First recording.. mixing..

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ryansanders

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Ok. I bought a Presonus Firebox for $50 from my friend and another friend and I decided to record for fun... All we recorded were vocals, keyboard, drums, and electric guitar. We didn't have our bass player around. We had to record everything seperate pretty much.. and he tried playing to a metronome. heh. He played drums, piano, and sang.. I just did guitar.

Let me know how it sounded.. we micd the amp with a SM 57.. Vocals were with Beta 58.. And piano was direct into presonus (not midi).. Drums were into 2 channels, 1 for kick, and 1 for the rest. We recorded at his church..

Let me know how it sounds:



This is a 2minute clip.. THe song was like 5:30 total.. Way too long, but we will get it down to hopefully 4:00 to 4:30.
 
The outcome is good man... considering the equipment limitation, everything sounds very good... now you need to add the bass... Hey!:eek: here is a thought... try triggering the kick with a sample to add the plastic sound...

That song reminds me the ones i hear on tv shows when people remember sad things, or when there is a break up.

Cool.
 
Thanks man.. I have no idea how to do that. lol.

I have a keyboard I can use to add bass.. I just got no bass midi plugins. lol.

What is the plastic sound? And How would i "trigger" it?
 
Hey man,

This sounds really good considering the limited equipment!! Congrats.

Obviously using two mics on a kit isnt going to get you great results but I think that you if you take zero's advice and trigger your kick it will help things out a bit. "Triggering" your kick is basically replacing the existing kick sound with another. I'm no expert on that area so I'll leave that to the others here.

Also wanted to say that the guitar sounds great, great playing too.

I think that the vocals get a little lost in the mix at some spots (like at :20ish on the clip you posted) but it could be the cans im listening on ATM.
 
spartacus080486 said:
Hey man,

This sounds really good considering the limited equipment!! Congrats.

Obviously using two mics on a kit isnt going to get you great results but I think that you if you take zero's advice and trigger your kick it will help things out a bit. "Triggering" your kick is basically replacing the existing kick sound with another. I'm no expert on that area so I'll leave that to the others here.

Also wanted to say that the guitar sounds great, great playing too.

I think that the vocals get a little lost in the mix at some spots (like at :20ish on the clip you posted) but it could be the cans im listening on ATM.
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Thanks. Well... He actually had more than 2 mics on the kit... Its just he was going into a mixer, which could adjust each mic on the set ( think he had 5-7 mics total).. and from the mixer, it came out in 2 channels. We just took 1 drum take and didn't work much with levels (time constraints). The drums sounded terrible at first, but I was able to EQ (not knowing what I was doing) and actually help them quite a bit.

How was the vocal sound? I realize the whole mix was on the high side (not bass to help balance things out).. but as far as the tone on the voice. I wasn't able to use a condenser mic on the recording, so i would imagine that would help the vox even more.

I like the guitar sound.. but I actually got a much better sound (to my ears) when we played it at the church the next day.. I actually messed around with the amp and had it louder so the tubes got going. Might re-record that to get it like I want. I didn't realize at the time of recording that I had a "comp-cut" switch turned on one of my pedals and it caused it to be brighter than I wanted. I guess thats ok though.. can EQ some of that out if needed.

I thought about buying a Presonus Firepod which has 8 preamps.. adding it with the Firebox.. And having a total of 10 preamps, and like 14 ins total. Then we could record the drums (all mics) at once along with a couple other things.
 
Not bad at all.

Vocals sound good. He has a good voice. The vocals do get lost at points, but I think that it's because the piano is just a little overbearing (too loud). The guitar sounds good. I think the brightness of it will help it cut through the mix once you add the bass. Drums are weak, but sound ok considering how they were recorded.

Overall, nice first attempt. Keep it up.

Oh yeah...nice lyrics and great subject matter.:D
 
Great job. That really does sound good. I agree with everyone else. The drums are pretty lacking, but there wasn't much you could do. If you could get a couple more mics on them and track them again, that would be my only improvement point. Oh and btw, is your vocalist aware that he is ridiculously talented?
 
Actually he lacks self confidence big time in his voice.. .mostly because his brother is crazy good. I think he is starting to get a little more confidence though.

I'm thinking of buying a Presonus Firepod or something.. which has 8 preamps... then I could record the whole drumset, each mic on its own channel. And also add in the Firebox.. And that makes 10 total preamps. I should be able to record most instruments at once if needed with that setup. The Firepod you can get for $200-$300 on ebay easily.
 
Would that be the best way to go as far as recording the drums? He has plenty of mics on his drumset.. its just I only have 2 mic preamps available (4 if i had an external preamp).. And I think he has between 5-7 mics on it maybe. He is running all the mics into an external mixer, then 2 channels out of that. We could adjust levels on that mixer.. but there wouldn't really be anyway to adjust it after you record it.. so thats the issue.
 
I have nothing to add to what the others have said, all comments seem to be spot on. Keep up the good work and buy a few more toys:cool::D
 
ryansanders said:
Would that be the best way to go as far as recording the drums? He has plenty of mics on his drumset.. its just I only have 2 mic preamps available (4 if i had an external preamp).. And I think he has between 5-7 mics on it maybe. He is running all the mics into an external mixer, then 2 channels out of that. We could adjust levels on that mixer.. but there wouldn't really be anyway to adjust it after you record it.. so thats the issue.
Click to expand...

There are some great 4 mic techniques for mic'ing drums. So if you wanted to get two external preamps, that would work. Or for probably the same price you could get a used Firepod and, like you said, have 10 channels.

Google Recorderman Method and Glyn Johns method for 4 mic techniques.
 
Nice... so what kind of mics should we be using for the overhead? I can't remember what he is using right now.. but I know he is using some SM57s on the kit..

Another thing.. his drums are in a cage with a roof. He built the cage and I believe its kind of a permanent thing.. like its not detachable from the way it looks. Could be though. Is that an issue with recording?

Also just bought a Studio Projects C1 (version without the extra switches) condensor mic for about $150. I hope that will help with vocals and other things.. I am a bit worried though after reading reviews that it might be on the bright side.. but I will see when it gets here.
 
I would venture to say that the most common overhead mics are condensor mics...either large diaphragm or small diaphragm.

I'm not real sure about the cage. I would see if the top could be removed, at least.
 
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