90's emo song.

  • Thread starter Thread starter CMolena
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CMolena

CMolena

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Hey everyone!

I'm recently mixing a band that got this kind of Sunny Day Real Estate vibe, which I love. Anyway, I'm very excited with how things are turning out, because the band just makes the job easy to me, they are really good.

This is just the instrumental, we are going to record the vocals next week.

So, I want to know what you guys think about it.

Thanks!

(PS: There is a minor drum fill problem at 3:10, but I think I should not edit it, and it kinda sounds cool).

View attachment Emo.mp3
 
Pretty cool bass line.

The snare drum sounds a little dead to my ears.
The drum fill at 3:10 sounds fine to me; maybe a little hi-hat heavy, but fine.

Definitely needs some vocals for variety!
 
Mix sounded decent, but without vocals, hard to really tell. Nice foundation, good start.
 
I agree with vomit on the snare. Its sounds a touch too muffled and dull. Maybe a little breathing room in the 2K-4K space...a light touch of it. Pretty cool song. Good job.
 
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Could be personal taste, but I am finding the drums way too roomy. Normally, I like the sound of the room with a kit quite a bit, but maybe I am just not partial to the room you are recording in. Maybe this is where DenDaj is coming from? Sounds like it's done in a laundry room or something.

The bass needs mega more bottom end. The cymbals are harsh and too loud. The guitars are a bit shy on girth. I am getting the impression that you neutered the 'mud' region of everything but went too far.

The drum roll around 3:30ish needs to be fixed or punched in.

Hey, it's a critique forum, I'm critiquing.

As an instrumental, the song does not stand on it's own so the vocals really need to be laid down.

IMO, the drum errors don't sound cool, they take away from the song in a pretty major way. It's not only the drum rolls though. Personally, and I am not trying to be harsh here, if this was a project I was working on, I would ask the drummer to spend a good 2 - 4 hours (or more) rehearsing this song over and over again on his own and then come back in to retrack the drums. The feel is uptight. He rushes and slows down and generally doesn't supply a steady enough rhythm.

Sounds like a good start, but sounds like there are lots of hours ahead. Looking forward to hearing it progress.
 
It was recorded in the laundry room, yes! The cymbals are the biggest trouble I'm finding in the mix. It is really harsh, really gritty.

As for the drum fills, I need to think seriously about it, because I thought the overall performance was good and maybe the drums fiils could be a minor problem, but I get your point on the mistakes he made on them. It kinda bugs me a little, but I wont fix it. I will consider another take for recording, but I really dont like fixing drums...I think it makes it boring.

Will post the progress in here ASAP.
 
I actually like the drum sound, especially the snare. It sounds lively and roomy. The hihats get a little over-represented when he starts laying into it. On the guitars, since they're each doing their own thing, I'd bring them more towards center. When the right guitar kicks into gear, the mix gets skewed towards that side.

I generally dislike instrumentals, but this was entertaining to me. Would definitely be interested in hearing it with a vocal. It sounds like a band jamming in a room and not tracks stacked on top of each other. And the drums drive that feeling. Nice job man.
 
I thought the clean guitar on the left sounded good. I thought the bass sounded pretty good.

I didn't care for the drums sound. Like others have said, they're pretty roomy sounding and the snare has a lot of thud in it. The snare might be fixable thru EQ. I think there is enough high end to it. So I decent sized boost at 5K coupled with a cut in the low mids - maybe in the 300hz to 600hz range might fix it.

The distorted guitar on the right was also a bit dull sounding.

That's about all I can say without vocals.

I liked the fill at 3:10. Because I was paying attention at that time, I noticed a couple of snare hits that were a bit late. Probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't paying attention to the fill.
 
This sounds good, CMolena. I'm not a SDR fan or Emo fan, so I like it as-is probably more than with emo style vocals. As is, it reminds me of Mogwai. When it kicks in more like Built to Spill. I'm afraid the vocals might ruin it for me because I just can't stand emo vocalists.

The recording is lo-fi and nice. The room has some comb filtering going on -- try reversing phase on some tracks to see if it helps at all. It doesn't bother me, but I think it would bother a lot of people. I know you're recording in a laundry room, so it's going to be hard to fix all that, and considering the situation I think it sounds good. You have a naturally good feel for music and style.
 
This sound pretty good. I think some of the performances lack energy for me a little bit. Mostly the drums. Drummer sounds a little stiff like he's playing to a click track and he's really concentrating on it. Many would say he is playing loosely because his timing get off and is very noticeable in places but the performance doesn't "feel" loose. It feels tight.

I would have him play the song 3 times (after practicing it more) in the same room. Tell him to do his best but also to loosen up a little. Feel the vibe!

Then you could cut in where you need to between these performances. Should be able to cross fade in where you need to without being able to hear it. Pretty sure you could take the best parts of the 3 tracks if he played the song consistently each time. Or if you don't want to cut anything in just take the best of the three and call it good.

Not a bad effort by any means. Would just be nice to tighten up and loosen up if that makes any sense!
 
This is a good idea for a song. Like others have said it's hard to really critique a plain riff in terms of mix and arrangement but I think it has a good groove and feel to it. As far as the room sound on the drums goes....
if you're in a laundry room hang blankets and quilts on the walls, put pillows and cushions in the corners, hang towels behind your mics. Anything you can do to mute the sound bouncing off the wall will help. Also, do a lot of experimenting with as close mic placement as possible to the drums. It's a catch 22 man because the drums sound better with the mics back a bit....but when the mics are back they pick up more room sound. If you experiment you will finally achieve the best drum sound possible in the given room and your assortment of mics. I don't think you're there yet and I believe you can get a better drum sound.....it ain't easy though. It takes a lot of experimentation. ..but once you got it...you got it from now on.
 
I agree with Kindafishy; the first thing I thought was that there was way too much room in the drum sound for a song like this. But that's just my opinion. I expect to hear really roomy drums on something like Fleet Foxes, but on something like this that's supposed to be powerful-sounding, it seems to fight against itself a bit.

Overall, the vibe was cool I thought. But the drums just seem misplaced to me for this song.
 
Guys, I remixed the song and after checking out the OH channels (after an advice from 4tracker and some of the guys on the thread) and noticed that they were out of phase.

I am an idiot, I though I'd check them out before, but clearly did not. So, I flipped them and I though that the drums sounds a little bit tighter now. Less roomy, IMO.

Oh, I did some more guitar EQ'ing, to kinda make them more clear.

The vocals are going to be recorded this week...and I'm pretty excited to hear how its gonna come out.

View attachment Emo (Remixed).mp3
 
Yeah it is subtle, but I think they sound better now. The whole mix sounds better...more clear, like you said.

One more thing I'm not sure was mentioned in the thread, but the opening guitar panned hard left is distracting -- I'd pan it more toward center, and if you want it left move it slowly once the drums kick in. If you really want it left to open the song, maybe not that hard, or maybe put something quieter on the right to balance it. The problem with it panned hard left is it pulls my ear over there and my right ear actually experiences strain (because there's nothing for it to listen to, it pulls toward the left). I'm not sure the technical terms for all that, but that is what happened to my ear when listening.
 
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