here's my recording, how to i make it better?

  • Thread starter Thread starter N8theGr8
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N8theGr8

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my band just finished a recording of "Ants Marching" by DMB (minus vocals), all the instruments turned out great, not many mistakes at all. My problem is what can i do with them to make them sound better other than add effects and change volume envelopes? this isnt a quality recording, im using it for practice before we buy real gear (2 shure sm57's, behringer mixer, right now we're using just an RS mic to a comp in the mic-in, lol) i just wanna know if i should be doing anything with the tracks, EQ etc, or if the recording will sound 10 times better w/ the new gear. it can be found at: www.geocities.com/nate72685/Natespage.html
its 4 megs, please download it though. i really dont have too much of a clue about what im doing other than the effects. if you listen to it, the guitar is acoustic hooked into an amp and it sounds a little weird, too warm and full, not bright enough like in the real recording. (if you've heard it off the DMB cd, man their recording is GREAT, what im trying to do is mimic it a little.)
 
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I went to your page and all I saw was a link for your cover of Under the Bridge. :confused: I did give that a listen, the recording wasn't too bad, but the guitar seemed to have alot of timing problems and seemed to miss a few notes here and there (I do it all the time on acoustic so don't feel bad!), but it sounds like you guys are having alot fun! I was in a cover band which did alot of rock and grungy stuff (remember grunge?) in the early 90s when I was in High School. I've since "graduated" to more mellow acoustic singer/songwriter stuff. Keep enjoying the music!
-Evan

PS - I love old Dave Matthews (never got into his latest album), pretty much all I listened to when I was in college!
 
sorry ants marching isnt up, its WAY better than under the bridge came out. the timing isnt the guitarist's fault (around 1:20 or so?), i messed up the track and that was the only way i could fix it. he also didnt have a kapo (sp?), so he had a little trouble without one. ants marching should be up in about 10mins if geocities likes me today... Dave matthews rocks! im seeing em here in boston on saturday. once u download the recording, tell me what u think of the drums (me), i try to play exactly like carter but it can be very hard sometimes as you probably know :)
 
I thought it sounded pretty decent for the equipment you used. When I was in a band, we used my Yamaha MT100 (purchased in 1991!) 4-track cassette recorder and a bunch of radio shack mics. Some suggestions -
The bass/acoustic guitar seemed a little too overpowering. Try finding a better balance volume-wise betweeen the instruments.
Your drumming was impressive...BUT don't try so hard to play like Carter. I do alot of (folk) covers and I always try to put my own signature on them. Don't make Ants Marching sound exactly like DMB, make it sound like your own band. That song is strong enough (and simple enough, with the basic D-G pattern in the verses)that you should be able to twist it around enough. I go to open mics alot and a few times there was this guy who played DMB. He did Tripping Billy's note-for-note (solo) and while the technique was impressive, the overall performance didn't do anything for me. I pictured this poor guy sitting in his room playing along with the CD a million times until you couldn't tell his playing and Dave's playing...His time would have been better spent coming up with a new arrangement or some riffs to go along with it and thus making him a better musician as opposed to a better "technical" guitarist (IMHO).
When I do covers, I sit down with the words and the chords. And I play the 'song' how I feel like playing it. With folk music, it's all about the 'song' and not any specific performance/recording of the song. Kind of abstract and stuff. Re-arrange the verses, switch the instrumentation. I love playing "guitar" songs on the piano, and vice-versa. A good example of a recent cover I recorded was a John Gorka song called Part of Your Own. He played it on the guitar, but I did it on the piano...I changed the last verse so the piano playing was very delicate and led into the last chorus where it got louder (as far as loud folk music goes :p ) and then finally a last chorus, once again being very delicate on the keys. My girlfriend likes my version better than the original, although it's Gorka's word and melody, the arrangement is mine and thus the performance/recording becomes more mine than if I played it on the guitar with a similar arrangement as the original.

I wish you and your band lot of luck and thanks for sharing your music with us!
-Evan

(PS let me know if you'd be interested in hearing any of my stuff, I can post some mp3s if you'd like!)
 
thanks for the feedback, i also think the guitar is overpowering, i dont know how to fix it. i would like that nice, light acoustic sound, but the recording has too much bass, and it sounds a little blurred. can EQ fix this? what are some great paramEQ plugins? i'd like to hear some recordings that you made, so go ahead and post em :)
 
re: recording

Hey,
I was in a covers / originals band for a while when I was in school... bad times! I hated it. No commitment from anybody and I expected far too much from the others.

But on to you. I think your drumming is really, really good and promising for such a youngster... me at 23 cant really be called an old fart, but still my drummer at 15 couldnt play a standard rock beat.


I think the recording is pretty decent for what you say you used. I will say that practice makes perfect, but at the same time there is a profound improvement from RHCP to DMB. Also, the songs you are learning arent the easiest - your guitarist and singer definately struggle with under the bridge, but at the same time it is a difficult song for a beginner - try tightening up easy songs that wil make your band sound good, and that are piss easy to play... something like all along the watchtower (DMB do a great version) or um... Save Tonight by Eagle eye cherry - very easy. also old stuff if you like it like Sweet home alabama etc.

Besides, all that though, keep it going... like i said youve got great potential as a drummer, and the recordings sound aok.
 
Nate...

Some parametric EQ plugins I have are...

fasoft 4 band PMEQ www.fasoft.com I think (inexpensive)

sonictimeworks has KILLER EQ plugins but they run a couple hundred bucks www.sonictimeworks.com

You can download a 14 day one time demo from STW for FREE - maybe just long enough to fix your guitar tracks.. ;)

I'd try cutting EQ on the guitar tracks below 200 Hz or so to take out some of the bass.

Great start for kids your age!! Keep up the good work !!

zip >>
 
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