Craig Schmidt - Untitled - Rock/Alternative

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Craigocaster

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Hey everybody,

I am new to HomeRecording.com and this actually my first demo post on this site. I've been doing home recordings for 8 months or so now, and I'm just looking for feedback and advice because I have a lot to learn.

Here is the progress of my latest recording. (the song still needs an ending):

https://soundcloud.com/craig-schmidt-1/untitled-track_02-19-13/s-M7cQG

Any feedback would be fantastic!

Thank you,

Craig
 
The drums sounded really good, but they overpowered the song. They are also a little raw and personally I like more polish, but that's more a matter of taste. Your vocal is too loud(effect too) compared to the rest of the instruments. I'm guessing it might be a problem with eq. Your electric guitars don't sound so great either(the acoustic is fairly nice though). I think for 8 months you're doing a great job, but there are some problems with this mix. Try to work more on your eqing, so everything sits together better. Keep at it. Good luck.
 
Much further along at 8 months than I was. :(

Good song. I like what you got going and can hear where you want to take this song.

The distorted guit sounded way too fizzy and didn't fit with the feel of the song. Depending on how you recorded it, you might consider backing off on the pre-amp gain.

Sounds like you've got different reverbs going for each instrument. I suggest using just one reverb to help pull it all together. As it is now, vox, guitars, drums all sound they were recorded in different spaces and thrown together.

There are times when the delay on the clean guitar gets in the way of itself. I suggest turning the delay send down significantly or using a very low feedback repetition thingy.

Drums sound good. I don't mind the level or panning. Not crazy about the keyboard parts.

Welcome to the site.
 
Chili said:
Much further along at 8 months than I was. :(

Good song. I like what you got going and can hear where you want to take this song.

The distorted guit sounded way too fizzy and didn't fit with the feel of the song. Depending on how you recorded it, you might consider backing off on the pre-amp gain.

Sounds like you've got different reverbs going for each instrument. I suggest using just one reverb to help pull it all together. As it is now, vox, guitars, drums all sound they were recorded in different spaces and thrown together.

There are times when the delay on the clean guitar gets in the way of itself. I suggest turning the delay send down significantly or using a very low feedback repetition thingy.

Drums sound good. I don't mind the level or panning. Not crazy about the keyboard parts.

Welcome to the site.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chili,

I never considered that reverb thing. I don't think I have an ear for that yet. That will come with practice I hope.

I agree about the guitar fuzz tone, and delay repetitions.

I'll post an update once I have some progress.
 
chandlerhimself said:
The drums sounded really good, but they overpowered the song. They are also a little raw and personally I like more polish, but that's more a matter of taste. Your vocal is too loud(effect too) compared to the rest of the instruments. I'm guessing it might be a problem with eq. Your electric guitars don't sound so great either(the acoustic is fairly nice though). I think for 8 months you're doing a great job, but there are some problems with this mix. Try to work more on your eqing, so everything sits together better. Keep at it. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Hey chandler,

Do you think I should change all te electric guitars (verse and chorus) or just chorus?

I recorded once, and copied the track, panned one 70% L and the other 70% R, then I shifted the one track slightly.

Should I do separate takes instead for the L and R guitars?
 
Craigocaster said:
Should I do separate takes instead for the L and R guitars?
Click to expand...

I know you didn't ask me, but this is a forum, so... my answer is:

ALWAYS.

There are certain times when copy and nudge works for duplicating a track and getting a specific sound, but it almost always sounds better to have two separate takes and pan them L and R. It doesn't add any real time to a project, songs are typically less than 5 minutes, but that's 5 minutes well spent to get a 2nd guitar track. It just sounds so much better.
 
Did you take the song down? SoundCloud can no longer find it. Or at least that's what it's telling me.
 
Strange. I tried again and Soundcloud said, "Sorry, we can't find that sound." I'm at work - I wonder if they're blocking something.
 
Came up for me, no prob, Trip.

There's a lot I like about this content-wise, Craig ... both in arrangement and material. Production-wise? You've miles to go before you rest. :)

The electric guitar sound like it wasn't meant to impact any punch ... it sort of occurs in thin tone as an afterthought. The drums are very forward and the whole work is compressed "in-your-face" hard. I'd back off that a bit and let things breath better. Performance-wise ... pitch on the vocal wanders a bit ... which isn't the most important thing but for the distraction it causes musically. Sometimes (like w/ Dylan) the wandering pitch is the appeal ... and sometimes it's just unappealing wandering pitch. Unfortunately, in your case, it's not the former, it's the latter.

First thing to do, though? Pull down the compression and aim for a less glassy, more organic sound.

Nice tune, though ... I did like it.
 
Thanks for the advice K-dub!

I definitely know about the vocal pith thing. I can do a much better take. That was my first take/attempt, but I've since been rehearsing to a practice track.

I will try to back off the compression and see what it does for the mix. I have quite a bit of work to do tonight!
 
Craigocaster said:
Thanks for the advice K-dub!

I definitely know about the vocal pith thing. I can do a much better take. That was my first take/attempt, but I've since been rehearsing to a practice track.

I will try to back off the compression and see what it does for the mix. I have quite a bit of work to do tonight!
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You can call me Kev. :)

Beware of over compression. Most of my early mixes (too many years back) suffered from my lack of being able to discern what exactly it does to the sound. Eventually? I learned that basically it sounds like "pinch your nose and shout loud."

I now live by the rule of "If you hear it? You've overdone it."

That rule does NOT apply to certain genres/bands whose sound depends on it. Green Day and Everclear wouldn't have the sound they have without extreme compression ... but they also have masters of sound making it sound natural.

In general though? Beware of over compression.
 
K-dub said:
You can call me Kev. :)

Beware of over compression. Most of my early mixes (too many years back) suffered from my lack of being able to discern what exactly it does to the sound. Eventually? I learned that basically it sounds like "pinch your nose and shout loud."

I now live by the rule of "If you hear it? You've overdone it."

That rule does NOT apply to certain genres/bands whose sound depends on it. Green Day and Everclear wouldn't have the sound they have without extreme compression ... but they also have masters of sound making it sound natural.

In general though? Beware of over compression.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I pretty much put the compression on, and choose one of the settings pre-sets in the compressor plug-in. Not really sure what to adjust to do it manually. I need to do some research.
 
Hey guys,

I tried to take some of the above advice while working on this track tonight. I ended up redoing most of the guitar tracks. I had a hard time finding a new distortion tone that I liked during the chorus, so instead I just added a lead octave chord part to fill it out. I changed the reverb settings on all the tracks so that they match up, and i backed off the compression. I also re-sang all the vocals. Let me know what you think! I have left the old recording up so that you can compare.

Thanks again for all the help!

https://soundcloud.com/craig-schmidt-1/untitled-track-02-22-13/s-qmx2r
 
Did anyone check out my new mix? Im open to any feedback, good or bad.
 
Sometimes on albums I hear delay on the vocal track, usually on certain words repeating in the background, not the entire track.

I tried doing this myself last night by copying the words I wanted delayed, and adding them to a different track, with the volume lower on that track.

Is this the proper method for achieving this?

Here's what I came up with:

https://soundcloud.com/craig-schmidt-1/with-me-demo
 
That's one way to get a delay. Another way is to automate the send level. Most daws are capable of doing this. Turn it up on the sections you want and back down on the sections you don't. Record the level changes with the automation function.

I'd give another listen but i'm in a hotel with crappy internet.. Bad enough watching a page load.... :(
 
Listened to half of the first recording, and am now listening to the 2nd recording, and 10 seconds into it, I can say the 2nd mix is worlds better, mostly because you took Chili's advice and double-tracked the guitars. Gives recordings a lot of depth and personality.

Yeah, the 2nd mix gels a lot, too... Sounds like you've got a lot of work on the reverb. In fact, about the time I got too annoyed to continue listening to the first mix, I came upon the 2nd mix, and now I'm enjoying it a lot. The drum entrance at 2:18, reveals the snare is a lot lower in the mix than the kick. Not sure if that's intentional or not, but it's a bit distracting.

Good job on taking the critiques and putting them to use! Obviously done well.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Got to listen to it tonight. Good progress. A few things:

Distorted guits are still very fizzy. No punch or impact at all. Common wisdom says to turn the gain down on your distorted channel. Kind of inverse of what you would expect, but you get a better sounding distorted guitar.

Drums are wayyyyy too low in the mix (except toms). This is a rock song, so drums need to be up. Bass needs to up. Vox needs to be up. Guitars- Not Up.

I tell everyone (they're sick of hearing it) start with just the drums and get them sounding good. Bring in the bass and match it to level of the kick. Then bring in the lead vox and match it with the bass and kick. Get those three elements balanced and working together. Bring in everything else, but severla dB's lower. They are there for support, not to dominate. The only exception is the lead solo instrument, which can be almost as loud as the lead vox. Like your clean guitar track. It works where it's at.

edit: one last thing. Check your mix at low volumes as well as loud. It will sound different and you need to find the balance between the two. I listen at pretty low levels which might explain my comments. Plus, I'm on headphonesand that makes a difference.
 
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