Just recorded a bad band...I need tips on how to mix them

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Hubbawho

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Okay well I'm not a newbie, so if you do have suggestions, I'm looking for something that probably wouldn't have already been thought of.

I just recorded a band who's drummer is extremely unsteady with volume (almost jazzy), the guitist is very sloppy with crap tone (loves the nu metal tone), and the vocals are a combination of screaming, rapping, and singing. My problem is the drummer almost NEVER just plays a steady beat. He basically improvs to a 4 count while the band performs the song. He flucuates increadibly with volume. I need to somehow tame down his drum track because it completely disapears sometimes and other times it sticks out very harshly. It's not even that certain phrases of the music are different and some are harsh and others are to light. It happens within phrases - and that's the problem. He'll decrescendo for no reason other than because he thinks it's cool at that moment, and then burst out with a fill from outerspace. It's literally like the drummer is saying, "HERE I AM I PLAY DRUMS...i feal like being quiet now BECAUSE I LOVE DRUMS!!!...this is supposed to be a snare fill but I didn't feel like playing hard"

I don't know how else to explain it other than he really doesn't play a rock beat. He'll just do jazz beats that are completely unsteady. Any REAL ideas on how to fix this fluctuating performance? (other than retracking)

(unfortunately I don't have an mp3 up right now, I'll put that up after trying to mix it. I just wanted some ideas first)

Thanks for any suggestions
 
1) use heavy compression, or

2) get into JAZZ and live with it
 
I have nothing against jazz. This is a nu metal band with a sloppy performance, and a jazz drummer doesn't even slightly fall into place. So do you have any real advice or is using heavy compression my only hope. I guess I'll have to brick wall limit the track...
 
Yeah I've triggered as much as possible...but snare and bass are the only things that can be replaced unfortunately. The way he plays his toms is kind of odd...often he'll use them for "effect' and not really hit them solidly but very lightly roll on them back and forth between 2 toms. It almost sounds like thunder in the background of the music. I believe in some cases it's intentional, however, it's far from able to be accurately triggered. I don't know, I guess a sloppy perfomance is just a sloppy perfomance. I'll post an mp3 sometime later and see what we can do about it then.
 
Other than the compression thing, which of course is the first obvious thing most of us would think of, can you "just" (bad word, I know) ride the levels of the drum tracks with automation rubber bands in the mixing? Either the individual tracks, or maybe riding the levels on a drum submix, whichever would work best there.

G.

EDiT: I can see a problem with both the compression and the manual riding; because the drummer is hitting the drums differently, even if you get the levels evened out, there may still be a difference in the timbre of the drum sounds. Not a whole lot to do about that I don't think.
 
don't mind me. The compression thing was the real answer cause that's the only tool I have at my disposal to combat such drumming. The "get into jazz" thing was more subliminal sarcasm than anything else. I'm just trying to get my post count up tonight. Forgive me, and good luck with the project.
 
i agree with eddie on this one. might be best to show the band in glaring detail what they need to work on. if you can somehow turn the poorly played songs into somthing that sounds cohesive i dont think they will learn from their mistakes and in turn get better. i tend to think that this is one of the major problems with modern recording.
 
I agree with what everyone else has already stated but what they didnt say is get paid at least half upfront. ba-zing!
 
man I only WISH I could find a drummer like that. heh heh. I would go for a "natural" sound...like jazz. just let it be what it is. maybe after that ask the band if they think anything should be different...if they say the drums just tell them "thats how it was played..I'm not a miracle worker".
 
I'd want to re-track the drums provided the drummer understands that they have to play somewhat consistently... of course if the timing is as bad as you say that may be impossible.

Honestly dude, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Bad bands are the nature of the biz. Give it your best but we're engineers, not magicians. The music doesn't play itself. If it sucks, it sucks. I've had my fair share of sucky projects thru no fault of my own.
 
Why are you putting so much emphasis on turning this band into something they're not? Maybe you just don't get what they're trying to do. It's possible. I remember being young and thinking that most of the engineers in my area clearly had no idea what I was doing musically, with all their reverbs and super-dynamic recordings that seemed to have no power to me.

Just record what they did and give it to them as such.
 
Try and figure out what they are trying to do, and go with that.

Ride the fader or compress the drums with the whole mix up untill they at least sort of sound right.

Keep the shit tone on the guitar. If it's too harsh when he's playing by himself, a little reverb might smooth things out. It's probably better to reverb the whole mix if the playing is sloppy though. Buss the rhythm parts (or what few that exist) to a compresser and mix that underneath the entire mix. That can help tighten them up a little.

That's what little help I can offer without actually hearing whats going on.

But as a general rule...

Don't try and make the mix actually sound good musically. Just try and make sure everything can be heard or is blended well and maybe try and fix some of the worst of the annoying stuff. You never know, it may end up sounding cool in the end.
 
Cloneboy Studio said:
Honestly dude, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Bad bands are the nature of the biz. Give it your best but we're engineers, not magicians. The music doesn't play itself. If it sucks, it sucks. I've had my fair share of sucky projects thru no fault of my own.
Click to expand...

Some good advice.

Just do your best, and move on.
 
You might wanna try the L3 multimaximizer on the drumtrack. I will allow you to set separate "walls" for separate freqs, it might help, but as someone else here also said: It will even out the sound, but it might sound odd cause the timbre of the drums will probably be way of...

-Nito
 
hmmm...the L3 multimaximizer? I'll have to check that out. Also, thanks for all the other advice. So here's a small update:

I had the band come back to my project studio and listen to the music and the drummer insisted all by himself that he wanted to re-record the drums. I didn't have to bring it up at all, however I did completely agree with him. The band however, was short on cash and time. I offered them some free time just to help the drummer redo everything, but the band wanted the cd done on time as opposed to it being done correctly. So we compromised and we re-recorded just 1 song - thier most popular one. The band figured that it would be the first one any of their fans would have noticed anyways, so the re-recording the others was less important. And yes, re-recording that one song significantly improved it, however, there are still some other tracks that are just garbage...at best. So that's where we stand for now. I will be trying all of your ideas out in the next week. I can't put up a sample just yet however, because I'm completing work on 4 other band's as well this week. But check back to this thread by Sunday or maybe even Monday and I should have a sample up. Thanks again guys.
 
if you are pretty confident w/ your compression/gating skills and you have alot of time and patience,then id say you can still salvage it.The main importance is the band in question is happy w/ it.Besides if they have that many issues w/the fundamentals of rock than they probably wont even noticed if it sounded like crap anyway. The problem w/ the drummer is serious
if it isnt brought to his attention it will never get better.And neither will he.
 
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