little nervous here ...

[lifes_a_fallacy]

ok ... as i admitted recently, i've been a lurker around here for a few years. I've learned most of my limited knowledge from this website, to be honest ... and this is one of my first posts, and centainly my first time sharing anything ...

now .. this track has two areas that i'm needing input on - and the rest is junk that i KNOW i'm replacing. The drums are thrown together and so is the bass. (no vocals yet ... i'm dreading that too)

My two main concerns are
1. The main guitar parts (verse and chorus) i really like the tone i caught that night - but i'm new to the 0dbVU=-18dbFS and i'm having trouble eyeing the FS meters in cubase, so i'm afraid my tracks might still be too hot (i KNOW they're too hott on the drums and bass, so don't bother)

So, the question on that is - am i too hot? B/c if not i'd like to keep those tracks and sculpt the rest of the song around those guitar sounds. Are they salvagable?

2. The arrangement of the end (outro leadish) guitar parts: There are actually 5 guitar parts going on there. One is the normal front and center, one is the acoustic playing over (the acoustic track is junk just sitting in as temp) and then there are the three wierd guitar parts. The two "sharper" tracks are panned stereo, and there is a muddy overly distorted part in the very background in the middle.

I like the eerie/different sound/mood this arrangement at the end gives off ... but i'm having a bit of trouble deciding how to mix it. I'm guessing i need to bring all of those down quite a bit to be tasteful?



Again .. this is my first time sharing ... so don't kill me

 

[lifes_a_fallacy]

also .. there isn't a single Cubase EQ or plug-in on this mix .. these are dry tracks

 

[minofifa]

wow. that sucked, dont waste our time. Just kidding man, that sounds pretty good to me. What are the guitar tracks looking like in your sequencer? I can kindof hear them clipping. If that is the case, then ya, you'll probably have to scrap them. You could consider doubling them up and put the better take at louder volume. There is a part in the middle with acoustic guitar that sounds a bit out of tune. The quality of the bass and drums sound fine to me though. I like the buildup at the end.

 

[XLR]

Welcome life's a fallacy.

That's a beautiful gtr tone in the opening section. That part of the song, and its repetitions are quite excellent. Drums and bass have good sound quality. All in all the whole track has very effective arranging.

At :32 I like the idea of a sudden contrast. The new guitar tone isn't working as well though, IMO - some clipping going on, it sounds like. The treble strings of the gtr sound just a bit out of tune and the rhythm's not as tight as the first section.

1:02 - Ahh, the pretty part comes back... nice. It'll be great with a vocal. Really nice interaction between the gtr and bass line.

1:59 - The acoustic adds a nice touch in the arrangement. Sounds like it was tracked direct? A more realistic mic'd tone would fit in there perfectly I think.

2:29 - Good intensity in the arrangement for the ending. Some of the guitars are getting very processed sounding there, almost keyboard-like. I'm imagining the parts working well with just a simple "sm57 on the grill" lead tone with a naturally saturated amp sound. Just my own taste.

i'm having trouble eyeing the FS meters in cubase, so i'm afraid my tracks might still be too hot

I hear you. One of the big challenges in self-recording. So just use 24 bits, set the levels so peaks are hitting nowhere near full scale while tracking, maybe -10 to -20 dB on the meters, then raise the file's level later. That's pretty much what I do, as I usually record myself playing in a different room about 100 ft from my tracking computer.

Tim

 

[lifes_a_fallacy]

hey, thanks for the feedback!

yeah - you're right about the "chorus" guitar. Its a bit harsh. The tone on the first part is the thing i'm really attatched to, and i'm glad you like it.

I'm surprised, though, that you liked the bass line at all - i just kind of threw that in as an afterthought without any real effort. I'll maybe see if there is somethign usable there. The drums are just my Roland TD-3 plugged into my preamp - i'm gonna try and find a real drummer to do it for me.

yes, the acoustic was tracked direct just to have it there for now. I plan on micing it with my Rode Nt5 when i get around to it. I usually get a good sound out of that.

Every guitar part at the end, as you called it, is processed. The lead there was an afterthought as well, honestly. So i just had a crappy processor plugged in direct. I think i want to keep the VERY processed sound - the lowest one - just for the odd flavor. I think, together, they almost resemble a snyth-ish sound. But you're right - redoing the others with a more organic sound a la 57 would probably do wonders.

Thanks for the feedback!

and in terms of meters in cubase - is there no plug in of any kind that can meter more accuratly incoming signal while its NOT being recorded? for kind of setting levels visually???

thanks again!