My first few recordings.

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheGreatBongChicken
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TheGreatBongChicken

TheGreatBongChicken

Musician who mixes
I do recordings for other artists mostly.

Here are a few, I have yet to update to MixCraft 3. I downloaded it and tried it but these were done with 2.5


This was for a guy named Rick Haller. He wrote the song, and for the recording I did the Lead guitar, BASS and drums. The drums and his guitar part were done live, and the rest was added in. Vocals recorded with a SHURE SM58, I like the live sounds I got out of it, and I like his music anyway. When we did the vocals, we didn't do the standard headphones deal, I had a monitor blasting in his face so he felt like it was live, it made a big difference.


This was for a group called Axis. I filled in for their electric guitarist and drummer. This was all studio, multiple takes and the Vocals were recorded with an Electrovoice Studio Condenser mic. It's still a quite rough mix, but I like their sound. It got some local radio play up here.


This is just an instrumental recorded by me, based off a song that one of my friends wrote. It's quite low quality, it was done at 22 Khz on my older computer. I did all the instruments.

http://www.jamesharmer.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/01-through-the-tears.wma
This is a song my sister wrote to deal with a situation that was really hard for her. I recorded it for her, used a SHURE SM57 for the guitar, and the Electrovoice Studio Condenser for Vocals. Currently just guitar and voice, but some decent mixing. Working on a full version.

Oh well, just figured I'd throw up a few, I'm still new to recording and I'm opening up a Studio in Northern New York. Currently doing everything for free.

Let me know what you think.

-James' :)
 
wow

i love the sound of all the songs. the only comment i have is that all the tracks seem a bit trebly. but they all sound very musical...which is a lot more than a lot of the recordings on here achieve. it may not be hi-fi recording on obscenely expensive equipment but its very intrigueing and very listenable. ive just gotten into recording recently and have been attempting to do something of this caliber but no luck yet. best of luck to you.

-steve

p.s. it would be awesome if you could clue me in on some of your recording techniques and equipment because i just went through and listened to the song you recorded for your sister and was blown away. like i said its not super high quality but there is just something about it that makes it completely compelling (which is what im looking for). thanks in advance.
 
So far ive only listened to the first song and I really like it! The guitars sound really good how did you record them? Maybe a condensor would have worked better on his voice. I do like the idea of the monitors blasting for the live band feel. That can really draw up emotion from a singer and that can be really importnat.

The second song is very original and I like it aswell. As im listening maybe the electrovoice mic didnt work with the females voice they sound a little... lofi maybe I dont know how to describe it. Maybe they are just really compressed?
 
Thanks guys, as for tips in what I do, there aren't many I can think of other than play with it till it sounds good. But one thing I do with the Electric Guitar is pan it hard left and hard right. I don't record two tracks of the same thing, I just copy and paste it on another channel and move it off time a tiny bit, not so far that you can hear the difference, but far enough so the it gives it a really "big" sound. Rick plays a 60's strat so it has a nice sound, I mostly left it flat. And my guitar doing the lead, and the only guitar in the Axis song is a nice Yamaha with Seymour Duncan "Screamin Demons" in it, and I use a modeling effects pedal from DIGITECH, Cab simulators.
But one thing I found is kind of cool to do is to Pan the rythem guitar in hard right and left, but then the lead in the middle. It's the opposite of what most people would do, but I kind of like the feel. I'm taking your advice about their being too many highs, I listened to them next to some regular songs and noticed that. Another thing I do is with drums, I never put any kind of muting devices like Tape or Deadbeats on them. Overtones sound nasty up close, but a good mic(Or really any mic) does not pick the overtones as much as it does the natural tones. When you deaden the sound, it sounds good but not so recorded(in my opinion.) As long as the drums(Toms specifically) are tuned well, they sound best with out deadeners.

I definatley agree that the Electrovoice in the Axis song didn't do the best job, I was wondering if you knew of any good VST compressers, I need some other ones, I only have the CLASSIC effects that came when I bought it. On my sisters song I mostly used reverb, and on one word going into the chorus, I used delay and flanger, then in just the chorus and bridge I used an overdub of the voice with a heavier reverb and flanger. I used it in moderation though, and had the flanger quite low. The main voice with just light reverb was the main thing you heard... I created separate tracks with the extra effects on them just for some parts.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll be posting more soon hopefully.

-James'
 
james--

i only listened to the first two.....my thoughts....

Rick Haller

this is largely a case of song and performance over sonics.

this really evokes that early/mid 80's british new wave pop sort of way. the verses have that classic sound and the choruses remind me of some early 90's music.

now the not so good. this thing's squashed into distortion and because of the compression, the area from about 1.5k to 4k is pushed so far forward that it's painful. the guitars are really crushed and up front b/c of this. that's the "trebly" people are talking about.

it almost sounds like it was recorded years ago, put onto cassette and then reextracted to a computer and "cleaned up".....and run through some noise reduction and "mastering compression" (and not so well).

overall it sounds like this could be an excellent mix without the compression. love the way the blend and separation between the instruments, everything's well balanced (or sounds like it could be if not so compressed), the bass and kick have great mids and cut through despite of the low end lopoff that the mixbus compression's imparted. really like the vocals and the treatment fits them perfectly--they sit right where they need to.

the band/performance is excellent and they seem well polished and tight. i could see this on the radio and i would enjoy seeing this "band" live. well performed!


axis

don't really like the angry angsty chick rock stuff much, so i'll try to put that aside. ;-)

again, this is compressed into distortion. this compromises the overall balance of the instruments. this sounds like it could be a good mix if it didn't have all the compression. like on the other song, it really crushes the high end.....which makes it rather painful to listen to.

the "band" is quite good, and the guitar solo is excellent. the vocals are very forward and compressed--pretty typical for this style and i can understand every word she's cranking out at a rapid pace.....so i'm not sure i agree that this was the wrong mic, b/c if the goal was an alanis style vocal, mission accomplished.

everything sounds like it was probably well performed and recorded.....it's just that that compression's gotsta go!


cheers,
wade
 
erm the first two tracks are distorting, this may have been a tracking error or having the mixdown too loud but i find it really distracting, and overall makes me thing the quality is much lower than it is
 
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the comprehensive one there. I'm gonna try to cut down on the compression, that's something I need to learn to balance. I'm gonna have to really work on the distortion problem, particularly with the high frequencies in the Electric Guitars. I'm glad you thought the performance was good, hopefully I'll have a chance to work with all the members of Axis and do a real recording of the band, but it was fun filling in for the drummer and guitarist, and thanks for the compliment on the solo :cool: , guitar is more my main instrument, although I certainly can work on it more.

I'm gonna have to really work on how much/little to compress without killing it. Leah's(the singer for Axis) voice is very dificult to deal with, so many spots where she was way too hot, and then other spots where I could barely hear her. Any good VST compressors or just plain advice on those problems would help.

Thanks guys.

-James'
 
mrface2112 said:
now the not so good. this thing's squashed into distortion and because of the compression, the area from about 1.5k to 4k is pushed so far forward that it's painful. the guitars are really crushed and up front b/c of this. that's the "trebly" people are talking about.
Click to expand...

I agree with that about 100%, and I'll add to it that the low end is also out of control.

Amazing music...I'd like to hear it a lot less processed.
 
I'm just posting this because I can't post a URL to a music file until I post five times.
 
I couldn't listen to the first 2 for more than 10 seconds each. Way too bright, harsh, and over compressed. I value my hearing.

The third "punk song" is muddy and boomy. It had my drums rattling here in the room with me.

The last one is again mid-rangey and bright. Hard to listen to.

Sorry man. :(
 
Yeah, those were old recordings. You should check out the new one I put up called passing through.

-James'
 
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