Does it even sound close to "real"?????

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Jay Jay

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Hello all... Been a while since I've been on the board. My band wrote this song as a "theme song"?? for the Jersey Shore roller girls in NJ, so the lyrics may not make any sense. It's short, fast and simple.

Just looking for comments on the sound quality of the mix. Like most of us, I'm trying my best to make it sound "real".

Just got new drums last month so I'm still playing around with mic placement and getting the drums right.

Anyway, tear it apart for me!!!!!

http://media.putfile.com/Roller-Girl-mix-for-Jersey-Shore-Roller-Girls
 
I like it. It sounds a lot like CKY. If anything, the kick needs to have a little more, well, kick. But, I don't think it hurts the song. I would say, keep it the way it is. It's good.

Edit: Well, maybe you sould have a bit more bass, and I do thing the kick is a bit muddy and lost in the mix. It is still good, but needs to be tweeked. In fact, if you are not opposed, why not post the multitrack here and see what some of the guys here could do.
 
I think you've got a good thing going here. The performances are excellent. What are you using for the guitar sounds?
While you're at it; what are you mixing on? A computer?
I think the biggest thing lacking is proper dynamics processing. You need to get your drums running through compression, and quite a bit of it, to get that big, pro, in your face kind of drum sound. Some folks prefer to buss the drums and insert compresion there. I like to do it at the single track level. And at the very end of your mix, some limiting style compression would help as well. If you have some on there now, sqaush it a bit more and see what happens.
Secondly, I think the echo on the vocal is a bit out of sync. You may want this, for effect. But if this isn't intentional, try figuring out delay times that will sync with the beat, more or less. Do this by finding the tempo of the song in BPM (beats per minute) and dividing 60000 by that number. This will give you a 1/4 note delay. Divide that in half to figure out an 1/8 note delay. Try it and see!

Good luck,

~Shawn
 
I love the sounds you are using there, especially the PA slapback sounds at the intro. It captures an outside live sound very well!
It has a 'Rammones meeting a drag racing commentary' tone that works so well for it-good effects, vocals and instruments....:D
 
Love the song. Nice pop-punk feel to it. Could use more low end overall. Kick is present but doesn't have a very meaty sound. Bass too. I like the overall feel though. Pretty cool.
 
Thanks for the comments! I'll try everything that's suggested. The verb/delay in the beginning is suppose to sound like an announcement outdoors through a bad PA. Hopefully I pulled it off.

In the response to needing more bass. I always have a problem with the low end. Once I play the mix on a system with subwoofers, the low end is just too much to I wind up lowering it. On other systems it sounds to thin. It's hard to get it balanced.

I agree the kick isn't that good. Don't know how to get it to stand out. If I boost the highs it just gets clicky. dam mixing.. Maybe I'll replace it with a sample, or I'll eq and compress it.

I'm going to try the parallel compression trick on the drum mix. I been reading about it after I read the response about dynamic control on everything. I'm not using compression except for the vocals and the bass. The final mix is limited just enough to clip the highest peaks. On "real" recordings, everything stands out in front yet nothing is overpowering. Compression here we come.

Finally, when I have some time I'll save the tracks and post it to see if anyone wants to give the mix a go. I think it'll be an awesome learning experience hearing different mixes and learning how it was done.

and... the mixing is done in a computer. I'm using an older version of sonar. M-audio Delta 1010. M-audio DMP3. A behringer (i know) mixer for the pre's on the drums except for the overheads. The bass is direct. The guitar is tracked twice and panned hard left and right. Guitar is direct (fender tele), using a plugin for the sound.
 
The vocals at the beginning arent clear enough. Too much effect, I cant make out all the words.

The song itself is great, and lots of fun. High energy and very appropriate.
 
Key the kick drum to the bass track on a compressor so that when the kick hits, it compresses the bass, giving the kick more low end presence. There should be something in Sonar's manual about keying tracks, side chaining or ducking (they're all the same thing in this case) if you don't know how to do it.

A good tune though, sounds very "professional", whatever that word means now, haha.
 
Jay Jay said:
Finally, when I have some time I'll save the tracks and post it to see if anyone wants to give the mix a go. I think it'll be an awesome learning experience hearing different mixes and learning how it was done.
Click to expand...

Great! Please PM me when you have them saved someplace!

~Shawn
 
propman said:
May I ask how you got the cool megaphone effect.
Click to expand...

I took the vocal track and sent it to a buss.On that bus I used cakewalks amp simulator. Lots of gain and distortion. Then a stereo delay. Used some volume automation to get the right blend and also to take the effect out when the main song started.

I've been playing around with parallel compression on the drums. I also replaced the kick with a sample. I think it brings the drums right upfront. Getting the release time right is what I'm still playing with.

I'll be posting another clip soon and once I find some web space I'll post the individual tracks.
 
I posted another mix. Parallel compressed the drums. Replaced the kick with a sample. Brought up the bass a bit. Tried to make the beginning vocal a little clearer. Unmuted the guitar part at the beginning that I I didn't realize was missing.

The parallel compression took some highs out of the drums. But brought them upfront. Nothing a little EQ can't fix. I like the way they sound though.

Please give your comments.

Thanks....

http://media.putfile.com/Roller-Girl-song-Remixed-feb-26
 
Not bad dude. Sounds really cool. I still would like to like to play with the mix, but you did a bang up job here. I still think the bass may still be a little thin.
 
This reminded me of some of the early Bouncing Souls recordings...and they are from Jersey too so... :D Nice work, man.
 
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