First time ever!

[quattro_xxph]

Greetings from the Philippines! Here are some stuff that kept me busy during the holidays (the only time of year when I can actually have time away from my day job):

A Quesiton of When

Shadow Business

Is there Anybody out there

Thou Art God (on NowhereRadio)

What do you guys think? For starters, these are by no means sterling (and I still need to get a real vocalist to replace my mediocre singing) and it will definitely need some more work.

This was done on Cakewalk HS2002, AP2496 Card all directly recorded to the hard drive. I wont even mention my cheap outboard gear, save that at least an SM58 was available for vocals.

Thanks for any input, and please be gentle... I bruise easy

 

[fenderlikingood]

this is a cool jam!!!!!!!! full of energy!! i dig it!! drums sound pretty good, but the kick is missing and the snare is way out front. i think the snare stands out so much because the git's are thin sounding?? tiny sounding, in need of some EQ adjustment( hopefully someone will come along with specifics.) vox are muffled and buried. in closing..........bring up the kick, fAtTen up the git's, bring up the vox, and i can"t hear any bass.

nice chop's man!!!!! and a very cool song!!!!!(although a bit long) better than i could do!!!

thank's man!!!!!!

peace

rick
edit......... i forgot!!!!!!!!!!! "thou art god" is the song i listened to, sorry about that

 

[quattro_xxph]

Thanks! I'll try to work on all of those, especially the kick drums.

Hope someone does come with specifics... then the ultimate humiliation of me singing outside the shower will have some purpose after all!

Just so to give a clue on what I can still use to alter anything in that mix, I have Cakewalk FX Packs 1 and 2. Theres also a Cakewalk Parametric EQ and as for other editors, there's Sound Forge 4.5.

For drums:
What do you guys think would happen I use a limiter so that the snares and kicks come closer together in level and then normalize it by peak using Sound Forge? What kinds of troubles am I inviting by doing this? Of course we can always re-record the track, but with the holidays over, I'll have to wait next weekend for my drummer to have free time so Im looking for a stop gap solution at the moment.

For guitars:
It seems the best solution for thin sounds is to re-record it with a thicker tone. Can do, but is there a solution using EQ plug-ins? (also as a stop-gap)

For vocals: Any suggestions on how to "bring it out" with EQ or comp plug-ins (I suck at using a compressor! And the lack of near-fields dont help) or reverb?

thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[Jamal Bucket]

thou art god.....

reeeaaalllly washy on the upper frequencies...ok i dont know what i just said but...someone else will....lol...very cool!!....


HEY THIS ROCKS!!!..
NICE

wooohoooo.....
man that is GGGGGGGGGGGGGGREAT guitar playin in there...

vocals dont sound all that bad from what i canhear?...bring em up let US tell you how bad they are ..lol.

jamal

 

[quattro_xxph]

thanks!

I have taken your suggestions to increase the power on the kick and the bass guitar. Dunno if it was actually effective, but I'll put 'em up for you perusal soon as I can get them out of my home computer to this one at work =)

 

[Track Rat]

Driving tune. I can only echo the above comments. Good tune, you need to dial in some ass.

 

[chrisharris]

Man, that is one seriously epic piece. (Thou Art God). I'm giving you serious props for undertaking to record a 10+minute tune that doesn't get dull.

Nitpick - Rhythm Git's slightly out of tune starting at :40, and it does the same thing at 7:50 (is that a cut and paste?...there's NOTHING wrong with doing that, btw - it's just out)....seems to clear up on the power chords.

Bigger issue - (I'm ignoring drums, b/c I don't know much about them, and it looks like you're already getting help there). My biggest "complaint," if that's the right word, is the vocal. You've got a good voice, and when you're singing in your range, it's spot on...but you're obvious out of your range throughout a good part of this tune, and it just drags the whole piece down when you're screeeeaching for a note that you can't quite get. I can tell from the way you sing (when you're in your range) that you have a good ear, so you know the places I'm talking about. I'd either re-approach those places with a fresh voice, or change the notes.

Dug it,
Chris

 

[King Elvis]

I am listening to THOU ART GOD and It has a great live feel to it. Before the vocals start I am immediately reminded of old Iron Maiden. The vox are too low, they need to sit up more in the mix. I also am missing the kick drum. Other than that I like it!!

 

[dtb]

other than the vocals being to far back, this is good stuff. I really like the guitars. good tune.

dtb

 

[quattro_xxph]

Thanks a lot!

I'll be sure to check my guitar tune, yes I did notice that it was slightly off-key in some points (mental note: record with new strings always).

btw, I recorded the guitars, bass and vocals in my room. I just observed this with myself when I sing: I cant seem to get any power in my voice when I'm singing in my room... its like there's this subconscious thought that I'm going to disturb the neighbors. Contrary to this... I can belt out really loud when I'm drunk in a Karaoke bar (and my drinking buddies swear Im in tune!). Maybe I should drink brewskies before trying to sing again. That'll have to do until I can trick someone to sing my songs.

Again, thanks for all your suggestions and comments (if there will be more, I'll thank you now =)

 

[W.I.S.C.]

Hey just givin out a shout to Quattro.Peace Bro...

 

[JR#97]

cool tune. just polish up the rough edges and it'll be truelly kick ass. I liked how the tune went Iron Maiden style at 3:45 or so.

For the guitar, instead of going plug-ins, maybe go hardware. ie POD, V-AMP, J-Station, or my favorites which are the Sansamp line.

what is your guitar set-up anyway?

glad to see the phillipines can rock. I was born there, but have lived here in the states my whole life and I know nothing about the PI's. But at least now I know that they can rock!

 

[quattro_xxph]

Thanks to all the reviewers!

JR#97 : Yeah, lots of rough edges. We'll work on 'em. As for guitar setup, I use a Yamaha RGX (usually use the bridge humbuckers)>V-Amp 2>AP 2496. I do the same with the bass guitar (dont know what brand it is). My finances are still in shock after getting the computer I used to record this, but hopefully I can get a real amp (I have a practice amp, but it sounds horrible) some time in the next six months (hopefully).

You're from the Philippines huh? Well you ain't missing much here except maybe the HOT weather even in January! We'll try to rock as hard as we can!

Thanks also W.I.S.C for your other review!