Folks, new MP3 post. Have a listen, please.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Teddie
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Teddie

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Hi Folks,

Thanks everyone for all the input you gave me on the last song I posted.

I posted a new song - you can find it here: http://mp3.com/smartapple

The new one's called "The Dream", and I've gotta tell ya, I don't really like it. My wife loves it (so she says... haha). I was kind of dissapointed after finalizing the mix, it was fun doing the song, but then I just didn't like it when I finished it although it's kind of growing on me after listening to it 2 or 3 or 20 times or so. Oh well, let me know what you think. Thanks much!

~ Teddie (http://listen.to/smartapple)
 
Nice arrangement & vocals . . . maybe stick a heavy lead in there to stretch it out a bit, otherwise, hey . . . I liked it. Nice Job!

Regards,
PAPicker
 
It's sounds good. It's a lot different than your last tune...that's cool, I liked your last one a lot but it's nice to hear variety. It's a little bottom heavy, but not too bad. I'd raise the level of the drums just a peek (I mean just a very wee bit), they could use a little tad more oomph in the mix. Other than that, I like it! Good job man!
 
Hey

The guitars sound great. What's your setup? What mic/position?

Everything else sounds good as well.
 
That's pretty cool.. Good vocals, good singing. I find the cymbals maybe a touch loud, and as CMiller said the drums could come up a touch (little bit.. )

What are you using here?

Good stuff.

Emeric
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to take all the suggestions and remix this evening.

CMiller, do you feel that the bottom heaviness is coming from the bass guitar or the rythm guitars? I'm going to bring up the drum level a bit tonight. I might need to bring up the drum level again for "Which Way?" as well, I'm thinking. Thanks for the input!

MrLip, thanks. My setup for the guitars is... Line 6 Pod. I sleep with it, I eat with it, I bathe with it... I love my Line 6 Pod. Direct-in, no miking on the guits.

PAPicker, thanks. It is a bit short, you're right. I started thinking the song was a lost cause, so I wrapped it up, and faded it out early. I've still got the tracks unfaded, so I just might try and stretch the time on the song a bit - throw a solo at the end or something.

Emeric, thanks man. I get kind of creeped out when I hear myself sing, but I appreciate the compliment. When you say the cymbals are a tad too loud, do you mean all the cymbals in general, or do you mean that crazy crash cymbal? For "The Dream" I used my Gibson SG into a Line 6 Pod, a Fender Bass into a SansAmp Bas Driver DI, Roland R-70 Drums, and a Shure SM57 mic into an ART Tube MP for vocals - all of these going directly into the sound card of my PC. Multitracked with Pgmusic's PowerTracks Pro 6 software. Lemme know about the cymbal question.

Thanks again everyone.
 
Excellent once again..I didn't make the mistake of playing the lo-fi version this time, I just went ahead and downloaded...lol...a bit bottom heavy yes, but I think it could be fixed with some eq really easily...sometimes that's all it takes to get the sound ya need.....good good song....gibs
 
The bottom end I was talking about was the guitar. I'm sure when listening to it by itself it sounds really well rounded and full. I love that sound myself, but when you put it into the mix with the bass and everything else it becomes a little too thick. Simple fix though, just bring out a little more mid by taking away some low freq on the guitar. I learned this lesson the hard way...the guitars I like are nice and chunky, but I thin them out a little when recording. It's always a little unnerving, I keep asking myself, "Are you sure about this?" But it works out.
 
Very nice, great guitar sound. Nice tune, good use of fx, not overdone. I like it alot.
 
Thanks folks,

gibs, hehe. Thanks for listening to the hi-fi version. Actually, this time I didn't mix the vocals in stereo... I just tainted it with a little bit of delay so it wouldn't phase out so bad when heard in mono (the lo-fi stream). I remixed the vocals in "Which Way?" as well to mono with a bit of delay. Thanks again for the input.

CMiller, thanks, wasn't sure what was causing the bottom to be too big. I'm going to do a low-freq cut on the to distorted rythm guitars and readjust the levels tonight and hopefully that will take care of it... I'll dupe the tracks to backup slots just in case I screw it all up, haha. Thanks.

GT, thanks for the compliment!

I've got another song lined up to finish the weekend (hopefully). I'm laying down the drum tracks tonight. I really think (hope) this is going to be a really good one... Thanks!
 
1. What is that sound effect at the begining of 'The Dream'?

2. What is your amp/monitor set up? I listened to "Which Way" again today. I think your mixes sound pretty damn good for home recordings.

3. Is the Roland R-70 a drum machine or a sound module? Do you program it on the console or do you control via midi? You're drums sound quite realistic, at least on my system.


[This message has been edited by MrLip (edited 04-06-2000).]
 
MrLip, hi. Okay here are the answers to your questions:

"1. What is that sound effect at the begining of 'The Dream'?"

- I actually used the bass kick drum as a metronome so I knew where to start, but then I wanted to keep the kick drum in (I was going to edit it out on the final mix), but then it sounded too plain for my taste, so I a played a weird bass guitar line over top the kick drum lead-in by just tapping the finger of my right hand on the 12 fret and fingering the notes with my left hand. Then I thought it sounded nice, but still too plain, so I processed that lead-in bass line with one of the PowerTracks effects. It's basically a heavy "wah" effect. Then I cross faded the first bass line with the guitars. The bass line fades out from 100% to 0% while simultaneously, the guitars are coming in from 0 to 100%.

"2. What is your amp/monitor set up? I listened to "Which Way" again today. I think your mixes sound pretty damn good for home recordings."

- Here's my whole setup up for recording: Gibson SG into a Line6 Pod, Fender Bass into a SansAmp Direct DI box, Shure SM57 mic into an ART Tube MP (preamp) for vocals, and the R-70 drums. All of these go directly into the sound card of my PC and I multitrack with PGMusics PowerTracks Pro 6 software. The monitors that I use are actually a pair of self-powered Radio Shack speakers that I bought 12 years ago for about $29. Thank you for the compliment about the mixes I've posted so far. I've still got much to learn and everyone's been majorly helpful to lend an ear to give me input on what I need to concentrate on fixing in the mixes. Like I said, I love this place (homerecording.com).

"3. Is the Roland R-70 a drum machine or a sound module? Do you program it on the console or do you control via midi? You're drums sound quite realistic, at least on my system."

- About 10 years ago I used to try and mic my beat-up old drum set... It sounded horrible... then I bought a Matell Synsonic drum thing (anyone remember this thing)... horrible. Then I bought a Roland R-8 drum machine $800 (THIS WAS GREAT) lost to my first wife (what she used it for, I dunno). Then I bought a nice inexpensive drum machine called Dr. Rythm and I think BOSS made it. It was around $200 and I think it sounded almost as good as the R-8 with less features. Sold it. Then I plunked down $650 to get the Roland R-70 which was basically a newer version of the R-8 (new features and better touch pads)... Yes, the R-70 is a drum machine and it's really really nice, I think. I bought it quite some time ago. I wonder how much something comparable to it nowadays would cost. I program the whole drum track within the unit prior to recording. I do each piece by measures or patterns, then I put the measures/patterns together to create the whole drum track with all the little fills and changes in the right place. It's probably the most time consuming part for me when recording.
 
Hey Teddie..

About the crash thing... It's the Splash/Crash that I find a bit load, occurs on beat 1. I thought it could be brought down just a little bit. After listening to it a few times, I guess it isn't that loud. No one else seemed to mind it.

Again, good job.
 
Emeric, no, I think you're absolutely right. I just found out last night that I screwed up on the drums for both "Which Way?" and "The Dream". Um, I had it plugged into the wrong hole, so to speak. All the drum elements that are panned a little bit to the right within the drum unit were not coming through... So the crash you're hearing is a left side cybal and since the drums are all on the same track, the level setting to compensate for the ones not coming through properly blah blah... etc. etc... I didn't notice it until I was messing around with the new song (#3) and I was like "Oh dam." Easily fixable though... I'm redoing the drum tracks tonight for the 2 earlier songs, remixing and reposting the new mp3's. I should have the new song done this weekend. I'll post it when it's ready. Thanks again!
 
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