Groovy Chillen' Music

[Beezoboy]

Man was I suprised this Thursday evening when I recorded a group that I thought was going to be a disaster. First of all this is a free recording as a favor, and they had me sign a waiver that I would give not recieve payment and work only for the credit. Grrrr...

They walk in and ask where to put stuff and I notice what gear they are unpacking.

Drums - 5 peice metal shelled Pearl Export
Cymbals - All Scimitar (and he had to borrow a cymbal stand from me too!!)
Keyboard - Korg Triton (ok thats pretty nice)
Peavey Bass and Combo Bass Rig.
Conga's of some brand I have never heard of tuned way too high

So I am thinking this is going to sound like a big pile-o-shiznit. They record the first thing I am like "Hey this isn't horrible." They record the next thing and I am like "Not bad." By the time they roll around to 4th song I was pretty impressed as they were all pretty good musicians and kept switching instruments. So I am mixing down now and I am like "I should post this to let people hear that sometimes looks can be deceiving."

Not only that. I am not setup to record a band all at the same time. First of all when I record it is in my house. Second I have have no way to stop bleed. 3rd I have only 10 channels.

So I used 5 for drums, (2 33-3032's, 1 Atpro25, 1 Peavey 520i, and a 57) 1 for bass (Atpro25), 1 for Keyboard, (57) 2 for congas (58's) and 1 for vocals (Sennhieser MD441U). So I used ALL DYNAMICS to minimize bleed into an Aardvark Q10 and a Duo in SPDIF mode. Also I setup the band so that the mics would reject other sounds as much as possible. Finally I put the vocalist in a back bedroom. It actually all worked ok.

So here it is:

almost completely mixed down

still a bit rough

So I realize there are some problems like the conga's sound like arse and the toms tuned a little low and other things. But for a freebie and the circumstances I think it turned out ok. Especially the female vocals.

Beezoboy

 

[Toki987]

you did a good job of recording them. They aren`t bad at all. They do seem kinda new at working together though, and workin really hard to cop that groove with the piano player and keeping him in charge. I think if they`d loosen up a little and play with a little more authority they`d get a more profound translation.

 

[participant]

Sultry - Pretty cool jazzy stuff... xylophones (xylo patch) too loud? Bass also... 150-200Hz ish... (not too much)... drums sound pretty good... hey... I love this type of jazz... tho more partial to the more "acidic" type... definitely not the synth-driven stuff

The kick drum is a bit too... pillowy(?) maybe... but then again, not too familiar with this style... you probably don't want much "attack" in the bass drum sound anyway.

This is kick ass music; mix does sound like it could use some more "headroom", but not bad for doing it out of your house!

 

[chrisharris]

Hat's off to ya'. Man, if I'd seen the Peavey Bass rig, that would have been the end of it right there. Here's me:

"Feel free to keep the money you're not paying me".

You're a better man than I.

Nice work,
chris

 

[Kramer]

Is this band from Statesboro?College band?Good recording/mixing skills dude.

 

[M.Brane]

Three words:

High-pass filters.

Digital has a nasty tendency to pile up subsonics that rob headroom. Chop the lows off of stuff that doesn't need it and your mix will open up.

Bleed is good, especially when you have good players. You just have to make sure your happy with with your tracking because you can't fix it in the mix.

 

[Lt. Bob]

I agree with Mr. Brane. There is an undercurrent of lows that muddies up this mix (Sultry). The kick sounds muffled also. The balance is good and I like the vibes.
Hmmmm....same thing with Rap. It's kinda muffled sounding. You ought to be able to EQ the mud out of it. Like M. mentioned, you can pull out some lows and I'd consider adding a bit at around 6k to 8k; something like that.
Nice playing and a pretty clean recording. Good work.

 

[Beezoboy]

Thanks for all the posts guys. I'll look into hi passing it.

The bass drum sounds muffled because, well, it was it was almost completely packed with blankets when they got there. I took out 2 just to get the kick drum mic in there.

I am just glad this turned out even halfway decent. And what is really cool is that I got to use my 441 on vocals too. Which I hadn't done yet. All I have left to try it on is snare and acoustic. I have tried it on acoustic just playing around, but have never used it in a session on acoustic.