New Hard Rock Tune "Closer To Hell", Sound Feedback

M

monkeymanx

New member
I've been out of the game for awhile and am finally getting back with doing things here. A lot of my VST plug ins now are either lower cost or free solutions. It feels great making music again, I just have to stay away from gear this time to stop the buying and selling cycle.

Here is a direct link to the song on my soundclick page:

Closer To Hell

Anyway, let me know what you think.
 
Nice tight playing! Nice mix! Nice arrangement!
Kick and snare seem kind of thin and dry.
A real drummer would rock this out and really be a great addition to the song!!
Bass seems eq'd to the high side. May need some bottom on it.
Song title give me the creeps!! No place I wanna get close to!!:eek:
Nice work!;)
 
r4m said:
Nice tight playing! Nice mix! Nice arrangement!
Kick and snare seem kind of thin and dry.
A real drummer would rock this out and really be a great addition to the song!!
Bass seems eq'd to the high side. May need some bottom on it.
Song title give me the creeps!! No place I wanna get close to!!:eek:
Nice work!;)
Click to expand...

I actually did play drums on it. I triggered Superior 2 via my Roland TD-9. For the kick and snare I EQ the boxiness out of it if that makes sense. I don't think I can add any more low end to either to thicken them up. I have a snare reverb going to, lightly of course on a send. I'll take a listen again through my monitors though.

The damn pick ups in my bass naturally bring out the stringy noise high end in it. They are those Bartoloni MK1 pick ups. I probably should revisit the EQ on the bass and tone down the high and boost the low a tad. I actually do a pass around 140hz or so, just so the bass is hard and not boomy. I also do a boost there. I just hate the muddy bass sound.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
Yea, Actually mix opinions are like noses, everybody has one of his own!
That is just my personal opinion. Your mix sounds good. I was actually nit picking. I have a tendancy to make my bass boomy. So your preference is probably on the oposite end of the spectrum compared to mine.;)

Yea, I know what ya mean by triggered samples. If you have the seperate tracks for each drum you could fatten the snare and kick up somehow.
There again....just my personal preferance.

Definitely a good sounding track and good playing! I like your style!
 
The bass is pretty cool - could use some bottom - it sounds a bit Ricky scooped at present.
It's a bit FUNKY in the Faith No More sense - some of the vox get there too!
The playing of drums sound fine it's the samples that sound clicky digital.
This is pretty good stuff nevertheless.
 
rayc said:
The bass is pretty cool - could use some bottom - it sounds a bit Ricky scooped at present.
It's a bit FUNKY in the Faith No More sense - some of the vox get there too!
The playing of drums sound fine it's the samples that sound clicky digital.
This is pretty good stuff nevertheless.
Click to expand...

When I EQ my low end I either over do it or under do it. I think it has something to do with my monitors being the 5" versions. When I had 8" monitors I had a better idea of what was going on with the low frequencies.

I wouldn't say the clicky is a digital sound really, it's the sort of modern metal style of drums. Even when I had my old Gretsch kit it would sound similar to this. Actually even my last acoustic which was a DW Collector's Classic sounded similar. I do like the flexibility of vdrums now though vs my acoustic kits especially since I don't have to worry about sound isolation and the noises around the house like the kids watching Spongebob and then my snare has that damn laughing in the back ground lol.
 
Spongebob'd snare - hmm ...could be a numetal standard!
The post Madchester rock world pushes the bottom end a lot harder than prior. Pre Happy Mondays a big bottom and was akin to incorporating disco.
And then came disco Kiss! How non disco does that sound now?
 
Crankin high energy, I like the vocals especially that you mixed em so you can easily make out the words and they still sit nice in the mix. The only comment I have is too much click/top on the kick drum. Nice work.
 
Pretty cool, has a kind of AIC vibe to it. The mix is good, everything is clearly evident. The only thing bugging me is the samples you're using - the kick has too much slap, not enough thud. The arrangement is good, and I like that part at around 1.58 where you double up the beat. I think you could make that more effective with a little 1/2 bar gap in the drums just before it, kind of crash, pause, then into the double
 
The kick clicky slap noise is just how I EQ'ed it. Without the boosts I did it isn't as clicky. I just like the click noise for some reason. I may try dialing a little bit back on it and boosting the low end a tad still but I gotta have my click noise.

Bulls Hit, I hear what you are saying, a stop before the solo part. I'm hearing it in my head but I kind of like it how it is, mainly because I have a couple other stops in the song and I just don't want to over do it.

Thanks for all the feedback. I am probably going to re track vocals some time. I'm going to build one of those poor man's vocal enclosures where you put the foam in a 1 foot cube. I was also thinking of putting 2 big 2' squares behind me to mounted on a music stand or mic stand to get rid of reflections... I guess that would be the poor man's real traps. Looks like foambymail.com is cheap enough to do all this stuff. Anyway, I think it will help thicken up my vocals naturally.
 
I updated my mix and tweaked the low frequencies on the bass guitar. I also evened out the kick drum a bit with a bit more low end and tad less click. I adjusted the vocal levels slightly too.
 
I love your guitar tone. Perfect for this music. This reminds me like a mix of 90's era grunge with Black Label Society.

Great playing, great vocals, great mix.

Sorry I can't add anything useful :P
 
I haven't listened to tunes in the clinic in a quite a while, so this is the first from a long break. Wasn't disappointed!!! The song kicks. Good tight playing, high energy.

I only listened to the latest mix, but to me, it's dialed in. Good click on the kick and a solid thump, typical for the genre. Voclas out in front and audible. Well sung, is that you?

You could probably work the bass a little more. Notch it around the kick and fill in the low end some more. But that's a nitpick, it's close enough that it's a matter of personal taste.

Cool man,
 
got nowt on the mix....sounds great...sounds from a distinct period in rocks timeline...nice and clean, good performances, good vocals

I hear what folks have mentioned about the drums, I have SD2 and theres something about their drums...they sound great as individual samples they just dont fill the mix as much as other kits Ive heard..great playing though


all in all excellent Id say
 
I've gone back and forth with the bass sound, I think I'm done tweaking it because at this point it is actually hard to tell weather the bass guitar sounds better or worse when I make slight adjustments.

Toontrack's samples are very good and their player responds well to Vdrums. I was tempted at the Steven Slate Drums EX that musiciansfriend had on sale for $30 but I decided I don't need it, plus I sort of enjoy doing my own EQ and compression settings. I guess the one thing I would like is to fatten up the snare a bit at this point. There still isn't a good way to layer drums with the superior 2 engine because I think only one midi note can be mapped to one trigger. I think they can fill a mix, you just have to work at it but it is worth it because their raw samples are excellent.

Thanks for all the feedback. I hope to get some more work done on maybe a new tune then come back and tighten this one up in the vocal department some more, time permitting of course. Holidays + Overtime = Lack of music time.
 
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