Criticism Please! (Rock track)

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tjlee87

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Everything you are hearing is in the box, there are no miced instruments.
Due to my voice going out on me, I played the vocal line with a guitar.
Also, please excuse my poor playing, I can't seem to sync up the tracks while recording due to the latency. I think I need a better PC.

EDIT: Uploaded to SoundCloud for easy access if you don't mind the usual bad cymbal sound
 

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The balance, distorted gtrs and bass sound good. The drums don't sound bad, but they sound unprocessed. They sound very 2D and I think they would benfit with a little ambiance reverb or delay added to them so they sounds like they were recorded in a room. Overall not bad, but you need a vocal to replace that guitar.
 
The balance, distorted gtrs and bass sound good. The drums don't sound bad, but they sound unprocessed. They sound very 2D and I think they would benfit with a little ambiance reverb or delay added to them so they sounds like they were recorded in a room. Overall not bad, but you need a vocal to replace that guitar.

Now that you've mentioned it, the drums are bit dry to my liking as well. I'll try messing around with the room mic volume, thank you.
 
Update 2:
-Fixed track sync issues
-Recorded the vocal (I sound bad...)
-Increased the room mic volume for the drum

Please have a listen and tell me what I should fix, right now I feel like something is lacking and/or not gluing together.

 
kick is too loud. cymbals too low. like the breakdown at the end. The clean lead tone on the quiet part is way too thin and bland. Must try a better setting on whatever amp sim you're using. What language? Nice tune. Reminds me of Sunny Day Real Estate.
 
The drums are too loud and need more space on them so they blend better with the rest of the mix. Oh... and you need to strangle that guy who's singing so badly in such terrible Japanese. :laughings:
 
The drums are too loud and need more space on them so they blend better with the rest of the mix. Oh... and you need to strangle that guy who's singing so badly in such terrible Japanese. :laughings:
Haha.... sadly that was my failing attempt at singing cause the person before you wanted me to sing the song. :drunk:

Alright my probably final mix (other than getting better vocal). I've tried to fix all the problems everyone was tell me other than the vocal, which I replaced it with vocaloids (trying to experiment with this software).
-replaced the vocal track with a vocaloid (damn, they sound robotic)
-warmed up and added slight overdrive to the dry guitars
-lowered kick volume and increased cymbals
-somehow glued(?) the mix with a reverb

I know this sounds like an incremental change but actually I've did quiet a lot. Please give it a listen.


I think my ear is ringing a bit since I've been mixing it my headphone...
 
I listened to a bit of the first version and then the whole last version.

I liked the dry snare better, but that's just me. I don't like a lot of reverb. Kick seems a little loud. It's much louder than the bass.

Guitars sounded OK, but a bit too much distortion. Not much definition to them. I liked the cleaner guitar and the lead guitar (the one that played during the last 10 seconds or so).

Is the idea to have a female Japanese robot sing? Or is that a placeholder?
 
Listening on headphones...

I like where this is going. I'm trying to ignore the vocals a little though.

I agree that the kick is a bit too loud, but on the other hand, I like the space around the snare.

The balances between guitars and bass are nice.

Keep with it!
 
Quite cool song with lots of good stuff going for it.

The drums on the last mix are a bit too loud for my taste. They end up dominating the mix a bot too much. I actually think the drums sounded better on the first version of the song.

The sound on the rythm guitars are awesome. I really like the heaviness you gotten out of it.

I won't mention the vocal track. ;)
 
I listened to a bit of the first version and then the whole last version.

I liked the dry snare better, but that's just me. I don't like a lot of reverb. Kick seems a little loud. It's much louder than the bass.

Guitars sounded OK, but a bit too much distortion. Not much definition to them. I liked the cleaner guitar and the lead guitar (the one that played during the last 10 seconds or so).

Is the idea to have a female Japanese robot sing? Or is that a placeholder?

It's just a placeholder. I got it as a female harmony/second vocal but I rarely use it cause it's too robotic. Sucks that the vocal sampling is not up to par with the instruments sampling and amp simulation, cause I can't sing that great...

Anyway, tried out the snare pre-delay on the mix, I think it came out pretty good.

Last Update:
-raised the bass volume in the verse
-kick is further reduced
-used the snare pre-delay
-offset distortion guitars for wider stereo
 
Very cool song. Each pass is sounding better. I like the idea of having a Japanese female lead singer on this one, it would help the track stand out in the pack of songs in this genre. That would be awesome.
 
Would I be completely out of line if I said the singer sounds smoking hot? :laughings:

All kidding aside, I love the direction your headed in.
 
It's just a placeholder. I got it as a female harmony/second vocal but I rarely use it cause it's too robotic. Sucks that the vocal sampling is not up to par with the instruments sampling and amp simulation, cause I can't sing that great...

Anyway, tried out the snare pre-delay on the mix, I think it came out pretty good.

Last Update:
-raised the bass volume in the verse
-kick is further reduced
-used the snare pre-delay
-offset distortion guitars for wider stereo

Yeah, way better. You might be able to get that robot voice to play to your advantage - try stuff like telephone EQ on it and various distortion plugins and combinations of outrageous delay/reverb - you might get something unique and usable.
 
Drop the kick some more & you've a good one.
The vocal works for me - no more robotc than 1/2 the melodyned stuff that appears everywhere these days.
Perhaps you could use the word anime in the title & you'd open your demographics!
 
Sounds pretty decent considering everything is inside the box. What kind of amp sim are you using? Sounds good for heavy distortion. The vocals are pretty crazy sounding but not in a bad way. The snare sounds pretty good to me. The kick is a little slappy.
 
Sounds pretty decent considering everything is inside the box. What kind of amp sim are you using? Sounds good for heavy distortion. The vocals are pretty crazy sounding but not in a bad way. The snare sounds pretty good to me. The kick is a little slappy.

Thanks, for this particular recording I used:
Epiphone Les Paul with EMG 85X -> RME Babyface -> TSE 808 -> TSE X50 -> Amplitube -> EQ
 
Here is the finished track: recorded, mixed, and mastered all in the box with Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro headphone and really crappy Logitech speakers.
My only gripe with this track is the strings at the bridge... I gotta find me some decent string VST.

 
Good mix....only thing I'm not crazy about is the drum sound in some of the sections, like the machine-gun snare hits (but I guess that's the style)....and it's both weird and cool with that Japanese vocal thing. :D
 
The drums scream Steven Slate Drums. Am I correct? Not bad or good, just after hearing them so much they seem to have a sound you can pick out. Neat song. The last mix you have works pretty well. I would compress those clean guitars to keep them nice and level and a bit less quiet.
 
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