First song from my band's demo. How am I doing?

O

Oysterman

New member
Hey ya,

I've been recording my band's first demo this summer and finally began to mix together some stuff. I started with the instrumental we had (fewest tracks), and would appreciate any comments you may have.

The songwriting, guitars and drums can't be redone, but I have total control over the bass playing and, of course, mixing. So if there's anything in there that you'd like to vent about... well, let's hear it! Am I heading in the right direction with this? Have I managed to separate the instruments? Too boomy low end? Too harsh in the treble? Boxy? Sterile? Do the reverbs suck? Should I add any samples or whatever? Instrument(s) too loud? Did I totally overdo the flanging near the end? (rethorical question, I know I did) Etc, etc...

It sounded OK to me yesterday on my monitors, my headphones, and a pair of sucky computer speakers. How does it sound on your systems?

I can take any kind of criticism, positive, negative, constructive. Just don't rip me apart please, I'm still a beginner. :) TIA!

http://www.nowhereradio.com/tgop/singles
 
I'm not anything of an experienced engineer, but for what it's worth, I think your mix sounds awesome. The overall mix sounds smooth and well balanced and I think the excessive flanging at the end is kinda cool. Care to go into any detail about mic choice and placement technique? Or any recording techniques for that matter?
 
Thanks for listening and the positive review! :)

I might as well give it all away:

Drums were done in a studio, not the best of studios but it had decent mics (no clue on which ones but they were all rather cheap), a MOTU/Logic system (so that I could get the individual tracks and mix them on my own), and a drum kit that sounded surprisingly good when recorded. 7 mics on the drums (BD, SD, 2xOH, 3xTom). We also recorded bass and guitar mixed to a mono track to have as a timing reference, since the drummer can't play to a click.

Guitar was an Epihphone Les Paul Standard played through a Marshall VS100 1x12" combo. The guitar is pretty decent, although I'm not a big fan of the amp. That's what the guitarist had, so that's what we had to make the best possible use of. Miced with a SM57, positioned approx. 10 inches from the edge of the cone, angled inwards towards the cone center. Quite an unorthodox positioning I believe, but all the other things we tried sounded either so-so or completely awful.

Bass was a Peavey Cirrus, recorded direct. Didn't sound too good though, boomy and quite inconsistent over the spectrum (which kinda surprised me 'cause it sounds great live). So I put a low shelf cut at around 90 Hz, compressed the hell out of it and used Waves Maxxbass plug-in to furthermore reduce the boom and make it sound OK on computer speakers. I also distorted the tone a bit with Samplitude's distortion plug to make it blend with the guitars a little better.

Guitars and drums were run through a MindPrint DI-port and transferred digitally to my comp. Mixed in Samplitude, using along with Samp's on plugs, Waves MetaFlanger for the flanging, Renaissance Compressor (on bass and snare), Waves RVerb for the room sound, Cakewalk Reverb for the extra ambience during the stick. Maximized with Waves L2. Encoded to MP3 with LAME.EXE. That's it, I think.
 
Hey man - very nice

I love instrumentals and they are hardly popular anymore. I like the sound you get with the drums especially the snare - very jazzy - some might say it rings for too long but i disagree in advance......

How did you get the snare sounding like that? did you E.Q. after or was it just the kit?

The musicianship was awesome - Did you record the parts seperately or all together?
Once again I loved it - Just the funky uplift i needed tonight!

yiordanaki
 
yiordanaki said:
How did you get the snare sounding like that? did you E.Q. after or was it just the kit?
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Only a slight boost at 950-1000 Hz. Like I said earlier, I also threw some (pretty hard) compression and reverb on it. Quite a lot of reverb during the stick, but I liked it that way.

The drums are one take, guitars are 3 takes spliced together and I think the bass is two take with a punch-in over a lick that was hard as hell to nail (I think I made 15 takes before I got a keeper on that).

We're not awesome musicians by any means, but it's good that it sounds that way! ;)
 
I'm glad to hear that even good musicians like you guys sometimes take a while to get a good take.

Everyone says im too picky, but now i can say - "HE does it!"

Great stuff once again,
yiordanaki
 
The bass is the best thing going in the mix, with the drums a close second. I think I'm gonna steal some of those bass settings :D.
Good tune. Good playing.
 
that rocks ass, you guys performed it great too.. i guess if only one thing - more kick drum.

whatever - i think it rocks ass anyway...ha
 
The musicanship is first rate all around. Great jam. I especially liked the bass.

I thought the rhythm guitar was a bit hot in the mid-range. A little abrasive on the ears. That applies to some of the lead too. The middle section begining at about 1:50 sounded much better. The bass part was real smooth.

Instrumentals are always tough because you need to keep changing or adding things to keep listener interest going. I didn't think there was quite enough variety here - basically one section and a bridge (albeit very well played).
 
cool jam... clear recording... I would like to see guitars brought back a little to get those nice sounding drums more upfront...
the guitar is a little harsh sounding...
but overall sounds great...
cheers
 
TripleM said:
I thought the rhythm guitar was a bit hot in the mid-range. A little abrasive on the ears. That applies to some of the lead too. The middle section begining at about 1:50 sounded much better. The bass part was real smooth.
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Yes, I thought so too for a while but then I thought it only was me. I do need to tame that Les Paul a bit. I just remembered that the clean middle section is a different guitar - A DiMarzio-equipped Ibanez JEM. It does sound better, more balanced, but that could be attributed to the amp too - I've always found it to be a bit harsh on the distorted channels.

Instrumentals are always tough because you need to keep changing or adding things to keep listener interest going. I didn't think there was quite enough variety here - basically one section and a bridge (albeit very well played).
Click to expand...
I know, I don't think it's much of a song either but it's good fun to play! :)

Thanks everyone for your comments, keep 'em coming!
 
Man, nothing to rip apart here. I like the holes you left in the mix for the snare hits especially. Bass laying in nicely. Nice interlude when things mellow out.
Solid track!

Mark
 
Good God...Good.

(nod to the harmonics @ :55-58, both playing and recording).

The vocals were a tad low in the mix, but I'm sure they'll be louder in the next cut.

:D
:D
 
chrisharris said:
Good God...Good.
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Ditto. Good playing...rockin' tune. The mix is fine although the guitar has some issues that have already been covered. It will be interesting to see what you come up with when you're not a beginner.
 
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