Live recording, home mixing...

[mattr]

Hi there,

I do live sound engineering at local gigs and started experimenting with doing live recordings (Direct outs/sends from A&H desk -> Edirol FA-101 -> Laptop). I then mix the tracks at home on my main computer.

I was wondering if anyone could give me any comments on this mix...
designcut.co.uk/gigs/160508/ned8.mp3

Its quite a long song and has quite a long intro, blah blah... If anyone could listen to it all the way through and comment then that would be great - there's a long bass solo later through the piece and I'd like to know if I bought the drums back too much, etc .

The artist is Ned Evett ( myspace.com/nedevett ). I'm not affiliated with him in any way (I'm not even really into that genre!) so I'm not too worried about comments on the music. He has toured as support for Satriani twice now, so he's gotta be good!

Sorry, I'm not allowed to post proper links until I have 5 posts so they're plain-text links

 

[jjtcorsair]

I do sense the drums coming down during the bass solo. The only other thing is the vocal being a bit too present at times mostly when he's eating the mic. I would ride that a little bit. Other than that it sounds great.

 

[mattr]

Thanks! So its subtle enough? I did the envelope quite quickly and the first time I listened to it back I thought I'd overdone it.

I noticed some of the other tracks I recorded that night had quite a bit of sibilance on the vocals. I know this is a forum about studio work rather than live sound, but do you have any tips on how to avoid this? It was a Sennheiser e865 with some light compression from a Behringer Composer. Do the foam pop filters do anything? De-esser?

I'm only 16 by the way. These are my first steps

 

[jjtcorsair]

Very impressive for your age (not that you're that young). I think you misunderstood- you shouldn't notice the drums coming down. You could bring them down slower or not quite as much. The sibilance thing is hard. Be careful boosting anything in the 5-8k range as that's where it lives, do a narrow cut in that range if it doesn't dull up the vocal too much. A foam pop filter will help somewhat. The reverb and echo on the vocals will sometimes enhance it so roll off the high end of the reverb return if that's adding to it.

Good job with the recording. You've got a lot of talent.

Just a note of caution... make sure the artists are ok with you posting their tunes.

 

[ido1957]

That Ned guy's very talented, although I thought his guitar was out of tune . You can hear the envelope reducing the drums in the bass solo, but it does allow the solo to come out better, so maybe take it halfway down, to feature the bass but not lose the drums so much. That FA101 seems to work pretty well . Sibilance doesn't seem overly noticeable. I like the sound of the vocal mic, the guitar and bass came out well but the drums were a little cymbal heavy (just for me) and the kick was a little low. Overall it's a good mix and only needs minor tweaks IMO. How did you get the FOH gig for this? Is this the house PA?

 

[mattr]

Thanks again.

Listening to it now I agree that the cymbals are quite loud in relation to the other drums. I think the snare could come out a bit, but I'm always quite limited with how I can do drums with the FA-101 because I only have 8 inputs. I usually end up putting them all onto a stereo group and recording 2 channels from that. The interface is a bit limiting, but not limiting enough to make it worth an upgrade. Maybe in a few months I'll go for something like the Tascam US1641 (tempting because of the 8 mic pres meaning I wouldn't need to go through a desk to record drums) but for now I'll go hunting out the kick with EQ instead !

How did you get the FOH gig for this? Is this the house PA?

The venue is actually part of my school, and I'm one of the only people who takes interest in doing stuff. We have a theatre and recording studio 'complex' which is used once in a while as a live venue. Its not very big - probably had 200 people there at the most. The Ned guy was on his own UK tour (only in small venues), then I think he was joining up with Satriani a week after this to go on a stadium tour!

The Ned guy was a really good player. He plays his own hand-made 'glass-necked' fretless guitar, and apparently he's made them for the Chili Peppers and stuff. He also has amazing hair. Its like a big afro but its silky soft. It = Wooooow So easily distracted by the hair...