Brian Wilson tribute

  • Thread starter Thread starter fprod south
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hey man, i love your vocals on this.

it almost has more of a velvet underground feel to me than the beach boys...but it's really nice.

love the sound you got out of the drum set...

and while this is kind of "lo fi" in a way....that is surely what you were going for. nice work, very nice. love the tune.

that electric guitar sounds so good to me. very authentic.

-wes
 
hey, you mind telling me what kind of gear you are using?

and specifically how you had the mics set up for the drums? that's a really cool sound.
 
Nice vocals...and great to hear those backup singers...
Definitely got that lo-fi thing happening...sounds cool. That ride gives it that haunting "music from the past" feeling!

I love the stuff from about 1:20 through 1:35 ish. Nice.
Very smooth song :D
 

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Really nice. I like it a whole lot. Refreshing to hear something that sounds like a real band. On some phrases the vocal reminds me of Tom Petty. All of it is very good.
 
Hey, thanks for the comments!

wes480,
probably the key factors to the drum sound are the drummer's noisy basement, and the fact that he had to play along to the acoustic guitar part that was recorded without a click track. We record through a digi001 and used a Tacam 16 track basically as a pre amp strip using the inserts to go into the digi001. We used a MXL 603 and a Nady CM-88 as overheads. We close miked everything else with a Shure PG52 on kick, Sm57 on snare, and an Audio Technic (the $35 kind that comes with a free T-shirt) on each of the toms. The toms and kick are all gated, and I rolled a lot of low end out of just about everything. All the percussion parts are recorded one at a time with a MXL 2001 and the digi built in pre amp. I added a little bit of Realverb to the kit, and the percussion is all dry. The guitar is a PRS through a Boogie. I sent it pre fader through a Realverb and muted the original part, so all you're hearing is the reverb return.

Sluice,
I'm glad you like that middle part. It took a lot of work. That's 10 guitar tracks. It's 14 tracks the second time.

kjam22,
Thanks. I'm glad we still can pull off a real band sound. We used to kind of be a "real band", but "real life" got in the way too much, so now we just do home recording. I think our stuff is sounding better in the home studio where we don't pay buy the hour. We can take the time to mess around.

I'm worried about the percussion parts on this and am looking for advice. We used real instruments, but to me a lot of the parts just sound like "clicks" and "clucks". Any comments? suggestions?
 
I'm worried about the percussion parts on this and am looking for advice. We used real instruments, but to me a lot of the parts just sound like "clicks" and "clucks". Any comments? suggestions?

I wouldn't change any of it. It all sounds good to me. For instance... it sounds like you've recorded some woodblocks and mixed them in the background. What is good about it is that the listener maybe doesn't even know they are there. Yet ... if you listen for them... there they are. That's a good mix! You hear them without them knocking your hat off. They are just part of the whole.

When I record auxillary percussion like blocks, chimes, shaker, jimbay, tamborine..... I use a large diaphram condenser mic. I'm sure you probably did too. Then you just eq for the tonal qualities you want. The blocks cold have more lower mid in the eq... but they seem to fit in the mix real well just like they are.

Acoustic drums are so much different to record than electronic. You have a whole set of issues with tones, overtones, and different sounds. On some of mine you can actually hear the stick hitting the ride. But that's the way acoustic drums sound. I like those tones and sounds personally. Everything you have here sounds good to me, and works on this song. On some songs you can lay a piece or two of paper on the snare and then play on top of that. It will muffle, create more of a thud, deeper tone, and eliminate the snare ringing. On some songs that sounds good. Or you can do the trick with about 5 inches of duck tape on the head next to the rim farthest from the drummer. All sorts of tricks to make a snare sound different.

I typically record drums with 4 mics. 2 Shure PG81 condensers for overheads, sm57 snare and beta 52 kick.

I know you know all of this because your sound is really good. You did a real good job of overlaying percussion parts. Sounds like you overlayed a ride or tamborine at several spots.... or else the guy has really really fast hands. But it all works super.
 
kjam22 said:
For instance... it sounds like you've recorded some woodblocks and mixed them in the background. What is good about it is that the listener maybe doesn't even know they are there. Yet ... if you listen for them... there they are.
Click to expand...


Thanks kjam22. That's exactly what I was going for. My worry is that all the parts become too unidentifiable and end up sounding like someone just banging along with silverware on the kitchen table. After about 3-4 hours tracking those parts, and then more time mixing them, it's hard to tell if they're working or not.

I'm glad you think it works. My ears need a break from it in order to hear it clearly.
 
Wow! Sounds awesome.

Nice breaks and rhythmic parts.

No suggestions from me...nice.
 
hmm, what is Realverb?

is that a hardware reverb unit, or software? not familiar with it. but that's a cool idea..gives the guitar a unique sound and just slightly off...if i am understanding you correctly...you are ONLY recording the reverb trails or something.

sounds like a really cool idea man. i like the result, as I said. still not 100% clear on how to achieve it though
-wes
 
nice work! do you know lambchop? the singers voice (is that yours?) reminds me a lot of their vocalist kurt wagner.
 
COOL :cool: !I never heard the original,but this sound great.Listening to the original might ruin for me(or you).a Xylophone!Points for that!And panned nicely I might add...Cool voice and back-ups!Good job.
 
jake-owa - thanks!

wes480,
Sorry, Realverb is a software plug-in. During mixdown I muted the dry guitar track but sent it to an aux track using a pre-fader send. That way the dry track goes to the aux, but you don't hear it out the master bus. I put a reverb plugin on the aux track. All you are hearing is the reverb return, but not the dry track. I was just messing around, but it sounded good so I kept it that way. It sort of functions as reverb and compression at the same time.

snibbel,
thanks. I sang the harmonies. Our singer does have that "chain smoked for 25 years" charm, doesn't he? It's a love it or hate it Petty/Dylan style.

WISC,
This isn't a cover. It's a cheesy "thank you, I hope you're doing OK" song written at Brian Wilson. The xylophone is fun. I can guarantee it will be overused in the coming months.

Thanks for listening.
 
Excellent tunage man.The low end seems to be lacking just a little but this is great.I really dig the guitar.Nice job.
 
Thanks Kramer.
I agree about the low end. I took a lot out of most of the tracks to try to eliminate mud. I think I went too far and need to figure out how to put some back.
 
Hey fprod,
wow man, those bg vocs are just plain golden!! I like this alot. I agree w/ the velvet underground comment.... with a touch of classic 50's style songwriting. This is the first from you ive heard. I look forward to more:) . The lead vocs seem just a touch bright. You may have addressed that already. I likes alot.
...keep em coming!!:)


g
 
Very cool song/sound/arrangement. It does have a bit of Tom Petty in there, which is OK by me. I coulda stood even more of the backgrounds, but its cool as is.

My only comment has to do with the lead vocal. It seems to rise and fall in the mix--sometimes loud and other times buried. You ought to slap a limiter on the lead vocal and get a consistent level on it.

SluiCe is right on with that 57 Chevy!
 
Thanks guys!

Guernica,
I'll be addressing the bright vocals. I want them to sound thin, sort of radio like, but the highs are kind of harsh.
I'll keep 'em coming. We're just about finished tracking 14 tunes, all of which need to be mixed. I'm sure I'll need your help. I'll be looking for your stuff. I'm still pretty new here.

Crawdad,
If I raise the level of the background vocals you'll hear how out of tune they are.;) That's me, and I have a naturally low voice.
The lead singer is one of those types who doesn't care about the recording process. He whispers, bobs back and forth, insists on playing guitar while singing, won't use a click track - you know the type. I've already tried a "vocal leveler" (compressor preset). I'll try swapping it with a limiter.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
I'm not sure of what software you are using, but if you have to, go into the vocal track and draw the volume line by hand, pulling up the weak and containing the loud lines. You can get very precise with this--raising a word or even a consonant sound if needed. Its time consuming, but you can get it perfect in the end.
 
Smooth song. Decent vibe. I liked the guitars. Warm overall mix.

Suggestions...

I might put harmonies in the chorus that follow the lead vocal part. The break that comes in at about 1:15 is a bit long.

I think the song might be improved if the lead vocal is sung with a bit more energy. As it is it's a bit too laid back for my taste. Also some of the vocals drop pretty low - particularly at the end of phrases.

The backing vocals at 1:44 have a small sync problem.

I think the basics of the song are nice... Trip
 
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