A new 1,2,4-triazole-based Schiff base hydrazone with N, O, S donor set of atoms, H4L, has been prepared by condensation reaction of N,N'-bis(3-formyl-5-methylsalicylidene)ethane-1,2-diamine, H2L, with 4-amino-3-(4-pyridyl)-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole. The structure of H4L was characterized by using FTIR, UV-Vis and H-1 NMR spectroscopic methods as well as elemental analysis data. The formation constants of copper(II), cadmium(II), mercury(II) and silver(I) complexes of H4L in DMSO were calculated using a hard model chemometrics method applying the spectrophotometric data. The protonation constants of H4L were also measured in DMSO-water (1:10) mixture. Furthermore, H-1 chemical shifts of H4L were studied by the gauge independent atomic orbital (GIAO) and continuous set of gauge transformations (CSGTs) methods at the level of density functional theory using B3LYP/6-311++G* basis sets in gas phase. The computed chemical shifts are in reasonably good agreement with the experimental data. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.