monster x

[heatmiser]

o.k. this is perhaps a bit low-budget for this forum.

I have been in awe for the last year or so of the professionalism of the home recordings posted here. This is pretty dense and noisy compared to what I'm hearing. I have a Tascam 688 and am thinking I should be able to get a lot more clarity even with this relatively primative machine.

I just finshed this tune this evening...not sure exactly what it is, but would appreciate it if anyone would care to listen and provide some input. Thanks much.

monster x

 

[tarnationsauce2]

It's a fun song.
Overall pretty good for a multi track cassette tape machine. You have a lot of stuff going on that helps fill it out.

It seems to be missing a lot of highs. That's probably due to the 688.
The grungy guitars are cool, but maybe too buzzy and "direct recorded" sounding.
I also think it needs a more driving rhythm section. Mainly louder kick and snare. The rest of the drum loops are pretty good.

 

[heatmiser]

Thanks for taking the time tarnationsauce...

Yes, highs are lacking. Boosting them always seems to increase tape hiss, but I've managed to squeeze higher highs out of tape before, so I must have done something wrong on this one.

The rhythm guitars are totally fuzzed out. It sounded cool when I was tracking them, but now I hear them as kind of lost in the murk of all the mid-range sounds. I don't often record anything this heavy sounding and recording distorted guitars is harder than I thought. I want them to crunch but still have some definition.

The drums are played on the drum pads of a cheapo yamaha thingy. They sound so cheesily bright and crisp by themselves that I always try to load them with effects or heavily eq them to disguise this...I may have overdone it this time.

Thanks again, you gave me some good stuff to think about.

 

[DavidK]

Sounds good. We work with what we have. Yup, its missing highs but there isnt much you can do.

I also think it needs a more driving rhythm section. Mainly louder kick and snare.

I agree. You want them as hot as possible to compensate for the tape sound. Its probably a good exercise to work on a machine like the Tascam, if you can get a decent sound (and you do) then it will be luxurious if you upgrade your equipment. Nice work

 

[ido1957]

Can you tell us what the guitar/amp/effects/signal chain is?

If you are recording direct out of the line out you may need
a) to mic your cabinet instead
b) use a different gain setting
c) reduce the effects applied

Number a) above worked wonders for my sound. It went from buzzy to crunchy right away, with the same gain/eq/effects settings. I set my gain at about 10 o'clock so it's not saturating it.

The leads in the middle of the stereo field are overwhelmed by the rhythms on either side. The lead could use a bit more volume. There is not a lot of eq on a 688 so you may need to adjust at the source so that rhythm and lead own their own piece of the spectrum.....

Drums could come up a bunch.....

Cool tune.... just needs some tweaks here and there... let us know about the signal chain on the guitar....

 

[heatmiser]

Thanks for the input...this is prompting me to examine the whole process in greater detail...which is great.

DavidK: Thanks for the encouragement...thats vote#2 for louder drums. I hope to upgrade gear sometime, but for now, the 688 is actually about all I can handle technologically speaking and budget-wise.

ido1957: Thank you for addressing the guitar issues (also, that makes it unnanimous for louder drums). The signal chain is as follows:

rhythm guitar left: lead pickup gibson sg>Alesis guitar FX pedal (distortion and reverb)>1/4" to XLR converter>mic input on 688.

rhythm guitar right: same thing only rhythm pickup used.

Fader set in the shaded 7-8 out of 10 range. Mic trim set around 8 o'clock. So maybe I should be using the line in...hmmm. Why did I convert it to XLR? Could this be causing signal loss?...anyway,

the lead guitar is: Fender Strat>Alesis FX pedal (flanger)>cry baby wah>rat distortion>ibanez analog delay>ampeg 1X12 reberrocket (w/ reverb and tremolo on)>sm57>mic input on 688...whew! Thats a lot of FX, and to think I used to record acoustic numbers...

My thoughts are to re-record the rhythm guitar parts and mic the amp.
Then re-mix with lower volume on the rhythm guitar in relation to the lead, boost the drums and try to allow more highs generally by doing less reductive EQing. That actually sounds pretty daunting now that I've spelled it out.