band demo... Light up the Sky!

  • Thread starter Thread starter tojo
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tojo

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Hi everyone. I started a band with two of my friends called Shades of Mercury. I was wondering if i could get some feed back on a demo we did to get into a battle of the bands. its not our complete sound because i had to do the guitar rather than than my friend, but it is basically what we sound like. I know my singing is pretty pitchy and i was wondering if i can get some tips, and helpful ways to practice! the link is here

the quality is good for myspace so don't worry about it too much -- its a demo

http://myspace.com/shadesofmercury
 
What did you use to record? mics, interface, program etc..
 
Well you sound like a new formed band.

I know you said its only a demo, I would advice you to get some more practice.

If your band is well reheased it will do wonders for your recording.

Some pointers;

There are quite a few timing issues, this will improve drasticly once you guys get mor rehearsals under your belts.
All bands need rehearsals to sound good, when you start to play tighter you recordings will sound much better.

Get the drummer to use a metronome for practice, and perhaps use it on your recordings.

If you take your time and get this right after a metronome you will get a nice and tight foundation.

Mix wise it wasent to bad, it just sound a bit loose.

The vocals sounded flat during most of the song, how is your monitoring.
Make sure that you hear yourself loud enough while singing.
Practice at it, and you sounded as you dident belive in your own voice, that will make it hard for you to let your self loose.
In an effect it makes the vocals lifeless and non exiting.
You have to charge the mic when your singing, like a sport.
experiment throw in some dynamics.

Dosent matter if your off on a few notes as long as you give it your best.

I did the same thing myself when I started singing, just put the vocals on the track because I wanted something there.
After a while I just let go and voila I could sing.


I hope this critiscisme dosent take away your enthusiamsme.

I hope you guys practice like mad, get confident and come back with a new recording, Blowing our minds away.

Best of luck:)
 
Yeah, the musicianship needs to improve, and that will improve the sound tenfold. Especially with the drummer. Those syncopated bass drum strikes are never on.

The vocals are too flat, I agree. They need some liveliness to them. I don't know exactly what to do, maybe a put a small delay on it.
 
Shows potential - is it an original?
All the above suggestions are spot on - particularly the click track for the drummer.
I'm not picking on him/her - it's just that if s/he's out so is everyone else - too many fills as well.
The drums have good setero sep but the rest doesn't.
I like scrubbed guitar!
Listen to Television for some inspirational soloing - esp. Marquee Moon.
Hope you get in the comp.
 
Thanks so much guys! I really really appreciate all this awesome constructice criticism! I'll try and start answering/replying to all your questions and comments.

I recorded the drums for this track at my friends house using 4 audio technica drum mics and 1 audio techinca condenser for an overhead. This was the first time i've ever miced drums. We recorded it into garageband. (i did the guitar bass and vocals on reaper 0.99) This is wear we probably need some ideas/help. The drummer needs to hear what we play to drum along. But we wanted to record it track by track -- drums first. You see i have a simple 8 channel berhringer mixer (not firewire) so All the drums were going on one track, and then i would add bass and guitar and then vocals. So the drummer needed to hear us, so he put on some headphones that went into the guitar amp, so he could hear the guitar playing. So the guitarist was off a bit what do you suggests? Should the drummer know the song by heart and then play to a click track?

Ok about the vocals. I fairly new to singing and am always working on my pitch which is a problem i often have. So when you say the vocals are flat.. do you mean i should really belt it out there, in order to add dynamics?

and yes, this is an original song I wrote a long time ago and decided to use it.

oh and what is "scrubbed guitar" ?
 
tojo said:
Should the drummer know the song by heart and then play to a click track?

So when you say the vocals are flat.. do you mean i should really belt it out there, in order to add dynamics?
Click to expand...

Ideally, a good drummer SHOULD be able to do it. Realistically, it's better to have him play along with at least the bass player. The guitar player not having good timing shouldn't have anything to do with the drummer. The DRUMMER should be setting the tempo and they should be playing to HIM/HER. He/she needs more practice with a metronome, as stated above.

When they're saying that the vocals are "flat", they're talking about pitch, not dynamics. They're off-key, which is why Nak was asking about your monitoring. If you can't hear yourself well, as well as hearing what you're supposed to be singing to properly, you'll sing off...Either "sharp" (higher in pitch than you should), or "flat" (lower in pitch).
 
alright thanks. I know all about pitch, because thats the main problem i'm working on. I believe the human voice naturally gets flat as you sing more and more due to vocal chords becoming stretched. I tend to be flat, so i push more air out of my diaphragm
 
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