New EP recorded with an SM57 and a 4 track cassette recorder

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Moist Banana Panties | Banana Brains

I recorded these gems in my garage with an SM57, SM58, Tascam 424MKIII portastudio, some guitars and percussion.

It was mixed and mastered professionally. This is the second EP i've done with just this simple setup. Bass was done in the studio because I ran out of tracks. Other than that, its Au-natuarale.

I messed around with different mics at first but said screw it because I was wasting too much time. If that's the case, its pretty hard to beat a 57.

I used a Mackie 402 VLZ4 for preamps along with a Cloudlifter. Sounds great to my ears. And for about 400 bucks all said and done, it sounds great! Of course, you folks that are savvy with mixing and mastering, you could do it for nothing.

Enjoy!!
 
My opinion is that the mixes could be better, and I would definitely add some drus and bass on soe of the songs

Anyway great job
 
I listened to a couple of songs. I thought they sounded pretty good. Nice sounding vocals. Everything is rather dry and sounds good for mixes like this.

The guitar isn't too bad. But it has a bit of a boxy sound. Like lots of stuff in the 600hz-1200hz octave.

Tambourine is a bit overused to me. It's also pretty loud in spots.

Caught a pitch issue on the first line of the "Sweetie Pie..." song.

All of the songs I listened to are pretty similar.
 
I listened to part of each song. Not sure who your potential 'audience' is, but the songs all seemed to be similar to me, the two with bass added at least had that going for them, but all songs started with the rather bright/boxy guitar strumming chords, then the tambourine on some.
 
Well.........no one can say you don't have a "signature sound". You certainly do. The productions are clean but a bit on the dry side for my taste. Perhaps you could have added some effects to color each one a bit differently and maybe tried to give a few of them a different sound stage. I realize you were "track deprived" and I know that kept your options down. Overall you did well. So.......when you start your next project......let us know.
 
+1 to what everyone else said. Guitar is a little boxy.
More variety in the percussion would be good. Maybe get yourself an egg shaker too. :D

It's all clean and clear though, so that's good.
 
I hate the sm57 almost every time except electric guitar and snare, the midrange is great on these tracks and it's very clean, the cloudlifter is doing it's job well on this but I agree with others about the slightly boxy sound and it lacks high end sheen, if I was mixing I'd start with a high pass filter and adding high end, even 1dB could make a big difference.

But saying all of that the songs are good and that's all that matters.
 
thanks again everybody for listening and offering your opinions. I appreciate your time and thoughts.

i recorded vocals and guitar simultaneously with a single 58. i had to strike the right balance between getting a good vocal sound and getting a good guitar sound. getting a good vocal sound had to win. i think what we are hearing is a mic placed above the guitar and pointed at my throat. of course "good" sounds are totally relevant to my chosen medium and tools here.

high end sheen i don't think is going to be possible with a cassette and 58. but i'm going to keep trying. I'm planning to do another 3-5 songs with a mildly different flavor (but not much at all--i might use a kick drum and some shaker and maybe play electric with some distortion) but still just a 58/57 and a four track. then package it in a physical format (cd or vinyl) for posterity.

my goal the whole time was not to worry much about the sonic quality and instead try to write good songs and perform them well. i didn't want to use full production because i felt it was basically dishonest in a way (that might be a little harsh) because its just me. I don't have a band. I'm also moderately obsessed with trying to create power with a single acoustic and vocal. It can be done. I've heard it. In the end, if its not great, then I need to write better songs.

I listened to it today and I still love it. but you know, i'm pretty biased :guitar:
 
Pretty good recording for what it is, i have Tascam 488 MKII, i know that some of the comments about the mid range and muddiness are inherent in the recording of this unit.

The recording of the vocals and guitar is really dry yet there appears to be a ton of reverb on the tambourine.. It is too loud and and sounds weird with so much reverb.. Turn down the FX and the level on it.

The lead guitar tone sounds great, on i'm not waiting here.

Songwriting is not bad though and the songs could really take some life on with a band performance. The recording of the vocals and guitar is good, well done.
 
Thanks Philly Duffy. I love the guitar tone too, the lead guitar parts on I'm Not Waiting Here and Won't You Miss Me are probably my favorite parts of the collection. Its an old fender champ and a 57.
 
You can't really tout your recordings as a 57 + 4 track when you've added bass after the fact. C'mon.
You should have posted a track from the EP and when folk gave feedback you could've added oh - all that nice stuff when this woas recorded with a couple of simple mics, a porta studio and some o'ds in the studio!
Instead the thread title seems like it asks us to listen and make allowances for the minimalism which turns out to be a little less minimal.
 
ya you're right, a 57, a 58, a portastudio and two songs with bass overdubs in the studio is a pretty complicated production. the studio bass really took it into high end territory. gimme a break.

Not trying to be rude here, but I'm not asking for any allowances. actually don't want em or need em. I am obviously not trying to be slick with my methods. I was impressed with the way they came out, thought some other porta users might find some value in them.
 
I enjoyed this, and I especially applaud the stripped down aesthetic of it. This type of thing can be so refreshing, IMHO, compared to 30+ track projects with seven different compressors patched in, 5 reverbs, etc. I think you did a great job, and it sounds great. Thanks for sharing. :)
 
Thanks. I'm still trying to write songs with just an acoustic guitar and make them dynamic and have some energy. That's my quest at the moment.
 
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