Please critique this mix/master.

S

sparks127

New member
Hey all.
This is another attempt at home recording from a newbie (me).
I posted this song a while back in case it may be familiar to some and got some great feedback on the guitar. Please let me know what you think in general or if you hear anything I may be way off on.
Thanks.
 
The guitar is way, way too loud for me, and it doesn't sound to be happening in any sort of space at all. It's as dry as dry can be, as if it's been recorded straight out of your amp's D.I., which is never a good sound. If you have any sort of ambience, get it on there - it doesn't have to be a big hall or anything like that, just something that makes the thing not jarring to the ear. When the lead sound comes in, I'm sorry, but it's positively nasty! Just a dreadful "straight out of the pedal" sound.:D

On a positive note, what you're actually playing sounds pretty good, and the bass has a great tone behind all that guitar grot. I hope you're not offended by the criticisms, they're meant to be helpful, but the sound of the guitar is pretty unlistenable as is. :)
 
No, not offended at all. I've obviously not learned anything about the guitar sound. :)
I'll try adding some depth. This guitar sound has killed us the past couple of months. Thanks for the tips.
 
sparks127 said:
No, not offended at all. I've obviously not learned anything about the guitar sound. :)
I'll try adding some depth. This guitar sound has killed us the past couple of months. Thanks for the tips.
Click to expand...

How are you recording it? I can give you much better advice with that information! It sounds like you're not using a mic at all, am I correct?
 
You are correct. We started out with the mic (sm57)but couldn't make the sound very good so we plugged straight in to the Tascam us1800 with minimal effects.
Here is our original take with the amp mic'd up.



There are obviously problems there too (not including timing issues and bass too loud, etc) We originally had the amp on the floor, but later raised it up. We also experimented with different mic positions. We decided to plug straight in and try to fix it from there. I have some room/chamber/hall style plugins I can add to it that may help. We hear that the Vox valvetronix modeling amp the guitarist originally used could be part of the problem. I have a Vox Night Train that sounds pretty good. We haven't tried that yet.
 
Drums are not good at all.. the cymbals are way shrill.

Your rhythm guitar has an intonation problem as well as having that harsh britlle sound bubba was alluding to. If you turned it down, shelved off some mid-highs somewhere, doubled the part and stuck them left and right and had some singing, you may get away with it, but better to just use an amp, or a better amp - how's it being recorded? And doing it that way wouldn't cure your intonation issue.

The lead tone is simply "take your head off" awful - apart from the transition from an average rhythm sound to a truly awful lead sound being somewhat jarring anwyay. That is just not how a lead guitar should sound - fizzy, no body, shrill, way over cooked -like a really bad sim - but work on getting a decent rhtyhm sound first and then use something to get you a more "leady" variation of that basic sound, perhaps - don't change amp sims completely or whatever you've done... and unless you're planning on being a power trio, keep playing the rhythm underneath and do lead separately on top later.

Now, apart from all that, the tune plods along like an rheumatic old donkey, with variable timing issues here and there - it would benefit from being just a tadge faster perhaps and some tighter playing.

You gotta start somewhere, so don't be disheartened, but there are some basics you need to work on. I'd chalk it up to experience, throw it all away and start again...

Good luck. Report back.. :thumbs up:
 
Just listened to your first take - I just don't like the fundamental sound you're using. Dial back the preamp distortion, use a cleaner sound and more volume with your SM57. Keep the amp off the floor, try moving the mike parallel to the speaker from the edge out to the centre to hear the difference the postion makes. There's a better sound in there somewhere.

And in your original post probably your low E string is out of tune as well.
 
sparks127 said:
You are correct. We started out with the mic (sm57)but couldn't make the sound very good so we plugged straight in to the Tascam us1800 with minimal effects.
Click to expand...

Well it's not the mic, unless it's broken. The SM57 is , for better or worse, an "industry standard" for recording electric guitar, right up to the top flight studios. There are some basics to address.

1. Tune and intonate your guitars. This is easier if you have new, properly fitted and stretched strings.

2. Plug the guitar into the amp and get a good sound from it, one that you want to capture on your recording.

3. Put your mic in front of the amp, up close. You should experiment with mic placement, but as a general guide, your mic should point at a spot halfway between the dust cap and the edge of the cone.

4. Play the guitar and set up the record level so that it's somewhere around -12 dB.

If you follow these steps and it still sounds shite, then you have one of the steps wrong. It will probably be step #2.

Then, when you have a decent guitar sound, use your ears to balance it with the other instruments. Listen carefully and decide whether you can hear all the parts in the balance that you want.

This is just the basics. :)

One point I ought to make is that your ears really don't like to hear a guitar without some kind of room sound blended in with it. This can be a digital reverb or a real room. I would experiment with your digital reverb, it's easier. Try a small-to medium sized Hall reverb blended in with the sound, not too loud - your ears will thank you and the guitar will sound 100% more "real".
 
Agreed to all the above. The cymbals like they are a super low quality...like A.M. radio quality. lol good start on the song structure.
 
On the guitar - I liked your mic'd amp sound better than the DI'd sound. It could probably use just a bit more gain and a bit more treble. What amp was it?

Bass is a little boomy. Like some low end frequency is out of control. If you have any EQ boosts in the low end, I'd remove them. If you don't, I might suggest trying to notch out 3-4 dbs somewhere in the 80hz-160hz range.
 
Bruthish said:
Agreed to all the above. The cymbals like they are a super low quality...like A.M. radio quality. lol good start on the song structure.
Click to expand...
I've EQ'd the heck out of these and can't find much that sounds good to me either. By themselves with no other tracks they do sound pretty rough but thought they sounded decent enough in the mix. What would you suggest? I'm using 2 Samson CO2 condenser's. They are the only mics capturing the cymbals. The cymbals themselves are Zildjian Custom A's.
 
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TripleM said:
On the guitar - I liked your mic'd amp sound better than the DI'd sound. It could probably use just a bit more gain and a bit more treble. What amp was it?

Bass is a little boomy. Like some low end frequency is out of control. If you have any EQ boosts in the low end, I'd remove them. If you don't, I might suggest trying to notch out 3-4 dbs somewhere in the 80hz-160hz range.
Click to expand...

I took out some dbs on the low end but it probably wasn't enough. I'll do that. Thanks. The amp is a Vox Valvetronix. I've heard modeling amps may not be the best to record with. I will try different locations on the amp and different mic locations on the speaker. I have a Vox Night Train that is just a straight up tube amp. I will try that as well. Earlier on I got so much negative response on the mic'd up guitar that I went the opposite direction :) Thanks for your help everyone.
 
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