Unmastered, Unverbed, Untuned, UnEQ'd, Uncompressed...Downright Unpleasant

chrisharris

chrisharris

King of Bling
From the looks of the front page, it would appear that we don't really require a lot of time to throw tracks together, eh?

This song was 1/2 written until last night. I figured it would be a good one to kind of build.

I never do this, but since nobody asked:

Guitars - 1 Gibson SG - (green)
Amp - 1 Roland Jazz Chorus (hehee)
Vocal Mic - 1 AKG C-3000 (I'm SOOooo pissed at the guy who has my new mic right now).
Bass - Nope...not yet. I don't think I can possibly squeeze any more lows into this mix, lol. ANY VOLUNTEERS?? (Pedulist??)
Drums - "Rock Kit #2"
"Ambience" - My bathroom


Okay, I absolutely hate the sound of my voice dry, so I double tracked the lead vocal. I don't do this a lot; I think I ripped of Jake's levels...lol.

**WARNING**
After the first :24 seconds, it gets a lot louder. The first 24 seconds were an experiment...if anybody cares, I'll describe how I got the tremolo...I know guitar FX were allowed, but I used my amp only.

NO AUTOTUNE - If you think you hear any, you don't.

NO COMPRESSION - This one's kinda' iffy, because no matter how hard I tried, the vocals were just all over the fucking place, so while I didn't compress them, I enveloped the crap out of them (manual compression?)...However, even though this took a long time, the vocal sounds cleaner to me, so maybe I learned something?

NO EQ - I didn't even use the low rolloff on the guitars...there's so much low end in this on my system, I was literally scared to use a bass. I'm not used to EQ'ing electrics anyway, so any tips on how to sqeeze a bass into this mix, without making the guitars sound even worse would be appreciated.

NOT FINISHED WITH THE DRUMS - With the exception of a couple of crashes, the entire tune is one drum loop...I figured I'd post this while I was pasting in fills and stuff.

NO ACOUSTICS - Can you believe it? I have another tune for that part of the challenge.

"Mastering" - I did one thing after mixdown. I did use a hard limiter, with an output of 3db, just to get the mix audible. No compression or anything...it cut off about 5 tiny spikes, which were crashes.

There was no WAY I was gonna' post this without the disclaimers...I hope somebody reads this.

"TIME TO LEAVE"
www.nowhereradio.com/honestmango/singles


SO AT THIS POINT, IS IT ALREADY SCREWED UP? If so, then that tells me a lot. Mostly, that it needs "mastering," lmao.
 
I love it man.You're a good alternative writer/performer/singer.You got some really good tracks too.I like everything about it.
 
Oh yeah, and I had a lead line and some fills, but it sounds so damned "bathroom" that I'm going to try again...So if you listen, and you notice certain spots that feel like they are just complete dead air, well...they are, lol.
 
Green SG:eek: , bastard, i've wanted an sg for so long now:( :) . Damn chris, you dont need no stinkin autotune man. I'm diggin this dry vocal trk..do more of this man! I aint missin the bass to bad on this...because everything sounds so freakin great, but it could use some. one of the best i've heard from you..no doubt.


edit: liked the snare on that kit..
 
well FUCK ME....so THIS is what you sound like WITHOUT effects....
that intro oscillating speakertron 4000 is awesome..alright so all of you can look for all my gear to be for sale in the "free ads " forum.....:mad:


i like this sound alot better on you ...i know its not your "norm" but i like it...i cant even HEAR where you MIGHT be able to add pedal steel to this!!!!! SWEEEEEEET!!!!!..

i heard some hiss and when i did i danced around the room all giddy for a bit.....till the last chorus kicked in and took all the wind out of my sails......


*****
 
Dude. This is fuckin awesome. I love this. It's catchy as hell. I usually dig things just a little heavier than this, but this has the potential to be amazing. I'm not going to give any mix comments, because all I can hear is what I would play on this tune. I don't want to horn in on your song, but if you are open to it, I would love to lay down some guitars on this. I promise I won't change anything progression or arrangement wise, I just want to take a crack at the music on this cause I think it's great. Don't make me beg Chris. I swear this time we'll get it done in less than 3 months too.
 
Hell yeah-is that the jc-120 tremolo? I miss that amp....great big distortion sounds nice(though whats with the dist. on the jc-120? is it some kind of joke?)(don't tell me this is it...), voice sounds very good-nice harmonies. Great flowing song-sounds great to me-been a while since I heard one of yours. Good simple melody I like that..Hearing these dry tracks makes me wonder if the months I/we spend tweaking is worth it...The song is there. A pumping eigth note bass couldn't hurt though I guess.
 
Jamal - Now I feel bad for my lame post in your thread, lol. Anyhoo, you know I like your tune...ditch that crappy preamp, lol.

mbuster - Dude, you like this??? I'm flattered...it kinda' didn't sound like this in my head...it was cooler in my head...it always is, lol. Then I go turning it into an E.L.O. meets the Monkeys thing. But if you wanna' do some git work on this, man, that would be EXCELLENT!! You'll hate this after you listen a couple of times, lol. I wanna' send you a super secret mix that has the guitar "fills" in it...you can take it or leave it, but the intro makes a lot more sense with this idea that I have for an intro lead...SCREAMING WHITE HOT distortion, doing the same melody as the 4 note tremolo thing...it sounds good in my head; it sounds like ass in my bathroom, lol.

Stratomaster - Hey man, thanks. It's half the amp that you had, actually...it's just a JC - 60. It's a good acoustic amp, and I really don't use an amp for enough electric to make it worth buying a WHOLE amp, lol. Anyway, my amp doesn't have a tremolo setting, per se...but it's got that huge variable chorus, which can (in the right hands) probably be manipulated into a tremolo... I just unplugged one of the speaker leads to the left speaker and cranked the chorus up...Voila! Instant tremolo. I know there's a better way, lol. As for the distortion, the guitar makes a big difference, I think. It is the distortion on the amp, gained about 40% (never, EVER turn up that 'distortion' knob more than that, lol...) - But I had to turn the lows WAY up on the guitar and the amp to keep it from sounding like...well, like a Roland JC-60.

As for the question, I don't know yet how silly it is to spend time going nuts on a mix...I mean, from the way this looks on the meters, it SHOULD have a lot of mud in it, and I guess the car will tell. However, when you consider the fact that the drums are canned (pre compressed, reverb, etc.), it takes a lot of the work out of it anyway. On the vocals, I'll say this...I spent a LOT more time than I usually do, b/c the doubling was the only effect I had, so I really tried to sync them up as tight as I could to start with...then the enveloping...Jeez, that took like, 2 hours JUST to keep them from jumping out...it's hard for me to justify doing that much work when I could hit the "compress" plugin in about 2 seconds, lol. If they actually sound "better," then I'm all for it, but my brain is telling me that 95 out of 100 people don't give a crap, lmao!!! :D

Thanks for the posts people...ANYBODY GETTING MUD?
 
chrisharris said:
Damn Kramer...you're fast, lol.

You're also nice. Thanks. I'm not missing the bass right now.
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that.LOL.It "feels" like it's in there some where even though you say it isnt.LOL..I guess without all the low end roll offs you have created an Imaginary bass line.LOL
 
wow...your initial post in the thread is a damn book!!:eek:

still sounds compressed to me....especially the guitars.

so...lawyers gotta use a 'poor mans' tremelo!:p

nice vocal melody lines.

yeah...after awhile, you are drilled with the drum loop. I've got some old r2r boxes around here when I used to do the same thing when I borrowed my friends Oberheim... about 6 ft of tape spliced around a reel and a mic stand boom arm.

your gonna change that snare, right?;)
 
Kramer said:
It "feels" like it's in there some where even though you say it isnt.LOL..I guess without all the low end roll offs you have created an Imaginary bass line.LOL
Click to expand...
Yeah, a big part of it, I think, is that I had the drum loop (kick snare kick snare) set up when I tracked the guitars; it never varies, so I kinda' played with the kick more than usual...oh yeah, and the guitars has more lows than an inner-city AA meeting, lol.
 
mixmkr said:


still sounds compressed to me....especially the guitars.
Click to expand...
BAHAHAHahahaa...well then...GOOD!! I mean, how can an electric distorted guitar NOT sound compressed? All it IS is compression, right? The track looks like a freaking 2X4.

So, not a fan of the snare, eh? Hrm. I'm so out of the loop (so to speak) when it comes to drum sounds. It's a pain in the ass to change the snare sound, b/c it's in a loop, so I have to get a new loop. Man, I'd have to insert crashes again, lol...PERHAPS SOME VERB ON THE SNARE WILL HELP, EH?

Thanks for the listen, mix.
 
freshears said:
Green SG:eek: , bastard, i've wanted an sg for so long now:( :) . Damn chris, you dont need no stinkin autotune man. I'm diggin this dry vocal trk..do more of this man! I aint missin the bass to bad on this...because everything sounds so freakin great, but it could use some. one of the best i've heard from you..no doubt.


edit: liked the snare on that kit..
Click to expand...
:mad: :mad: :mad: ...






















:D fucker, and you call yourself a lawyer:rolleyes: ..or am i on the old "ignore list"


again:D
 
pretty damn good for a dry recording..........wouldn't be much work to polish it up.........it's weird (don't take this as an insult cuz it's not), but I almost hear auto tune in your vocals when it's not there......something in your singing style i guess.....good song
 
lol...naw...I just figured I'd try being neutral. Besides, I'm not changing it, lol. I'm pretty much lazy when it comes to drums...I'll do a couple of fills, but I'm not gonna' start changing instruments at this point... I'm glad I got a vote for "Snare doesn't suck."

I use this one a lot, actually...some people like it, some hate it. It's a freaking snare...lol. I'm glad you did.
 
powderfinger said:
I almost hear auto tune in your vocals when it's not there......something in your singing style i guess.....good song
Click to expand...
Oh My GOD!!! Hehehee...I swear on my mother's grave, there's not any...but I also know that you're right...mbuster wasn't totally kidding when he said I sing like it. The reason your post is so funny, is because I was JUST telling Jamal on MSN that I sang one of my backups using my typical nasally backup vocal voice (all vowel), and I solo'd it to see if it was okay, and I heard (*gulp*) Autotune on it...I literally did a double take :eek:...My voice kinda' cracked in the middle of the note when I was going up, and ... oh well, suffice it to say, I resang that backup, lol.

Don't feel bad...it could be worse. I could sing like a HUGE WAVERING CHORUS...lol. I guess that's reserved for Ozzy.
 
...I think some natural vibrato in my vocal cords would help...lol. I've never liked that warbly sound that they TEACH kids to replicate in choir.
 
Sounds great. Mixed a little bottom heavy, lol...
I don't know what it is you usually autotune out of your singing, I could have sworn I heard a bass in there a couple of times, are the guitars close mixed through condensors? wait you posted all this...nope didn't mention. I think there must be a reason why the left guitar is so bassy. hmm...wait there IS a bass...???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top