guess what this was recorded on....

F

fire.is.real

New member
ok everybody,

a local band here in new orleans that i've been friends with for a while finished their cd. it was recorded at my friend's studio which will remain nameless until we've gathered adequate results...

here are two mixes straight outta the studio (unmastered). what do you guys think this stuff was recorded with?

btw: this is not just a "see who has the best ears" poll - this is meant to prove a point. (although i'm interested to see what point it proves....)

your options are:

desk:
1. COMPUTER BASED DAW
2. MACKIE
3. BEHRINGER
4. OTHER (PLEASE SPECIFY)

media:
1. HARD DISK
2. ANALOG TAPE
3. DIGITAL TAPE (ADAT, DAT)
4. YOUR MOTHER (...whatever - i just wanted a fourth option ;) )

also, please give your opinions on the song/mix/sound/whatever...

thanks,

fire.is.real

Walking Man Sound
 
I don't think that a song is small enough to upload to the bbs. You have to put your mp3 on some other site and post a link to it here.

A free place to post mp3's that you might want to check out it

http://www.nowhereradio.com

Take care,
Chris
 
If you are trying to prove a point then you must want us to give an answer that seems right but is really not, and as such , it qualifies as a trick question.

First thing I noticed is that its better than your average home recording.

The panning is characteristic of someone who knows what they are doing.

The kick comes with the right amount of power, and the right amount of thud.

THe instruments occupy a defined space and dont blur with each other

There is good balance in the instuments

Do you see where I am going? I dont think that this is a homerecording( Unless its a homerecording by someone like Sonusman)

Now, the question is what size studio is it? I can say that its not world class. It is lacking something(maybe its just that all the songs I hear are mastered)

Secondly, even though the vocal sounds very balanced within itself, its too low.

Third, the space, while good, leaves a tad to be desired, especially the vocal space


Now, to recording medium:
It has clarity that I highly doubt could be Mackie, so behringer is also out of the question
Its hard to say if its tape or digital, so to find out, I listened to the latest posts by charger and John sayers(tape) and Longwave studio(digital).

In this case, it sounds more like the tape recorded stuff. It has that general texture, so I am going to have to go with tape.

For the desk, I would say a medium range desk with quality maybe lower than a ghost but higher than a mackie.

Comparing to the other mp3s I mentioned, it sounds a bit small in comparison, and I have no explanation for that.

I preffered "human beings". It sounded like it could get some airplay.


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

So my conclusion is that it was mixed on a small desk(mackie) or pro tools( it sounds small)

and it was tracked to Analog tape.


please email me and let me know . I cant wait.
 
1st Cut (Slithy Tones)
-----------------------------------

The negatives -- vocal balance in the mix is way off (far too low...)

Occasionally obvious phase issues on the drum tracks (flanging of the cymbals) due to badly placed overheads....

Levels of the various tracks sometimes jumps around too much...

The positives - I agree mostly with Cyan - good panning, good song arrangement, tracks are well-defined in their own sonic spectrum (except the vocals).

Overall, I'd say excellent if the vocal was fixed!


2nd Cut (Human Beings)
-----------------------------------

Noticeable immediately - lack of track defintion, muddiness to the overall sound, weird timing issue at 0:18....

Track "sonic space" not as well-defined as in the 1st cut.

Vocal balance is much better than in #1 though...

This sounds more like the typical "home-recording" clips I tend to hear - although the track balances and panning are above average.

A cut above typical 8-track digital porta-studio recordings, but not by much!

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

As far as telling on what it was recorded, I think the fact that it's an MP3 obliterates any chance of being able to tell... the MP3 process significantly affects such subtleties...

But if I were to guess, I'd say Human Beings was done on a Behringer board with analog tape!

And Slithy Tones done either on DAW (to harddisk) or on digital tape with an analog board......

Bruce
 
I would like to ditto Blue Bear interpretation of the song quality, but I don't think either of the songs were done on analog as they both seemed to lack the high end harmonics that you can get with analog. Though this could have been intentional.

The vocals were pretty dry, but they were so far back in the mix that it was hard to get a fix on them.

Since, with practice, the type of equipment you use can be pretty tranparent or even mimic other types of equipment, most of what is posted will be a guess. So I would guess that both songs were recorded on a Behringer board and a hard disk recorder.
 
Hello everyone. I was the engineer for the Community songs.

The vocals on the first track were mixed low on purpose, because that's how the vocalist wanted it. I thought they were too low, as well, but he's happy, and that's what counts.

The flanging of the cymbals was due to a loose connection in both of my CAD-E200's (the drummer knocked them both over during tracking), and they are both fine now. We didn't notice until after the tracks were recorded, and since this was just a demo, they didn't want to wait for me to get the mics repaired to re-record the tracks to fix that.

The timing issue at 0:18 is a glitch in the mp3. I'll re-upload them and see if that fixes it.

Thanks.
 
Well we can eliminate one possibility...

cause my Mom knows damn well to stay away from Behringer boards!



Hey "fire.is.real Walking Man Sound," shouldn't this be in the MP3 Mixing Clinic?

I'm tired of stupid ploys to get people to listen to gayass songs. Put in the right damn forum and make it a guessing game there if you like.
 
whoa dolemite,

i put the thread here because

a. they're not my mp3's and i dont need help mixing them
b. i thought it would spark discussions on mixing/mastering gear (the title of the forum)
c. its not some stupid guessing game about a gayass (nice 6th grade word by the way) song. its meant to prove a point.


and it SHOULDN'T be a guessing game. everyone on here is always spitting back and forth about how horrible behringer boards are in comparison to mackies. YOU, dolemite, just proved my point. you're too busy convincing newbies and junior members that the difference between a mackie and a behringer board is going to make or break their HOME RECORDINGS. if behringers are THAT horrible, than the difference should be like night and day - i mean even your MOM knows not to use behringer. well buddy, it was a behringer.

message to newbies: if you cant afford a mackie 24x8 yet, you are not as doomed as this message board makes you think you are. get equipment that you can afford and LEARN. learn how to make it sound good. this is MUSIC, not air conditioner repair... its not all black & white.

the point that i was trying to prove with this is something that has been said on this board a million times, but is still ignored a great deal: the most important part of the signal chain is what is between the desk and the chair: the engineer. i'm not saying that behringer is better than mackie. i haven't used either of them enough to know, but i'm sure as hell going to think a lot harder about recommendations on this bbs. dont get me wrong - i've learned a great deal here at hr.com, but i just think a lot of people lose sight of the more important parts of recording.

have fun. make music. the end.

fire.is.real

Walking Man Sound
 
For me though, the biggest problem with the Behringer is how often they break/have unusual problems. So the fact that they don't fuck up a mix proves nothing.
 
Aside from the heat popping up in this thread...

I tend to agree with you fire.is.real- at least on the subject of what is important with (ahem) home recording.

In my mind the goal is to get the best recordings from what you have. Most people don't even get close to maxing out the quality of their gear. It may be easier to get good quality out of a Mackie then a Behringer, but with some perseverance you can squeeze better quality out of just about anything. (Except bad A/D converters. Yuck!)

At a certain point I have to focus more on HOW I use my gear instead of WHAT gear I have.

Chris
An Admitted Member of TA- Tweakaholics Annonymous
 
I don't get it. ...the stuff is ok...but not "knock my socks off" stuff. I would say a yammie minidisk would be easily capable of this quality, or someone with a killer DAW could easily end up with similar results too. It sounds very home recorded to me, and has a ways to go to get that finished professional sound. Original writing style is the big plus for this music, not the recordings. keep at it!!...and up the vocals (I agree with the others)
 
thanks for the replies everyone

i also agree that its easier to get good recordings with good gear. if you've got a mackie, awesome. if you've got a behringer, rock on. make music with whatcha got.

fire.is.real

Walking Man Sound
 
YOU, dolemite, just proved my point. you're too busy convincing newbies and junior members that the difference between a mackie and a behringer board is going to make or break their HOME RECORDINGS.
Click to expand...

I didn't prove anybody's point, I was making a joke about Behringer, if you can't take it then you should consider some gear that isn't the perpetual butt of jokes.

If someone asks what mixer to get, I will always recommend Mackie over Behringer. I'd probably also recommend Soundcraft or A&H over Mackie. Its not some stupid dichotomy to fight over. I've worked with Mackies and I know they're pretty decent. Meanwhile, people whose opinions I trust have plenty to say about Behringer. If you have a Behringer, then fine, do something with it. I personally could care less, but ask what mixer to get and I'll have an answer. I see used Mackie 1202's for $200 all the time, so its not much of a stretch from Behringer anyway.

its not some stupid guessing game about a gayass (nice 6th grade word by the way) song. its meant to prove a point.
Click to expand...

I think 6th grade words are entirely appropriate to describe your thread. I'm not terribly impressed with the recording anyway, so what point does this prove? You can make something sound mediocre with a Behringer just as easily as a Mackie?
 
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