Guilty - Alt. rock song

[Calc]

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=908818
Hi,
I just finished recording a little tune. I'm sure the mix is nasty since I don't have decent monitors yet. (saving up).

I would like to hear your thoughts on both the song, and mix or lack thereof.

I played the guitar, bass and sang. The drums are EZ-drummer.
I'm a pretty bad singer, but it's all in good fun right

The level may be a bit low, I'll try boosting it a bit with some eq'ing or whatnot. I'm new to all this

Thanks!

 

[JG96]

The song is good the instruments sound nice but the tone of the vocals is a bit odd it sounds like there's some sorta effect you should use it but less strongly i also recommend jbl control one pluses as monitors, i have an old passive pair but i think their active now they still go for cheap though there very clear and well balanced one of mine was beaten with a hammer and it still sounds good after excessive taping, i might look for a new cone though

 

[Calc]

Thanks! I sang it twice, once with no effects and once with a Megaphone effect..It's to hide my true voice
I'll try using less.

I'll check those monitors out!

 

[VomitHatSteve]

The megaphone effect sounds cool in small doses, but I don't recommend using it throughout the entire song.

It sounds like your vocals slipped out of synch with each other a few times. Watch out for that.

The one guitar part (lead, I guess, but it's a rhymic lead) seems to be panned a bit far left. I'd move that a bit closer to the center. Same with the snare drum.

All-in-all though. You've got a pretty decent mix. Sounds good for an early effort.

 

[bozmillar]

Like Mr. Vomit said, the megaphone effect is kind of cool, but it probably shouldn't be used throughout the whole song.

I think the bass could come a quite a bit, and I probably even agree with the leady rhythm guitar being too far out to the left.

It sounds like you just used the midi loops from ezdrummer for the drums. It kind of makes the drums sound generic and fake. It also sounds like the drums are being hit a bit too hard. For this style of song, I have found I get better results from ezdrummer actually playing the beats out by hand, either on some sort of touch pad or a keyboard. You can go through as many times as you want, for example, record hi hat and kick drum, then go back and do snare and what not.

Other EZdrummer things that I think might make it sound more real:

1) I'd turn off the under the snare mic. I think it makes the snare too snappy for this kind of music.

2) I also put the hi-hat mic pretty low and let the overheads take care of it. It takes some of the fakeness away a bit.

3) You can also compress the crud out of the drums to get a little sustain out of the snare.

ok, I've written enough. I like the way the guitars sound. Cool song.

 

[Calc]

Thank you for the detailed replies!

I will try playing around with the vocals on the chorus, the verse I am quite happy with. It just sounds a bit weird when I remove the megaphone effect vocals from the chorus, sounds empty..

bozmillar : you said: "I think the bass could come a quite a bit". Does this mean that I should turn it up a bit?

Unfortunately, I do not own any MIDI controllers. Might invest in one in a while..
I really appreciate your tips on EZ-drummer, I'm playing with it as we speak!
As for compressors, I will give it a go, but I have never used any before....

The guitar being panned to far is fixed and sounds better, thank you!

Will post when the update is done.