Rehearsal/Audition Tracks (Hard Rock/Proto-metal)

Seafroggys

Well-known member
Hey guys, so these were not recorded in my studio, nor mixed in my studio. I've joined a brand new band, and we're still adding members. So we decided to record single takes of some of our WIP songs to show prospective members our sound.

These aren't meant to be "pro" recordings or official releases, but I want them to sound the best possible. I don't have access to my monitor environment so I'm just mixing these at my regular PC with sub-standard Creative 5.1 speakers, so its a shot in the dark for me really. I also didn't fully control the tracking process. Basically I used my Zoom 4hn as the interface, and faced the onboard mics at my drums. Then the guitarist had cheap Audix drum mics around, we put one on the bass cab, one on the guitar cab. The guitarist used his usual saturated tone, so it came out really, really fizzy, as I expected it would. I put a low-pass filter on the guitar to smooth it out a bit. It also comes across pretty dry, but I'm hesitant to add verb, so I want to know what you guys think.

SoundClick artist: Jesting Nul - Composer, lyricist, drummer, keyboardist, bassist, and producer who creates epic productions out of
SoundClick artist: Jesting Nul - Composer, lyricist, drummer, keyboardist, bassist, and producer who creates epic productions out of
 
Thanks. Definitely early/mid 70's heavy rock influenced. Purple, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, that sort of thing.

I didn't really bother 'mastering' it, because again its mostly for audition/demo purposes. Could have probably done some 2-buss stuff, but meh whatevs.
 
Sounds good to me for what it is. I like that second clip. You drum the shit out of those songs. Way better than me. I'm impressed.
 
Thanks man. Yeah its a fun one. I've been really starting to woodshed my hands recently, seen noticeable improvement in the past year after a couple of years of atrophy. My feet still suck though, but whatevs, nobody can hear bass drum anyway when you're playing live.
 
Hahaha you probably wouldn't like it. Woodshedding is where you just sit and practice technique for extended periods of time, or practicing the same thing over and over again until you get it right. Comes from going out to the woodshed, away from everyone and distractions, and just to practice.

I love it, but I love any form of drumming really so comes to no surprise. I can only practice for about 30-45 minutes at a time though, I can't do the 12 hour thing like some people can. But split it up 2-3 times a day and its really helpful.
 
Drums were recorded in stereo and I just left the stereo field centered. I mean, I just pointed the zoom at the drums, maybe the stereo field wasn't balanced.

The bass is on the side because that's tend to how I mix power trios, guitar and bass on the sides, a la the Live at Leeds mix. In more complex arrangements I do leave the bass mostly centered though.

Thanks for the words though!
 
Might be worthwhile using a stanford bass manager so that the bottom end of the recording is centred and mono while the top end that gives definition and location cues is over to the side.
I didn't get the sense of trad power trio set up - probably because of the drum kit being off centre.
It sounded like the guitar was on it's own on the one side & the rest filled up the centre & other side. It's very hard to mix a trio.
 
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