Dinosaur Jr (The Lung) Mix #2

Nola

Nola

Well-known member
https://soundcloud.com/suicidevan/the-lung-dinosaur-jr-cover

Hey guys. I redid a lot since the last mix I posted b/c I've working on miking techniques with my new amp and stuff. I used to use sims b/c I have an awful room and mix on headphones but I'm trying to move to a real amp, so this was all challenging, and I'm not sure if what I hear is what good systems hear. Can you give me feedback on this?

Some specifics that I was on the fence about:

1. Are the vocals too loud?
2. Is the distorted track too loud?

Those are my main concerns, but otherwise you're welcome to give me any feedback you want on the overall relationships/balance, etc. Thanks!
 
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Hey Nola. Vocals are definitely not too loud. They could use a low pass and a low mid trim. Which distorted track did you mean? There's one low on the right in part of the song that sounds good. Others pop in here and there. None made me want to turn down. Your amp is sounding pretty good. Can you get a little more brightness on the guitar tone?

I'll be honest, the guitar solo lets the song down.
 
Thanks robus. I posted a new mix in the first post...that's after taking your feedback and some feedback from friends. It should be a little less muddy now. And I tried to get the things to all sit better.

The solo is what it is. I had just figured it out from the record and had like a few seconds to get it down literally neighbors were banging on walls from the rhythm part. It's an awful situation for any kind of creativity. oh well I need to move ugh
 
Nola said:
...literally neighbors were banging on walls from the rhythm part. It's an awful situation for any kind of creativity. oh well I need to move ugh
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There is a need for a corporation to set up large warehouses with isolated rooms for people to rent hourly. Every place by me charges per month, and they are all north of $600. These are for full bands. The solo person has to have their living situation be feasible for recording music, or else things get difficult.

Try to time it when they're gone or even politely ask if there's a time where its not inconvenient for them. I'll listen soon
 
Just my taste, but that distorted guitar on the right sounds like shite - like played through a speaker with a damaged cone. The guitar solo - its not in tune with the rest of the song, for the most part - intonation problem?
Vocal could come up just half a dB or so, very Lou Reed-ish.
 
mjbphotos said:
Just my taste, but that distorted guitar on the right sounds like shite - like played through a speaker with a damaged cone.
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was just thinking on those lines but too loud and blasting the mic

vocals sound good :)


nola you thought about an isolation cabinet ?
 
mjbphotos said:
Just my taste, but that distorted guitar on the right sounds like shite - like played through a speaker with a damaged cone.
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Yeah it has a brittleness to it. i just don't know how to fix it b/c i don't really understand the cause.

Is there any trick to miking a distorted guitar? this is my first time doing it. it's a byoc big muff pedal without the scooped mids (i set it to "flat"). I could remix and lower it. Or should i scoop the mids? I'm not sure how to get it to sit in the mix.
 
Knocking on the walls? That sucks. Like Taras said, you might negotiate with them. Or take note of their schedule and try to record when they aren't home. But basically--that sucks! I know just what you mean about trying to be creating, while worry about making to much noise. It makes you self-conscious and kills the creative vibe. Been there. Eventually you'll land in a better situation.

I'm not hearing anything like a busted speaker in that guitar on the right.
 
Robus said:
I'm not hearing anything like a busted speaker in that guitar on the right.
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It just has a bit of brittleness like a sim but i'm not sure if that's normal since this is my first time recording distorted amps. I'll have to read up on how to record and EQ them or maybe you can guide me with what you know? I know muffs normally have a scooped mid, but I went with the flat setting that the byoc gives as an option thinking I could just scoop the mids later. But then I forgot to try it while mixing, so I can try today.

Robus the situation is so intolerable. It's like you're trying to record and play freely without any anxiety and get in a zone and all that, but in the back of your mind you're just waiting for a knock on the door (or wall) or thinking "crap, 10 minutes that's about when they might call the landlord or cops" and so you just stop after 1 take even if you don't think it's your best, and the entire situation makes it where you can't really get into what you're doing 100%. I hate it! That's why I used sims forever; I didn't want to deal with it, but the sims just eventually bugged me too much with that fizz and 2D sound so I just had to try this. Basically I have to move soon and be loud. I really need that to happen it's driving me nuts. I have an album of all original stuff to record and I like the material quite a bit, but I'm afraid to record it here so I've just been working on covers/recording technique mostly thinking one day when I move I'll record my own songs. My bandmate/girlfriend says to just fuck 'em and make noise, but I have some hang up where I can't be that disrespectful.
 
I know just what you mean. Unfortunately, if the landlord or cops are going to get involved, "just fuck 'em" isn't an option. And basically, who wants to war with the neighbors? Life is easier when you get along with them.

In my living situation, I can make as much noise as I want when I have the house to myself--two or three afternoons during the week. On the weekend, my wife will tolerate a certain amount of loud playing if I explain to her what I want to do and for how long--but there is a limit. So I keep those sessions shorter, maybe an hour. Problem is, my most creative time comes late at night when making noise isn't an option. So I do a lot of the composition work of developing guitar parts silently at night with the DI out of my amp. Then I re-track those parts when it's cool to turn it up. I'm pretty disciplined in my tracking sessions. I know in advance exactly what I need to record and have learned the parts. I can usually track all the guitars for a song in an hour or two. I also have an efficient approach to monitoring, so little time is wasted dialing in tones.

Maybe something similar would be a solution for you. Use your sims to work up the parts, then find a time or place when you can turn it up to cut the keeper tracks.
 
I would say the distorted guitar track is just a weeee bit too loud. But like half-a-db.

The vocal is just a bit soft. I would give the guitars a notch cut around 2400hz or so. Electric guitars are almost always hot there. Then I'd boost the vocal a couple of dbs - about an octave wide - centered somewhere between 4K and 5K. Or at least for starters.

Snare and kick are a bit dull. Maybe the snare is just too far back in the mix. Cymbals sound pretty good. Bass sounds pretty good.
 
TripleM said:
I would say the distorted guitar track is just a weeee bit too loud. But like half-a-db.

The vocal is just a bit soft. I would give the guitars a notch cut around 2400hz or so. Electric guitars are almost always hot there. Then I'd boost the vocal a couple of dbs - about an octave wide - centered somewhere between 4K and 5K. Or at least for starters.

Snare and kick are a bit dull. Maybe the snare is just too far back in the mix. Cymbals sound pretty good. Bass sounds pretty good.
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Thanks, Triplem. Good ears. Those are all things I wondered when I listened with fresh ears today.
I feel like I have to clear out a little more room for the vocal somehow...that it's at the right level but just frequencies from instruments are conflicting is how I hear it. I'll try lowering the distorted guitar a hair and EQing that range to hopefully allow the vocal to sit without having to raise it.
 
the clean guitar sounds great - that one on the right is doing that busted speaker fizz again. bass sounds great, really. smooth and clear, to me. i agree that vocals can come up. A few cymbal hits were slightly off. I love the tone for the solo, but yeah it's slightly out of tune - you can get away with it in a song like this if it slowly goes into tune, like a slow bend. I actually thought that's what was coming, but it stayed flat.

loved that ending and the in-out of tune thing. coool
 
andrushkiwt said:
the clean guitar sounds great - that one on the right is doing that busted speaker fizz again. bass sounds great, really. smooth and clear, to me. i agree that vocals can come up. A few cymbal hits were slightly off. I love the tone for the solo, but yeah it's slightly out of tune - you can get away with it in a song like this if it slowly goes into tune, like a slow bend. I actually thought that's what was coming, but it stayed flat.

loved that ending and the in-out of tune thing. coool
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thanks for listening and giving good feedback, andru.

do you have any experience making a distorted guitar/amp? i can't figure out why the right one is fizzy. i redid the part, and it sounds better/less fizzy, but i still hear it. it sounds like amp sim distortion, which is really disappointing b/c a main reason i bought an amp was b/c the sims sounded so fizzy.

i also don't know why the guitars are out of tune since both guitars show proper intonation on their own. i used a fender strat and a gretsch for the solo. the gretsch lacks sustain b/c it's semi hollow, but i like the sound of those pickups. i can't figure out why they're not matching, though. very frustrating.
 
Cool, listening. Yeah, I like this mix. Sounds like the guitar levels have come done, am I right? Many of the mixes I hear on the Clinic could be improved by just dropping the levels of the guitars. It's a tough lesson to learn for those of us whose primary instrument is guitar. I can hear the bass and drums better than on previous mixes. You have created a nice space in the center for your vocal, which is more audible now. I kind of like that distorted guitar on the right, especially low in the mix as you have it. Good job.
 
Thanks, Robus.
You're right, I lowered the guitars a little, but mostly the bass i lowered 3db to clean up some mud. I think we naturally associate power with loud guitars so that's why we push them loud. But power is more the dynamics/relationship than volume, imo, so guitars can go pretty low and still have power. I don't know if science supports that, but just mixing things that's what I noticed.

But the right one, to me, is still too loud and has that fizzy frequency that is ticking me off, so I'll do one last mix to try to fix that. I might try to figure out the intonation issue on the lead. I used a different guitar on the lead vs rhythm, but the tuner said intonation was fine, so i'm confused. :/
 
I'll go farther and say guitars often have more impact when they are lower in the mix. Depends on the genre I suppose. You might have some tuning or intonation issues going on with that solo, as some of the fretted notes sound off. However part of the problem is that you're not always bending to pitch. Sometimes you're stopping just flat of the note you're bending up to. For example that slow bend near the beginning of the solo. Bend a little harder and get all the way up there.
 
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