Steve McQ with better drums

T

TripleM

Well-known member
Ok I haven't bailed out for Christmas just yet. I wanted a couple of opinions on this... participant hooked me up with a plugin that replaces drums with samples of your choice. I downloaded their free trial and some free drum samples from the net.

I replaced the snare, kick, and high hat from the original Steve McQ song I posted last week. Otherwise it's the same song. So if you've listened to the song already and don't give a flip what my drums sound like, you don't need to waste your time. But if you could offer an opinion on how much the drums improve the song, I'd be quite thankful.

I did the new mix on headphones (family is asleep). So I didn't EQ anything and the levels might not be exactly right. I mostly just want a thumbs up or down on whether the plugin is worth it or not. Thanks.

I'm No Steve McQueen...

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=1436/singles
 
In a way it sounds better, but it still sounds strange to me.. I think it might be the combination of the snare sound, and the high hat pattern.. It seems like the highhat should be going faster.. I know nothing about theory, but if these are quarter notes on the highhat, do eight notes... If these are eight notes, do 16th notes.. Does that make any sense at all? I really wish I knew more about theory.. the drums seem like they're holding it back, and they should be pulling it forward..

You may want to disregard everything I just typed.. Just somethings I was thinking.. I would also look into whatever your using for mp3 conversion.. I really think I'm hearing some serious artifacts or something.. Try a different converter or a higher bit rate.. It would be easier to tell what's happening with the mix..

It still has a bit of a thin sound to it, and a definite lack of crispness..

I still really like the vocals, and the guitars..


















and I still don't know who Steve is! :D
 
Thanks Sam. I hear you about the pattern I picked. I'm also un-crazy about the kick drum part. When I re-do it, I'll do something different - straightforward kick and a quicker highhat.

I was more wondering about the quality of the drum sound. I burned both versions of the song on CD and listened to them back to back on a stereo. I thought the quality of the drum sound and therefore the overall quality of the song's sound was distinctly better with the new drums.

As for the vocals... Well I'm no Justin Timberlake, but I certainly would've dated Britney Spears. :D
 
Heya TripM-I've listened to both versions-and the drums do sound a tad better on this one though I think the problem(if there is one) lies more in the patterns and arranging. I think that english-kinda dance beat(think Jimi hendrix Fire) would work well over the verses-maybe kickin into a double time snare beats when your background vocals come in. I like the ride cymbal beat over the chorus. Maybe drop the drums completely for the first part of the bridge?maybe just a high hat or kick to keep time-then do a build up to the last chorus????Lol I know your thinking wtf is this guy talking about??just some ideas -I used to do alot of drum machine programming-and this is the way i would have approached this. Otherwise I like the song and of course I know who steve mcqueen is. Guitars sound a little muddy mid-rangey to me though.
 
I would agree with Sabbath about bringing up the hat's tempo to play 8th notes instead of the 1/4 notes........right now it seems do be doubling the kick-snare pattern in an odd way........i'd lose it in parts and then use it in 8th notes in sections where you want to kick it up...............sounds good other than that.........i think the quality does sound better.........
 
TM...

the drums sound different... but still thin... are you applying EQ to them at all? They just plain sound quiet, and gutted.

Back in Ed Rei's (sonusman) famous mixing post, he mentions NOT eq'ing sampled drums.... good advice, as I've found recently... see if you can't get the other sounds in your mix to mold around the drums (no EQ) w/exception of the vocals.

Actually... try bypassing all EQ all together, then mixing down w/just your FX and panning... it'd probably be "closer"

Just can't imagine how the drums could sound like "that" without 'em being eq'ed out of existence.


Chad
 
Thanks everyone.

participant - no EQing going on with the sampled drums. Perhaps I didn't pick good samples, but I didn't EQ a thing. Perhaps it's the goofy drum pattern I picked. Perhaps it's an MP3 conversion thing (though I'm using the same converter I've always used and nobody has ever commented about it before). Perhaps they're low because I mixed the levels on headphones.

erichenryus also thinks my soundcard may be the source of my sub-professional sound. I may PM you with questions or post a question in the Computer Recording forum. But it'll probably be after the holidays. This will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks.

I don't know. Since I plan to retrack everything except maybe the BG vox, I don't plan to spend much more time on this. I mostly want to decide whether or not to purchase drumagog. I'm leaning towards making the purchase.

Again - thanks to everyone and have a great holiday season.
 
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