Misfits- QUEEN WASP

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NotThatBright

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A couple weeks ago when I knew I had about 45 minutes to play the drums I hit the "record" button and played some Misfits songs, one after the other. I determined which ones they would be in the 4 minutes I was smoking a cigarette beforehand. I looked through the song titles on the mp3 player as my hands shivered from the cold to pick which ones... I picked Horror Hotel, Mommy..., Vampira, and Queen Wasp. I picked these because they're some of my favorites, but also because I figured I'd be able to play the drums on them... though I knew Queen Wasp would be tough for me to do without a shitload of takes. But I tried. I got the first three decent enough (for me) pretty quickly, then spent about 20 minutes trying to do Queen Wasp.

So here's Queen Wasp, the worst sounding of the bunch. I was hitting the hi-hats hard (and open) enough that I had to turn the overheads lower than I normally do in the mix, which makes the other cymbals I hit in the song harder to hear. My kick drum volume (and kick drum in general) is also inconsistent.

Any comments on the mix or whatever are appreciated. For the most part I'm curious if you think the cymbals and kick drum in particular are passable. I realize that asking if the musicianship on a Misfits cover is passable is somewhat of a contradiction in itself, but what the hell. This is more in tune than the original; the original is purposely somewhat out-of-tune... that is, I assume they did it out-of-tune on purpose, but what the hell do I know?

Only a minute + fifteen! That's probably even less time than you spent reading my drivel! :)

Thanks!

https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/queen-wasp/s-NQNaS

UPDATE: Took some of the suggestions and remixed it. More bass, more overheads, tried to make the kick less boxy, tried to keep the snare from getting drowned in the hihats.

https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/queen-wasp-remix/s-yj7Tr

And what the hell, here's "Vampira".

https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/vampira2/s-QGqYl

Don't be stingy, post your Misfits covers in the thread. We already got treated to a "kumbaya" version of Skulls from one of FoulPhil's childhood slumber parties. You will find that a few posts down.
 
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Oddly enough the hi hat doesn't sound too loud.
I like early to mid period Misfits - I even have a guitar scratch plate signed by the band as well as a Lonely Figurine.
You recording sound OK. The kick is consistent. Can you correct it in your DAW - even levels and timing?
The guitar/s a re, as I mentioned before, a bit fizzy.
Bass could use a little nudge or some definition.
Vocals are fine.
 
rayc said:
Oddly enough the hi hat doesn't sound too loud.
I like early to mid period Misfits - I even have a guitar scratch plate signed by the band as well as a Lonely Figurine.
You recording sound OK. The kick is consistent. Can you correct it in your DAW - even levels and timing?
The guitar/s a re, as I mentioned before, a bit fizzy.
Bass could use a little nudge or some definition.
Vocals are fine.
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Someone bought me a bobblehead for some reason years ago and I have it in my office at work. Whenever I'd have a meeting with someone new they'd ask if it's a professional wrestler. I eventually threw it in a drawer in the hopes that it would get people out of my office faster.

I take my guitars like I take my Dr. Pepper! Not to be confused with the old standby, "I take my whiskey like I take my women..."

My DAW is no-frills and can't do anything like what you mention. A few weeks ago, just for the hell of it I downloaded some "free to try" DAWs on CNET and never looked at them. I'm curious enough at this point that I'm going to pull some stuff I recorded into it just to see what I've been missing. I didn't know (though I could have guessed) that you could correct drum timing with them. What I really want to do that I would assume is possible is run my drums through some process or effect that will make them sound like drums you would hear on a real record and not so shitty and raw. Not necessarily the timing- but the actual sound of the snare, kick, toms, etc. Thanks for the comments and info.

FoulPhil said:
When I was younger we use to party and sit around with the old acoustic and play some misfits lol. Try this one. Shitty tape recording from a pink alarm clock lol...
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Before I clicked on this I assumed it was going to be Skulls or Hatebreeders. I am a clairvoyant! I see from the guest list on that page that you used to hang out with Ogre. That is awesome. NERDS!

I liked the cover, by the way. I bet you had a kickass mullet when you put that one on the alarm clock!
 
At 0:23 seconds, is that a pick scrape or a Wilhelm scream? The latter seems like a weird thing to slip into a fairly minimalist mix like this, but it sounds a LOT like it.

Kick and cymbals seem to sit pretty well in the mix. Snare sounds like it could stand to punch through more though.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
At 0:23 seconds, is that a pick scrape or a Wilhelm scream? The latter seems like a weird thing to slip into a fairly minimalist mix like this, but it sounds a LOT like it.

Kick and cymbals seem to sit pretty well in the mix. Snare sounds like it could stand to punch through more though.
Click to expand...

I didn't know what a Wilhelm scream was until I heard one on youtube just now. I had to laugh when I heard it... at :23 that was just me kind of "charging up" before I yelled "GO" a second later (obviously there's an effect on that vocal). That's some quality ad-libbing, eh? :)

After reading your comment it occurs to me that the punch of the snare often gets drowned out by the hihats in my mixes if I'm hitting them hard when they're open. I need to start looking for that and correcting it.

Thanks for the comments. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
 
Lol. Did I ever tell you I covered the whole Walk Among Us album a long while back? I LOVE all Danzig era Misfits. Great stuff.

This is okay. The kick level is fine, but it sounds a little boxy. Scoop a little low mids out of it. The overheads are low. Not terrible so, but there's room to bring em up a little. Needs more bass guitar IMO.
 
Slumming in the mixing clinic, eh? Good to have you back.

Greg_L said:
Lol. Did I ever tell you I covered the whole Walk Among Us album a long while back? I LOVE all Danzig era Misfits. Great stuff.
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I await the link.

One thing I've found covering Misfits songs is that when singing them, even if you consciously set out not to, by the end of the song, you will find yourself doing a Danzig impersonation to some extent. Everyone can sound like Danzig, and no one can sound like Danzig. Ain't that just some sort of weird paradox! Obviously the devil is involved somehow.
GregL said:
This is okay. The kick level is fine, but it sounds a little boxy. Scoop a little low mids out of it. The overheads are low. Not terrible so, but there's room to bring em up a little. Needs more bass guitar IMO.
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I'd meant to ask you before and kept forgetting... do you recommend a particular Q setting for a kick drum track? The higher the Q, the boxier it seemed to sound.
 
NotThatBright said:
Slumming in the mixing clinic, eh? Good to have you back.
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I look for mixes from people I know and like. Regular contributors. I ignore the anonymous pop-ins, look-at-mes, and the few guys that post a lot but don't ever comment on anyone else's stuff. They know who they are. Fuck all of those fucking fucks.


I await the link.
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I'll have to see if I even still have it somewhere. I only shared it with one guy here. Me and him are the only people that's ever heard it.


I'd meant to ask you before and kept forgetting... do you recommend a particular Q setting for a kick drum track? The higher the Q, the boxier it seemed to sound.
Click to expand...
To be honest, I never can keep Q shit straight. High Q, low Q, I don't know which is which. I just call it "wide" or "narrow". As far as that goes, I sweep it and find whatever it needs. Wide, narrow, cut, boost, whatever. I don't have any preferences or care. I just do what it needs.
 
I didn't mean anything by that, obviously. I just like to say "slumming".

A few years ago I remember seeing a few guys wearing shirts that said, "FUCK YOU YOU FUCKIN' FUCK". I forget if it was in Jersey or NYC. What kind of fucking moron would wear a shirt that said that? And they didn't even have the goddamned sleeves cut off. What kind of message were they trying to send?

Don't go to any trouble to find "Greg Walks Among Us". If you come across it and you feel like sharing it, though, put me on the mailing list. I want to hear Braineaters!
 
NotThatBright said:
Someone bought me a bobblehead for some reason years ago and I have it in my office at work. Whenever I'd have a meeting with someone new they'd ask if it's a professional wrestler. I eventually threw it in a drawer in the hopes that it would get people out of my office faster.

I take my guitars like I take my Dr. Pepper! Not to be confused with the old standby, "I take my whiskey like I take my women..."

My DAW is no-frills and can't do anything like what you mention. A few weeks ago, just for the hell of it I downloaded some "free to try" DAWs on CNET and never looked at them. I'm curious enough at this point that I'm going to pull some stuff I recorded into it just to see what I've been missing. I didn't know (though I could have guessed) that you could correct drum timing with them. What I really want to do that I would assume is possible is run my drums through some process or effect that will make them sound like drums you would hear on a real record and not so shitty and raw. Not necessarily the timing- but the actual sound of the snare, kick, toms, etc. Thanks for the comments and info.



Before I clicked on this I assumed it was going to be Skulls or Hatebreeders. I am a clairvoyant! I see from the guest list on that page that you used to hang out with Ogre. That is awesome. NERDS!

I liked the cover, by the way. I bet you had a kickass mullet when you put that one on the alarm clock!
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I never had a mullet, just long hair :D

14206_524245207605073_1055626351_n.jpg
 
One of the best "outros" I've ever heard on an album. Perhaps the best.
 
Sweeping over one shoulder, like Nicole Kidman! That's not Michelob Ultra, is it? I guess it would explain that look on your face.
 
I admire your energy, especially cranking out tunes as much as you've been. The balance of everything sounds great, those goddamn preamp saturated guitars are still working for you. The drum performance is terrific, but their tone sound a little dead or muffled. I'd like to hear maybe a few db of hi-shelf eq applied to them to let the cymbals sit on top of things and to add a little crispness to the kit as a whole.

Keep popping out the tunes!
 
You've got the performance and the recording there now, matey. We just need to sort out the mixing. Everything is audible and sounds pretty good, but to me it lacks, for want of a better word, "richness" in the overall sound of the thing. If you're going for "middly", you have it seriously nailed, my friend. :D

I'd like to have a go at mixing one of your tracks.
 
Tadpui said:
I admire your energy, especially cranking out tunes as much as you've been. The balance of everything sounds great, those goddamn preamp saturated guitars are still working for you. The drum performance is terrific, but their tone sound a little dead or muffled. I'd like to hear maybe a few db of hi-shelf eq applied to them to let the cymbals sit on top of things and to add a little crispness to the kit as a whole.

Keep popping out the tunes!
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Don't mistake boredom for energy! :) Songs like this take no time at all. I did four Misfits songs all at once when I did this one, and they were all completely done within 3 hours. Part of the reason has to be that I only use my DP-24 to do everything in the process, and it's a limited menu. If I used a good DAW, the songs would wind up sounding better, but I'd spend more time on it and not enjoy it as much. It's like why they don't allow replay challenges on everything in football... yeah, you'd get more calls right, but you wind up with a five-hour game! :)

I am going to try a good DAW program the next time I record something that I think is worth the effort of learning to use it.

Did you think that the remix is still lacking high end? It definitely has more than the first one.

bubba said:
You've got the performance and the recording there now, matey. We just need to sort out the mixing. Everything is audible and sounds pretty good, but to me it lacks, for want of a better word, "richness" in the overall sound of the thing. If you're going for "middly", you have it seriously nailed, my friend.

I'd like to have a go at mixing one of your tracks.
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Top o' the morning to you, Mr. Po. I hope the sun smiles upon you and your island nation on this day... though I hear Britian is like Seattle, so that's probably not likely.

I'm not sure how to go about achieving this "richness of sound" of which you speak (though I always try to get the highest-quality recording possible). I think I'm pretty much maxing out what I can produce using my DAW. I think the drums in particular need some sort of "effect" on them or processing of some sort to make them sound anything but raw.

I'm pretty sure the room my drums are in sucks for recording, but that can't be helped.

You're more than welcome to mix something of mine. Perhaps you can work a miracle, like Mary Poppins. Who ALSO was English, by the way!
 
NotThatBright said:
Don't mistake boredom for energy! :) Songs like this take no time at all. I did four Misfits songs all at once when I did this one, and they were all completely done within 3 hours. Part of the reason has to be that I only use my DP-24 to do everything in the process, and it's a limited menu. If I used a good DAW, the songs would wind up sounding better, but I'd spend more time on it and not enjoy it as much. It's like why they don't allow replay challenges on everything in football... yeah, you'd get more calls right, but you wind up with a five-hour game! :)

I am going to try a good DAW program the next time I record something that I think is worth the effort of learning to use it.

Did you think that the remix is still lacking high end? It definitely has more than the first one.



Top o' the morning to you, Mr. Po. I hope the sun smiles upon you and your island nation on this day... though I hear Britian is like Seattle, so that's probably not likely.

I'm not sure how to go about achieving this "richness of sound" of which you speak (though I always try to get the highest-quality recording possible). I think I'm pretty much maxing out what I can produce using my DAW. I think the drums in particular need some sort of "effect" on them or processing of some sort to make them sound anything but raw.

I'm pretty sure the room my drums are in sucks for recording, but that can't be helped.

You're more than welcome to mix something of mine. Perhaps you can work a miracle, like Mary Poppins. Who ALSO was English, by the way!
Click to expand...

I think what I mean by richness is a better balance of all the frequencies, right from the 50 Hz of the kick up to the 16-20 KHz of your highest cymbals ( I hear tell of these 16-20 KHz frequencies, but like the reason for the fame of the Kardashians, they are not discernible to me). Although Kim Kardashian's arse might suit as a shorthand for what I mean.

A much bigger bottom end, with shiny bits on it.
 
Oh, and it's windy, with slight sleet and grey overcast skies. I played out last night so I have slight Gigor Mortis and a bit of neck pain from banging my head.
 
Bubba po said:
I think what I mean by richness is a better balance of all the frequencies, right from the 50 Hz of the kick up to the 16-20 KHz of your highest cymbals ( I hear tell of these 16-20 KHz frequencies, but like the reason for the fame of the Kardashians, they are not discernible to me). Although Kim Kardashian's arse might suit as a shorthand for what I mean.

A much bigger bottom end, with shiny bits on it.
Click to expand...

One of the first things I learned when I started recording is how to give myself a headache by boosting high frequencies that I couldn't even hear. It was actually interesting to learn that such a thing was a genuine hazard of mixing music. I would mix something, boost the hell out of the lowest and highest end, then wonder why it hurt to put on my headphones. I guess since then I've been wary of boosting highs too much. As a result, most of my stuff is probably duller-sounding than it should be. I could use some reeducation on the subject.
 
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