I'm exhausted, hurting, and I need fresh ears for these tunes - I'm in a time crunch.

ruebarb

ruebarb

New member
Here's the deal...my band has a great gig in a week in Minneapolis, and we wanted a CD demo sampler to give away for free in case anybody wants to become a fan. Just a CDR that'll give them a reminder of why they should see us again.

Problem is...I had one week's notice...I have spent the past week recording, editing, retracking and mixing this baby (Antares Autotune practically wrote half the damned thing) - it was a time crunch issue, and I think it's mostly settled.

But I can't tell anymore...I'm too close to it. I sang and wrote almost half the songs. I think they're pretty good overall - Track #5 needs a hotter vocal, I think, but overall I'll live with it if he can....not bad on a weeks notice in a noisy practice space with -30db of fans and noise the whole time.

So please check it out and give me your two cents worth....note by note...one more thing...no time for mastering (it's a freebie, anyway) - so I've had to do the best I could to keep levels consistant...if anything really sticks out, I'll try to fix it in 48 hours...otherwise, little stuff will have to slide till we do the album with a 2 week time limit instead of this 7 day crap...heh heh.

Songs on the quality of singers, songs, also welcome, but mostly I've got to approach this from an engineering standpoint for now. Some of you may have critiqued solo versions of these songs, but now these are band versions...and hopefully the final mixes here will stand with little more then a bit more tweaking on the final EQ.

Here' s the URL...look under the singles for the Ballet School Troublemakers.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/1/1274/singles.shtml

later
RB
 
Whoa. Hotter vox on #5? :confused:

There are places to where it sounds just right to me (first verse for the most part) and places where it sounds too low (first chorus).

Then it gets too loud for me. Second verse, first two lines. Second chorus better levels than the first. Third chorus sounds fine except for the last line.

I'm not the best mixer around so take my suggestions with that in mind, but maybe some mixer automation, riding the fader, or compression?

If I make my guess, I'd say that you recorded the vocals in sections and you different levels for different sections and its been a headache trying to mix it.

Also, the beginning start out mostly to the left then the right comes in for just a moment and goes out again. Did you mean to do that? Its Ok, but I kinda expected the full stereo stuff to stay on once it started.

For a give-away, though, you could probably live with what you've got. Trying to polish too much and doing it poorly will probably not give the right impression to your prospective fans, anyway.

Good luck at the show!
Chris
 
rats....didn't notice that.

groan...I"m gonna have to check that...I know it starts out with his guitar in one channel..and then we both come in...it should stay quasi stereo after that. - I hate the guitar in the other track, but it was necessary - I've just got too much ear fatigue at this point, though.

nope his vocal is one take...and its also compressed quite a bit already...I think part of it is just his vocal style..if he's low range singing, it's stronger but it's also taking up room in the mix with the bass and guitars, and as he goes up the range, his voice is softer but he has more room in the mix eq with fewer instruments cluttering it up.

It's my least favorite of all 6 tunes from my mixing standpoint - good song overall...just not mixed or tracked well...feels muddy and not as clean as the rest and on a good additional week, I'd have recut it...but I couldn't pull it off.

We almost called this the Lenscrafters Demo...recorded and mixed in about an hour.

RB
 
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LOL! Lenscrafters! :)

Hey RB,

The stereo cut out is really brief right at the beginning. Folks who aren't recording nuts might not even notice it because the second guitar comes back in pretty quick. Because of the hard stereo seperation, though, it stands out. It sounds to me like a playing mistake. :(

One take, eh? I'll be. Was he holding the mic? It does have a bit of a live feel to it, though, so your fans might not mind.

Since you're in the digital editing domain- you might be able to eyeball the wave forms for the vox track and cut it into sections that are about the same volume. Then normalize all those section to -2 dB or so and mix from there.

You might also do some mixer automation and ride that fader. Might be a little less time consuming.

If its your least favorite mix and you only have a few more days, and your ears are fried...you could just leave it off the give-away CD. Depends on your priorities- if its a popular song for your band just tack "demo" or "preproduction mix" to its title and put it on as is. :)

Oh, just a thought: if you have a website or other contact information make sure it gets written on every CD. :) You probably know that already, but you sound fried and I thought I'd remind ya.

Drink water, too. At least as often as you drink coffee. :D

Chris
 
Hi Rue.

I haven't much more to add than what Chris said.
I liked all your work.
It's nothing to be ashamed of.
True, Decatur could use some work, but the rest is great.
 
hmmm

There is one track...not Decatur...I think St. Brigid...where there was a pretty sour note...I faded it down for half a sec. and faded it back up. - it was after the guitars came in and right at the beginning.

I've also moved bass notes, cut out crackles and pops from when a K or C was sung too hard....slid a word back half a syllable so it fit better....the slide guitar on St. Brigid was 5 takes cut and pasted together cause I wanted slide but had never really tried to play it.

also...a bit more info..had to do this in my practice space...so all the fans and gear are running all the time (-30 db) - and we tracked with the drummer mic'd, the bass player DI'd thru a Bass Pod, and our guitars thru Pod/Flexitone gear....lots of those were redone, but some of the clean guitars were kept. That way I had a pretty clean drum track.

Sometimes, I'd start vocals, get a couple and the thrash band next door would start practicing and rattling the room. I'd sit down on the couch in the space and read till it got quiet...also did a lot of stuff between 12 and 3 am. and early Sat. Sun. mornings.


RB
 
It all sounded pretty good Rue.
For a freebie, no one should notice. I didn't.
You would though because you built the songs.
We all tend to see the small errors that most people would over look in our own work.
Good luck on your gig.
let us know how it went and what the reaction, if any, from your fans about the disks.
 
I downloaded "I'm too Tired to Care...".

I listened through headphones and it sounded fine, but then through my speakers (Event Trias) it sounded different. There might be a lesson for me to learn there somewhere, but anyway...

Overall it sounded good. I think most of us would probably be pretty happy with what you did in so short a time. But, I think the lead vocals were a bit high in the mix especially when compared with the backups.

In the speakers there seemed to be a lack of bottom end in everything. The guitars lacked it, the vocals lacked it, the drums and bass lacked it. Everything sounded pretty good, but lacked bottom end. It was weird. Anyway, that can be pretty easily fixed.

Nothing else comes to mind right now. It sounds pretty good, especially in the time you took to record/mix/master it. Since you're giving it away for free I think that's quite a bargain. Make sure you tell us how the gig went.
 
BGV's

A couple of the BGV's were out of tune...but rather then scrap them and hurt feelings and redo them myself (shades of John Fogerty) - I simply left them lower in the mix.

Only happened in a couple of cases.

RB
 
Some decent tunes. The drum sound seems to get better with each song. Are they in the order you recorded them? On song 6 the snare finally sounds pretty decent and the drums sound best overall.

The only thing that was bugging me was some of the guitar tones. It may be the reverb or way you are micing but they sound kinda cheap in some parts. If that makes sense.

Good vocal sound overall and 3,4,6 seemed to sound the best engineering wise.
 
"I'm 2 Tired" sounded good to me; it was clean and had shit going on through the whole thing (stuff to keep the brain googling while also being able to concentrate on other stuff, presumably driving and such). Vocals were a little hot and the rhythm's off to the left without counterbalance... no biggie (sounds fine).

I also listened to "Decatur," since I'm here in Florence (unless there are more "Decatur"s than the one here in Alabama). I think the vocals should be a bit hotter, but not quite as much as in "...2 Tired..." I'd drop the vocals an octave to emphasize work and labor (Johnny Cash it, kinda). But it's fine as is, IMHO.

Yup, sounds good, especially for a week! Looking forward to checking out some more of these soon!
 
gig was last night...successful

Full crowd...all 50 promo CD's given away...massive audience applause thruout the gig.

Hope it translates into increased attendance...who knows.

To answer questions...songs were recorded by songwriter (Hanners tunes first, mine 2nd) - but for some reason, the later tunes did come out better.

Guitar tones...don't know what to say...some of the clean tones are POD tones...some of the guitar solos are POD too...had problem with room noise and stuff rattling....like on Fall into Memphis and St. Brigid...where it sounds like a bit of digital crackle distortion that's actually the florucent light fixture rattling.

It all varied quite a bit...depending on song. Lots of guitars were redone...but yep...lots of POD tones for the clean stuff...rhythm stuff (like on I"m to tired) - were my Gretsch Duo Jet thru a Crate Vintage amp.

Something else has bugged me tho...I like the vocals on most of these, but like the vocals on the first the least.

Only variable...I used Mackie preamps with my NTK for all but the first, where I tried out my new Joe Meek VC1Qcs...not sure it's the stellar piece of equipment I"m dreaming of yet.

FYI - even the Bass was POD'd - but a Bass POD. That's not so unusual tho...most folks go direct anyway

RB
 
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