Live band recording--please critique

  • Thread starter Thread starter dastrick
  • Start date Start date
dastrick

dastrick

huh???
Here is a recording of my band. It was recorded in one take. I added electric guitar, backing vox, and doubled the acoustic guitar.

The thing that I'm least happy with is the drums. They sound thin to me, but I don't know how to fix it. I didn't have time to play around with mic placement, so that's probably a big part of it. :(

The song is Let It Rain.

Thanks,

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=7327477&q=hi
 
Looks like something is wrong with the link. Takes me to a default SC page.
 
that's truly beautiful, i have no other words to explain it.

however, i can't give you a detailed feedback as far as mixing goes because i'm away at college till tommorow and i don't bring my recording speakers with me so i have to settle for the macbooks built-in speakers. i can say however, that i enjoy your music and i'd pay for it, if you ever made an album. keep it up.
 
There definately could be huge improvements in the drums. How are you micing the kit? it could be a mixing issue as well. the tone of every instrument doesn't seem well thought out. it sounds like a scratch recording.
 
thanks for the feedback...keep it coming

The drums is what I was least happy with. I didn't have time to mess around with mic placement before recording. I just set the mics up and went with it.


Kick -> CAD KBM-412
Snare Top -> SM-57
Snare Btm -> Audix i5
Overheads -> Behringer C2

Everything went to an Allen & Heath GL2200 then to a Presonus Firepod. DAW is Cubase Essentials 4.

I also mic'd the toms, but they didn't make it into the final mix.
I know that my mics are not that great, but I have to make the best of them. I think that the problem is mostly with placement, anyway. Plus, I have a TERRIBLE mixing environment.

If anyone wants to mix this, I'll be happy to put the files on my FTP. Just PM me.
 
no problem man.

i was wondering, is this one of the most active "home recording" type forums online? because it seems to be quite slow - if you know of any other forums or sites pm me. i won't leave this site, but it seems you have to wait a day or two for new posts.
 
wanna mix it??

Any takers on mixing this?

I'm mostly concerned with tracking because I have no good place to mix. I starting to do live/on-location recording and will be sending the files out to be mixed (or give the files to the customer and let them mix).
 
Ok, here goes.
The good first
Not to bad of a song, maybe a little mellow for my personal tastes.
Arrangement not to bad.
Good singer

Heres the bad to my ears.

First accoustic is completely overbearing, and has no depth. (Read, too in your face.)
Vocals are not high enough volume.
Electric guitar has to be one of the most terrible distortion tones I have ever heard. Sounds like a cheesy distortion pedal.
Bass tone is pretty good but again it is covered by blasting accoustic.
To many false build ups. you get the listener to move to the edge of their seat only to be disappointed.
Seems like electric guitar is panned to far to one side.
Lyrics are too repetitious(sp)

Hope I didnt offend you.
These are just my humble opinions.
 
Song is really nice but I'm afraid the mix just doesn't do it justice. Why are you recording it in one take? Make a proper recording of it, it deserves it.
The drums are hardly audible. When the electrics come in they seem to distort the whole thing. Singer's very good, but the voice sounds too buried. I think you should take your time and do it right.
 
thanks

Thank you for all of your feedback. It is appreciated and I am not offended. I took your comments into consideration and have come up with another mix. I lowered the acoustic guitars, raised the vocals, got rid of the nasty distorted guitar, and did some slight work to the bass. I still couldn't do much with the drums, but I think that I did improve them some.

JoeyM, I recorded it in one take mainly because of time. We usually only get together for a couple of hours a week to practice so I didn't have much time to play around with mic placements or multiple takes. :( Probably what I'll do is record the drums again.

Here's the link to the new version. Please take a listen and tell me if I'm at least headed in the right direction.

Thanks,

Let It Rain 4-1

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=911887
 
the guitar and vocals definately mix better, but the drums are killing it. i'm not sure how your micing the kit but the snare sounds very slappy and i can't even hear the kick. from what i can tell the kit isn't miced properly and without hearing it well it's hard to tell if it's tuned properly (the slappy snare being the reason i say this). If you wanna go the budget route of micing a kit you can make it work with 3 mics. one on the kick and 2 overheads. or one on the kick, one on the snare and one overhead. the overhead(s) being a condenser mic. do a little research about different mics.

it could be a good sounding song. don't be afraid to just start over and re-record it.
 
Opinions for Mix 4-1:

The acoustic guitar is really really boomy to me. I would use a high pass filter to take some of that edge off. By the time the song opens up all the way everything becomes very muddy on the low end too. Also agree with the comments about the drums. Not sure if there are vocal harmonies toward the end, but if there are they should be more pronounced.

I lovethe song though...keep banging it out!
 
I'd love to give it a try to mix it. I have an excellent mixing environment, I wish my ears were as good as my set up!

tom@tmixstudio.com
 
Last edited:
I saw that

Ilantis,
I actually saw that thread, but I did not see this particular song project listed there as one of the offerings....

Was it?

At this time this song had my interest more than others.
 
I've sent KeneticSound a PM about uploading this project to his FTP for everyone to practice. I am also willing to upload them to my FTP, but am a little unsure of the process.

Question...does zipping audio files destroy any of the audio quality? :confused:

Hang in there...it's coming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top