Advice for an amateur

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Selwyn369

New member
Hello, I've been doing a rough recording for a band that I'm in. In all honesty I don't really know what I'm doing as I'm just a hobbyist but I'm learning more as I go on. I thought I'd come here for some opinions on what I have so far. Just tell me what's good, what's bad and generally what steps I could take to improve the recording.

I'll leave an mp3 recording and the reaper file I have been recording in and if any of you guys would like to offer some opinions it would be much appreciated.

Mp3 files:



REAPER files:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4383992/Tea is for Mugs Rough Drums.RPP
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4383992/We the Divided Rough Drums.RPP

the 2nd song has some terrible bass in the reaper file too :)
Apologies if I have posted in the wrong forum

Extra info:
External Sound Card: Komplete Audio 6
Guitar: ESP MH350FR
Guitar amp: just some free VSTi's I found online
Drums: Can't remember the name but you'll hear 'demo version' every now and then
 
MP3 Clinic section of the forum. Dropbox is not the way to do it - use soundcloud or some other means of streaming audio. No one is going to take a chance to download a file from someone they don't know.
 
mjbphotos said:
MP3 Clinic section of the forum. Dropbox is not the way to do it - use soundcloud or some other means of streaming audio. No one is going to take a chance to download a file from someone they don't know.
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Ahh fair enough. Here is one of the tracks I have so far on Soundcloud. There's no bass yet as it sounded terrible lol.
I think one thing I have noticed is my song seems very quiet compared to other songs but that might be normal at this stage perhaps. I guess I could just do some more research into recording guitar for a bit tonight before I start asking loads of dumb questions lol

https://soundcloud.com/selwyn369/we-the-divided-rough-demo
 
Not my type of music, but other than the snare, the drums are low/muddy, and the cymbals can't be heard.
 
Selwyn369 said:
Oki doki. I'll see how I could fix that. Completely new to doing this sort of thing so may take me a while XD.
Thanks
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To be honest this sounds great already. I don't know what processing you have done so far and I am not listening on the best speakers either (laptop speakers) but don't be too hasty to change the drums, the right compressor and amount of compression will bring out the drums nicely, the cymbals are at the right level for compressors to work their magic! Just a little short reverb on the snare will make a big difference.
There are some level and tuning issues between the guitars but I love the sound! great stuff!
 
JDB said:
To be honest this sounds great already. I don't know what processing you have done so far and I am not listening on the best speakers either (laptop speakers) but don't be too hasty to change the drums, the right compressor and amount of compression will bring out the drums nicely, the cymbals are at the right level for compressors to work their magic! Just a little short reverb on the snare will make a big difference.
There are some level and tuning issues between the guitars but I love the sound! great stuff!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback :)
So I had a little go with using a compressor on the drums. A little heads up on my knowledge of this sort of thing... I had to google what compressors do haha. From my basic understanding so far they lower the loudest parts and heighten the quieter parts. I know there's more to it than that but that's easier for my brain to remember right now without being overloaded with information.

It definitely got louder. So much so I had to turn my guitars back up. I previously turned them down because I was struggling to hear the drums. I messed around with a few of the settings but they're currently at default as I didn't really know what I was doing lol. The cymbals we're still a little quiet so I turned them up just a tiny bit.

I also added some reverb to the snare as you suggested.

I'll post what I have so far later...

Cheers
 
I think you have it sounding really good now. It's hard to get that heavy guitar sound to translate to a recording but you've done a good job of it.
 
I think the latest version sounds pretty good. I like your guitar sound.

Snare might still be just a wee bit loud.

Mix could maybe use a slightly stronger low end.
 
Hey guys, thanks for your feedback. I had a little go at recording the bass. I find myself liking the bass on some parts but then also hearing parts that don't sound right to me.

I was listening to a recording I like and found that my guitars were very deep sounding in comparison so I tried making them sound a little brighter by playing around with the eq settings. Maybe I have lost some of the heaviness to my guitars now but I guess I'm trying to make the bass contribute more to the heavy sound.

The overall volume has been lowered too. I hear it's best to have your recording sit around -6db to -3db and mine was averaging about +3b before. I was hearing some unwanted pops and clicks last night... I think lowering the volume fixed it- not sure lol

Also as suggested I have lowered the snare a little bit.

So here is my 3rd attempt
https://soundcloud.com/selwyn369/tea-is-for-mugs-rough-demo-v003

Thanks for listening :)
 
Selwyn369 said:
The overall volume has been lowered too. I hear it's best to have your recording sit around -6db to -3db and mine was averaging about +3b before.
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I would aim for average mix levels around -18dBFS with peaks falling well below 0dBFS. Then apply a mastering limiter to bring it up as needed.
 
The latest version sounds a lot better in my opinion. Why does the guitar sound so different at ~1:05 and ~1:30 though? Overall, sounds great!
 
bouldersoundguy said:
I would aim for average mix levels around -18dBFS with peaks falling well below 0dBFS. Then apply a mastering limiter to bring it up as needed.
Click to expand...

Cool, I'll aim for -18db on my next attempt and I'll have a look into mastering limiters. I've heard of them but haven't got round to finding out what they're all about yet lol. Thanks!
 
Robert Kotcher said:
The latest version sounds a lot better in my opinion. Why does the guitar sound so different at ~1:05 and ~1:30 though? Overall, sounds great!
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Thank you :)
Yeah so I thought that melody sounded a little odd coming from just one side. For the most part the guitars are panned 60% and 95% on both sides. However I tried making the melody more central but yes you're right to pick up on that as it does still sound a little weird to me still too. I also accidentally set one of those guitars to 0%. To be honest though I think it still would sound a little off even if I set them back to 20% panned on each side.

I'll try and place them somewhere else on my next attempt.

Thanks

Edit: I also forgot to change the eq settings for those tracks with the melody on it so now they're different from my main guitar tracks lol *facepalm*
 
Adding the bass also removed my only criticism that the kick was weak. It didn't sound very thumpy until the bass was added. Funny how the entire mix sounds better than the individual pieces, no? :D
 
BroKen_H said:
Adding the bass also removed my only criticism that the kick was weak. It didn't sound very thumpy until the bass was added. Funny how the entire mix sounds better than the individual pieces, no? :D
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Haha, I think you're right there. I'm still not keen on the bass at the moment but it's definitely added something to what I had before.
 
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