First recording, need feedback to grow on.

[Tele The Truth]

This is the first recording I've made in my fledgling home studio. I realise that there is going to be a lot to pick apart here, so please be constructive! I would like to hear what I did wrong or need to change as well as what I've done right to build upon. I didn't worry about the playing much, so please excuse the flubs in the performance.

My studio consists of a tascam 4 track(casette), sm57, MXL990, ART tubepac preamp, an old mixing board I found in the trash and use just for the reverb in the effects loop, an Optimus(radio shack) 10 band EQ for final "mastering" and an old sony tapedeck for recording the finished product.

Thanks for listening!

Song Link

 

[andyhix]

I really dig that guitar groove. Nice playing. The bass sounds a little wierd, but I can't put my finger on the prob, at least not on my crappy comp. speakers. It almost sounds a bit rubbery. I know - that really helps, eh? Otherwise, sounds real good. Especially for a 4-tk. Those things can produce some real impressive results when used properly.

 

[DRUM]

Have you ever considered to speed up you drum beats 2X?
What I mean is just to change drum track. Don't speed up enything else.

I don't have any comment for mix yet. PC speakers , you know.

 

[Tele The Truth]

I really dig that guitar groove. Nice playing. The bass sounds a little wierd, but I can't put my finger on the prob, at least not on my crappy comp. speakers. It almost sounds a bit rubbery. I know - that really helps, eh? Otherwise, sounds real good. Especially for a 4-tk. Those things can produce some real impressive results when used properly.

Wow man, thanks for the feedback.

As for the bass, a buddy I jam with had it sitting in his basement so I asked him if I could borrow it to do the track. It needed a little TLC before it would produce any sound, but I got it working. It a 'lotus' bass which is about as inexpensive as you can get, so I'm thinking that may have contributed to lack or sound quality. To record it, I just plugged it into the ART preamp and then Eq'd it on the board.

 

[crowning]

This is the first recording I've made in my fledgling home studio. I realise that there is going to be a lot to pick apart here, so please be constructive!

Here we go

- some parts are clipping: reduce the overall level
- it sounds completely mono. Try to pan some of the instruments over the
stereo range to create more room, e.g. bass and drums in the middle,
one guitar more left, one more right, ...
- you have a lot of noise in your song. Record some silence before each
track. When you process the track on a PC, you can use this silence
(which contains the tape hiss only) to make a noise sample which is very
helpfull for noise-removal programs/plug-ins.

Overall, I like the song, nice guitar playing. The drums are a little bit
static, some fills would help there. The same for the bass.

Good luck and have fun.
Tom

 

[Tele The Truth]

Have you ever considered to speed up you drum beats 2X?
What I mean is just to change drum track. Don't speed up enything else.

I don't have any comment for mix yet. PC speakers , you know.

I never considered that. I programmed it on my drum machine at 118bpm, so would I just up the tempo to 236bpm? I guess I could try that at home and play along to it. I'm not sure I could 'sync' a new track in there though without having it a little bit off, but I could try.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Tele The Truth]

Here we go

- some parts are clipping: reduce the overall level
- it sounds completely mono. Try to pan some of the instruments over the
stereo range to create more room, e.g. bass and drums in the middle,
one guitar more left, one more right, ...
- you have a lot of noise in your song. Record some silence before each
track. When you process the track on a PC, you can use this silence
(which contains the tape hiss only) to make a noise sample which is very
helpfull for noise-removal programs/plug-ins.

Overall, I like the song, nice guitar playing. The drums are a little bit
static, some fills would help there. The same for the bass.

Good luck and have fun.
Tom

Thanks, that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for!

One question though regarding the hiss. I'm working off of a casette 4-track, not a pc based or digital platform. I tried to get the levels as hot as I could and actually had a mix where there was no hiss, however there was some serious clipping going on. I tried to bring down the overall level as well as doing some serious subtractive eq. It seems the more I bring the levels down, the more hiss that appears. Am I approaching this the right way?

Thanks.

 

[DRUM]

I never considered that. I programmed it on my drum machine at 118bpm, so would I just up the tempo to 236bpm? I guess I could try that at home and play along to it. I'm not sure I could 'sync' a new track in there though without having it a little bit off, but I could try.

Thanks for the feedback.

I ment You could try to have drum beats playing Kick-Snare-Kick Snare insted of just Kick-snare. Length of the the track should be the same. It should not be any problem with "sync". Those beats matches pretty well.
Off course bass is to be recorded again to match rhythm section.

I tried to imagine your song in that way. It will be sound too country but anyway... I would do something with drum track. It doesn't feel right.

It sounds like band with GOOD guitar player and little boy trying to hit the drum.

 

[crowning]

Thanks, that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for!

One question though regarding the hiss. I'm working off of a casette 4-track, not a pc based or digital platform. I tried to get the levels as hot as I could and actually had a mix where there was no hiss, however there was some serious clipping going on. I tried to bring down the overall level as well as doing some serious subtractive eq. It seems the more I bring the levels down, the more hiss that appears. Am I approaching this the right way?

Thanks.

To avoid hiss (or more precise, the percentage of hiss in a recording) record
each track individually as hot as possible without any clipping or tape
saturation (unless it's wanted as an effect).

When you mix all the tracks down to stereo double check your meters again,
because the sum of all the tracks will most probably clip on your target
recorder.

Tom

 

[Tele The Truth]

To avoid hiss (or more precise, the percentage of hiss in a recording) record
each track individually as hot as possible without any clipping or tape
saturation (unless it's wanted as an effect).

When you mix all the tracks down to stereo double check your meters again,
because the sum of all the tracks will most probably clip on your target
recorder.

Tom

I recorded my tracks as hot as I could without clipping the tape. I'm thinking now that I should have used some compression when recording the guitar to keep the level more balanced and in check so I could run it hotter without clipping the upper frequencies. That may have helped the leveling/clipping problems as well as the hiss.

 

[espskully]

Cool riff - some nice playing. The drums are all wrong though, and the bass needs some punch. You need a more solid, aggressive drum beat to create a groove. Nice tone on the guitars.