Is this good enough to mix?

[recedo]

Hi,

I will soon be recording a few tracks for my band, I will not be mixing them myself as I have no idea on what to do, but due to lack of money I have no choice but to record them myself.

I have recorded a small 1 min sample with guitars, bass and Drums (sampled with Drunkit from hell), but I am not sure if the quality or sound of the recordings is sufficient.

I have uploaded a 31MB file here: http://www.malevolus.com/mixme.zip . I would appreciate it if someone could have a look and tell me what they think. I'd also really appreciate it if someone could give it a bit of a mix for me to see what sort of results I could expect.

Included in the zip are 4 files, drums.wav (stereo file using sampled drums from drumkit from hell), bass.wav, guitar1.wav and guitar2.wav (the same as guitar1.wav but with different amp settings).

Any help is appreciated. If you could do a mix for me you can email it to me at simon@digitalblur.co.uk

Thanks in advance

Simon

[ds21]

drums OK
guitar1 OK
guitar2 OK
Bass Fail

[NYMorningstar]

You should post this in the MP3 clinic. That's what it's there for and you'll get alot more responses there.http://homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=15

[recedo]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses. I'll post it in the mp3 clinic...

DS21, my thoughts on the Bass, I'm recording it through a Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro and am having a hard time finding the right sound. What would you suggest I do to the Bass? Is it the sound or the playing? I had a couple of takes for the guitar and only one at the bass.

Thanks again

Simon

[chessrock]

I'll be happy to mix your stuff for you . . .

But I gotta' at least charge you my standard hourly rate.

I'll only do pro bono under the rarest and most opportunistic of circumstances, and I'm guessing this won't qualify.

[Garry Sharp]

Where in the UK are you Simon? Answer by PM if you like.

Garry

[recedo]

Hi,

Thanks for the offer Chessrock, could you PM me with an idea of your rates. It'll be at least a month before the tracks are ready to be mixed I would imagine. If I clean up the bass a bit would it be at all possible to hear a sample of your mixing on that 60 second sample?? Several people have suggested to me in the past that you should always get a sample of someones mixing on YOUR OWN material before parting with any pecious dosh! Samples of other stuff you've done would be great too.

Gary, I'm in Devon, used to live in Willesden, London when I was younger. Just out of interest would you be avaliable for mixing? I'd prefer somone based in the UK really.

Thanks
Simon

[Garry Sharp]

Simon - not on any paid basis, I'm no pro but I might be able to get something back to you fairly quickly I'll try to find time over the next week or so to d/l your stuff to give you an idea. 31mb!!!

Just noticed your profile says you're in Devon - DOH (I used to live in Willesden - glad to say I don't anymore)

[recedo]

That would be great, I'll try to replace the bass tonight, see if I can make it a bit better. 31 MB's, I got Broadband so it's no real problem for me! If I like the sample (thats if you can do it) I might be willing to pay you to do the tracks, thats if you can and/or want to, in which case I can post the files on CDR which'll be a lot easier! As I said before I reckon it'll be at least a month before they are finished with vocals too.

I wouldn't like to move back to Willesden either! I moved away in the early 90's (from Deacon Rd), so it wasn't too bad then, I say no more!

Simon

[Garry Sharp]

OK, my daughter went to the cinema so I did a rough mix to give you an idea. The .wav is 11megs - don't mind e-mailing it if you give me an address.

Listening to it I presume you wanted it loud - it is! Bass does need redoing - the .wav doesn't seem to be clipped but there's some horrible distortion there. Your drummer really needs to lay off the cymbals - he was going overboard and with only a stereo track I couldn't eq them down without ruining the snare and hi hat. (Otherwise I liked his drumming) Some gaffa on the cymbals is a quick fix sometimes, but really he should hit them less hard and less often.

There will be no money involved - I can give you something good enough for a promoter's demo or to play to your mates, but if you want it done properly you'll have to use chessrock or somebody.

Cheers

Garry

[recedo]

Hi, you can email it to me at simon@malevolus.com, maybe better if you compressed to an mp3 though, as quality is not too much of a problem at the moment, (to tell the truth I don't know if I can receive emails that big?!).

When I recorded the bass my V-Amp said it was clipping, I didn't notice it at the time though but checked the settings today, thats where the distortion came from. I have now re-done the bass and it sounds better.

As for the drummer... What Drummer? The drums are sampled, I guess they have passed the test then! I'll try to lay off them a little, at the moment I'm just playing with the midis that came with drumkit from hell so I didn't actually program the majority of that! I just did a stereo mixdown for the sake of space, when I do it 'properly' I will more than likely have 5 tracks, 1. Bass Drum, 2. Snare, 3. Hi-Hats, 4. Toms and 5.Cymbals.

How 'Properly' I decided to do it will be dependant on how much money I have when the tracks are ready to be mixed!

I look foward to hearing what you have done.

By the way I'll be uploading the 'fixed' zip file with the new bass wav to http://www.malevolus.com/mixme.zip in a few minutes...

Simon

[Garry Sharp]

That explains why the drum playing was tight! I've e-mailed an mp3. We should probably take this offline now.

Garry

[recedo]

Yeah, thats a good idea, if you PM me an email address I'll drop you a line once I've had time to listen to it, I'm off to a Jam now and won't be back till tomorrow, but I'll be in touch then.

I'm glad the drums sounded pretty real though, thats what I'm trying to acheive. Due to cost limitations I'm recording the whole lot, apart from Vocals and maybe a few extras and then we are going to try to match up the other players, at the moment we have me, a bass/guitar player, a vocalist and a DJ/Sampler, with several guitarists and a couple of drummers in mind!

Thanks
Simon