My first band recording

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CyanJaguar

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These guys make some awesome music and I had been living in the same dorm and eating in the same cafe as them without knowing.

Anyhow, they heard I had some recording equipment and wanted to record. I said ,hey, good opportunity for me to record a real band. I did not know it would be so hard.

Of course, they are exstatic over the quality. Partly because they were expecting the quality of a four track, partly because I did not charge them. I'm not happy with the drums at all. We used a beta 52(they brought it) on the kick, a 57 on the snare, and the blueberry on the overheads. I ran out of cables or I would have used the last channel on my sytek mpx4a. Anyhow, the drums bleed pretty badly and I could not get punch from the kick for nothing.

If you know how I can make the kick punchy and thuddy, please share

 
Vocals are nice (what mic is that?)...guitar is great as well - I want details on that.

Drums...well, not so nice. I want to say it just sounds like a shitty kit...or maybe a shitty kit + a shitty room. That sometimes can't be helped, I know how it is. ;)
 
Overall, thats a nice job, especially for a first live recording! I thought the vocal recording was great. Crystal clear. Sounded really amazing. EQ? Compression? Anything? The drums sounded good except for the snare, to my ears. That snare sounds like it was heavily compressed, especially on the close mic. I would have preferred a more open sound there, maybe more overhead to capture the ambient crack of the drum. The cymbals sounded much more natural and open.

As for the kick, its hard to say. Sounded like you boosted some lows, but maybe too high a frequency? Maybe the drum itself just wasn't tuned right. Actually, it sits in the mix pretty well as is.

Last, if it were me, I'd bring the guitar(s) down 2 or 3 db in th overall mix--and find a way to gate out the buzz when they aren't playing. My reason for the first comment is that they compete for attention too much with the vocal, which I think should remain the focus.

Hey, this is all nitpicking on my part, and I offer only because I'm sure you value opinions and want them. Like I said, overall, its a great first effort. Much better than my first ones were.

What did you use on the vocal? (mic, pre, etc).
 
Are you sure the problem was a sh%#y kit and not the sh%@#y drummer...?

:D

just checkin'. :p

(sorry... but ol' boy was strugglin' just to keep a straight beat most of the time... and all those cymbal hits without the accompanying bass drum hit are a sure sign of a newbie. I'm gonna wager he had aboot sixteen pounds of duct tape in various locations throughout his set and didn't have the slightest idea how to tune the snare or the toms... but that's just a guess.) :D

oh yeah... not to say that the over-all recording wasn't good. Nice vocals and what not... but I'm a drummer.. so I get to shred the other drummers to pieces to make up for my own inadequacies. :rolleyes: (or something like that.)

WATYF
 
Cool. Nice guitar sound. I'd actually pull that up in the mix a little. I agree with what others have said, the snare drum sound needs help. I'm no expert with recording live drums, but you might try something like turning up the high-end of the EQ on the snare to make it sound a little less dead. A little reverb might help too. Just thoughts.
 
I thought it was ok...

The guitars were terrific. I liked the two parts panned hard to each side. Had a nice effect when one dropped out on a chord when the other one held it. Cool effect. I gotta use that somewhere.

In addition to the other advice on drums, maybe EQ out some of the highs on the cymbals if possible? Some of the crashes were just a slight bit grinding.

Any details on what you did on the vocals would be nice. Good singer, and I suspect some good mixing as well.
 
hey thanks for all the positive comments. THe tips on the drums are also appreciated.


I'll start with the vocals:

The vocals were Blue Blueberry into sytek mpx4a preamp into the lucid ad9624 into logic at 24/44.1. The singer was standing about 3-4 inches from the mic. There is no eq on the voice, but there is slight compression using waves c1 compressor and some reverb from the lexicon lxp-1. I also automated it, bringing the vocal up a little in the chorus.

I think the mic works well for rock vocals but not much else. Most of the clarity is due to the lucid ad9624/lucid genx6 combo. It makes a noticeable difference than going into the delta 1010.


The hard panned guitars:
the left one is a 4033 about one inch from the cloth the right on is a shure sm57 about one inch. THe amps were about 5 feet from each other

There is no eq on these either. They went through the sytek-lucid channel.

The 7 string is a pod preset and the bass is a bass guitar also into the guitar pod.

Thanks for the comments.I think I should turn down some of the highs in the cymbals. They cut my head off too.
 
nice vocal sound, but I heared a minor mic pop..right in the beginning..on the word "Pages" and "rememBer."
I certainly wasn't expecting the gtrs to come as they did. they sound good though. funny about the duct tape remark....that's all we did in the 70's and 80's...nice dead "ginger baker" drum sounds with reverb. When the gtrs do come in, I feel the bass should come up too. Nice tune, and for the price, the band ought to be thrilled. I think a better drum sound would come with a better drum sound..as someone stated earlier.

and...remember to trim those intros and fades for that 'picture perfect' mp3...;)
 
Hmmm...did you you use compression on the drums?? Yes I agree that the drummer sounds like a newb. Also, maybe consider using 58's as overheads as not to pick up so much room. To get click on the bass drum, try EQing it up around 6 to 12 khz. I think you might want to try telling them to find a different drummer. It would make a world of difference for their songs.

Beezoboy
 
Good vocals and excellent guitar sound man...
The bass is buried in the mix though...I would have liked to hear that a bit more...bass rif sounds good at 1:40 but when the guits come in you lose it...

The other guys have commented on the drums so I won't go there...
Take it easy man,
Good stuff,
Joe
 
CJ-

I will agree with the opthers here in saying that most of the issues I hear are performance related and not recording related. Though, I do feel the need for more balance throughout the song. The very loud guitar parts make me turn for the volume knob, then when they back off I can't hear it.

If I was working with that, I would cheat and use my jv1010 to add a good kick to the bottom, and no one would ever know ;)

H2H
 
Other than the drums (which wasn't all that bad), superb bass and git rec'ding techniques, vocs clear,clean and forceful and the bands overall performance and energy was very well captured!

Again, a excellent production! Kudo's home-boy!
 
that snare!

i loved the snare! please tell me where you put the mic and what eq settings did you use and did you use compression?
 
thanks for the positive comments. Listening to the songs for my two hundredth time, I am just dissapointed with what we did. I know it cos we did not have all the time in the world, but I am glad they did not pay, cos I sure as heck would not want to pay for that kind of job.

Thanks ZEKE. It was a good old sm57 on the snare about an inch from where the sticks hit the snare. some compression, and boosted some highs. I think the blue on the overheads also adds to the sound.
 
Drums: Everyone else has already said it and I'm going to have to agree. Cymbals are way too loud and harsh, hard to listen too. It's almost as though the band is next door but someone is hitting cymbals in the same room as you. The snare sounds squashed, too. Bass drum sounds kinda muffled. Maybe pull some lower mids (200hz) and add a bit at 5K.

Vox: Vocals sound really good but...I would add 1-2 db at 3.5K and pull 2db at 80hz to brighten them up and to make them cut thru a bit. I like the reverb here (mine sucks).

Guitars: I can't put my finger on it, but something sounds weird about them.

Bass: I'd take the reverb off of the bass, my preference.

I like the song. Very nice voice too. Good first effort with this band.

apush
 
You ppor bastard, I feel sorry for you having to use that stupid Blueberry. I'll let you have an AT 3035 and an MXL 603 in trade for it just cause I feel so bad for you.
You're crazy if you dont like that signal chain on the vocals. As for everything else, I think you have a real good idea about whats up, just need some practice. We should hang out sometimes, I know a few cool tricks. :)
Get in there with a good parametric and notch out everything that bugs you, and see what happens.
 
I have no problem with to vocals at all, maybe a tad bit of gain riding is in order...
I think you should maybe derive more sound from your snare and kick tracks to cut down on the cymbals a little, and eq that overhead. Sweep it and find the shit that makes it smooth and makes it not smooth.
Try boosting the kick a hair around 60hz (general area) and cutting around 200-315, and adding some top end whereever it gives it a little bit of click. NOt alot, just enough to make it snap better. The snare sounds compressed, but it sounds more to me like its just a snare that sounds kinda flat, maybe dead heads or just not a bright snare. Try doing the ole "double the track and eq and compress the hell out of the doubled track" trick (ie make it brighter, boost all the desirables, cut the crappy shit hard) and bring it up behind the origignal just enough to hear it and make the snare cut. All just shit I would try for fun.
Some slight tracking tweaks and a little mixing tweaks and I would want a copy to actually have. I like the singer.
Peace.
 
thanks tubedude,

yes, I cant wait till I get a vmp2 so that I can get some really smooth vocals. I've been listening on headphones a lot and I am hearing what sounds like metal in the vocal. Anyhow.


Yes, the mix is raw I know. I am happy though that I can hear most of what needs to be done so that maybe next time I wont make the same mistakes.
 
What band was that?

Just a quick question?

Is that band based in Honolulu, HI? or Waikiki? I was there a few months back and heard a local club band that did all covers but the singer sounded EXACLTY like the one you recorded. Same band?

BTW-Superb job! That recording rocked using the time and resources you had.

jerod
 
no Jerod,

these guys are all based in Arkansas where we all go to school.

thanks for the comments
 
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