A song from Sweden

V

valdemar

New member
Just thought I'd try posting something here. It's seems like a great idea, giving and getting comments from people in the same home recording environment as oneself is in.

This song is an acoustic guitar/vocals piece with an organ track and a bit of electric guitar. It was recorded with a MXL V67 (vocals), 2 MXL 603s (x/y for acoustic), a Behringer 2004 board and POD into Maxi Studio ISIS. Software is Cubase VST/24 and Wavelab 3.0 for the finishing touches. Monitoring was through a pair of KRK K-Roks.

I've quite a bit of trouble getting my mixes to sound good on other systems, so any opinions of this would be greatly appreciated. Obviously, any opinions are very welcome.

The song (4.8 MB) is here:


Regards,
/Henrik Wikner
 
Hi Henrik.

Very nice song. Good pitch in your singing.
The accoustic guitar sounded a bit hard to my ears, making it somewhat painful to listen to.. well.. sorta..
Vox sounds good, but could probably profit a bit from a better preamp.

Now you gotta tell me where you got those Marshall mics....
 
http://www.mxlmics.com/export.html

good song...pretty good for a Swede......i didint find the guitars that harsh....overall it has a very nice feel to it.....very nice getting drunk song.......

hey Mesh thats a v67 thru a Behringer board...just imagine it thru a good pre.......
 
How far from the guitar where those mics? Either I can hear too much of the room (which is adding a bit of boxiness to the sound), the mics weren't placed where they picked up the rich low end of the guitar, or you have a cheaper acoustic like me and the low end isn't all that rich. :D

Thats a long way of saying that I'd like to hear more low end in the guitar. If you had bass in the song the guitar tone would be great. I also don't notice it as much when the other instruments kick in. Just when the acoustic is all by itself.

Having said that, the song sounds really great- very creative! Your organ and electric parts fill the song out really well and I think they are mixed well. Ditto on your vocals being really well recorded- they are very intimate and up front.

Man, that slide sounds sweet. Fits in perfectly with the mood of the tune. Makes me wanna reach for the beer...

Keep up the great work!
Chris
 
Hey Valdemar,
first I'd like to say I really like the song and the style. Very cool.

But I really think you should work on how you deliver the lyrics. You're sounding like you're half asleep, which can be a very cool thing - but the trick is to do that and STILL make the lyrics come through. I suggest you listen to Lou Reed and Joe Strummer for some inspiration. Maybe it's just me, but I usually find it annoying when I can't even tell what language the lyrics are...

OK, but this is a recording forum. I think the guitar sounds OK, but your voice is sorta flat and unhappening. I agree with Meshuggah, you should consider getting a dedicated preamp. You'll be surprised. I have the Joemeek VC6Q, but there are of course many good ones out there.

But with the means you had, I think the mix is good. Sure, there could be some more low end from the acoustic - again, I'm convinced a better pre will give you precisely that.

I'm also doubling Meshuggah's question - where the hell did you het hold of those Marshall mics?

Cheers
/Henrik
 
First, thanks a lot for the opinions.

The acoustic's harshness is my main recording obstacle right now. I have a Guild D4, it's a wonderful guitar, it can't be compared with a Martin or a Gibson Songbird, but the sound has similar qualities, thanks to the Mahogany body i imagine. When recorded it always turns out too boomy around 120 Hzand with a lack of sparkle, I've eq'd the bollocks out of it to make it really clear, I wanted every note to come through. One of my problems is that I haven't got a pair of large speakers that could tell me where the bass is actually at, so I just got rid of it.
I still have a lot of experimenting to do with placements/combinations of mics though. The normal 12th fret and over-the-shoulder technique just doesn't cut it with this guitar, or should I say, I can't make it happen. How do you guys do the experimenting with positions when you're alone? The placement of the mics seem to be extremely important and moving just an inch will ruin the sound.

Well, thankfully, this is the last song of mine to be recorded through the Behringer and ISIS. I've upgraded to a 24-bit soundcard (Hammerfall) and the MindPrint DI-port with, by reputation, very clean preamps for the price and good A/D's. Hopefully this will make a change, I really haven't had the guts to really try it out. (What if it doesn't change...)

Chris, I wish I had your cheap acoustic and your fingers! :)

As for the 'buy a new preamp'-section, I think this would be very good move of course, I've had my eyes on the Joe Meek VC3q for quite some time now, but I guess upgrading to a clean pair of preamps and decent converters were on the top of my list.

Thanks again for the comments on the song, I tend to get a bit technical but I hope that somewhere in me there is a musician to make the technician company. :)

The Marshall mics, well in the summer of 2000 I was in the U.S. and I'm not sure if Harvey Gerst had started his talking in favor of cheaper mics, but I'm sure he did, as I was about to get the MXL 2001. In a Mars Music store in Boston I tried several mics out and I just got a feeling that the V67 sounded fuller, more real. So I got one and I was really pleased with it. So a friend and I took a chance last summer and ordered another V67 and two of the 2001p with a 603s packages from filamentaudio.com, he wanted the 2001p's which have turned out to be pretty ok mics in my opinion. We had to pay customs and so on, but the mics (I really like the difference in sound putting up the 603s's or the V67's as overhead mics for drums) sound really good. Of course, after this there has been a boom of cheap chinese LD-condenser mics (if they're 797 or the other Shanghai factory I have no idea) in Sweden...

Sorry about the long post,
/Henrik
 
Valdemar,
I haven't tried either of your soundcards, but you WILL hear a difference using the MindPrint. One day I'll probably get one myself.

Funny, I also have that feeling when I just bought something new - shit, what if I can't hear the difference? And particularly with computer gear - what if I can't make this work, and my old stuff won't work either because of the new non-working stuff I just installed? Silly.

Good luck, and do post some new mp3's using your new gear.

If you'd like to hear some stuff I made, here's a link: http://polyester.just.nu

/Henrik
 
missed something

Henrik,
Thanks for the thought about the vocals, I feel really uncomfortable with my singing and could use tips like these. As a swede you might have heard 'Paus' - Peter Svensson from The Cardigans and friends. This is my main source of inspiration for this type of music, was just wondering if you had any thoughts about his singing against my very biased (positively) opinion of his singing.

Do you just mean Lou Reed solo, or also the VU stuff, for singing style reference?

Thanks,
/Henrik
 
I bet you'll notice a huge difference with the new preamp.. I was on the verge of buying a Mindprint AN-DI, but then I stumbeled upon a very cheap dbx 576...

On accoustic guitar (and other applications of course), you might wanna invest in a good mic-cord.. Slackmaster had a post that was a real eye-opener in that department...

Like Henrik said, make sure to post music with your new gear in action.
 
I like the organ sound. Vocals fit in great and sound good in the song. Very nice job there. That acoustic is the only negative thing.... almost like it's cutting into my brain. When I work on mic placement I setup the mic in several positions and record a few seconds from each. Then I listen back and narrow it down, just keeping track of which track was what mic position. Time, time, and more time is about the only thing it takes. Which of course is what none of us ever seem to have enough of... :)

Good job overall on the song.
 
Hello,
actually I haven't listened a whole lot to Paus. When I mentioned Lou Reed it was mostly based on VU stuff. He can really sound so cool and almost half asleep, but still the words come through. If you like Paus, you probably have Kent's Isola as well (this thread is getting more and more Swedish). If you listen to Celsius, Joakim Berg really stumbles over the words in a pretty cool manner. (That said, I really dislike that album and that song in particular). In music like yours the words usually are important to the whole thing, so you'd like to hear them without having to reach for the lyric sheet.

I don't think you should feel uncomfortable singing, you have a cool and personal way of doing it. By all means keep that up, but still remember to tell the story. I think a good thing for you could be to imagine there is someone in front of you when you are recording, and focus on telling this person the story of the song. The rest should take care of itself.

On the how do we try out guitar sounds when we are by ourselves issue, I do what Jon X does. Trial and error. Before long you should find out what's good for your particular setup of guitar, mics, preamps, and room. But if I were you, I'd try to put up some matresses, sleeping bags or thick blankets in order to get rid of the room reflections (if you want to get rid of those), and then place the mic about 60 cms (two feet, yanks) in front of the guitar. This should capture the whole guitar sound in a natural way, which I think would suit your songs and should make EQ'ing unnecessary.

Now get that new gear installed and start recording!

Cheers
/Henrik
 
Thanks for the comments Jon X, I'm going to see how my new preamps might enhance the sound and then just try what you said, recording little bits of music over and over with the mics in new positions.

Henrik, getting rid of room reflections sounds like a good idea, I'll definitely give that a shot.

Thanks,
/Henrik
 
very cool job.

I like the song. It has a nice melody.

A few tweaks that could blow this track through the roof would be:

record the organ in stereo and add some more low end.

use reverb.
 
A cool song. I was listening on Klipsch ProMedias and the guitar wasnt too harsh. It didnt sound real natural but it seemed to fit in with the song. Organ fits nicely. Mix worked for me.
 
Meshuggah said:
I bet you'll notice a huge difference with the new preamp.. I was on the verge of buying a Mindprint AN-DI, but then I stumbeled upon a very cheap dbx 576...

On accoustic guitar (and other applications of course), you might wanna invest in a good mic-cord.. Slackmaster had a post that was a real eye-opener in that department...

Like Henrik said, make sure to post music with your new gear in action.
Click to expand...

---------------

Meshuggah, how is that dbx 576 working for you? How would you describe the sound of the pre? The compressor?
 
excellent track...reminds me a bit of a lad from Canada called Hayden....i like the sound of the gitter.. these other guys have been here too long...;) ...the singing is a bit rough, but it is you and goes perfectly with your music...the only thing i would recommend to really push the song would be some simple kick and snare deep in the background...that's just what i'm hearing and maybe a cello, but who the hell has a cello? good job...come check me out at

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/2/1265/singles.shtml

or at

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/356/middleman.html


let me know what you think...take care,,.
 
Thanks CyanJaguar and TexRoadkill.

Samich17, I actually had an idea about writing a 'bass line' for cello instead of the organ, a friend in my class does have, and play, the cello and I've been dying to record it, it's just one of those instruments that I can't seem to hear enough of in music!

Finally I had another song, that just screams for a cello part and don't want cello on everything. Hopefully, there'll be a cello part on my next posted song.

Thanks,
/Henrik, Luleå
 
Originally posted by chessrock
Meshuggah, how is that dbx 576 working for you? How would you describe the sound of the pre? The compressor?
Click to expand...

I've only compared it with my vlz pro pres, and the dbx is more transparent, and you can adjust tube coloration.. that's nice...
I'm still in the situation where I must guestimate on the settings since I can't both play and monitor at the same time... Gotta get someone here who can play/sing outside the room..

The compressor is nice.
 
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