Been a while. I need to brush up.

R

Relic1882

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So ever since my home studio went underwater about 6 years ago I haven't really been doing much recording. I set up a tiny budget studio in the corner of my bedroom and I wanted to get some feedback on my first real project. I'm using some new techniques this time and I'm pretty sure I'm better prepared than I used to be. I'd love to hear what you guys think of this one. The vocals I think are a little boxy still, and I'm not sure what frequency to slice out to get rid of it. Thanks a bunch!

EDIT: Updated the track. Changed some drum sounds, adjusted some volumes, have a separate reverb channel automated for the lead vocals, gave a little back to the high pass on the guitars and nudged up the bass.
 

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  • High And Mighty 192kbps 11-7-2015.mp3
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Well, first off, I enjoyed the song. Good performances all around.

Curious if you recorded real drums or if they are ITB. Snare sounds flat, like maybe from too much compression. Not a lot of body.

I'm hearing some sub-harmonic freqs. Lots of energy down low.... below 40hz maybe. Not sure. I can't always trust my room, either. It isn't the flattest response below 500hz. But the kick and bass are playing well together. Try to get them to more balanced.

I like the ping pong delay on the vocal, but after a while, it becomes distracting. Try lowering the repeats and/or the send to put it farther back into the mix. Or, try a straight up delay. But that's a personal preference kind of thing.

Sorry you lost your studio to a flood. I'm guessing that was from Sandy...
 
Chili said:
Well, first off, I enjoyed the song. Good performances all around.

Curious if you recorded real drums or if they are ITB. Snare sounds flat, like maybe from too much compression. Not a lot of body.

I'm hearing some sub-harmonic freqs. Lots of energy down low.... below 40hz maybe. Not sure. I can't always trust my room, either. It isn't the flattest response below 500hz. But the kick and bass are playing well together. Try to get them to more balanced.

I like the ping pong delay on the vocal, but after a while, it becomes distracting. Try lowering the repeats and/or the send to put it farther back into the mix. Or, try a straight up delay. But that's a personal preference kind of thing.

Sorry you lost your studio to a flood. I'm guessing that was from Sandy...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I don't have the room in my workspace for a full drum set, so I'm using a Yamaha DD-65 to send MIDI to the DAW. A little quantizing here and there on the main runs to keep it tight.

I actually lost all of my old stuff when we had a huge rain in 2011 at the half double I used to rent. We were on a hill and the place had old mine shafts running underneath that whole side of the street. Water broke through the basement floor and filled the entire basement right up to the first floor. I was lucky enough to save my guitars. because they were floating in their cases.

The more I listen to it the more I can see what you're talking about in the delay and the low end. I think I fried my ears earlier today. It sounded great on my M-Audios, but then when I tried it on the home theatre a couple hours ago it didn't have the same punch or feel at all. The track is pretty raw so I should be able to fix it up nice. Thinking I'll redo the lead vocals just to get some more emotion and punch into it.

Did you hear the boxiness I was talking about? I think it's my room. Before the vocals were terrible sounding because of so much extra noise in the mic bouncing off the walls. I bought one of these on amazon -> https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-602650-Microphone-Isolation-Shield/dp/B00GR9W1MS and it really helps a lot.

Thanks again for the input! I want to get this song as best as I can before I start tracking the other ones in my list.
 
First off great song, I wasn't prepared for that chorus but it was awesome when it came in. I feel like the drums could be more dynamic as the song progresses. More specifically the snare. I heard the boxyness on the vocals but I think the delay bothered me more. Maybe automate the delay on rather than leaving it on for every line thats sung. Please keep us posted as you continue this song though :)
 
yeah the vocal isn't meshing with the track as well as it could be, to my ears. 300-550hz maybe? maybe a touch around 3-5 khz might help brighten it up?

kick and snare could use some adjustments. kick is kinda thuddy. snare is exactly the same on every hit. hats and cymbals sounds good to me. i'd take the above advice and modify that delay. it doesn't need to be everywhere. instead of automating, i'd just make a new track and make it the "vocal delay" track...then copy and paste the original vocal, but remove the lines that won't use it.

final chorus vocal needs level adjusting. quite a few lines pop out too much. great guitar work. :guitar:
 
I liked the lead/riff guitar tone. I thought that was very good. Main rhythm guitars sounded OK when they're playing the single note stuff. When they're hitting the bigger chords, they're a little too far over-driven.

I think the mix could use a little stronger low end - or at least you could turn up the bass.

I personally didn't care for the slap back stuff on the vocal. Maybe just dry it up a little bit.

The kick is a bit flappy. Maybe some cuts in the 600hz range might help. Snare is lacking a little power. You could probably turn down the cymbals/overheads a bit.

There is about 5 seconds of silence at the beginning.
 
I'd reduce the level of the vocal echo and maybe replace it with a reverb during the chorus. I could hear a bit of boxiness on my headphones, it wasn't too noticeable though I think. Song is really cool, everything seems balanced pretty well.
 
Thanks for all the input guys! I'll be working on all of these issues in the next day or so. Work is really busy so I have to make family time. You know how it is. :) I'll let you know as soon as I make necessary changes and I'll definitely repost a new version.
 
Updated the track. Changed some drum sounds, adjusted some volumes, have a separate reverb channel automated for the lead vocals, gave a little back to the high pass on the guitars and nudged up the bass. Thanks again guys!
 

Attachments

  • High And Mighty 192kbps 11-7-2015.mp3
    7.4 MB · Views: 7
I think I hear what you're talking about with "boxiness" on the lead vox. I don't know that I'd call it boxiness per-se, but the vocal is kind of quiet and mid-rangey.
The way you have it set up right now, the vocal tone sounds like a garage rock or white-stripes-esque blues rock thing, but then the arena-rock style guitars kick in. It's a bit of a mis-match. I think you need a lot more high-end on the vocals during the chorus.

The kick is a little underwhelming in the verse. I think it needs more low-end and possibly to come down a touch.

It's a cool song tho. I think you're on to something here with the transition between garage and arena rock and back, but it needs some tightening up.
 
Great tune and arrangement, sorry about your flood damage. Hopefully you can rebuild everything over time.
Vocal reverb and delay seem to be sorted out on the latest version.
Kick - I played around with WMP and reducing somewhere between 5K and 1000K seems to beef it up and reduce the flap. Not sure if a midi can be adjusted though.
Vocal - High and Mighty - it gets shrill on the chorus when you sing this phrase. Maybe some automation and/or eq to tame those particular notes.
I like the get lead vocals even with the snare on my tunes; the snare is a bit louder on the verses. It's subjective so just personal preference there.
:D:D:D:D
 
I think the second mix is a big improvement.

I thought the kick and snare are just a bit loud.

Overall, I don't prefer this much reverb. But that's kind of a personal taste thing.
 
I hear ya. I'll work on these issues as soon as I can. I'm excited about finishing this song. I think I'm going to redo the vocals in it. I think the boxiness and harshness of the voice in some spots is a result of my mic placement. I'm going to overdub some new vocal tracks to see if I can fix it without EQing things too much.

The snare should be the same volume in the verse and chorus. I think it's just how much softer the verses are that make it seem louder. I'm using Addictive Drums so I can fine tune the drums pretty well. I'll just associate all of the drums onto separate midi tracks.

I was trying to use a reverb track and automate it so it was practically dead with the verses and kick it on for the chorus, but after listening to this a lot today at work I agree there is too much in some parts.

I'll repost when I go over these things! I didn't expect to get this version up already but I really wanted to work on it last night.

Thanks again for all of the feedback!
 
For me the vocal is too quiet in the verse and too wet overall. I like the sound of the vocals, just like to hear them dried out. Also the kick is too prominent at the expense of the bass, and it needs more beef imo. Good tune
 
Over all The guitars and vocals seem to far back . Much better when the chorus comes in . Just think it would have a lot more impact if you bump the guitars up . Seems a little dark . Maybe just a bit more verb or room on the snare . Some thing that has helped me a lot is parallel compression . Takes a bit of practice but really makes things present in the mix .
 
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