First serious recording...

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nice guitar sound ...drums a little loud...nice voice too....(maybe some back-ups)?...lyrics...not my thing so ill let others comment on those..:D ...
really just the drums need to come down..maybe trade the levels on the piano w/the drums....ok lose the forever....forever...forever...maybe just a coupla forevers..lol..(personal taste)...all in all if this is your first try great job..

i thought the drummer did a good job too i play drums and its hard for me not to try to do too much...nice "in the groove"playin..


thanks
jamal
 
It's a song we sing at church, so I can understand if the lyrics aren't your thing seeing that we all come from different backgrounds.

I'll try bringing the drums down a little.. thanks for the compliment on the drum performance too. I did the drum track and I've only been playing for about a year, so I'm a little insecure about my playing.

We wanted to put harmonies and stuff, but we ran out of space on my BR-8. And for those of you who use the BR-8, you know how limiting it is. Oh, and don't pay attention to the ending, we're supposed to fade that out later. Thanks for the comments so far though.

Brian
 
Acoustic sounds good.....when everything else comes in it gets real muddy.....the bass is boomy and there's an overlay of distortion on the whole thing. I'm not sure if it's the MP3 encoding or if you were overloading something but I definitely hear it.
Mainly I think you need to get that bass under control....that'd probably reveal the other instruments. I don't care for the forever...forever...forever...being repeated forever.....forever...forever. Find some more words to go in there.
Good song though and a good starting point.
 
Good tune Brian.No complaints except the drums are just a tad too boomy.Could jut be the reverb you have on them or maybe they need just a little eq rolled off on the lower-mids.

The whole mix could use a little boost in the high end to brighten it up a little.

Arent you able to ping pong with the Br-8?You can plan ahead and make room for the harmony vocals by ping ponging.harmonies would set this tune off.Nice job on the whole thing.
 
Thanks for the comments.

Bob:
I agree that the whole mix gets a little muddy when everything comes in, and that could be because of how boomy the bass is. I'll try to do something with it... do you have any suggestions? And for the distortion that you hear, are there certain parts of the song that you hear it? Maybe its just me, but I don't really hear the distortion. Could it be the tone of the bass... as in the sound of the fingers plucking the strings, if you know what I mean.

Kramer:
What part of the kit do you think is boomy? Toms? Kick? I know that you can't really hear the kick all that well, but I think thats something I'll just have to keep in mind on my next recording. I agree that the mix could use some high end. I was comparing it to some commercial CD's I was listening to today and noticed that.
The BR8 has bouncing capability but for some reason it just didn't cross my mind. Its okay though, it'll be a little hard to get the guys back together to fix stuff because we all just graduated from high school this year and a couple of the guys have already left for college. So I pretty much have to work with what I have.

Thanks again to all you guys for your comments. Everything helps.

Brian
 
I think on the bass you need to pull the real lows down...probably around 75hz and down. You'll have to experiment to see exactly what freq and how much it needs to come down.....probably a pretty good bit.
As for the distortion.....it night be the Mp3 encoding. It's not really distorted per se....but there's some artifact of some kind that gives it an overall.....I can't really find a way to describe it.
Like I said ...it's probably the encoding.
 
Really Nice Tune

Just substitute a chic, for Jesus, and this song could go mainstream. But then I'm sure it would lose most of it's joy!!

What everyone else said about the recording.

I have to say it sounded wonderfull!!

Great work!!

GT
 
I shouldn't respond before I listen to it, but I can't do that for another 10 hours or so...and who knows if I'll remember the following JEWEL 10 hours from now... :D

If you've got any acoustics in the mix at all, cut the lows on them @ 315Hz when all instruments "kick in"...in addition to what Lt.Bob said about the low-lows on the bass. The acoustic EQ cut is one that I HAVE to make to avoid mud...always

I'll listen later...promise.
:D
-chris
 
I think that getting a bass part with some punch would be a big help. Lt. Bob had some suggestions that you should try. You might need to retrack it to get the sound I'm thinking about though.

I also thought that the vocals were just a small bit too high in the mix. And I thought the piano was just a bit too far back. The piano part was a nice touch by the way. I wonder how a little reverb on the vocals would sound? Might enhance things.

Harmonies during the chorus would be nice. Introducing harmonies in the second verse might be a nice touch too.

Just thoughts...
 
If this was your first serious recording you're off to a good start. The drums were a little loud like Jamal said. But Man, that fricking acoustic was great sounding. Sounded like a Taylor in the same room as .....me! That's what you want right.
 
I told ya'

I love the vocalist...I'm always making comparisons, which probably annoys folks, but how could you possibly be offended if I said the voice has a very cool JAMES TAYLORISH quality.

I think the snare sounds loud (and pretty hollow)...in fact, all of the drums sound like they are in a different room than the rest of the instruments. That may just be the way they were recorded, if so, I'd just bring 'em down a few notches.

I love the vocalist.

Ya' know, the more I listen, I think the boomy thing you were talking about is the kick. It's just a bad sound mucking up a bunch of good sounds. (Boy, am I helpful or what?). Actually, pulling the level down on ALL the drums might help...have you tried this yet? C'mon, it's been like 10 hours since you posted...you should be on your 4th REMIX by now, listening to knuckleheads like me, totally messing up the whole thing.

I love the vocalist. I'm sorry I haven't read the other posts...but if that's you singing...I've got a suggestion for future recordings of some of the low parts, which seems to be where the only (very minor) pitch problems are popping up. Don't force it...move into the mic and actually SING SOFTER on the low parts...it helps me a ton.


Let us know IF/when you make changes to this...I'd like to hear it again.

KEEP THE FAITH,
-mr. talks-a-lot
 
Real nice recording.
The acoustic guitar sounds just great!
Nice vocals.

Just the snare sounds a tad too loud,IMHO.

Did you write it?

Very enjoyable song,thanks.

Best to you,
Pete
 
Wow, thanks for all the comments. I actually haven't had the chance to remix or tweak things yet. I'm trying to get some stuff done before I go off to college.

I'll definately try to work on the bass part. Unfortunately I can't retrack the bass part because the bassist has already left for school. So I'll try some of the eq tips that Bob gave me.

I'll also try to balance out the keys and vocals a little more. The pianist actually wanted his part to be a little quieter during the verse passages and maybe louder during some instrumental parts. But I'll see what I can do about those two tracks.

As for the drums... unfortunately the BR8 limits me to two simultaneous tracks. So I tried to get the best drum sound that I could... feeding all the mics through a mixer... and then sending it to the BR8. So I can't control individual drums, but I'll lower the overall track more.

Thanks for the compliments on the guitar. The vocalist played the guitar track with his larrivee(sp?). I think he bought it in the $1100 range, so it has a pretty nice sound to it. I recorded the track with two Oktava MC012's. I'll also make sure to tell the vocalist about how much people on this board like his voice. I used a v67m on his voice.

muzeman:
We didn't write the song. It's a pretty old song that we sing at church. The vocalist messed around with the arrangement and put in some different chords to change it.

Thanks again for all your comments. Every single thing helps. The vocalist and I have been given the chance to go into a real... well semi pro studio tomorrow, so I'll try to tweak the song as soon as I can and post it up. Oh, I also have a solo track of the pianist playing Turn Out the Stars by Bill Evans that I recorded. So if any of you are interested in hearing that, let me know. I could use some eq tips on that.

Brian
 
Great sound at the beginning -- I really like that acoustic intro. When the drums kicked in, they kind of dominated the mix from then on. Maybe a bit of eq'ing or balancing these out with the other instruments may give this tune a little bit of a boost. Also, the piano is a nice touch -- maybe this can come up a bit in the mix -- imhop :) --

Nice vocals! I like the song and the lyrics.

For your first serious recording this is a fine start.

Keep it up, man!
 
this is different rendition that I'm used to ... :) ... make sure to straiten out copyright issues if you recording it for distribution ... if you have a lisence at church it's not the same ... you need a different one ... sounds pretty tight rythm wise and playing is good... I wasn't crazy about the small room verb on drums but that's subjective ... I think this is great for first time ...
cheers
 
small room verb on the drums?

it just sounded to me like they were recorded in a small room..hehe

all in all teh sound is good...esp onthe acoustic, and the drums. the snare is the biggest giveaway that this isn't a "pro" recording. could just use a little more..either, snap, or...subdue, in my opinion. a cut around 800hz normally gives me a little more pop music tone for snare...<shrug>

yeah the bass tone is pretty flat, that's giving you some mud in the whole mix.

vocals sound decently tracked...they don't "jump out" at you..but, not bad.

as far as the "forever forever forever" thing...i don't think it sounds great the way you are doing it...but it could sound cool, if you had 2 voices (prefferably a different background singer - maybe a girl??) echoing each other...and then swelling on the end one or something, in harmony...like, have the first verse say the off "forevers" and the second voice the even.

while you're at it throw a few more harmonies in the whole thing, nice work man.

much better than anything i did starting out...and, better than most stuff i get a chance to listen to.

-wes
 
at the beginnging, the acoustic sounded gourgus...and still does throught it, but it doesnt come out enonugh i'd say.

and the vocals sound like they are not very crisp...maybe sing closer to the mic to get rid of the echoy stuff - sounds like maybe to much reverb i guess? i dont know i cant describe it...

and agreed - drums and piano switch volumes a bit maybe?
 
Well no WONDER

Just a quick plug for the acoustic... "Larrivee." Jean Larrivee is a Canadian, but despite that handicap, he makes some quality instruments.

I love mine, and I record all my acoustic tracks with it. Oh yeah, and I only had to pay about $800 for the "bottom" of the line Larrivee, but it seems to be made with the exact same quality as the more expensive models I tried...just has less inlay.

Sorry, had to do that.

:D


Have you turned the drums down yet?

(again, apologizing for the interruption)
-chris
 
just to echo>>>>>> the drums imho, sound great and sit well ,except for the snare(just a volume thing) a little more treble on the bass?? and that beeyouteefull acoustic.... i would love to hear that mixed more up front.

i loved it!!

peace

rick
 
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