My demo for people to learn songs to

C

Captain Ego

New member
Hey guys. It's been a while. Real life job hunting and crummy crowds at open mic have left this guy a little stretched... but I recorded these things in the last few months, if anyone would care to give a listen. Particularly "Girl" and "Conquer" are the ones I think I got the mixes best of the lot. It's mostly done in a basement laundromat with my 8 track, or a train tunnel with a porta-handheld-recorder thingy layering over back vocals. I'm not sure what I want here, suggestions for mixing... song structures... yeah I just want to know someone hears it and might have input. It's just me, I can't find peeps to play with around here no matter how far I look.. everybody either already has their own band, their own life issues, or their own ego to satisfy... so I just filled in the gaps myself.

Captain Ego and the Minions | Facebook
 
I'm listening to Conquer at the moment - I like where you're going and I like lofi, but the mix needs a lot of work I think. The vocals have got a fair amount of sibilance going on and sometimes they're buried/sometimes they're poking out too much. I think you need to de-ess and add some compression to even them out (if your setup allows). The instruments all sound a bit small in the mix too.

Your working method is kind of intriguing. Maybe you could keep tracking things as you do, but then export each track to something like Reaper and mix/compress/eq from in there? You could get your levels up and the blend better.

Your stuff's fun though Captain
 
I honestly didn't like the sound of this, i think you must work on the drums, try triggers to improve the sound. Did you recorded with 2 or 3 mics?, this wont help at all if you want to make a nice demo, so my suggestion is go for the triggers or just get Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums, BFD 2 or whatever gives you a cleaner drum sound... this will improve your sound and give you more flexibility in the mix.

For the rest, because i'm hearing with my awefull laptop speakers i couldn't notice if you recorded 2 guitars or just one, i'm pretty shure you didn't pan them a lot. The thing is, if you want a nice guitar sound, you have to record 2 guitar tracks exactely equals and pan them 90L/R.

Well that's what i can tell from now. Keep going, the tunes are nice.

Keep rocking!
 
I listened to Conquer - The whole song sounds like it was recorded live with one mic in the room, the drums are waaaaay back there. It's a very raw live sound. If it wasnt for the panned guitars I'd think that's what it was for sure. You're recording drums and guitar in laundromats and train tunnels? wat?
 
I really like your stuff. It's very refreshing. I read your blurb on your page and I like your philosophy. I don't like too much polish, but I don't have enough attitude to do what you do, so I resort to layering, editing and retracking. I think if you start using triggers and doing too much layering I think it would miss the point. It has a lot of passion.
 
Wow thanks for giving it a listen guys... I dunno so much about the drum programming thing I would be afraid it wouldn't sound real and I really don't have triggers or a way to implement them anyway. As reply to a few questions, some of the songs were mic up with a cheapo dynamic right and left to the kick drum pointing at the floor from slightly above the top of it, (same way I did the guitar amp)... with 1 roving mic I would spin on its stand from centered on the guitar amp or on the front of the kick drum, and an overhead condenser hanging above the whole thing... other drum tracks were done with "recorderman" with 2 dynamics (probably the ones you thought sounded way in the back) and others did kick/snare/rack/floor and just let the cymbals bleed in and mixed it mono. Backing vocals were done in a long high ceilinged tunnel where I pointed the mic away and got as far back as possible with the headphone chord and just shouted em so they could echo around into the mic. The laundry room thing isnt so much by choice as the place I can stash my stuff. Usually its quiet but occasionally the rumble comes through. I will try doubling and cleaning the guitar bits next. Thanks for giving it a listen and your thoughts.
 
"If you like what you hear, that's why I'm here" I like that. I'm not one to harp on audio quality, especially for the genre and the fact that it's a demo. The style of music implies imperfection, even harnesses it. While you as the listener may not get the impression that what you're hearing was polished over and over, you do get the impression that you're witnessing firsthand sonic experimentation. I like it for those qualities that throws it over the edge of "normality". The work as a whole, I think, really recalls a Meat Puppets album... the live set called Acoustic/Electric. Simple, to the point, good old rock 'n' freak'n roll. Nice work man.
 
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