Just...help...me...

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RideTheCrash

RideTheCrash

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Okay, I gathered up the courage to post a rough mix after listening to a certain one on here, I figured I couldn't be much worse. Now before you state the obvious... I'll do it for you.

Overall: This was done very quickly, all parts done by me, this was more or less something just thrown together quickly. Everything is kinda a bit boomy, that was a result of being rushed.

Drums: I have a Shure PG48 for an overhead (hence the no real panning except the first hi hat hit I did in Cool Edit), the snare and bass have crappy RadioShack mics, and the snare wasn't very close to the snare, so you can guess how it sounds. So it's not the greatest to say the least. I EQ'ed the drums on my mixer (so sue me, with what I have, it sounds better!)

Guitar: Mic'ed with the PG48, crappy amp.
Bass: Direct, crappy Squier.

Vocals: PG4 also, but I cut the vox out, because I hate my voice.

I could could on and on, if you want to know more, I'll post but I'm expecting someone so I'm getting through this. This is a 30-odd second cover of Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride (with distortion guitar for the hell of it included).



Just opinions are fine. I've done MUCH worse mixes last year, so I'm getting there. Please don't be to hard :)
 
hi there, i'm downloading it now. do me a favor and listen to one of my recordings, from Jasonbird, and give me your opinion...be right back....
Jason
 
wow, I am certainly no expert, but the drums seem to have come out the best. The distortion guitar is way in the background on my right monitor and I can barely hear it. I can hear the bass barely and best when the song ends. Maybe make sure your recording levels were good, and then play with the wq and panning to get them into a place of there own...I'm learning myself, so I wouln't want to lead you astray. Chris and those guys can give you better advice.
Good luck, Jason
 
Ah well, probably 'cause I EQ'ed my drums to death. By the way, I'm a drummer so the guitar playing isn't great, lol. I get different results, my little home studio (if it could be called that) has the bass sounded so so, and over on this computer, maybe 'cause it has a subwoofer, but the bass is pretty strong. I panned the clean guitar to the left a bit and the distortion to the right a bit, so I dunno.

I forget to mention, I'd accidently not plugged in my bass drum mic *d'oh* so that's why it's blah. I probably should of posting a short original I did, it gives a better example of how I do this, and I took my time on it. I might put it up later. And while I'm hear might as well post what I use for the recordings (some stuff collects dust, and mind you I'm a near broke 15 year old with no job)

Behringer Eurorack802 (hey it's more like 200 bucks here in Canada, damn exchange rate, does the job for me anyhow)

SoundBlaster16 (whatever it's called, not great for recording, but I don't have the dough to upgrade)

You already know the mics... I dunno that's basically it, record through the Behringer to the computer into Cool Edit, and tweak 'em a bit and that's it.
 
I record with the exact same setup!!!!!!! (different mic's though)

I may actually have some usefull information for you!!! maybe??

are you recording your drums to only one stereo track??? (it sounds like it. Try this, take your over head mic and your kick mic, and pan them hard right on the mixer, take your snare mic and pan it hard left at the mixer. Now in cool edit set track 1 to record the left channel(snare) and set up track 2 to record the right channel(kick and OH). arm both tracks to record at the same time, go and play!!! This way you will end up with two mono track's, and you can set the level's and eq of each channel, as opposed to "tweaking" the whole set. (add more boom, or click to the kick, without harming the snare track) ect....... i have just recently discovered how to do this, and it makes a world of difference!!! of course my next upgrade will be a sound card, so i can have a different track for each mic. but this will have to do for now.


you may already do this??? and i did all the typing for nothing!:D
oh well, hope it help's ya!!!

thank's man!

peace

Rick
 
Not terrible...

The one thing I'm seriously missing here is the kick drum. There are a few low "thuds", but not much there.

Cymbals sound decent, for recording them w/a dynamic mic. Actually, snare isn't too bad, IMO. Depends on your arrangement, really.

There are some timing problems you're probably already aware of.

Bass is taking up too much room, IMO... the levels are a bit inconsistent on it, too.... would benefit from more compression. Also sounds like the guitar & bass are slightly out of tune in relation to each other (the last bar).

But this isn't too darn bad at all.


c
 
I kind of noticed I could do that. For my original the only thing for the drums were just bass and ride cymbal so I panned the ride all left so I could tweak the bass a bit. Yes, participant, I know, I mentioned above my bass drum mic was turned off and didn't realize until after I was done it was gone, which explains the cheap thuds.

The cymbals... my crash is a cheap Solar crash, sounds horrible anyway, my splash is a Signature Sabian, so it's nice. The timing...yeah I guess, I didn't play to a metronome or anything, like I said, I just threw it together. My snare...sounds a bit in the background to me. My bro's bass is a cheap Squier and I just tuned it up again today, so it can be a bitch.

Compression...it wasn't compressed at all! Me and the compressor on Cool Edit don't work well together. So is that what you mean by the levels are inconsistant? Tips on attack, release etc, I never really toyed with the compressor, I usually end up with shakey sounds.

And thanks...
 
yep i agrre with smartypants....needs the bass drum fixed....wow this is short....the guitar sounds sufficiently groovy....ok STOP SCREWIN AROUND AND POST THE WHOLE DAMNED THING....lol..little bass heavy too btw....





bring it.
jamal
 
Lol, yes the bass drum was my fault, not the mix. I guess I should turn the bass down from what I've gathered. Glad the guitar sounds alright. That's all I recoded! I just sat down, played the drums for a bit... I don't get the chance to record much because I have a brother who is on here constantly... but eventually I'll do a full version.
 
RideTheCrash said:
Compression...it wasn't compressed at all!
Click to expand...

Heh.... see? That's what I get for going out on a limb! I was going to say "Bass could benefit from some compression", but in light of my recent onslaught of bullshitisms (new word... bear with me) in this clinic, I thought I'd play it safe and say more compression.

whew

It just seemed like the downbeats were where the bass got loud, and the attack would die down each note after it until the next downbeat.

For compression attack/hold/release settings: base them off your bpm. For example... a beat is a quarter note. How many quarter notes per minute? Ok. Say that's 120. That means your song is .5 seconds (1/2 second) per beat. (60 / 120)

Take your bpm, and divide it into 60 (seconds). Take that decimal, and base your compression settings on that--or on half of that (eighth notes).

So, if you're .5 seconds per beat, and you want to emphasize an 1/8th note groove on bass, use .250 (or 250ms) -- say... 10ms Attack, 240ms release -- or 10ms attack, 40ms hold, 200ms release... whatever... but, base it off your bpm


Chad
 
Ah, lol. I was never good with math mind you, I'll try to figure it out. My dad understands... he's been in radio for 30 some years.
 
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