How can i liven this recording up?

J

jweb

New member
myspace.com/astraynomore

looking for some feedback on the songs i recorded for my band. Primarily the song "Now And Forever" but the other songs are fair game too. We did everything in my drummers garage so take that into consideration. Im really ok with any feedback i guess so talk to me...

thanks

P.S. were a metal bad but if you would rather listen to my acoustic'ish song instead thats quite alright with me

myspace.com/jwebmusic19

i believe thats the url if not sorry let me know...
 
Theres quite a few things you can do mate,
It feels it needs some real dirty kick drum trigger punching through.
that and widening the vocals a bit would really improve things.
:) good luck
 
More cowbell...



No seriously I would say more kick
Overheads are a little too sharp
Snare a little more snap
and as stated the vocals on the singing parts are weak
 
so how would you guys suggest i make the vocals stronger i guess? how would you suggest i widden them?
 
Change the vocal's reverb when you sing and double the vocals, maybe even add a second lower harmony and EQ out the top end of the lower harmony so we just get the fullness from it. Some diaphragm exercises wouldn't hurt either.
 
Some diaphragm exercises wouldn't hurt either.
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truth. we have been working on that. im also looking into getting a condenser mic cause were using my friends cheap dynamic mic for pretty much everything. Ive gotten alot better at recording most of the instruments we play but vocals still seem to be the trickiest for me to say the least. Im not sure if thats pretty normal or not but getting a good vocal sound has always been seemingly impossible for me. thats why im here i guess =)
 
A Condenser mic is probably going to make it even worse, if it's weak through a dynamic, in my history I've found that it just pronounces the weakness even more clearly, try getting a bit more proximity effect on it and lowering the gain when you track the singing, then double or triple the vox, but if you triple be careful.

Take your best track and use that as your foreground, then add the other two (which makes it triple) and pan them hard left and right, then make sure you lower them until you can barely hear them, you still want it to sound like just one person is singing, not a whole choir.

That's just one way you can try...also you could distort a doubled vocal and lay it under there, or like I said maybe just a lower harmony might be enough..you just have to try.
 
so when you say proximity effect im assuming your meaning get closer to the mic? and if i tripled the vox and panned two tracks hard left and hard right would i want to duplicate the track or is it optimal to have them recorded separetly from the first track? sorry if thats a confusing question
 
ya i completely agree with you and ive been messing around with kick sounds. if you wouldnt mind would you listen to the second link in my first post and tell me what you think of the kick drum in that recording? It sounds alot better to me but tell me if im way off
 
jweb said:
so when you say proximity effect im assuming your meaning get closer to the mic? and if i tripled the vox and panned two tracks hard left and hard right would i want to duplicate the track or is it optimal to have them recorded separetly from the first track? sorry if thats a confusing question
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Yeah getting closer on the dynamic mic will give you a more boomy sound, and by doubling or tripling it is always best to record seperately, although some will tell you you can just copy and then nudge them forward or back, just record them again.
 
Pahtcub said:
Yeah getting closer on the dynamic mic will give you a more boomy sound, and by doubling or tripling it is always best to record seperately, although some will tell you you can just copy and then nudge them forward or back, just record them again.
Click to expand...

ok thats what i figured. do you think an expander might help them be a little more punchy?
 
I would think not, an expander is a dynamic device, not tonal, and you need a fatter tone, an expander will just make your levels (that is loudness) more out of whack. I VERY rarely use an expander, you shouldn't try to fix so many things in post....get what you want when you record, that's what most people will tell you.
 
ok thanks. thats what i generally do but i hear alot of people talking about messing with everything after. its hard to know who knows what they are talking about on here.
 
When you're first starting out you should use as few tweaks after the fact as possible, try to get your recording right out of the box using just faders, and compression. What are you using to record?
 
a combination of things. I have a boss 1600 siab and then i run cool edit pro on my computer with a tascam us-122. Nothing fancy or proffesional im just trying to get good with that stuff first i guess before i invest in things i wont be able to even fully utilize. By the way i really appreciate the help!
 
i put it in cool edit but thats a recent addition. The recording you heard was all done on the boss
 
And this is why I tell everyone on a budget to start into computer recording instead of SIABs...if you can get the raw wav's exported send me those tracks and let me give em a listen
 
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