Thanks man. There's a very cheap tambourine that plays through certain parts of the song, and soundcloud's player tends to butcher it, and anything else jangly like my hats and cymbals.
Thanks dude. There was no deliberate dynamic level finagling with the rhythm tracks. Each rhythm track is just played straight through with no changes to anything. The quieter picking parts are just picking parts. One side is just palm muting and the other is light picking the chord notes. I don't know what that's called. Arpeggio or something? I'm not too fancy with the actual terms of things. I don't know why they'd seem more up front than the rest of the rhythm track though. Maybe because most of the other stuff drops out of the mix at those spots? Maybe the master bus compression squashing less stuff down? I really don't know. I didn't notice it myself. I just let things ride for the most part.
Ha, no, El Bastardo is way put to bed. This one might make it onto the next album, or the one after. I've got enough songs piled up to go through them and put a new album together. Maybe a double album.That's a good point! That is one pressurized sex toy!
I actually like the guitar tone at the beginning.
My one big nit is that the vocals are pretty pitchy on the first line. I know you've admitted before to not having the strongest singing voice, but I think you've got a better delivery than that in you.
So this one isn't on my copy of El Bastardo Azul. Japanese import bonus track?
blow up dolls are very understanding ..... they won't fuss at you if you get yet another light bulb for your light bulb collection!
Thanks dude. I don't really hear that part as flubby, but I am pretty used to it. I'll give it a closer listen. Thanks again.
Thanks Ray. I don't ever try to sound like the Ramones, but I'm not surprised if it comes out that way sometimes.
.Hey Greg
This sounds great as usual. I'm forced to listen on my tracking phones right now, so maybe not in the best position to analyze a mix.
The guitars sound great though. I know that's been a big focus for you lately. The panning on them is pretty extreme in phones. It sounds cool, but the middle is maybe a tad empty as a result. Love the doubled lead riff with the fast tremolo. Drums and bass sound solid. BGVs are great too.
The only thing that threw me a bit was the vocals at the very beginning. That bit was more, uh...like traditional singing than I guess I'm used to hearing from you, which is great, but the first line or two seemed kind of pitchy (flat?) maybe? It settled down before you got to the more familar belting it out style that you switch to @ :44. I don't even think it would stand out so much if it wasn't right out of the gate like that, you know? I could be wrong though.
I didn't get to read the other comments, so I apologize if any of this is redundant or whatever. Nice work as always dood
Thanks man. I'm flattered that you think my shit sounds good enough to ask about it. Unfortunately I have no cool secrets to tell. I wish there was some neat trick I could share, but honestly, these are just as they were recorded. Seriously. Every guitar track on this thing is completely untouched in the mix. This is just as they came through the mics and I left them alone. No EQ. No compression. No reverb. Nothing. What I think it is....I'm extremely blessed and fortunate to be using really nice guitars and amps and cabs and speakers.....and I can play them loud. It obviously matters, because, and I'm not tooting my own horn here, but if you think these sound good, that's why. Good equipment, mic it right, play it loud, leave it the fuck alone.
This is an area where I can share a "trick" that maybe not too many people do. I really don't know. The first, I think most important thing I do is to not kill whatever dynamics I have in the mix phase with overuse of compressors on the raw tracks. I really don't hardly do shit to my mixes. My songs and style doesn't naturally have a lot of dynamics anyway, so it all works out. So what I do is make my raw mix the best I can, bounce it out with a lot of headroom, and bring that stereo mix back in to a blank project. This is where I think it gets awesome.....I put a bunch - like 6 or 7 or more - of good limiter plugs on the master bus. Why a bunch? I'll tell you. I set each one to just tickle the mix more and more as it goes down the line instead of one limiter bashing the mix to death. I don't know how or why it just works better, but it does for me. I get a more transparent loudness this way. Try it for yourself and see how it goes.
Cool, thanks Greg. Yes, your guitar tracks sound like I'm sitting in front of the cabinet...they're just very present and large-as-life. And with 100W Marshall heads pushing a couple of 4x12s, life is pretty damn large!
Definitely good advice, and for the most part I'm pretty close to following those same techniques. I think I have the rig and recording setup to produce much better electric guitar tracks than I'm getting, and I don't think it's really a different world of equipment than you're using. You've definitely got more wattage and speaker surface area, and a lot more practice at playing and recording
So can I ask about your tracking room? For instance, where in your room do you put your cabs? Spaced from the wall, or smooshed up against the wall? Far from a corner, or crammed in a corner like they're in time-out? Any bass trapping or other treatments? I'm starting to think that the painfully shitty acoustics in my tracking area are a big factor...but with a close-mic would it really make the difference between my dull and lifeless guitar tracks and your sparkling, true-to-life tracks?
Sorry to ask all this in your mix thread. Hopefully it's on-topic enough that when our future alien overlords read this thread, they too will know how you committed the full fidelity of your guitar rig to this recording.
