Doubling and creating space

[riffing]

Here's my first attempt at doubling vocals and guitar, as well as using EQ to create space for each track. I don't think I'm there yet. What ya think?

It's here: http://www.wingshadows.com/misc/Its_Only_Love2.mp3

[riffing]

Anyone?

If I made some kind of faux pas (which I find I do easily on boards :P ), please tell me!

[theron]

Give that which you wish to recieve. Maybe you have but, I don't recall............

Anyway,

I think you tried to fill your head room up and make an overall loud mix by boosting one track, then boosting another to get even and then boosting the vocals so they stand out and ended up with a loud, boomy and almost harsh mix.

I'd start with the left git. It sounded about in place. Get a decent volume out of it then match it with the right git(which is way boomy and rude). You know where you want the vox to be so, mix it last to match the gits. From then, if you don't like the overall volume, push the entire mix up with the master faders till you reach an acceptable level.

That is what I'd do.........Now it is time for someone with real knowlege to come along and give me a lesson on mixing 101 while you get one too

Hope that helps you Riffing.

Peace,

Theron.

[participant]

aw man. I'm so embarrassed for the group How could we do that to ya?

Getting kind of a Bowie vibe from the vocals, which sometimes go flat, sometimes go sharp (on held notes esp.)

Guitars might be a touch too loud.

Otherwise, sounded pretty good on these multimedia spkrs. (Would listen to it on monitors if I thought there were major probs... tho there may be )

Very catchy, heartfelt tune BTW. Some people here (I've got 'em in mind ) are going to absolutely love this You've done well.


Chad

EDIT: theron and I just posted at the same time. Listen to his critique, as he's probably right

[Track Rat]

Close, very close. To make doubling really work in my opinion, the doubled parts have to be VERY tight. Not perfect, as the little imperfections are what make it work, but very tight in both performance takes. Then the sound becomes a smooth chorus vs a couple of guys jamming in the living room. I love this tune by the way. Good start my friend.

[mixmkr]

what track rat said (once again)...and watch the intonation on the singing. A little distortion starting to rear its' ugly head on the vocals too.

nice cover

[Kramer]

The doubled guitars sound pretty good but the vocals are flat in a lot of places.Do you wear headphones when you sing?If not,You should wear a good set of headphones to monitor with or else the flats and sharps will keep happening.....you need to hear yourself singing through some phones..it sounds like it's just a monitoring problem(not being able to hear yourself sing) to me since you can sing on pitch in most of the song.

Like Track rat said,the vocal takes should be tight....try and match the first take to a tee with the second....most doubled vocals that are right are done in many takes.....sometimes 30 and 40 takes to get the right thing.....depends on what what your level of satisfaction is.....you at least wanna make sure you dont have the intonation problems.

Nice start.

[riffing]

Thanks all for the comments!

Theron, You make a good point. I will be more active in commenting on others - sounds fair. I may have done one or two - I can't even remember myself! The left gtr was recorded with Oktava MC012 but the right with a SP C1 close-miked (probably too close which is why it was too boomy). I guess I wanted to make the left and right guitars to sound different but probably not THAT different, huh?

Chad & Track Rat, Thanks for the kind words!

mixmkr, Yeah, noticed the distortion on the vocals, too. The tracks didn't clip during recording. Maybe the lead vox and harmony are too close (same voice, same preamp, same mic, same mic placement). I have problems with intonation sometimes so it's something I know I have to work on.

Kramer, I wore headphones, HD600s. Recently, I've been getting a lot of latency so I had to only listen to the cans in one ear. I do have problems with my intonation so I don't think it's just a monitoring problem. :P I didn't spend too much time with making the two vocal tracks real close. I'll be more selective my next attempt.

[shackrock]

i think the guitars sound pretty nice..
what'd you do em with?

i say just the doubling of vocals would be ok, but you're harmonies dont sound right together....

thats all though.

[TripleM]

Just commenting on the guits...

In my opinion, the performance on the doubled guitars wasn't tight enough. The differences in strumming pattern were pretty obvious in spots. They're panned hard, which makes it all the more noticable.

I've found that a good test to see if they're "good enough" is to pan them hard and listen through headphones. It makes the synching issues jump out. Then you know what to fix.

[riffing]

shackrock,
I used a Martin D1. Left gtr: Oktava MC012->Mackie1402VLZPro pre->Digi001. Right gtr: SP C1->Mackie1402VLZPro pre->Digi001. I originally panned them hard left and right but I decided to pan them 75% left and right instead (almost but not all the way hard).

TripleM,
Yeah, I knew the guitars weren't tight. I knew the idea is the two guitars will not be the same but I didn't realise they need to be pretty close. Now I do.

Thanks for the comments!

[TripleM]

I'd say to try as hard as you can to get them exactly the same. You'll never get there - that's why doubling sounds so full and wonderful. But in most cases you want the illusion that it's one guitar - at least I do.

[muzeman]

Sounds good!

I do the same thing,using the same mic though.
There's enough of a differance to sound stereo,or even like two differant guitars playing the same piece,which sounds good too.

I don't know how you panned them,I'm listening on pc speakers.
I found usually sounds best at 9 and 3 o'clock.

Nice voice!

Best to you,
Pete

[mkg]

Agree with all of the above. Sounded like you were a bit tense when singing...relaxing might help the intonation problems.
Although I'm the last person who should give advice on singing...
The sound of the guitars and the playing were very good, they just need to be a little tighter.
Great choice of a song to cover...Rubber Soul is one of the finest pop lp's of all time.

Mark

[riffing]

Thanks all, for your comments! It's been very helpful. You're all awesome!