Mixed from Korg to Fostex MR8 - a test of a jam - "Quick Jam 69"

I really like the groove. Are the drums real?
The guitar sounds fuzzy and thin.

Yeah, I always listen to a CD in the truck.

Sounds like you're having fun with the new toy. Enjoy!

G
 
gmiller1122 said:
I really like the groove. Are the drums real?
The guitar sounds fuzzy and thin.

Yeah, I always listen to a CD in the truck.

Sounds like you're having fun with the new toy. Enjoy!

G
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yea, real drums, do they sound good enough to be a machine or sample? That would be a complement to my drumming that I wouldn't have expected. But I'm sure I did it to a click track, I don't think I could do it without one for that long.

The guitar, I just was listening in the car, and it's way out front, maybe too out front, it's amazing what you realize on different speakers and systems, it sounded burried on my home stereo, odd. I think I'll pull it back a bit.

As far as thin, I have to check again, I don't think I eq'd it, but it is going thru a tube preamp driven. I did use 2 mics and 2 tracks and one track had a lot more bite, the other was darker I might try it with more of the darker track.

Thanks for listening. It may be a while before I remix.
 
Rokket said:
Everything is mixed onboard the Mr-8? Just curious...
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I guess I should've explained it a little more, I recorded on the Korg, and decided to externally mix to the MR8 thru an EQ and Compressor.

So I just used the MR8 to mix down to. Then the convert 7/8 to st. wave, and then usb to pc and pop on cd and freeware wave to mp3, a few more steps than just using the Korg w/ cdr in it.

Of course now I have to mix in the Korg and make a cd in it for comparison. Then put it in pc and cop it, convert it....

The mp3 file has less bottom on it and something else subtle that I have to listen to on better speaks, I guess I'll have to patch the pc out to the stu. mon. and stereo.
 
junplugged said:
I guess I should've explained it a little more, I recorded on the Korg, and decided to externally mix to the MR8 thru an EQ and Compressor.

So I just used the MR8 to mix down to. Then the convert 7/8 to st. wave, and then usb to pc and pop on cd and freeware wave to mp3, a few more steps than just using the Korg w/ cdr in it.

Of course now I have to mix in the Korg and make a cd in it for comparison. Then put it in pc and cop it, convert it....

The mp3 file has less bottom on it and something else subtle that I have to listen to on better speaks, I guess I'll have to patch the pc out to the stu. mon. and stereo.
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I noticed it didn't have much bottom, but it still sounded balanced. I think that's more your mixng than the MR-8, because I can get some serious bottom end out of DI'ing my bass. The mp3 probably suffered some in the encoding.
 
I thought I had too much low in the mix anyway, and it looked like the display - not sure how accurate it is - trimmed down the lowest bar on the mp3. But I didn't listen thru the monitors yet, I did it today, posted, and had to go out. It's 2a.m now so I'll patch in the pc after a few hours of zzzz's.

I'll try another mix at some point but not going to do too much with this, I have to work on a song, get that started up again, actually, I was just clearing the hard drive for the next project and I found this jam and figured I'd test some mixes before removing it, see what happens, I got side tracked....
 
junplugged said:
I thought I had too much low in the mix anyway, and it looked like the display - not sure how accurate it is - trimmed down the lowest bar on the mp3. But I didn't listen thru the monitors yet, I did it today, posted, and had to go out. It's 2a.m now so I'll patch in the pc after a few hours of zzzz's.

I'll try another mix at some point but not going to do too much with this, I have to work on a song, get that started up again, actually, I was just clearing the hard drive for the next project and I found this jam and figured I'd test some mixes before removing it, see what happens, I got side tracked....
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LOL! That happens to me all the damn time! In my case, I will start out intending to track one song and end up with something totally to the left of what I had intended... Unless I am doing a cover for someone in the family...
Writing my own stuff, I become my worst critic...
 
I just got a practice pad and a metronome, there's times at work when I have to wait so I might as well use it for something, it was smaller than a guitar and not as fragile.

I'll try to mix this again today after the girl leaves, gonna see Ray on DVD and I'll mix again before sleep, but I didn't save my settings, or record it on MIDI, so it might be a bit different, I think I can remeber tho, it's only 4 parts....was going to do it earlier, but I had to work out, time is a killer.
 
Get that bass up in there! And pan some, will yas'?? I hear everything...and I mean EVERYTHING...in the center of the soundstage. Guitar is thin and fuzzy. Nice jam, otherwise. ---Lee
 
SOUND DIAGNOSIS said:
Get that bass up in there! And pan some, will yas'?? I hear everything...and I mean EVERYTHING...in the center of the soundstage. Guitar is thin and fuzzy. Nice jam, otherwise. ---Lee
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Thanks for the listen and response.

I think what I did was to bring the lead guitar so high, that I had to back off everything else. I don't really know how to mix yet, I wanted to feature the acoustic guitar since I'll be doing that with other mixes, b/c I want an acoustic feel - this one tho, was just a jam but I tried to go in that direction.

The trouble is that when boosting the ac/gt, it makes the rhythm or backing louder, so I took the drums down a bit since I'm not going for the hardness, but I liked the soloing so that was up too - I basically have a conflict of interest inthe mix of what to highlight. Normally, of course, it would be the vocal, but since there is none, I figured I'd feature the electric.

I guess in the process of trying to keep it less hard rocking, I lost the drums and with that went the bass. So as I'm typing this, what I'll do it just mix it the way it wants to go, the way it was when I was jamming the electric and that's pretty rocking so I'll take the ac/gt down, up the bass and drums.

As far as panning, my drum track is 2 mics, 2 tracks and separating them was putting the kik and snare apart, so I kept them centered. The ac/guitar is stereo 2 tracks, so I panned them hard for stereo separation. Doesn't bass go center? Having one lead instrument, leaves me with panning off to one side a little, but then it's unbalanced -- ok, I'll put the acoustic off center and balance it w/ the lead, what's my other choices, really? -j.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
what did you mic the guitar with? thats the kinda sound I get when trying to mic my amp with my MXL990. I need a sm57.
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since this was a super quick jam b/c I guess i was in the mood - oh I remember, i was jamming some famous chord progressions and liked how they fit, liked the strumming groove and put it down.

So since i was working fast, I didn't set up a sm57, I had an Oktava mk012 and a Berry B5 w/ omni cap sitting there and hooked em in. the mk to the vtb1 and the b5 to the presonous, I also see in the log that I had compression 4:1 on both channels.... Each track is very different. One has additional distortion from the preamp, that was a cool effect, it gets really harsh and funky. I also had a pre into the amp that was over driven....

Each track also ended up having different eq. One's low, other crispy high. It's amazing how chaning the levels on them changes the whole mix - I'm thinking now that I forgot to check the phase, maybe that's a problem, I'll check it out....

Appreciate all the listening and commenting - thanks. - j.
 
Good stuff man! I like it. It has a nice loose groove and is much more inspired than a lot of other stuff on here. Well, actually I like the "slow-rock test of new gear" best. It sounds like Brian Jonestown Massacre.
 
mcolling said:
Good stuff man! I like it. It has a nice loose groove and is much more inspired than a lot of other stuff on here. Well, actually I like the "slow-rock test of new gear" best. It sounds like Brian Jonestown Massacre.
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Hey, thanks. That one has a organ from my keyboard and it was a suprise how much of an impact that little drone sound has on the recording. It really makes a mark on it. So when I changed it around and started throwing poorly executed blues runs on it, it stood out too much, but loose is definitely the word.

When I jam like that, for a test, I barely remember the progression I used and I'm fumbling for the right notes when doing the next overdub, it's funny and you can hear me making mistakes, I don't have the time to fix it when the point was to test some gear or a mix or something; still fun though.

The one thing I've learned from the messy jams is that I might want to include some kind of jam in some of my productions b/c it loosens it up a bit and adds a fun element.

So now I can delete and get on with the acutal 'song' projects....

I have to look up Brian Jonestown Massacre, never heard it, cool comments - j.
 
junplugged said:
Thanks for the listen and response.

I think what I did was to bring the lead guitar so high, that I had to back off everything else. I don't really know how to mix yet, I wanted to feature the acoustic guitar since I'll be doing that with other mixes, b/c I want an acoustic feel - this one tho, was just a jam but I tried to go in that direction.

The trouble is that when boosting the ac/gt, it makes the rhythm or backing louder, so I took the drums down a bit since I'm not going for the hardness, but I liked the soloing so that was up too - I basically have a conflict of interest inthe mix of what to highlight. Normally, of course, it would be the vocal, but since there is none, I figured I'd feature the electric.

I guess in the process of trying to keep it less hard rocking, I lost the drums and with that went the bass. So as I'm typing this, what I'll do it just mix it the way it wants to go, the way it was when I was jamming the electric and that's pretty rocking so I'll take the ac/gt down, up the bass and drums.

As far as panning, my drum track is 2 mics, 2 tracks and separating them was putting the kik and snare apart, so I kept them centered. The ac/guitar is stereo 2 tracks, so I panned them hard for stereo separation. Doesn't bass go center? Having one lead instrument, leaves me with panning off to one side a little, but then it's unbalanced -- ok, I'll put the acoustic off center and balance it w/ the lead, what's my other choices, really? -j.
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Sometimes mixing yourself can be like that. You get too close to the material since it's you. It's best to either let someone else mix it, or just keep the word "BALANCE" on a sticky pad posted on the wall behind your monitor. I had that problem when I first started out. I found a good article on mixing (Bruce's article is pretty good too), I'll see if I can find it again and post it here for you. I have it on my favorites at home, but I am at work...
 
Brian Jonestown Massacre

mcolling said:
Good stuff man! I like it. It has a nice loose groove and is much more inspired than a lot of other stuff on here. Well, actually I like the "slow-rock test of new gear" best. It sounds like Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Click to expand...
Wow, Brian Jonestown Massacre is around now, I thought I was listening to something from a loooooong time ago, then I go to the web site and they're young and touring! Sounds cool, vintage, c. 1967?
 
Rokket said:
Sometimes mixing yourself can be like that. You get too close to the material since it's you. It's best to either let someone else mix it, or just keep the word "BALANCE" on a sticky pad posted on the wall behind your monitor. I had that problem when I first started out. I found a good article on mixing (Bruce's article is pretty good too), I'll see if I can find it again and post it here for you. I have it on my favorites at home, but I am at work...
Click to expand...
Sometimes I listen to stuff on CD and it's all kind of subconscious, then you get a little more focused and realize stuff like,the tambourine is the loudest part of the mix, or the handclaps, sometimes some stuff sticks way out and you wonder, why?

Some pro mixes are wacky or gutsy, I can't decide. Bruce who?
 
Whoa, this sucks. Well, you wanted the attention.

Seriously though, the performace issues are many. First the drums are whacky, not tight and way too much going on in the highs. The guitar is played sloppy as hell and you go places that are scary with it. The whole things sounds like it's clipping and hashy. That lead is horrid and chopped up.
Ouch, if you had a vocal you could see how bad the mistakes are in comparison, the singing could never hide this bad music.
Not so great.
 
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