Motor City Maniacs - Critique/review on demo mixes for EP

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Philly Duffy

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Hello everyone,

I'm relatively new here, but not at all new to recording and playing music.

Working on a 6 song demo ep for my new band Motor City Maniacs and would really appreciate any feedback you guys could provide.

Open season on the music/mixing/recording i'll take it all good and bad! :)

Recored this in my basement with Logic Pro 9 and Tascam US 1641 interface.

Marshall TSL 100 Head for guitars dual mic, one SM57 and One Marshall Condenser mic.. Bass is a Richenbacher D/I

Drums are hybrid, electronic Kick/Snare and Toms everything else was mic'd.

Vocals recorded with an AT2035.

I'll post two songs, which are a bit different style please pick one or listen to em both!

Thanks in advance everyone! Cheers

VIP - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDFFZ3TBScE
SuperCharged - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb4mbSCiIgc
 
Killer. I love these guitar tones and the whole thing sounds tight and dynamic.

I am finding that the vocals get a little buried and lost at different points throughout the song. I've listened to this on two different systems and it happens on both. I can always make them out, but they are just too low.

Subjectively, I suppose there is room for a touch more low end in the kick as well. It's very subjective though because there is nothing 'wrong' with it right now, but it could hit me in the chest much more than it currently does. I could maybe say the same about punch in the bass. The bass is there supporting the low end of the mix, but I'd really like to hear it in a bit more of a distinct way. The bottom end of your mix is pretty tight right now, so you'd give up a little bit of that to give it some more impact and presence, but as a balancing act, I think it would be worth it.

This song is pure awesome. I love it.
 
I thought this was really good.

Like kindafishy, I thought the vocals were a little buried. The guitars are really big, and they're crowding them out.

Also agree the the kick is a little thwapy. Too much attack and not enough low end.

Guitars sound real good. But maybe just a bit too much low end. and maybe a bit too loud. I wouldn't say the mix is "all guitars" but it's close.

Performances are all real good.
 
Thanks for feedback KindaFishy and Triple M.

You guys nailed the things i struggle with the most! Vocals and Kick drum.

I try to blend the vocals rather than make them prominent, so they are intentionally buried somewhat. The previous mix i did before this version had vocals up 1.5 DB and Guitars down 1.5 DB. But i found the vocals too prominent and guitars not in your face enough. It's so tough to find the right balance.

I'm going to try to fix that kick drum, when i add bass i find it gets too muddy and loses it's attack and i crank up the attack so it cuts through the mix. You are right on the money with my issue and i'm glad you brought it up so i know it really is an issue there.

I'm the guitar player so naturally guitars are gonna be real up front :)

Glad you guys like the performances! cheers!

What are your thoughts on the drums as whole? I think they sound good being a hybrid recording, do they sound real to you or can you tell kick/snare/toms are samples?
 
I've found this hybrid drum technique to be my go to recording technique these days, it's so much faster to mix and get good sounds.

My drummer has a Roland Electronic kit and a real nice pearl kit. So we put them together for recording. Use kick snare and toms from the roland, setup all real cymbals around him and use 4 mics.

2 OH panned hard left and right, 1 mic on the hats and 1 mic on the ride. I pan hats 25% left and Ride 25% right.
 
Philly Duffy said:
...I try to blend the vocals rather than make them prominent, so they are intentionally buried somewhat. The previous mix i did before this version had vocals up 1.5 DB and Guitars down 1.5 DB. But i found the vocals too prominent and guitars not in your face enough. It's so tough to find the right balance...

....I'm the guitar player so naturally guitars are gonna be real up front :)....

...do they sound real to you or can you tell kick/snare/toms are samples?....
Click to expand...

Thing #1 - balancing vocals with the rest of the tracks is hard for a lot of people. I know it is for me.

Thing #2 - ha!!

Thing #3 - I would have guessed they were samples, and I'm not real good at that sort of thing. For the genre however, you can probably get away with it.
 
Is the kick hitting a limiter? Something is ducking when it hits. It's really loud either way.
The vocal is too quiet. Cool guitar tones. Hats are really loud in comparison to the rest.

For future reference: I don't know if the youtube link you posted is a "finished project" but it could easily be assumed that linking to a youtube video is self promotion or marketing, which the MP3 clinic isn't for. Most people here use sketchy soundcloud accounts or dropbox to upload songs as this avoids accusations of self promotion and click hunting.
 
schwarzenyaeger,

Thanks for the feedback on the mix, sounds like a consensus on the vocal mix and kick drum issue. I have 2 kick drum tracks, no limiter on either of them, maybe it's a sub bass thing peaking, not sure..

Regarding youtube, these mixes were considered "finished" enough for youtube, but we are working towards creating a 6 song demo CD pressing. Nothing is ever "finished" until it's pressed on a CD in my book.

We're still recording the last couple of songs. For the remaining songs i'll get a soundcloud account, i really like the idea of being able to post the mixes in progress anonymously to get some feedback to tweak them. That's a good tip!
 
I just did a remix of the song with everyone's suggestions - turned up all vox tracks 1DB, reduced kick by 3DB and Low Shelf EQ on kick to remove sub bass frequencies.. Sounds better! thanks so much guys!
 
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Really cool stuff....Both songs are performed pretty well...I think the mixes are a little off. With this style of music I think you need more power out of the drums than you have here. It's easy to make the guitars way out front...I am a guitarist too...been there. On VIP the vocals need to come up some...on Supercharged it sounds like the vocals were recorded in a bathroom or something. A little too far back. Good job though
 
The kick appears to be hitting the limiter the hardest causing the rest of the song to duck a little. (VIP is worse to my ears)

You can use a multi band comp to help this. It can help keep the kick where you have it volume wise and it will still hit the limiter hard but will not effect the upper eq bands. I would also be VERY careful using it. If you don't know how you can mess up a mix pretty quick.

I think the vocals could be brought out more too. Maybe less reverb/delay effect. Also instead of bumping the volume you could try to eq the midrange of the vocal up. Or scoop a couple of instruments in the 500 to 2k range.

Anyway sounds like you have good ears and have most of these mixes under control. They sound good as is but could be slightly better to my ears. (of course that is the case with ALL of my mixes too!)

Rick
 
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