Recorded in 1999 - But share your opinions please.

[LooneyTunez]

Since I have been out of the recording hobby for a few years, and am slowly getting back into it, I thought I'd share a song from a project from a few years ago. I'd just like to get some feedback on the production value of this. After not listening to this for quite some time, I decided to give it a listen tonight, and think it's pretty good, even if it is a few years old. I did the tracking/mixing and, umm...mastering (*ducking* so as not to get knocked down)...So maybe we'll just call it post mix enhancement.

The now defunct band is called "Serenity", 3 friends of mine. We recorded/mixed this in someone else's home studio (another friend of mine) on 2 ADATs, a Mackie 24x8 Mixer, and an assortment of outboard gear...some good, some not so good.

The drums were recorded with a D112 inside the kick, SM57s on the snare and toms, SM81s for overheads, and an AT4033 on the Hi Hat.

Guitars were recorded in an interesting way...we put a 57 right at the cabinet, and put the D112 about 8 feet away and mixed the two sounds together...Then recorded twice for a stereo mix.

Bass was done by micing the cabinet and mixing that with a direct sound through a bass DI of some kind.

Vocals were done with the 4033.

I'll give you some of my impressions of what I don't like about the recording/mix. First off the vocals don't sit very well in the mix, and it was hard to make them sound as good as they do...The singer's voice is very hard to work with. Secondly, the guitar is a bit chunky sounding is places, but that's what the singer/guitarist wanted. And the hi hat and ride can be a bit loud at times. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it.

Give 'er a listen, and let me know what you think. Be brutally honest, as I'm always looking to improve and will probably be back in the studio (or my PC) with the guitarist/vocalist again in the next few months.

Thanks for listening.

 

[ChuckU]

I only listened in my headphones at work, but my impressions:
I liked the guitar sound. Not very affected, but nice and defined.
The kick drum was right where it should be I thought. I hope I can get this sound with my beta-52.
What I felt the mix lacked (and this kills me on my own stuff) is lack of definition of the bass. Maybe guitar eq is crowding it. Maybe it's your preference.
I agree that the vocals could sit better. A but of judiciously timed delay (not reverb) may bring it out a bit.

 

[Track Rat]

Killer tune. Very Styx like (the vocal especially). The ONLY thing that caught my attention was the vocal. Sometimes its where it should be and sometimes it ducks and should be more out front. Maybe more compression on the vocal tracks? Still, it's a VERY good tune.

 

[LooneyTunez]

Thanks for the opinions people. I was just reading how I worded something and would like to reiterate it.

First off the vocals don't sit very well in the mix, and it was hard to make them sound as good as they do...The singer's voice is very hard to work with.

This comes off sounding a bit harsh, and probably not accurate. I think the issue here, is that the 4033 was not well suited for this singer's voice. I think I needed a mic with a warmer sound (subjective, I know)...I have a feeling my new v67 might work a bit better for his voice.

ChuckU,

Thanks for the compliment on the kick sound. I bet we worked about an hour just to get that sounding the way we liked it. I agree, that the bass could be more defined...I'm betting it is the guitar stepping on it that make it lose some definition...not my preference.

Track Rat,

You know, you're not the first one to make the reference to Styx (one of my all time favorite groups). We had this song up on garageband.com a while back, and got that reference too.

If I remember correctly, we put more than a fair amount of compression on the vocal, both during tracking and mixdown...Again, I think it had more to do with either the 4033 not getting along with the voice, or poor equalization choices.

Thanks again for listening.