Industrial Punk DIY album

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Warwick720

New member
Hello! Just looking for some feedback on the sound of my band's first full-length album. This was recorded entirely live using 4 microphones to ADAT tape in our practice space. Mixed from there on a cheap old Peavey board. To account for the bleed, room and equipment constraints, we took many hours and great care with each of the instrument's tones, arrangement of the room, mic choice and placement of each microphone.

Here it is! New Wave Hookers

Any advice/feedback/criticism would be appreciated!
 
Listened to Rechargable Milk. Loved the energy.

The mix is super thin. Everything - guitars, drums, bass - is very thin and brittle. Guitars are paritcularly scratchy.

The vocals are completely drowned in reverb. I can't even come close to understanding a word.

I'd edit out the 5 seconds of silence at the beginning of the song. I noticed something similar at the beginning of the second song.

I'd take a break for a few days and the compare your mixes against some of the songs/mixes in your genre. Do your mixes sound like those mixes?
 
Yeah, I listened to the first song. It was very thin, very low level, a bit distorted, and the vocals washed in reverb.
Normally the vocals on punk and new wave were pretty dry.
It sounds kind of like the song was played through a set of headphones and hung over a mic that was plugged into a mixer with the reverb turned way up. Sorry to be so critical but I'm surprised you calling this a finished mix that's ready for an album
 
That bass intro for "Amphetamine Salts" is going to be stuck in my head all day tomorrow. That can't be good for my problem-solving skills.

Interesting stuff. I agree with the other guys about the sound of the mix, but given the music genre, I assumed you wanted it that way. I take it you're not going for Bon Jovi-type production.
 
Perfect. I tried to use the harshness of the mix as a musical tool, and have apparently succeeded in making it as abrasive as intended. ;) It's good to hear that it doesn't sound like other bands in the genre. I wouldn't want it to!

The guitar especially is scratchy simply because that's my tone. The vocals are the only thing in the mix with any reverb added, and yes they're meant to be buried. The rest is just from our space which is essentially a big cube, super high ceilings and all.

Correct, 80's **** title.
 
I might recommend that you not listen to your tunes for a few weeks and then come back and listen. Then compare against other pro mixes that you like. I can't imagine this is what you *wanted* to do. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
 
So what are you actually trying to accomplish with this project?

Are you going for a listenable hook? If so, drowning the vocals like that hurts you.
Are you going for driving and energetic? If so, you really need to bring out the drums, especially the kick and snare.
Are you going for something unpleasant that no one will listen to more than once? I guess you've kind of got that. It could honestly use more dynamic contrast though. Tedious and unlistenable is a far cry from abrasive and unlistenable.
 
Hey Warwick, i think harsh is an understatement. It reminds me of a bootleg cassette recording of a live gig, like you would get in the late 80's, early 90's. I'd knock some of the top end off the cymbals in particular, maybe the whole mix, to get a really convincing replica. I guess this is what you wanted it to sound like? Those grungy noise bands were sort of big, in my youth, i'm thinking Big Black, Mark of Cain, Upside down Cross, and others, i know the sound well. Pretty bleak angry young man stuff. Totally DIY, 'no sell-outs', and quality of sound was never much of a consideration beyond loud and anti-social, so it would be weird to hear this sort of thing in a 'professional' production context. I might just be growing old, tame and boring - but these days i would only listen to something like this out of pure nostalgia value, like a replica bootleg, a period piece. Still, it's cool to think people are chasing a 'sound' as an artistic device that was probably never intended as such in the first place. Thanks for the listen, anyway.
 
Yea you guys need a proper recording and I know a guy in the cities(st paul) that does projects really cheap, PM me if you want his #.
 
It's a bad demo, not at all album worthy. Not even the worst albums of the old school 80s punk era sounded that bad. No offense :D
 
I think the overly reverbed vocal WORKS! (If your going for against the norm, that is). You should turn up that vox, though. Also, try putting something on the two-bus to get some loudness and body out of these mixes.
 
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