Introduction: My struggle with home recording

Hate Metal but like this? Strange isn't it. The video clip is recent, but I phoned the singer a few weeks ago because I found an old hard drive that had a copy of an album they recorded in the early 80's. Not a bad recording for that time period - I was surprised the quality held up. EDIT - I found the same track they're playing live, 40 years later. Genre wise? What is it? Brit Rock???


EDIT 2 - you were typing. You really must get a grip - your recordings don't sound unprofessional - I have amateur and amateurish as very different things and professional simply means somebody pays you. It has not got a relationship with quality and never has. Good people tend to use good gear, and if they have talent, get good results. We all know people who spent over a grand on a Les Paul, PRS or Nord keyboard and can't hold a tune to save their lives - AND - they work, so are 'professional'. Let's be frank - the people who produce great sounding music with no monitors, no headphones - somebody strumming a guitar could sound great with a single mic in the right place. This doesn't work when you start bringing on the amps, speakers, and music that is loud, bassy and trebbly. It never works.
 

Attachments

  • cold nights - bright lights.mp3
    6.2 MB
  • hold on to what you've got.mp3
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"You guys told me that that little clip I posted above which I said sounded god fucking awful sounds normal and fine. NO IT DOESN'T! I've listened to other people's recordings. They never sound anything like the dog diarrhea that I always seem to pop out."

Then stop playing, stop recording music and take up gardening.
 
If it's your creative skills doing you in, you just need to practice them every day like the rest of us, and keep pumping out lesser quality music as you move along. One day it'll all snap into place and ...WHAM! If you can form or join a band you can approach this from another angle and learn to create with the others.
 
Its a bit of both. The lack of being able to produce a good sound and tone stifling creativity. I have to be inspired by what I hear played back but all of this shit just sounds like complete ass no matter what I do
 
OK ok.

Forget the negative crap I said today. I want to press forward.

Can you guys please check out these two clips? I've been working on this all night.

It's the same riff. One is double tracked (yes, two separate tracks) hard pan L/R Labelled "Holiday HP 5153". The other is just the left guitar track pan L65 (65% to the left) "Holiday L65 5153". Tell me which one you prefer, and please give detailed overall feedback if you can. Thanks!
 

Attachments

  • Holiday HP 5153.mp3
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  • Holiday L65 5153(3).mp3
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I hear an EQ difference between them. One has more of a hump than the other - that's it. Both sound perfectly usable and typical of the genre.
 
rob aylestone said:
I hear an EQ difference between them. One has more of a hump than the other - that's it. Both sound perfectly usable and typical of the genre.
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You're just hearing the missing right guitar track and the slightly more right panned left track. Other than than, no difference.

Idk, it kind of still just sounds thin and lacking bass to me. It's missing something, but definitely an improvement.
 
Neither one of them were "mastered" (whatever that really means 🤷‍♂️. I just kind "eye balled" (or "earballed") it with the mixing. Didn't use any plugins for mixing. Just kind of messed around with it. Did tons of mixdowns to see how it sounded, then voila. Not sure if sending it off to someone who knows how to mix/master would transform it 🤷‍♂️?? But I'm going to go ahead and finish the song.
 
Trouble is, you won't agree with anyone else production decisions because your mind is set in a negative way. Until you have the rest, how on earth will you be able to make decisions like this? Get the playing right and then polish in the mix - that is when these tiny things gel - NEVER - in isolation like this. It's impossible to know which of those two will work in the mix - because there isn't one ....... yet!
 
rob aylestone said:
Troubleshooting is, you won't agree with anyone else production decisions because your mind is set in a negative way. Until you have the rest, how on earth will you be able to make decisions like this? Get the playing right and then polish in the mix - that is when these tiny things gel - NEVER - in isolation like this. It's impossible to know which of those two will work in the mix - because there isn't one ....... yet!
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What do you mean isolation? This is all the instruments this tune is going to have. It's got guitars, bass, and drums. Of course you can mix this little sample.
 
Oh - er, no big kick and snare, crashes, thumping bass and anything else? I thought it was just a guitar guide and a sort of bass to keep the time. It's, kind of small? Tell me this riff happens a couple of times then blam, it picks up? I figured it was just the intro.
 
I don't know what you hear in your head therefore I don't know how the recorde material differs from what your expectations are, and furthermore, I can't suggest anything constructive to deal with that expectation gap. And, to make matters worse, nor can anyone else, as, indeed, you have indicated.

I don't fancy the position you are in, because there is a strong possibility you won't ever meet that internal expectation.
 
If you want to hear what it could be like, put the stems in the Mix This area, and you might get a dozen other ideas for potential mixes. However, I would recommend you do more than just a 12 second riff. You're trying to get a sound before you have a song. That's a bit of a backwards approach.
 
IHateHomeRecording said:
OK ok.

Forget the negative crap I said today. I want to press forward.

Can you guys please check out these two clips? I've been working on this all night.

It's the same riff. One is double tracked (yes, two separate tracks) hard pan L/R Labelled "Holiday HP 5153". The other is just the left guitar track pan L65 (65% to the left) "Holiday L65 5153". Tell me which one you prefer, and please give detailed overall feedback if you can. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Apples to oranges.
If you want to compare, you need to create equal listening characteristics. The first one (2 tracks) is louder and the left-right balance is equal.
 
spantini said:
Takes practice.

Here's some tips to at least pick up his sound :

Van Halen "Brown Sound" tips and setting with Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino

Get VH Brown-Sound tips & settings from the net's best source for the Van Halen guitar style and brown sound, Jeff Fiorentino & the legendary JFRocks.com
jfrocksguitarlessons.com jfrocksguitarlessons.com
Click to expand...
Have you read Spant's link? The author is a professional. To get the VH 'brown' sound , you need a solid state Crate amplifier. Then use his settings.

Screenshot 2022-03-04 092145.jpg

All too easy.
 
LazerBeakShiek said:
Have you read Spant's link? The author is a professional. To get the VH 'brown' sound , you need a solid state Crate amplifier. Then use his settings.

View attachment 115608

All too easy.
Click to expand...
Yes, but as guitarist (and a very good one), I can tell you one thing I know for sure is that EQ and tone are not the same thing. Not even remotely.

However, this is of interest for me to experiment with on different amps/sims. I'm not exactly trying to match EVH's tone. I would say I'm looking for something cloer to Nuno Bettencourt or Demartini's tone. I sort of liked the tone I came up with in that most recent clip. Don't you agree? It's a STL 5153 amp sim with the gain rolled way down, and a SD-1 overdrive in front. Very little reverb on it. (I do like drier tone for Rhythm guitars).
 
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