Choir backing tracks and a new toy

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dkerwood

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I'm a high school choir director and have a show choir performance coming up in a little over a week. Normally we have a live band backing the choir, but since this performance is so early in the school year, we haven't been able to get the band together. Thus, I sat down after church this afternoon and recorded some backing tracks for the group.

I've also picked up a new USB interface, the Roland UA-4X. I was using a Presonus Inspire GT until my computer with Firewire crashed... do you know how hard it is to find a PC laptop with FW?? Anyway, this was a trial for the UA-4X, which really only runs mono in its native environment. I think I can run stereo if I run my mixer in front of it, but so far I've only used it in mono.

I tell you all that just to say that I recorded the drums with one microphone behind me while I played. The resulting track left me with a rather paper-y snare and a pretty thin bass drum. I'll need to figure out a better way to handle that- maybe you have a suggestion?

Anyway, here are two of the four tracks: You Give Love a Bad Name (short version) and Ain't No Sunshine. Ignore the vocals- they're just there for placeholders, and will be pulled out before I use them for the choir. Guitars and bass were run through a Tech21 Blonde then into the Roland. Mic for the drums was a MXL 991.

I'll take any suggestions to improve these. Thanks!
 

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You give love a bad name, to me, the drums are still a little bit recessed, with the distortion guitar kinda in the opposite direction. I think just a nudge of a change would make a difference. But overall it has a pleasant sound. I am hoping you will be posting the final version with the chorus.
 
I agree here^^. IMO, it would have a much better feel if there was some kick drum holding up the low end. It might take forever and a day, but you could manually place in samples to fill it out. If I had the time I would just make you a sample track and show you what I mean. Otherwise it sounds pretty good. I would like to hear the chorus version as well. :D
 
Here is a kick drum sample if you want to give copy/paste a go. :D
 

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I have had good results single-miking drums by placing the mic on a short stand next to the kick pointing at the bottom of the snare. I use the low EQ to control the level of the kick in the mix.
 
I haven't played with the EQ yet- I might be able to boost a little bit, but you can't do much before you start affecting the entire kit.

The interface has dual RCA jacks that I haven't played with yet... I'm assuming that I could full mic the drumset on an external mixer, pan it appropriately, and send it to the interface in stereo that way. If nothing else, I could pan the overhead to one direction and a kick mic to another. I also need to do something about the concrete/drywall walls in my basement.
 
You could go with two mics out in front of the kit if you want 'stereo' drums-I have read that it works but I have not tried it.
 
A few notes I've made- the clicks at the beginning of each track are not loud enough for the performers to hear, so I need to turn those up. Ditto for hi-hat chiks through the acapella sections. The overall sound levels are not matched- "Forget You" is much more quiet than the other tracks. Of course, the stereo I have in the choir room is WAAAAAY too bass-heavy to be an adequate judge, but it's what we have.
 
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