tvanveen said:
Sounds good to me...can you tell us a bit about where you recorded it, and how you mixed and mastered it?
Okay...got a little time...
I recorded this puppy at home on a Roland VS-880EX (8 track digital work station). Everything was literally done on this machine from tracking, to mixing to mastering. My only outboard gear is (other than mics and a preamp of course is an external compressor) It's pretty versatile, and offers all these options. I personally love this machine, but it can be a bitch to learn, but I pretty much know everything I need it for. I pretty much do straight up recording (no midi), so I don't know how to use any of that stuff, but here's my gear, process n' all that stuff if you care...
Okay, here's my gear first off...
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Mics: Studio Projects C1 and B1...Audio Technica Pro25 (only on bass drum)
Pre-Amp: M-Audio Audio Buddy
Outboard Compressor: Behringer Ultra Dyne Pro
Recorder: Roland VS-880EX
Guitars: Big Baby Taylor (main rhythm), Larrivee LV-03E (leads)
Bass: Modulous (my bass players)
Bass DI: Behrninger Bass V-Amp
Drums: Whatever that his set is...just bass, snare, high-hat, 1 tom, 1 cymbal
Now the gritty stuff on how I usually record...
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1. Track 1: record a simple drum beat off of the drum machine to be used as a metronome...don't want to be off tempo
2. Track 2: record a live performance of the tune into the C1 or B1 (guitar & vocals) obviously you don't need to do this, but I find I get a better performance out of my self in the long run. I plug the mic into the Audio Buddy, then the Audio Buddy into the outboard compressor, and then that directly into the recorder (this is pretty much the chain i use for recording just about everything but drum machine).When recording I've got the drums in track 1 softly going so I don't get too off beat.
3. Track 3: record rhythm guitar into the B1 or C1 with the mic aimed at the 12 fret or so about a foot way. When recording I had tracks 1 and 2 going loud enough to hear, but soft enough that I could hear the new track louder.
4. Track 4: record that second guitar part into the C1 or B1 again, mic aimed at the 12 fret or so about a foot way. When recording I had tracks 1 and 2 and 3 going loud enough to hear again, but soft enough that I could hear the two new tracks louder.
5. Track 5: record vocals into the C1 again. Turn off Track 2 so I can't hear it. I basically no longer need it now that I've "sort of borrowed" the energy from it in the Track 3 and Track 4 guitars. I kept it panned center and again added the light reverb at the bounce
6. Track 6: record bass plugged directly into
the Behringer Bass V-Amp that our bass player has set, then into the compressor, then into the recorder. Panned near center
7. Record over Track 2: Because I no longer need track 2, I recorded over it with another vocal take without listening to the original. For some reason, I can do a better take singing if I don't already have another vocal I've done masking the notes I'm trying to hit.
8. Track 7 & 8: I bounced tracks 2-6 with effects onto tracks 7 & 8 (stereo pair) to free up some other tracks (using virtual tracks here to not destroy the original tracks)
9. Virtual Track 1 & 2: (this is kind of outdated now that we have a real drummer, but you get the idea see #12 for that stuff) I program 4, or so, fairly simple drum parts (different parts for the song like chorus, verse, bridge)on the Boss Dr. Rhythm and tracked them straight into the Roland bypassing the pre-amp and compressor. The Dr. Rhythm has nice stereo drums, so all I need to do is pan them left and right on two tracks and we're in business. Again, the same reverb was added here to kind of help mush it back and make everything sound like they're in the same virtual room.
10. Virtual Track 3: Record little solo guitar part in just that little part, again with the C1 and the same reverb.
11. Virtual Track 4: Record harmony vocals just on the choruses with the C1 with the same reverb.
12. find 3 empty virtual tracks: Use two overhead mics (C1 and B1) positioned kind of over either side of the drum kit with some sort if effort to aim them both at the snare (at hopefully) equal distances away (from the snare...this helps avoid phase issues). Then place the Audio Technica mic either inside the bass drum or pointed at the beater side...whatever sounds better. Each of these get their own track, then I usually (or at least have been) mixing them into the pretty much final mix, so it's the last thing added. This is typically ass backwards to how it should be done, but it works okay for us so far.
13. Bounce all of these tracks to a stereo pair (including the 3 tracks of drums).
14. Then I take that stereo pair, and add an (MTK) which is Rolands mastering plugins (stands for Mastering Took Kit). They have about 15 standard set up, but you can go in and tweak whatever it is that you like. So then, to "print" the mastering "effects", you need to THEN bounce that stereo pair over to ANOTHER stereo pair, and THAT is the song all of you guys will hear.
Obviously, this stuff changes from song to song, but this is pretty much how i do it. I hope that helps. That was pretty much my process step by step.
DAMN! Sorry! That's probably a bunch of stuff that no one will read, but it's good for the thought process I guess if any of this stuff is new to you. Did that answer anything? Too much?
sweet! thanks! for some reason, i think this could be the theme song for just about everyone 
. Thanks for listening!
