Latest Recording (Sandweaver)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter Lancaster
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Peter Lancaster

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I haven't posted in this forum for a while because I have been busy working on various projects. One of which I finished yesterday.

It was for a local band called Sandweaver. This is one of three songs they recorded with me. They'll be back later in the year to record some more, with their intention being to record an album in three or four sessions over about six months.

I would really appreciate your opinions on what I have done as I will be able to remix before the song ends up on their album and it will also give me some pointers for when I next record them to get a better sound.

Sandweaver - Just Forgive Me Again

Thanks, Pete.
 
Hey pete!
well im kind of a newb to recording but from a listeners standpoint I really like it. Its nice to hear drums a little differently in the mix. I also loved the acoustic sound and am a little curious how you went about getting it. Everything else just fit together really well. It sounds to me like there was a lot of thought and care put into the mix. I really like the song as a whole and think you did a great job :)

keep up the good work... ill be looking forward to some more

Rudy
 
Rudy,
Thanks.

The whole thing was recorded, edited, mixed and mastered on a Roland VS-2480.

The acoustic guitar was a £500 Takamine that sounded fairly thin when played. I mic'd using an AKG C4000B about 30-40cm from where the neck meets the body. The mic signal went via an SPL Mike Man pre amp to an ART DI/O and then by S/PDIF into my VS-2480.

I took two takes and panned them fairly far left and right. Any closer together and you really noticed the differences between them. I had to work with the EQ to improve the sound (HPF 125Hz 0.71Q, +2.0dB at 315Hz 1.50Q, -3.3dB at 1.70kHz 1.00Q, -3.0dB at 5.00kHz) and it's compressed at 3.20:1 with an attack of 10ms, release of 500ms and a maximum gain reduction of 10dB.

The guitar was played by the singer. In the hands of the guitarist it sounds totally different.

The drums were recorded using two overheads, kick and snare mics. It's how I usually record drums, so the sound in the mix is pretty much how most of the drums I record sound, although they do vary from band to band because of the drummer, the kit and the style of song.

As far as the mix goes I had to pan everything around where the acoustic guitars and main vocals were. I never pan any two things to the same place. It only took a few hours to mix, the editing probably took longest, especially on the chorus backing vocals (1 hour of editing, copying and pasting). As I recorded the various guitar parts and vocals I built up a picture of how I wanted the song to sound and how things should be panned and effected, so the final mix was only firming up things that were in place in the rough mix at the end of recording.

I hope that has provided some insight into my recording and mixing process.

Pete.
 
Wow you really covered it. Thanks... that will definately help me out especially with some of my upcoming acoustic stuff.

thanks a bunch and great work
 
One of the better songs I've heard here recently. Great sound.
Singer is a little over dramatic. That's about it.
 
I'd have to agree that the singer may well be slightly over dramatic (especially if you know what the song's about), but I find it quite refreshing to hear someone put some emotion into their singing, especially when Dido (the biggest selling singer in the world at the moment and the singer of the second most played song on European radio in 2003) puts absolutely no emotion into her singing at all.
Pete.
 
Dido (the biggest selling singer in the world at the moment and the singer of the second most played song on European radio in 2003) puts absolutely no emotion into her singing at all.
Click to expand...

I think that her "lack of emotion" is the whole idea with her music. Gives a smooth and somewhat melancholic sound to her songs. I think its pretty effective.

As for your recording.........

very nice!!!!

the intro was really well balanced.

i agree the singer was using a little too much emotion, but thats not your problem.

This is great pop.

cheers,

yiordanaki
 
excellent!

extremely well done. these guys have what it takes {and believe me, i know what it takes}.
 
the_supercritic said:
excellent!

extremely well done. these guys have what it takes {and believe me, i know what it takes}.
Click to expand...


Like anyone gives a fuck what you think.:rolleyes:
 
Really nice. I liked the song, and the singing was good. OK so a bit OTT, but as you say - nice to hear some feeling in there.

I love your bass sound - solid, but still with clarity/definition. I can usually get one or the other, but not both :(

I adored the percussion - beautifully crisp and detailed.

The drum sound was really refreshing - I think it's easy to get used to an over-produced "hyper-real" sounding kit, and it was great to hear drums that actually sound like a kit sounds in a room in front of you.

For me the weak point is/are the acoustic guitars. From your post it sounds like you've done the best possible with what you had to work with. A better guitar and/or more experienced player would probably have helped.

I don't have the technical knowledge to say what I'm hearing, but basically it sounded a bit "tight" and "brittle", especially on the high strings. Probably a result of (necessary) EQ. Did you compress on the way in? I wonder if that's part of what I'm hearing.

The panning worked really well, though.

Good vocal sound too. BVs are very effective. Main vocal strong, maybe slightly too much reverb? Probably just a taste thing.

Overall a really clear mix - you can hear everything very clearly, but it also gelled.

I enjoyed it. Good stuff.

Cheers

AB
 
Thanks AB,
The bass sound was the bass player's Westone (I think) direct into my Roland VS-2480 and through a suitable effects patch. In the mix some EQ [HPF at 63Hz with 0.8Q, -3dB at 125Hz with 2.0Q, LPF at 1.9kHz with 0.53Q] and a lot of compression [Ratio 16:1, Attack 8ms, Release 300ms, max gain reduction 12dB]. It's not a great sound. I should really have lent him my Spector NS-94.

The bass clarity is probably down to my use of HPFs on everything. The only low frequencies (sub 100Hz) in the mix are for the bass and kick drum. The HPF on the kick drum is at 50Hz. The dip in the bass EQ at 125Hz was to rid it of some boom, this also helps the definition. The bass is panned Right 1.5% the kick Left 1.5%. This separates them enough to help hear them as separate sounds, but not enough so that you can hear the panning. It also moves them out of the exact centre which I tend to reserve for vocals or solo instruments.

The drum kit was a new Yamaha Maple Custom kit which is very nice. I mic'ed using 4 mics (kick - AKG D112, snare - Sennheiser e604, overheads - AKG C3000). I always tend to mix drums to sound like a kit in a room, because that's the sound I've heard every week for 17 years during band rehearsals. To me that's what drums sound like.

I agree about the acoustic guitar sound. Had the guitarist played it the tone would have been much better. It wasn't compressed on the way in (I never do that with anything).

As for the reverb on the main vocal, it is more than I would use, but the singer insisted on the amount of reverb and its sound. It's his song and he was paying me, so I obeyed his instructions.

I always like to mix so that everything can be heard and balances well and has width and depth. My idea of mixing perfection is OK Computer by Radiohead.

Glad you enjoyed it. I'll post another track by the band soon.

Pete.
 
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