I'm new here...

[RAMI]

Hi guys (and girls)...I'm new to this site and just discovered this section. I've heard some pretty impressive songs and mixes. I figured I'd throw one of my songs into the mix. I never get opinions on my music while I'm recording and mixing because I work alone, so any thoughts on what stands out as needing improvement would be great.
This is a song called "Ivory Tower". I'm doing everything on it. I'm mainly a drummer, though. Thanx

Hope this link works.
http://www.soundclick.com/pro/default.cfm?bandid=132414&songid=1778989&content=song

 

[Dogman]

Nice sounding mix, RAMI. Everything is pretty easy to hear. Very cool, funky song. What is your setup? Don't have much for critique, as it blows my stuff away.
Ed

 

[RAMI]

Thanx alot Dog. I was mostly concerned with the vocal level. I'm not crazy about my own voice, so I was afraid I subconsciously mixed it too low. Also, I might be singing too close to the mic since I hear the occasional "k" or "t" clicking a little too loud. But if those issues didn't jump out at you, maybe it's not as bad as I thought.

I'm using a TASCAM 788 as my main vehicle.
My vocal mic is an AKG C1000B.
My bass drum mic is a D-112
My snare mic is an SM57
Overheads are AKG C1000 (which I didn't realise sucked so bad until I started reading posts on this site).

I record all my tracks on the 788 and then bring the stereo master into CUBASE and add a few things like MAGNETO, BBE SONIC MAXIMIZER and Waves L1.

I'm still learning and keep re-doing my mixes whenever I read something that tells me I've been doing something wrong (which is,like, all the time).

Thanx for the response.

 

[madmush]

Johnny Diesel!, ever heard of him?, think he was an aussie, did some great funk rock stuff in the early 90's, i think this track is kinda reminiscent of some of his sounds,

You want suggestions for improvement?.... uh..... you're aiming seriously high! Are you not happy with it? How about some shane macgowanish nasal spitting in the vocals.... a bit of zac/RATM, but that's just my taste, it might turn more people off than on. A bit of hate would suit the lyrics well. Mixing wise, pff.... sounds great. I can honestly find nothing else to "pick" on...

And classic quotes, too damn funny!, the lyrical content is good too.




...

 

[RAMI]

Thanx alot, Mad. The name Johny Deisel rings a bell, but I'm not familiar with his music. I will Google it and see how much I'm ripping him off . Thanx alot for the comments. You're right, though, I think I spend so much time worrying about singing on key to think about putting the right mood in a vocal track. This tune can probably use some venom. Thanx again.

 

[xfinsterx]

Sounds ok Rami.
Throw that BBe out the window buddy.
Dont ask me why, just do it before they find and kill you for using it.

Overall nice balance.
Id like to hear it with out the sonic crapulizer.

-Finster

 

[RAMI]

Thanx Chris. So the BBE's got to go? I didn't know that. I'll re-mix some of my stuff without it. Is it pretty much common kowledge that it's crap? Where have I been?

 

[drummerdude666]

nice mix, i like the song.

Nice drumming too I'm in a funk band myself and i find it hard to mix, it seems easy but the bass always clashes with my guitar........anywway. lol.

No, the vox is at a good level. Possibly the kick slightly louder. But not many other comments to make.

 

[Jack Real]

Hi

Very good song Rami. You are very good with all the instruments; drum, bass, guitars and vocals. The mix and recording are also excellent. Nice work.

/Jack Real.

 

[XLR]

That's a really tight rhythm section. Percussion's impressive - super tight and articulate like a hired gun drummer. Surprisingly good sound for the gear listed. I'm hearing what strikes me as a slight phasy-ness to the mix that's veiling it and hiding transient detail, but all in all good work.

Tim

 

[kraley]

Good guitar sound

Can you talk a little bit about the setup you used?

Otherwise - I think the vocal is the weakest link here - verrrry esssy!

 

[RAMI]

Thanx for the comments everyone. I'm glad the drumming is satisfactory, considering it's my main instrument. The rest I'm just winging.
Kraley, my guitar set up consists of a Strat. Don't really know where it was made, but it's nothing to write home about. (Mexican???) I'm going through a Yamaha DG Stomp and into a Peavey Studio that I'm just using the speaker from. I mic this with a AKG C1000B. I'm not a guitar player, so I just experiment with mic placement,etc...For the solo of this tune I used the bridge pick-up, which is a hum-bucker, and turned the tone off. For the clean guitar, I used the neck pick up and plucked the strings to get that heavy attack.
As far as the vocals having too much sibulance (sp?), I wonder if that's because of the BBE, though the BBE is on the whole mix, not on the vocal track. I'll try mixing without it and see what happens...thanx for the feedback.

 

[Jack Real]

I'm going through a Yamaha DG Stomp and into a Peavey Studio that I'm just using the speaker from.

Hi

I'm also using a DG Stomp. What are the numbers of the sounds that you are using for this song ? Also, did you had to modify the presets a lot ?

Thanks,

Jack Real.

 

[VSpaceBoy]

Love the song, great job.

 

[RAMI]

Thanx alot VSpace. Much appreciated.
Jack, I'm not using any pre-sets on the DG Stomp. I know I played around with it to get the 3 or 4 sounds I use in pretty much everything I do. If there's a particular sound you want all the parameters for, I can give them to you one by one, but like I said, not being a guitar player, I don't think I came up with anything too inovative sound-wise. Just played around until I got a clean sound, a semi-distorted sound and a really distorted sound. But I do love the DG Stomp, I must say.

 

[Jack Real]

Thanx alot VSpace. Much appreciated.
Jack, I'm not using any pre-sets on the DG Stomp. I know I played around with it to get the 3 or 4 sounds I use in pretty much everything I do. If there's a particular sound you want all the parameters for, I can give them to you one by one, but like I said, not being a guitar player, I don't think I came up with anything too inovative sound-wise. Just played around until I got a clean sound, a semi-distorted sound and a really distorted sound. But I do love the DG Stomp, I must say.

Hi Rami

It's was just out of curiosity. I'm working with presets so I was wondering how you were using it. I also like the DJ stomp a lot. It's a bit noisy and it doesn't have a very friendly interface but it has pretty much everything you need to make a good guitar sound.

/Jack Real.

 

[RAMI]

You're right about the not-so-friendly interface. For recording tracks it's not a big problem. But I can imagine it being a bit of a nightmare playing live and trying to go to another bank of sounds,etc...Like anyone else, the sounds I use started with pre-sets, then I made whatever adjustments neccassary as time wnet on.

 

[madmush]

i also vote against the sonic maximizer......! you use that AND the waves L1 on the whole mix?....

( btw, try download (if yo do that shit ) "Chill Pill" from Diesel.... you haven't ripped anything, i just think you might like it)



...

 

[RAMI]

Guys, edumacate me here, please. What am I doing wrong? I'll lose the Sonic Maximizer if I have to. But I thought the L1 and the Sonic Maximizer are 2 completely different beasts. Why would putting both on a mix not be good? One's a compressor and I thought the other just seperates the the lows and highs, etc...I need to learn. And I'm not being sarcastic. I am far from being an expert at this.

 

[XLR]

I never used the BBE stuff, but from my own experience with processing in general I can say that it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to mask with processing things that exist in the live tracking that can really only be fixed by tracking with more skill, better instrument, a better room, or better suited mics and pre's. If a track can't be made to sound good with a little EQ and a little compression or limiting, it's better for the learning process to find out what really was the problem instead of masking it with a different type of distortion or effect. You've obviously got the playing skills.

The C1000 is notorious for causing problems and the BBE box is notorious for masking problems.

Tim