The Sun Lies - alternative pop rock

Spokeband said:
...about your recording equipment and process...Is this info on here or elsewhere?
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Hmm. In short, real guitars, bass, and vocals. The rest is in the box, aside from the GNX pedal board/amp sim. Superior Drummer, Studio One 4 Pro, and plugins. Yamaha HS8 monitors. Medium sized office/bedroom - no sound treatment, however. Printing mix frequently and checking in car stereo and headphones. Adjustments until sounds about right to my ears. Trying to get everything to sound as close to the final sounds as possible before I begin mixing them - then just simple EQ moves, compression, reverb/delays.

Feel free to ask if there's something specific you want to know. Thanks for the listen and comment. Much appreciated.
 
Did something change since the version I heard before? I'm hearing some congestion between the lead vocal and guitars in the intro that don't remember noticing previously. Listen to the section before the bass comes in. Just in general the guitars are a little loud throughout relative to the vocal.

The only other thing jumping out to me is snare sound. Something slightly distracting about the attack of the snare--a hard click that must come from compression.
 
Robus said:
Did something change since the version I heard before? I'm hearing some congestion between the lead vocal and guitars in the intro that don't remember noticing previously.
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I might have further tinkered with the EQ on both. I have them both sent to a special reverb and that reverb channel has EQ. I might have adjusted that a bit more, to make it more distinct from the rest of the song. Oh, and I think I adjusted panning a little too - moved them to roughly equal spots L and R, somewhere around 18% or so.
 
sparky123 said:
a wall of sounds. you nailed it! wish i could watch your process of recording and mixing.
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Like I said, I worked on this for the last 2 months, and that's not a joke. [MENTION=103008]bouldersoundguy[/MENTION] and [MENTION=185561]Robus[/MENTION] heard the earliest rough drafts sometime in May, I think. It's a tedious process - i'm not skilled enough to get it right in a few hours. Andy Wallace could have it ten times better in a fraction of the time. Watching him would be a learning experience. Learning to make the right moves, from the start, is what I'm trying to achieve from here on out.

Because I have the ability to re-record and redo things, that temptation gets the better of me sometimes. Hard to just mix the song when I am sitting next to my guitars and can easily record another part, remove a section, edit the thing to infinity, etc. The mixing gets intertwined with the recording, and that sets me back.
 
andrushkiwt said:
Hmm. In short, real guitars, bass, and vocals. The rest is in the box, aside from the GNX pedal board/amp sim. Superior Drummer, Studio One 4 Pro, and plugins. Yamaha HS8 monitors. Medium sized office/bedroom - no sound treatment, however. Printing mix frequently and checking in car stereo and headphones. Adjustments until sounds about right to my ears. Trying to get everything to sound as close to the final sounds as possible before I begin mixing them - then just simple EQ moves, compression, reverb/delays.

Feel free to ask if there's something specific you want to know. Thanks for the listen and comment. Much appreciated.
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That's exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks for the info. I look forward to your next release. Not only am I very impressed with the production and song quality of your material but it's right up my alley as to the type of music I like. Keep it going man.......
 
I remember the version you put out before. I thought it was so good then, but now....wow....I listened to it first time, this newest version, on the speakers on my laptop and it just JUMPED OUT and sounded great! Nothing sounds great on these speakers, but your mix did! I thought all your frequencies were well-represented. It sounded very balanced and clean. Good job.
 
I've always been biased toward getting guitar sounds in hardware on the way in and this is just going to reinforce that bias. It sounds so much better than the software sims you were using. I can't say it's impossible to get good guitar tone ITB, but I just haven't heard it happen.
 
fireflyva said:
I remember the version you put out before. I thought it was so good then, but now....wow....I listened to it first time, this newest version, on the speakers on my laptop and it just JUMPED OUT and sounded great! Nothing sounds great on these speakers, but your mix did! I thought all your frequencies were well-represented. It sounded very balanced and clean. Good job.
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That's cool, thanks Firefly. I listened to that version again a couple weeks ago - I'm trying to improve in areas I never thought I needed to. The little things, like exactly what the bass and kick are doing between vocal breaks. I think most of us write our songs with an acoustic and then come up with a vocal melody - well, when it comes time to actually put those ideas to tape or record them, there's a lot of areas that weren't worked out. Coming up with the instrumentation for every piece is difficult, especially trying to come up with something original or worthwhile.

Thanks again
 
bouldersoundguy said:
It sounds so much better than the software sims you were using.
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I think so too. Much more convincing. The next track I'm working on (at this very moment, actually) has some heavier tones going on - and I have a versatility now that I didn't have before; adding the strat into the mix. Now, things really cut through, like leads and solos. Reall glad I got this pedal board/sim. After the add-ons/upgrades, it's still cheaper than Amplitube.
 
andrushkiwt said:
Hmm. In short, real guitars, bass, and vocals. The rest is in the box, aside from the GNX pedal board/amp sim. Superior Drummer, Studio One 4 Pro, and plugins. Yamaha HS8 monitors. Medium sized office/bedroom - no sound treatment, however. Printing mix frequently and checking in car stereo and headphones. Adjustments until sounds about right to my ears. Trying to get everything to sound as close to the final sounds as possible before I begin mixing them - then just simple EQ moves, compression, reverb/delays.

Feel free to ask if there's something specific you want to know. Thanks for the listen and comment. Much appreciated.
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What interface and computer are you using? I'm going to be transitioning from a Tascam DP 32 to DAW. Also what's the main reason you chose Superior Drummer over EZdrummer 2? And same question of Studio One 4 Pro over Studio one 4 Artist? Thanks.......
 
Spokeband said:
What interface and computer are you using? I'm going to be transitioning from a Tascam DP 32 to DAW. Also what's the main reason you chose Superior Drummer over EZdrummer 2? And same question of Studio One 4 Pro over Studio one 4 Artist? Thanks.......
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Lenovo ThinkPad with Win 10. I only use it for school and music - I actually had to buy an external drive to hold my drumming files/program. I needed Superior because of the level of control I have over the drums. The more precise you want to be, the more the need for the extended program, so EZD just wouldn't cut it. Pro allows things that Artist doesn't. Can't recall specifically right now, since it was a few years ago that I made the choice, but I believe it had to do with printing files to mp3 or wav. Something in the mixdown process was restricted. I originally had an AudioBox USB, but the thing stopped working after a couple years so I went with Scarlett 2i2 about 6 months ago.

Without a doubt, the biggest thing that made my mixes jump up a step was the monitors. Headphones were nice, for awhile, as I got used to using some plugins and learning what the hell I was doing, but monitors seemed to take everything up a step. You don't realize what you're not hearing until you use them.
 
Bulls Hit said:
I had a GNX3, the older brother to the 3000. I liked it a lot until it died spontaneously. Well, went into a coma and nothing the support ppl suggested could bring it back.
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Question about this - did it suddenly stop working completely, as in wouldn't even turn on? I've been noticing that the thing sounds less powerful than it did when I first got it, as if the gain was down to like 15 or something. Some of the effects seem kind of weak too, suddenly. I can't find anything online about it slowly dying, so maybe it's something else.

Doing a factory reset, just to be sure.
 
Well it was 10 years ago but I remember it didn't die straight away, it would power up and lights would flash and stuff. Then it would get all squirrelly, the display going bonkers. Not sure how similar yours is but the 3000 had a little output level knob round the back so check that you haven't bumped it down accidentally.

It was a very painful episode. I actually wrote a tune about the damn thing


Pay attention to the instructions - you might need them :D
 
Everything sounds really good. My only hang-up would be the fake drums, which actually sound pretty decent, but a couple times I could not help but notice the hi-hat and the snare rolls seeming a little manufactured sounding, but that's only when I put my monitor headphones on. On my regular stereo it was harder to notice for sure. The toms sounded great! Hope this feedback helps.
 
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