New to Home Recording

S

sparks127

New member
Hello, all
I'm a newbie and this is my first post. I'd like to get your feedback on two mp3's. These are original songs from our band and our 1st and 2nd attempt at home recording. Our initial goal has likely been met which is to record our original songs to a certain quality we're ok with. Now we'd like to take it further and really get much better at our home recordings. Please take a listen and let me know of anything you notice we need to correct or other suggestions. I'm kind of stuck at the moment. Thanks very much!
Our equipment:
Tascam US1800 interface
Sure SM57s - 1 Beta 52a - 2 Samson CO2 condensers
Cubase 5 LE DAW
Third party VST EQ, mastering plugins



 
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Songs about plankton, eh? Why didn't I think of that? :)

In the first, I think either your kick or your bass guitar (or both) are too loud, too bass-heavy, or both. The guitar might even be a bit loud. Sounds like it's causing some distortion. The first thing you might try is reducing the overall recording level and see if that helps, if you like the current sound-per-instrument ratio.

Do you have the panning a little heavy to the left? Wearing headphones, and I think I'm getting most of the kick and the bass guitar from that side, and some cymbals in my right ear. Seems a little unusual.

Music was nice.

Sorry I don't have the answers for the things I've pointed out. I'm new to this myself and I've been learning things piecemeal as my own issues arise. Someone from here will give you a few tweaks that will sharpen this up substantially.
 
On further review, I'm going to have to suspend my previous comments because I may be having an issue with the sound produced from my computer. Other things I just listened to all had a similar sound to yours, including something I just posted which sounds fine out of my mp3 player.
 
You need some schoolin' on recording electric guitar, I'd suggest. Very muddy and lacking bite and tonally annnoying in places. There are also timing issues throughout both "songs"... particularly the second one when you're trying to jam it up... stuff going everywhere.

What is the guitarist (you?) playing and playing through?

You recorded this live?
 
Yeah, Plankton was the name of our band in the early - mid 90's. We broke up right before SpongeBob came out and messed it all up. haha. We haven't played since until recently.

Thanks for the listen and replies.

The guitar - on the first song our guitar player is playing with a PRS out of a Vox Valvetronix. I just had the amp mic'd up to the Tascam US1800.
On the second, I'm playing guitar with a Godin LG out of a Vox Night Train. Same with the mic. No pedals just amp distortion on both and a little EQ. Now on the second I did experiment with plugging right into the US1800 and working with a guitar effects plugin on a couple of sections. We may can try this route on the entire song if it'll help with the muddiness. It's not recorded live. Drums first, bass track, then guitar. Wonder if I just need to better EQ these? I'm aware of some of the timing issues and will have to redo these at a later date, after I can gain some experience in the sound and make it better.
 
I kind of had the same impressions as the other commentors. The bass is a little too loud. It's also, IMO, a little sterile sounding. Missing some low midrange. Also might have a bit too much attack/click.

I'm also not sure about how far you're going to get with those amps. But typically, amps that "model" 30-40 other amps tend to sound like that Valvetronix you're using. I spent a long time trying to get a Line6 Spider to sound like I wanted and I could never do it.
 
amps that "model" 30-40 other amps tend to sound like that Valvetronix you're using.
Click to expand...

Good info. Thanks. I'll try some different things regarding that. Do you think the Night Train sounded any better (on second song)? Or still pretty much the muddy sound.
 
Where is the amp sitting and what are you miking it with? Where is the mic WRT to the speaker.

There's probably stuff you can do with what you've got to get a better sound, but we'd need to know what you're doing now in more detail.
 
The mic is a SM57 on a kick drum mic stand placed about 2 inches away from the speaker. The amp is pretty low, or not loud, and the input on the US1800 is up to about 6. This places it at -19.02 on the mixer.
 
Kick drum mic stand? Is the amp on the floor? If so, get it up higher - put it on a chair. How is the EQ on the amp set? Try moving the mic laterally against the speaker - ie. closer to the cone / closer to the edge to observe the differences that can make in the recorded sound. In the mix, run a HPF against the guitar track starting at about 50Hz and going up, and listen to what it's doing to the overall sound as you slowly move it...

Trying these various things will head you in the direction of a better sound.. they're all fairly standard "tricks"...
 
Thanks. I'm trying the HPF but not getting it to sound much better. Not that I doubt it can, I think I'll just start from scratch on it and mic it like you mentioned. Appreciate the tips.
 
This track is a trip, because the drummer starts off sounding like a newbie, then does this amazing roll on a breakdown - If you can fix that cheesy hi-hat sound, that would be a start to a better mix.
 
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