Heroine Tune

[ibleedburgundy]

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1109032

Been meaning to post something for a while but we're breaking in a new drummer. Recorded live in my basement Tuesday. I didn't do very much to the mix. Noise gate and EQ on all the drums. Compression and a touch of reverb on the master fader, EQ'd the keys and one of the guitars. Panned keys 100% left and one of the guitars 100% right.

Don't have waves or any fancy plug-ins, just the standard ones that came with PT 6.4.

I use pro tools, Digi 002, RNP, mackie 1604 --->ADAT, SM57s and SM58s, an AT4040 and EV something or other as overheads. Audix D6 on the bass drum.

Our third guitarist wrote this tune but he works nights temporarily so he wasn't even here for this. The song is instrumental.

All mixing advice, sound/tone advice, playing advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PDP]

Sounds OK,
Drums are a bit loose.
Not thrilled with the bass but it sounds like a technique/type of bass thing rather than the recording.
Not much content to really comment on.

 

[rayc]

Heroine Song as in written on the nod, written as an analogy to blissing, written as a means of escape, written for $50 & a little bit of foil?
It's gentle and sounds like an excellent bed for some gritty/enui type of lyric.
The bass needs some boom removed.
I like the intrusion of the guitar at 2.25 - that should be around a little more (sounds a little Modern Lovers when it happens).
The electric piano at 2.45 sounds like it's building to a Zombies chorus - a little too jazz pop for the song.
Are you gonna let the writer drop something onto this?
I'd like to hear a remix & a vocal to tell the truth.
It's a really good start.

 

[TeyshaBlue]

I'm on cans this morning....stupid auditors are in the conference room next to my office.

Like the guit tones...liquid..nice. The relentless panning kinda gets distracting after awhile, but I am on cans so it might not be so distracting on my monitors.
The snare lacks definition as do the toms..they sound sorta like they're in another room...a little boxy. Might be what you're going for...
There's a few picky timing errors here and there between the bass and guit, but nothing really distracting. They keep the tune a little looser than it might be tho. Lots of string/finger noise in the breaks. Might want to look at those guit tracks there and apply a bit of mute when necessary.

I like the tune...kinda sanguine with some potential for nasty.....kinda like Stone Temple Pilots in a rare, casual moment.

 

[ibleedburgundy]

Thanks rayc! Very helpful comments!

Heroine Song as in written on the nod, written as an analogy to blissing, written as a means of escape, written for $50 & a little bit of foil?

I think the analogy to blissing is what we were originally going for (as in heroin, not heroine. I spelled it wrong).

It's gentle and sounds like an excellent bed for some gritty/enui type of lyric.
The bass needs some boom removed.

I turned up the lower frequencies of the bass on the EQ. I'll tone that down a little.

I like the intrusion of the guitar at 2.25 - that should be around a little more (sounds a little Modern Lovers when it happens).

There is one time earlier in the song where the guitar could do that. I didn't do it the first time to keep things different. I normally play it the way you are recommending. I get the modern lovers connection. I hear that.

The electric piano at 2.45 sounds like it's building to a Zombies chorus - a little too jazz pop for the song.

We actually used to have another section on the end of this tune but it never quite fit, so we just cut it off. Our key guy never changed his part, so at this point he's building to something that doesn't happen. I think that's what you are picking up on. Very intuitive of you!

Are you gonna let the writer drop something onto this?
I'd like to hear a remix & a vocal to tell the truth.
It's a really good start

If he wants to put something on here I will of course let him because it's his song. Unfortunately we don't have a singer. This band is made up of guys I grew up with and none of us has a voice.

Thanks again!

 

[ibleedburgundy]

Thanks Teysha! I will definitely use your comments to improve my mix.

I'm on cans this morning....stupid auditors are in the conference room next to my office.

Like the guit tones...liquid..nice.

Thanks dude! I'm the delayed guitar panned hard. Another guy is playing a more reverby guitar. I'm playing an American strat out of a Mesa DC-5 with a boss delay pedal. SM57-RNP-digi002. I feel like I have the tone dialed in right now.

The relentless panning kinda gets distracting after awhile, but I am on cans so it might not be so distracting on my monitors.

Yeah, it is relentless. I don't normally do 100% but in this case I decided to go a little crazy. I'll experiment with dialing it down.

The snare lacks definition as do the toms..they sound sorta like they're in another room...a little boxy. Might be what you're going for...

I agree about how it sounds, but I'm not really going for that. I've been trying to work on it. I have 57s on each tom and the snare, D6 on bass drum. I panned the overheads 100%. The set is an old Tama rockstar rs with experienced zilgian cymbols and experienced (old) AAX hats. It's not a particularly awesome sounding set to begin with. My drummer has an old star classic, maybe I should have him bring that over.

I usually have the drums a little more to the front of the mix but in this case I thought it was thick and nice with lots of guitars and keys. That might also have something to do with it. I also have many of the drums going through the mackie 1604-ADAT which is a slightly lower quality signal chain to what I have on the guitars.

This is live so bleeding doesn't help either.

There's a few picky timing errors here and there between the bass and guit, but nothing really distracting. They keep the tune a little looser than it might be tho. Lots of string/finger noise in the breaks. Might want to look at those guit tracks there and apply a bit of mute when necessary.

Good ear. We're just not that tight in general. Key guy is slow handing it on purpose. Bass player has his own style but I like it so we don't ask him to change. For the purposes of this tune, I think it works. If we tried to play something that has to be super tight, we're probably not going to get the desired result.

I heard the string noises during the pauses also. I'm going to put a gate on the other guitarist. It wasn't me I swear!

I like the tune...kinda sanguine with some potential for nasty.....kinda like Stone Temple Pilots in a rare, casual moment.

Thanks man. I like this tune too.