I Know She Understands - suggestions/comments anyone?

Beerhunter

Beerhunter

Barley Processing Unit
Hey all, I'm really hoping to finally put this song to rest. I believe that I have taken care of all the major issues but I could certainly use some help with the minor ones.

Hopefully someone will have the time to listen and provide feedback. I would greatly appreciate it.

The song can be found here http://www.guitaristworks.com/the london project/audio.php

Wow, it's pretty refreshing here outside the cave :)
 
The intro is great. Everything goes downhill when it kicks in though. The drums are way back in a hole. Bass guitar is mud. There appears to be some pumping compression going on too.


[edit]

listening again. I actually like the song. It's just when it kicks in it does just the opposite. It gets whimpy. If I had to guess, you used a modeler for the guitar? Acoustic guitar lead sounds nice and upfront. Drums sound as if they were recorded in an empty 2 car garage with 1 mic about 10' away. Very distant.
 
Thanks for listening and commenting HangDawg.

Ya the electrics are modelled (POD) and this is an area that we are strugglng with. We tried tracking with a Mesa Recording Pre but couldn't get the sounds we were looking for out of it. I guess we will have to get off our asses and re-track using my tube amp.

The acoustics were mic'd and I think they do sound pretty good as is.

The drums, well, ya, not one of my strong areas. Do you think that by riding the faders I would bring them up front or is it something else?

Again, thanks for the comments. I will focus on the areas you mentioned.
 
Agree that things are a bit thin, and I tend to lean toward thin in my recordings. The vocals and drums are distant, and the distorted rhythm lacks dynamics. Has that late-80s queensrych operation mindcrime sound that I hate - great music but just isn't in my face enouigh.

Musically I was actually thinking of doing an acoustic lead over a heavy rhythm on my last track. It sounds pretty good, but I think I made the choice on my piece. For you, it seems to work.

You listen to Pink Floyd a lot? I'm kinda getting a Gilmour vibe. Good song - overall one of the better ones of 10 I've listened to in the last 24 hours.
 
i agree with all of the above. and the song is excellent, but the heavy parts need to pop out--the drums are seriously lacking energy, and the distorted guitar defintely needs beefed up. there is far better tone in that POD than you've found in this take.
the vocals are great--absolutely love 'em, and the acoustic solo is a very nice touch.
good luck!
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Pinky - yes we're heavily influenced by Floyd (as well as Nightwish and Evanescence). Probably even more so now that our band all went to the Roger Waters show last night.

drossfile - I'm going to see about re-tracking the guitars, this time by mic'ing an amp. It's a little out of my comfort zone but hopefully I can beef them up a bit by doing so.

I'll focus on getting a good heavy guitar sound. The drums, well I'm not sure what I am going to do there yet.
I'm limited with the amount of gear at my disposal so at some time I'm going to reach a ceiling with what I can do.

Take care and have a great weekend.
~Beerhunter
 
I agree that it needs a bit of beef for the RAWK parts but otherwise I like it - don't go too generic with the guitar beef up - try to keep your own sound happening but with a bit more meat.
 
i've always had bad luck with miking guitar amps (couldn't get rid of that ringy, midrangy, ear-fatiguing awful sound), and just a few weeks ago a friend of mine and i were trying to demo a fusion tune (him--guitar, me--drums) and since i had to be able to hear him, and we didn't want to track simultaneously on headphones, i pointed an sm57 directly perpendicular to the angle of the cone, and just tried isolating the mic and amp a bit by making a "tent" out of pillows and a mattress pad that enclosed the mic and front of the amp, and the sound was surprisingly good. the only problem i had was the damn electrical buzz b/c he loves his single coil pickups. but miking the amp really fattened the recorded tone up nicely, and it works even better when you're not using the "tent" for anti-bleed purposes.
 
Thanks drossfile. I'm going to try exactly that on Monday. We have been messing around with a similar technique and got pretty good results. We only have one amp to work with and that is a Traynor YCV40 which does sound good in the room. I have a 57 and a Studio Projects B1. I'll try to build up a tent around it and see what I can get out of it.

Does mic'ing the back of the cabinet work well to fatten it up? What kind of mic would you use for the back.. a 57?
 
i read a recording magazine article a year or so ago about a few unconventional tricks, and one included a mic in the back of the cabinet. it seems to me that 95% of the time this would sound terrible, but i guess they were trying to get across the notion (we've all heard it a million times) that sometimes a wacky idea can work.
the tone was nice enough on the front of the amp that i really don't see much point in putting it in the back. but experimentation is the life's blood of this whole recording beast, no?
and yes, i'm pretty sure they were using an sm57. of course if you happen to have a ribbon mic handy, they can sound pretty nice on a guitar cabinet and have a fatness of their own to offer.
oh, and if you're planning on miking both front and rear of the amp, be sure to reverse phase on one of the mics.
have fun out there!
 
Hi drossfile, ok, I tried to mic the back of the cabinet and ya, well that sucked. I used a 57 and tried a few different positions but the results were always way too heavy in the low end. All it seemed to do was make mud of the bass track. It didn't do anything to fatten up the sound. I think I'll give up on trying to get a useful track this way. I'm still going to work on getting a fatter guitar sound but I don't think I achieve great results by placing a mic in the back of the cab.

If anyone has any tips that may help that would be really cool. Without help I will get nowhere using this technique. It may work for others but for me, no such luck. At least not yet.
 
Beerhunter said:
Hi drossfile, ok, I tried to mic the back of the cabinet and ya, well that sucked. I used a 57 and tried a few different positions but the results were always way too heavy in the low end. All it seemed to do was make mud of the bass track. It didn't do anything to fatten up the sound. I think I'll give up on trying to get a useful track this way. I'm still going to work on getting a fatter guitar sound but I don't think I achieve great results by placing a mic in the back of the cab.

If anyone has any tips that may help that would be really cool. Without help I will get nowhere using this technique. It may work for others but for me, no such luck. At least not yet.
Click to expand...


Read this. All of it.

http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html


Come back when you are finished.
 
Hahaha, (I'm chuckling 'cause his writing style is pretty entertaining).

I've read it before and lost the link. Thanks for the link. I'll give it another read.
 
chrisharris said:
Here's what I got out of that.

"USE AMPLITUBE."
Click to expand...

... or GuitarRig or my POD XTL. And that folks brings us back up to the top of this thread.

Maybe I'm just using modelling incorrectly in which case I'll have to learn somehow how to make it sound better. People seem to be able to see (or hear I guess I should say) right through it.
 
Beerhunter said:
... or GuitarRig or my POD XTL. And that folks brings us back up to the top of this thread.

Maybe I'm just using modelling incorrectly in which case I'll have to learn somehow how to make it sound better. People seem to be able to see (or hear I guess I should say) right through it.
Click to expand...


dude, i TOLD you you could get a better sound out of that POD! :D

if you're using the podxt live, make sure your output is set for "studio direct." i accidentally recorded direct some guitar without switching the setting back from "combo poweramp" after jamming live w/ my friend and the recording sounded really thin. the signal the xtl sends to an amp is quite different from what it sends to a DI or preamp.

also, don't be afraid to experiment with your pedal until you hear the sound you're looking for--listen to it through your monitors as you tweak the eq, as this will give you an idea of what the recording will sound like "out here in the world." also, there are practically infinite possibilities with the various stomp, delay, amp, and mod settings. (i've made custom patches that utilize the amp modeling for distortion, and others that utilize the stomp modeling for distortion--if you can hear the right sound in your head, the trick is to emulate it as closely as possible with the "out here in the world" tools).
i know it's gratifying to dive right in, but some time spent on familiarizing yourself with your equipment and finding the right tone is WAY more gratifying in the end.

good luck!
 
Nice

Dang, I think the drums, especially the snare, and the guitars sound great. the bass drum sounds good to me also... Very cool song. I'm listening on some Event TR 8 monitors, and i like it ! There's a lot going on in this tune, and i think you have done a really nice job with it!!

JasonBird
 
I love this song. I agree that it sounds a little lifeless in some parts but thats all th recording because the song sounds awesome.
 
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