Low budget, untreated room, what's it sound like?

johnsuitcase

johnsuitcase

New member
This is a project I recorded back in November. The room was a typical practice space, with high currugated metal roof, cement block walls, about 15' x 30' or so. One of the guitars is a pod, the bass is mostly a DI, vocals were recorded with MXL V63m, through an ACMP84. I used the ACMP84s on OHs, and the other guitar, as well. The toms were Sennheiser e603s, through my modded M406 Yamaha mixer, the snare and kick as well as Bass were through PM1000 channels. Give it a listen, I think it came out nicely, especially considering how short of a time-table we were working on. We recorded and mixed 5 songs over 3 Sundays.

 
johnsuitcase said:
This is a project I recorded back in November. The room was a typical practice space, with high currugated metal roof, cement block walls, about 15' x 30' or so. One of the guitars is a pod, the bass is mostly a DI, vocals were recorded with MXL V63m, through an ACMP84. I used the ACMP84s on OHs, and the other guitar, as well. The toms were Sennheiser e603s, through my modded M406 Yamaha mixer, the snare and kick as well as Bass were through PM1000 channels. Give it a listen, I think it came out nicely, especially considering how short of a time-table we were working on. We recorded and mixed 5 songs over 3 Sundays.

Click to expand...

You should put this in the MP3 CLinic. I took a quick listen, though, so I'll give you my first impressions.

First of all, cool tune, guitars sound big. The vocals are almost inaudible in the first verse. They come out a bit more later in the song when you sing in a higher register, but even then, they're still low. But, that first verse especially, I can't even hear you.

The snare drum sounds like it has to no wires on the bottom of it. That might be the sound you were going for, in which case it's an artistic decision and I can't say it's good or bad. But, it was instantly noticeable to me that the snare sounded as if someone switched the snares wires off. Also, is the drummer riding on the rim of a drum, or is that the weirdest sounding hi-hat I've ever heard???? :D

Personally, and this isn't a judgement on the tune itself, because it's a pretty good song. But, in my opinion, this song is miles away from being ready for mastering. The mix still has a loooooong way to go before you should have even considered mastering.

Just my 2 cents Canadian. :)
 
Thanks for the comments!

He is playing the rim, too! :D

This was a very quick job, the band was working to finish it in time for a certain show, so we mixed after a long day of tracking, in a couple of hours. I agree it could be more polished, of course.
 
Nice song overall.... :drunk: ...though I wish there had been some "less busy" sections, which IMO would have made the rest sound that much bigger...it tends to drone too much as-is.
But that's a subjective decision.

Don't take this the wrong way...but I hate the rim/sticks throughout the song. They tend to be the most noticeable thing whenever they come in.
I would have pulled them back...and/or used them much more sparingly.
More subjective decisions.

I also think the drums sound too dry for that "U2-ish" big guitar sound....a little acoustic disjointed space-wise...and I kinda know what RAMI is getting at about the snare. It's not that there's no snares, it just has too much of a "tonky" sound for this type of song. I think if it had more "whack" and some wetness it would have worked better. Oh, I don’t really hear any bass…though I am listening on computer speakers.
Again...all subjective decisions.

So how did you like Brad's mastering? We really can't tell what or how much he did without a before and after...but overall, it doesn't sound mangled or crushed to death. :D
Did you just do the mastering via electronic file transfers?
 
I thought he did a good job, I'll try to post a copy of the 'quasi-mastered' mix that I gave the band, for comparison.

I know what you guys are saying about the snare drum. It was a little tonky, but he said he wanted a ring-y snare, rather than a 'snare-y' snare if that makes any sense.

The clicks are a little louder than I would have liked, especially on small speakers. But, again, that was part of the sound they were after.

It's kind of hard when working in a more commercial-sounding genre like this to keep any sort of distinctive/unique tone.

I could have sample replaced the drums to get a more polished sound, but we opted to use the real drums. There are room mics on the drums, too, but the band preferred a slightly drier drum sound. I tend to go the albini route, when I can!

I really appreciate the comments, I hadn't thought of this as a work in progress, but the band in thinking of recording a few more tracks and including this batch with those, as they've sold through their initial pressing (not a huge number.) Maybe I'll talk them into re-mixing these tracks a bit, too.
 
Here's the quasi-mastered one:



I usually mix like this, with a limiter and such on the two buss. Then I pull it off and lower the output level a bit for the mastering engineer. I instructed the band to provide this to Brad as a reference, as well, since taking the limiting off changes the balance a bit.

On listening to this, I can hear that the balance may have changed slightly. The band said they were very happy with the mastered version, though!
 
I hadn't really listened to the two version back-to-back, but now that I do, it sounds like he compressed the center channel and boosted it a bit. I emailed him when he first did the job to see if he had any suggestions/tips, but he was a busy guy and didn't get a chance to put notes together (he replied, but just was too busy just then, and time passed by...)

interesting!
 
johnsuitcase said:
I know what you guys are saying about the snare drum. It was a little tonky, but he said he wanted a ring-y snare, rather than a 'snare-y' snare if that makes any sense.
Click to expand...

This is where some reverb might have helped give it a ringy vibe...even with the snares on normally.

I find with OH mics placed relatively above the snare you don't get as much snare sound...so I'm always boosting up the snare spot mic (top) when I want more of the snares, or pulling it back when I don't want as much.
 
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