First Post - Advice / Critique of my track

Muzzaman

Muzzaman

New member
Hi Guy's first post in the MP3 clinic, by a recording newbie.

So my bands releasing an EP, I was given to task to record the song and have been using REAPER, a Line6 Toneport UX1 and that's it.

Question I have is, does this sound ok any advice on what improvments can be made?

here's the link:

fallenonfaith - Running Away Upload on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

I'm struggling with the Bass guitar, just can seem to get it sounding solid and not muddy.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks, Muzza.

EDIT: I've added 2 more tracks here: http://soundcloud.com/fallenonfaith/
 
Last edited:
WOW! Sounds really good for a recording newbie. The lead needs to come up. And are those drums sampled? That snare sounds a little POW! for my likings. How did you record the bass?
 
Cheers, i'm trying. The drums unfortunatly are samples, it EZDrummer. Yeah maybe bring the snare down or is it the type of snare do you think?

I did the bass direct just using the UX1 Toneport.

Muzza
 
Haha "unfortunately"

Ummm, I think it was more the volume than the sample. You can try changing it. It's pretty much what you want. The bass can be cleaned up a lot if you use cabinet impulses. If you use Reaper, open ReaVerb, and click add. (By the way, it doesn't need to be convolution reverbs that go in this plugin. It's good for impulses too.) Then add a bass cabinet impulse. Here are some I use. I recommend the Ampeg SVT Bright Beta 52. Adding compression after that helps a lot too.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6446045/Bass Cab Impulses.zip
 
Bass - tries these OLD tricks:
a 5 db cut at 100hz with a Q of three
a 4 db boost at 200hz with a Q of three
a 4+ db boost at 3khz with a Q of three
The 1st two will move the power from the almost inaudible range into the audible (old Motown trick)
the last one will give the bass some definition & a place in the stereo image.
DI AND mic'd real cab is best BUT if you're on a budget/can't mic a cab well try (this will horrify you) the Behringer BDI21 it's ULTRA cheap & REALLY good. You can dial up a good tone straight in.
 
squibble94 said:
Haha "unfortunately"

Ummm, I think it was more the volume than the sample. You can try changing it. It's pretty much what you want. The bass can be cleaned up a lot if you use cabinet impulses. If you use Reaper, open ReaVerb, and click add. (By the way, it doesn't need to be convolution reverbs that go in this plugin. It's good for impulses too.) Then add a bass cabinet impulse. Here are some I use. I recommend the Ampeg SVT Bright Beta 52. Adding compression after that helps a lot too.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6446045/Bass Cab Impulses.zip
Click to expand...


I can adjust the snare velocity that will probably stop the "POW" lol

thanks for the impulses I'll try that today :)

Muzza
 
rayc said:
Bass - tries these OLD tricks:
a 5 db cut at 100hz with a Q of three
a 4 db boost at 200hz with a Q of three
a 4+ db boost at 3khz with a Q of three
The 1st two will move the power from the almost inaudible range into the audible (old Motown trick)
the last one will give the bass some definition & a place in the stereo image.
DI AND mic'd real cab is best BUT if you're on a budget/can't mic a cab well try (this will horrify you) the Behringer BDI21 it's ULTRA cheap & REALLY good. You can dial up a good tone straight in.
Click to expand...

Definitely give this a shot! thanks Ray!

Haha Behringer, I'm gathering from a few post that they get a bad rap here I'll have a look at the BDI21. I used the UX1 Toneport is that not effectively a DI??

Cheers, Muzza
 
Muzz,
Yeah, effectively a DI. THe BDI is made for bass & can be used to dial up so good tones. It's a Vtone. Behri get a bad rep here but, to be honest, some of the Behri gear I have is fine & the BDI is GREAT.
 
Ray,

Thanks i'll check that out. I have a few ideas people have gave me for bass so hopefully later today i can try and apply these.

Muzza
 
Sure, I listened again. Bass, Kick, Rythem guitar all sound cluttered from about 200-800hz. You can Eq and high pass at different frequencies to get the separation. You can also use light boosting, like boost the kick at 1.3k and the bass at 2k or the other way around as long as they're different. I like the bass the lowest in the mix, so I let the subs 50-100 thru on the bass and put the kick above that. Hope I made a little sense. Experiment hard cutting with your hi pass filters. Oh, and welcome !
 
PDP,

Many thanks for the great advice, I will experiment a little see how I get on.

Thanks again, Muzza
 
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