-types who just love the smell of vinyl (and their own flatulence).

One guy on YT said something like "with a dynamic range of 9db, I'll stick with the original, thank you".

People who listen with their eyes are clowns. If bands knew how to use compression better to make shit sound heavy they would have been brick-walling all kinds of shit back in the day (not that I did it with this, trust me). Why do they think everything sounded so much more "alive" on the radio? Remember wondering why half your albums sounded dead compared to what you heard on the radio? I member. Remember when they used to print those cassettes with the levels BURIED in the red? I member.

I see a lot of talk about the master tapes being missing, but that might not matter given the new Peter Jackson "ai" technology that was used to allow remixing of the early Beatles tracks that was never thought possible because many instruments were layered on each track.

Perhaps you're using something similar on a PC?

Wiseacre wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:01 pm Gotta also love the Neolithic purist-audiophile-types who just love the smell of vinyl (and their own flatulence).

One guy on YT said something like "with a dynamic range of 9db, I'll stick with the original, thank you".

People who listen with their eyes are clowns. If bands knew how to use compression better to make shit sound heavy they would have been brick-walling all kinds of shit back in the day (not that I did it with this, trust me). Why do they think everything sounded so much more "alive" on the radio? Remember wondering why half your albums sounded dead compared to what you heard on the radio? I member. Remember when they used to print those cassettes with the levels BURIED in the red? I member.

You got 721 likes to 5 dislikes on youtube, I think you should take it as near universal acclaim, plus some know it alls who have to voice a dissenting opinion.

NeonKnite wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:08 pm I see a lot of talk about the master tapes being missing, but that might not matter given the new Peter Jackson "ai" technology that was used to allow remixing of the early Beatles tracks that was never thought possible because many instruments were layered on each track.

Perhaps you're using something similar on a PC?

yeah, but like a baby-consumer version. I use a couple different apps to separate the instruments, but basically you get stereo files of ALL guitars and ALL bass and ALL drums and ALL vocals, etc. I can split acoustic from electric and piano and that stuff as well, but it's NOTHING like having multi-tracks with all the drum mics separate and everything else on its own track(s). The stuff Peter jackson has is probably like the NASA version. I used to make my own Beatles mixes in the '90s just be using the stereo files because they would pan everything like to all one speaker or the other. You couldn't separate tracks, but I would like make the drums, vocals and bass centered and stereo-ize the guitars, etc. This new AI stuff is a dream come true for me and is getting better all the time. I predict that before long you'll be able to load a song, analyze every instrument, each drum, cymba, etc and then load a 2nd song and have it "mix' it to use the exact drums or part of the drums or guitars, etc. But that'll take all the fun out of it.

HTH is a total mess too, but a lot of stuff actually sounds pretty good (great kick sound for 1974 and the toms when EQ's are pretty clean). I'm convinced that Sean Delaney did NOT remix the 2 HTH songs for Double Platinum. They are basically identical in every way as the album aside from EQ and/or compression. Weird guitar panning and burying the solos, etc. Sean surely would have fixed that stuff. He MAY have had "stems" which are like I mentioned which is like the whole drum kit mixed to a stereo pair, guitars mixed together etc. The ONLY reason I even think that is because they used HTH for "Rip and Destroy" that same year for the movie and I don't know any way they would have removed the vocals for that.

HueyRamone wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:15 pm You got 721 likes to 5 dislikes on youtube, I think you should take it as near universal acclaim, plus some know it alls who have to voice a dissenting opinion.

And three of those are Andrew, Necramonium and Mick E. Gee

Just breakin' your balls, fellas

Wiseacre wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:25 pm yeah, but like a baby-consumer version. I use a couple different apps to separate the instruments, but basically you get stereo files of ALL guitars and ALL bass and ALL drums and ALL vocals, etc. I can split acoustic from electric and piano and that stuff as well, but it's NOTHING like having multi-tracks with all the drum mics separate and everything else on its own track(s). The stuff Peter jackson has is probably like the NASA version.

Interesting. Maybe the powers that be will hear yours and be motivated to do similar for profit.

NeonKnite wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:35 pm
Interesting. Maybe the powers that be will hear yours and be motivated to do similar for profit.

Well, unfortunately for the KISS fans, the band doesn't seem to care much about this sort of thing and there is little to no actual money in releasing this type of thing these days. Stuff like this and the video concert stuff I've done (and the Phantom movie re-edit) are a total labor of love and the "love" just isn't there with the band. They've done a couple similar things and the level of effort was extremely minimal. When they did the Love Gun boxset they had a few songs from Largo '77 included and they did kick and snare replacement and it is beyond bad. Totally fake sounding and all kinds of mis-triggers and missing hits, etc. There are several ways to approach most things like this and it ultimately still comes down to a LOT of manual/visual corrections and note placement, etc. It is absolutely nothing like sticking a trigger on someone's snare drum. I am going off of a mixed kit and even in the case of the live stuff a mono crap soundboard mix which will barely even separate well.

Remix sounds great!

Man this is great!

Sounds excellent!!!

parasite74 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 28, 2024 7:39 am Sounds excellent!!!

That’s a huge compliment coming from a guy called “parasite74” thanks!

I’m supposed to do the Three Sides of Coin podcast tomorrow to talk about these redux/remix KISS projects. Should be interesting. Can’t wait to tell them who was actually the best KISS drummer.