I really need some advice

R

Ray J

New member
I finally have my own mixdown deck and can now remix when needed. (I was borrowing dats before) I am in serious need of advice. I will try not to be too long-winded but I'd like to supply you guys with some info on my equipment so that you can steer me in the right direction.

I normally sing on my tracks but this is an instrumental I cut to get the kinks out of my recordings before I put up my stuff with vocals.

I use entry level stuff. Yamaha md8 (minidisc multitrack). A full compliment of nano gear(verbs and comps) OUCH and an Alesis sr16 for drums.

One thing I would like advice on is the kick drum. It seems to be sitting on top of the mix. I don't usually use effects on the kick but I'm thinking the reason it sounds funny is because the snare has a lot of verb on it and the kick is almost dry. Please listen and offer what you can about the kick drum sound and anything else you hear out of place.

My recordings sound worse than most of the other stuff I am hearing and would like to know how much of it is due to my equipment and how much is due to poor tracking and mixing

Thanks

The song is "Feeling Kinda Blue" found here

http://www.mp3.com/RJohnson

http://www.mp3.com/RJohnson
 
First thing that jumps out is that over-effected guitar. I know this is really more personal preference than anything, but it sounds really overdone. What is it and how are you recording it? Thats my beef more than the drums really. I mean, until you have a real drummer (or a few...it really helps) you're going to have a sterile sound to everything.

I like the guitars in the back better. Lots better, in fact Id like to hear it without the lead. Oh, and are you using a bass guitar? How are you doing that?

Man, it really depends on what you're looking to do. Maybe try for a more live feel if you're doing blues stuff. Mic everything up and don't go direct. I didnt listen to the others, maybe thats in there somewhere.

The song has some direction, I think if you go to the source you can probably make it fly.

H2H
 
I agree with H2H on the lead tone...although I like that tone alot,it doesnt fir this style well, in my opinion...a good SRV tone on this one maybe.....Listening again....kick drum sounds fine to me for canned....maybe the snare has a little too much verb?....the bass line needs to be more of a walking type line, sounds like its playing on the 1 and 3 only.....

I like the song.....guitar parts are sweet.....third time around that lead tone is growing on me......
 
H2H - Thanks for listening. Here's the situation with the lead guitar. I like the flange sound on my POD more than the flange sound on my effects unit so, I tracked it with flange from my pod. I used to tracks and panned them when mixing down hoping to get the stereo effect back hoping it would work. I have the flange set on 1 1/2 but you're right, it is still too much. Since I didn't add flange during mixdown, I would have to re cut the track to get it out. To answer your other question, I did use a bass guitar to cut the bass track, I normally use no effects on the bass but I added some chorus during mixdown to get that sound on the 3rd chord change. Thanks for listening

Gidge - Good to hear from you, I think there are only a handful of folks from Louisiana on this board. I live about 90 miles west of you in a little town called Eunice. I send a CD to a guy in Denham Springs last month as a matter of fact. I kept the bass sort of simple and used a bass chord on one of the chord changes. You're probably right about walking it. I"m hearing a part where I think a walk would sound good. Thanks for listening

Peace

Ray J
 
I liked this alot!You can really play, man!
As for the kick,I dont know how the SR16 is set up or what
sounds it has,but I use an HR16 and what I do is assign a regular
24"powerkick sound to the kickdrum pad,then assign something like
an electronic kick to one of the percussion pads(or any available pad).
Run them through different mixer channels and emphasize the low end
on the power kick.Keep the electronic kick lower in the mix,just kind of
emphasizing the high end and not sounding like Simmons drums.For t
that matter,any combination of the kick sounds you have available will
probably fatten it up and make it sound more believable.
Nice work though.I didn't actually think the kick was too bad and the
toms sound alot better than the HR16.Thats the difference between 80's
and 90's technology I suppose.
 
There's only one thing wrong with this one - there's no vocal. Tell you what - do it again, add in the vocal, and when that funny-sounding guitar comes in (as long as you play it like you did toward the end of the song) it'll just SATISFY. The drums are fine to my ear, in terms of kick and snare. The real mixing magic for me on this one is the other two guitars coming in from the left and right - you're attending to the guitar and drums cuz they're stage centre, but those voices from either side set the whole thing up. Damn, I'm getting excited about this now. Imagine this - a main vocal (sorta paralleling the lead guitar) and supporting vocals doing what the supporting guitars are doing! Damn!

Okay, nobody move! I'm all over this one. Last one in's all dry.

Oh, yeah - walking bass, definitely. And horns. At least one horn. And if those supporting vocals I mentioned were sung by two women with afroamerican larynxes, all would be well with this producer's world. No, no! I'm getting all confused... It's ME that's gonna have the black women singing the wings, and it's YOU that's gonna keep the guitars and add the horns and main vocal.

Ray, you're okay with this one. You're using your gear up to its potential, I think. If you want a better sound, either get better gear or get yer bum into a studio. Good stuff.

Oh, BTW, anybody know a coupla good singers who live in or near Singapore and are willing to do it for the sweat?
 
Ray, Yeah besides hearing that walking bass, this song rocks...Im liking the lead tone even more now...I think dobro is on to something though...I guess we'll be hearing Feeling Kinda Blue-The Dobro Remix next.....

Ive been to Eunice before...the company I work for bought out a company in that area (Duplechain Oil) and I went visit one of their stores....
 
Beezelbubba - That's good advice about the kick. I usually end up with about 1 track left over to double something. I usually use it on either the lead vocal or the rythmn guitar. I never thought about trying it with the kick. Next time I need special treatment on the kick I'll try it. Thanks for checking out the tune.

dobro - vocals huh? I may do it later. I did this song mostly to get the kinks out of my new procedure with the mixdown deck and all. Since I can write music much easier than lyrics, I left it an instrumental. In addition to your horns, someone mentioned a b3 would go really well too. Too bad I can't get one for $99.99. Thanks for applying your ear to this one.

Gidge - Nothing much shakin in Eunice. I think I may know the Dupechain's though. Peace


Thanks everybody
 
you've made $513 on mp3.com, so you are doing something right.

I was half-expecting and overly bright mess or something like that, but it sounded very good. WIth the exception of the guitar which I think is a little bit too far away.

The kick could have been delayed, and maybe some 60-80 hz added, but the rest was tight imo.

keep it up.
 
HEY RAY J!!

I'm listening to this now. Everytime someone says their mixes suck, I tend not to believe them, because, well, everyone's their own worst critic.

Actually, I found nothing wrong with the mix. I know everyone else here got on the guitar, but I actually liked it. I guess I must be a closet Joe Satriani or Steve Vai fan.

I also had no problem with the kick drum. I thought it sounded fine. I think the only problem I had was the rythym guitar. I had a sense that it WANTED some time and kept fighting to be heard above the lead. That's my only quibble.
 
Rhythm guitar? One guitar? Well, that's interesting... I thought there were two because there are different guitar parts coming through left and right. Ray, how many rhythm guitars you got on that sucker, baby? Well, one or two, I still think it/they are the secret strength of the tune - listen to the way they sort of parallel each other without either playing in unison or stepping on each other's toes - damn, that's music! Bob Weir would dig this. You know, with my own stuff, I pretty much follow my own pig - I don't see the point or attraction in trying to so something like someone else did it. But I gotta admit, I am seriously tempted to learn this dualling guitar thing and use it in my own music. It's really exciting.
 
cyanjaguar - Thanks for checking it out and for the advice. Since I tracked the guitar with flange, I used 2 tracks and they are panned. If I would center them a little more I may be able to get it more up front but may lose something in the stereo image of the flange.........I think.. I may tinker with it

Shaky - the rythmn guitars could come u, I think you're right about that. I had a hard time judging them and on smaller speakers the level sounds about right and on better speakers the rythmn does get lost a bit. The rythmn also seems to be competing for the same space as the snare which isn't helping. NOt sure what I'll do about that. Thanks for listening.


dobro - yeah, there are definately two different rythmn tracks on this song. When I said doubling, I didn't actually mean doubling in this case. Your ears are pretty good because they are a little low in the mix. I didn't really spend much time matching them up, I just played one kinda simple and set my monitor mix so that I could hear what the 1st rythmn was doing and as you said, tried not to 'step' on the other track. I have other stuff that I'm working on with similar dueling rythmns in which I've dedicated a little more attention to blending them and you're right, it's a nice sound on certain songs, give it a try. Thnks for putting you're ear on this one!

Ray J
 
Nice... I agree with everything that's been said. I think the lead tone doesn't quite fit, but it's ok. The playing is really killer. The drums could use some livening up, but that won't happen with the machine. Uuummm... yeah, what everyone else said. :)

Nice tune.
 
Kabudokan - Thanks for listening. and regarding 'Where Will I Be?" it's funny, with all of the electric stuff I do, this is the song that consistantly gets the most downloads and plays regardless of where it's located on my page.

Thanks

Ray J
 
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