**Check out my first mix!

[BobbyBalow]

They everyone, If you wanna take a few seconds out of your day and critique my first recording with a bunch of new equipment, check it out here:

http://www.purevolume.com/recordingcritique

Please be critical! I really wanna know what you guys think about it.

I'll post my equipment that I used in a little bit. Gotta get ready for a wedding...

Thanks again everyone!

P.S. Is $5 / hr too much or too little for that recording? Thanks!

 

[flamin-gitaur]

Hey there Bobby...

Cool tune, Sounds like you got pretty decent seperation between each instrument. although I could not hear the rhythm guitar hardly at all, or bass, so the "punch" was a little lacking as was the overall "fullness".

 

[giraffe]

commenting as i listen
the single note gits are a harsh in the hi-mids..... a little hard on the ears.
the rythm gits are wierd, just a little on the thin side (think mid-low mid, not bass) but i like the sound you're going for.
too much eq on the kick for me, just a little to synthetic.... even for a genre with all fake kicks.
rest of drums are ok to me.
vox sound ok to me.

needs more careful use of compression, the mix changes a lot with the parts.
fine in some places, but in others the kik kinda goes away, and then in some places the snare is a little to loud for me.

bass lacks, well, power and presents.
the mix over all is kinda tireing.
i've heard and done much worse.

5$ an hr is to little for mc donalds.

 

[chessrock]

Well ... after this two-minute intro, which doesn't sound too bad ... suddenly there's this noise that comes in. And it sounds like someone who's very determined to pass a large and painful kidney stone out of his system, no matter what it takes.

I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but I just though I'd point it out, just in case.
.

 

[FajitaTone]

where's the bottom?

the snare sounds a bit like a hollow tin can. <ping>

vocalist runs out of breath.

needs some parallel compression on the drums and some limiting on all of it.


$.02

 

[flamin-gitaur]

Well ... after this two-minute intro, which doesn't sound too bad ... suddenly there's this noise that comes in. And it sounds like someone who's very determined to pass a large and painful kidney stone out of his system, no matter what it takes.

I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but I just though I'd point it out, just in case.
.

Im pretty sure he was aware of it....after all, he did record it. By the way, how ya doin' chess! It's been awhile.

 

[BobbyBalow]

I was havin one hell of a time getting anything decent out of the bass amp. I noticed that the mix sounded a little thin, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I ran it direct into a FMR RNC. Would a direct box be better? Or just get a better sound out of that shitty peavey bass head?

 

[flamin-gitaur]

I was havin one hell of a time getting anything decent out of the bass amp. I noticed that the mix sounded a little thin, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I ran it direct into a FMR RNC. Would a direct box be better? Or just get a better sound out of that shitty peavey bass head?

In my opinion, unless the bass player has one hell of a good bass sound, or something that is unique, I send it DI.

 

[innobidova]

If the bass was louder, I would have thought it's another pro recording from another one of those post hardcore bands. I'm not saying it's mediocre, though. It's actually pretty tasteful; both the band and the mix. You should be proud that you're getting that kind of quality for your first mix. I'm so tired of local guys purchasing a bunch of studio gear like they know what they're doing, only to put out material that sounds like it was done on a cheap tape recorder with one take during the band's only rehearsal in the past few weeks. [/rant] My only critique that I don't think others would pick up on is that, at 1:53, the triplets don't sound as defined as they do at 2:31. That's probably because the drums aren't going at the first part. Also, the drums are a little shakey on some parts. I would stress a mulligan on the little fill at the very beginning. That's all I feel is worthy of critique. The band is cool, and I think the recording is professional. I have one question, though: $5/hour for how many hours? I'm in the crowd that believes the RE's pay should be gauged by each song, not by each hour. $20-$50 per song is fair for a local run-of-the-mill recording enthusiast, depending on the work put into it and the result. I have a feeling I'll be charhing $35 per song once I start recording with my Firepod and other such delights.

 

[BobbyBalow]

Recording took about 30 hours and mixing took about 16 hours. There were so many tracks and retakes it was unbelieveable. All of the crossfading between everything took about 10 hours in itself. Each guitar had two tracks, drums were on 7 tracks, keyboard had a stereo track, vocals were layered(even though I thought they were thick enough by themselves) twice, and bass had its own track. They only recorded 3 songs with me, and because of the time to get the eqs and everything else going, it was more expensive per song (about $80). Had we done 5 songs I bet the price would have dropped down to about $50 / song. The band is probably coming back to record a full lengh within the next few months. I'm leaning at charging per song... I'm planning on going out with the money that I got from this recording and getting a D112 to throw on the kick instead of the samson q kick that I used. It should really bring the drums through the mix. Would $60 / song be too much? Lots of people around this area are charging $25 / hr for a recording that isn't much better than this one.

 

[innobidova]

That's no surprise to me, as I can tell you put a lot of work into it. I guess my perspective on pay rates is narrower than I thought. My opinion, at least, is that it's a good idea to base your rates on the going rate in your area as well as the quality that those rates acquire.