First raw recording - what next?

S

stillnoname

New member
Hey, I just finished my first song using my new recording gear. I have done some basic editing, but no compression/EQ/effects yet. I'm still pretty new at this, so I'm not exactly sure what needs to be done, but I have been playing around with it a bit. It's just a little frustrating knowing how I want it to sound, but not knowing how to get it there... Here's the mp3:

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=12276

Any suggestions for how to make this sound a little more polished (other than getting a better musician)? I think it's mostly the drums that need some work. The bass is just my electric guitar tuned down an octave through software since I can't afford a bass guitar right now, so it's not the greatest.

I'm using a Motu 8pre, micing the drums with Shure ksm109's as overheads, sm57 on the snare and 2 more for the toms, and a beta52 on the bass.

I am using Reaper to record/mix and Adobe Audition as my editor.

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
Great playing man! Congrats...

For that kind of style, I guess some drumagog (with the soon-to-be-realesed DFH Superior 2.0 or Steven Slate samples) would work really good...

If you´re not into sampling, try some aggressive compression or trying (re)tracking the drums in some bigger space...

Good stuff, anyways...
 
Really, I think this is quite good for your entry intro recording. Try some gentle compression on the drums and ad a small amount of room verb.

I'm not familiar with Reaper so I don't know what tools you have. Hang in there.. you are doing great.
 
I think this is pretty good for a first effort, definitely. I think the drums at the end sound better than at the beginning, good stereo separation sounds nice. Didi you do something different there?
I did think the heavy effect on the guitar took away a bit of its intensity. I realise that this is probably an effect used in-line before your recording gear or amp mic, so possibly too late to do anything about it here. Maybe next time you might consider toning down the effect a bit, potentially it could be tweaked up later using a software plugin, if desired. Or, split the signal before you record, so you can get a clean sound as well.
Also, I agree the playing is well executed...good stuff
 
The drumming rocks! Especially nice on the end where the stereo panning shines through. Yeah a little reverb should be good on the drums - I didn't think they sounded too shabby at all!

The guitar effect sounds like a cross between a wah wah and a talk box.

The bass actually works pretty well....

Tight, catchy and cool!

:cool::D:cool::D
 
Thanks for all the great replies.

Unfortunately the drums are recording in a small room. The ceiling is only 7 feet, but there's not much I can do about that. Hopefully some reverb will fix that a little.

I'm not doing anything different in the drum 'solo' part. It is just a little louder since it's the main instrument at that point, plus there is way less guitar so it punches through much better. I guess the guitar effects might be a bit much and cover the drums up.

The main guitar effect I use is the Auto-Yah from my Digitech RP350 pedal. It's pretty fun.

Maybe I'll play around with compression/reverb etc. and post again in a week or 2 if I make some progress. Thanks for the help.
 
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