Drag the River pt 2

N

NotThatBright

New member
This is another Drag the River song (must be Drag the River day), but this one had easier vocals and I don't think I screwed them up. Anyone who has the time, do me a favor and point out the flaws. I did no EQing of any guitar, bass or vocal tracks, and I think I maybe should have brought out a little treble. Also think I might have the background vocal too loud. Suggestions welcome.

https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/history-with-history/s-4d5Fk
 
I accidentally learned something today.. this is the first song I ever recorded where I didn't add compression to the guitars and bass as I recorded them. The sound is thinner and looser than what I'm used to.... for instance, the bass and guitar don't really mesh like I'm used to them doing. I went back and rerecorded the bass with some compression, and the compressed version sounds better in the mix... firmer, somehow. Sounds pretty much the same, but the uncompressed version seems to be getting overwhelmed by other sounds, while the compressed version can still be heard among the din.

So there you go!
 
I like compression on bass so I agree there. Background vocals are good level for me.

Is this a live track? This has nothing to do with the mix but the drum rolls need tightening and the vocals need some work on phrasing with the meter of the song.
 
ido1957 said:
I like compression on bass so I agree there. Background vocals are good level for me.

Is this a live track? This has nothing to do with the mix but the drum rolls need tightening and the vocals need some work on phrasing with the meter of the song.
Click to expand...

Not live, that's just me screwing around with my mixer, playing each piece in succession. Anything I record is always somewhat sloppy (particularly the drums because it would take me 20 takes to get them perfect and I only have the patience for 3 or 4), but now that I listen to it again, the uncompressed bass and guitar sound are annoying me. My selective OCD will compel me to record those again with compression to see how much tighter it will sound.

My singing (and timing thereof) sucks, keeping it in meter would probably take me longer than getting the drums right, so I'll let that sleeping dog lie :)

Thanks for giving it a listen and getting back to me.
 
Hey, it may not be perfectly performed, but it's got a great raw feel to it. I like the second mix, but the bass is a little subdued...
 
I love the energy of the tune. That was great.

I thought the second mix was an improvement.

Bass sounds good.

The guitars sound a bit muffled.

The kick might sound better if you removed some low midrange. Like maybe from 300hz to 600hz or so. The snare is a little muffled too. It's lacking a little bit of attack. I really liked the drumming. Cool style.

Vocals sound OK. Maybe lacking a little clarity. But not bad.
 
Broken H and Triple M, I appreciate the feedback and the kind words.

BH- in addition to the errors, the "raw feel" you mention might be partially be due to this... I tune the guitar and bass until I get nothing but green lights on the electronic tuner, but some songs I've recorded still seem a little out-of-tune to me. Did this sound out-of-tune at all? Maybe I'll buy a set of pitch pipes.

MMM- I have my mixer/recorder set at -9 for 250khz. Could it be possible that I just have the input level for the kick drum track up too high? I have it set so that it redlines even at a kick strength of normal-to-relatively soft. I wasn't sure if it kind of leveled off at some maximum regardless of how high I have it set, or if it starts to affect the sound negatively at redline. I just wanted to cover up those soft kicks I occasionally have due to poor balance, timing, or liquor.

Regarding the guitars- could the muffled sound could be due to the guitar tones I pick? I sometimes get a headache when I pick one that's too bright-sounding, so I tend to skew a little lower. I didn't EQ them at all... do you think punching up the treble on the tracks would be enough to improve it?

I think the muffled snare is due to another one of my recent reversals in habit... In the past I always put enough compression on the snare to make it sound bright, but that really accentuated the bleed from the cymbals into the mic. My new thing is to barely compress it at all. Maybe I could solve this with EQ as well.

I put a little delay and reverb on the vocals which I think causes them to sound a little blurred, but as far as I can tell it evens it out a bit and masks some flaws. Basically, whichever way I record it (with delay & reverb, or with nothing), I always think I should have done it the other way. Not an uncommon feeling for me. :)
 
I always record things without any EQ, delay, reverb, etc. That's just me tho.

As far as your kick level being too high... No, I don't think it's too high, it's just got a lot of low midrange. That's pretty common for a kick. I'd just use an EQ plugin and try to remove some of it. I definitely wouldn't track it while pulling down 9dbs anywhere.

Compression on a snare isn't necessarily going to make it sound bright. In fact it probably won't. Try a boost somewhere around 5K-6K maybe.
 
Sometimes to clear up good vocal that blurs in the effects you can use parallel compression (keeping the original track where it is and comping a parallel copy or the track to death, then blending to get the best clarity).
Google and try. Maybe it'll give you the best of both worlds and no more second guessing yourself.
 
Same here. It's the inherent downside of the way mp3s are presented in this forum. You can have an entire thread which means nothing because the OP pulled the tune.
 
jimmys69 said:
I was looking forward to hearing the changes now that I have time. Sadly, the link is toast.

:(
Click to expand...

I apologize to you guys for yanking it, I haven't been on the site in nearly a week and a couple days ago I waxed the few songs I had on soundcloud, assuming the thread was old enough that no one would check it out.

I just did a quick remix with a little reverb on the vocal that probably didn't make a difference, and I turned up the bass a bit. Link below.


https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/history-with-history/s-D4Chv
 
NotThatBright said:
I apologize to you guys for yanking it, I haven't been on the site in nearly a week and a couple days ago I waxed the few songs I had on soundcloud, assuming the thread was old enough that no one would check it out.

I just did a quick remix with a little reverb on the vocal that probably didn't make a difference, and I turned up the bass a bit. Link below.


https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/history-with-history/s-D4Chv
Click to expand...

It would be best for this site and yourself if you didn't remove the links to songs. We all learn from advice and changes to mixes.

If your soundcloud is out of space then replace them with MP3 uploads to the site. :)

Sounds pretty good man. Way past my bedtime so I will listen further tomorrow.

Laytz...
 
jimmys69 said:
It would be best for this site and yourself if you didn't remove the links to songs. We all learn from advice and changes to mixes.

If your soundcloud is out of space then replace them with MP3 uploads to the site. :)

Sounds pretty good man. Way past my bedtime so I will listen further tomorrow.

Laytz...
Click to expand...


I understand. You've got a good site here... I've learned a lot, and as long as something I post doesn't make me cringe to hear a day later, I'll leave them on for everyone's edification.

I did another mix, different from the one two posts above- here's what I changed from that one. Note: When panning tracks with my mixer, from the center, the numbers go from L1 (closest to center) to L63 (all the way left), and conversely, R1 to R63.

-To try to help the thin-sounding lead vocal, I doubled it to another track, and leaving the two tracks exactly the same in every way, panned one to R8 and one to L8 (and turned them down so the volume is about the same as before). I don't know if this actually did anything, but I think it sounds a little better. I panned the background vocal right in the center.

-I have one overhead mic for cymbals, the track for which I always doubled, panning one at R33 and one at L33. This time I panned one all the way left and all the way right (R63 and L63). The cymbals sounded a bit quieter in my headphones like this, so I turned up the volume a bit on these tracks.

-I redid the bass track because I can't stand for the bass and guitar to match the entire time. It got to me while I was screwing with the other stuff. I think the tone and volume is the same as before.

That's it. Let me know if you think it's better, worse, or negligible. Thanks.


https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/history-with-history-2/s-9m06E
 
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