My first for you

D

dean1964

New member
Hello All

This is the first time i've sent anything up for you. I hope you enjoy.

I used the three mic drum technique another thread talked about. I added a snare mic to it though (sm57). Everything but the drums are scratch. Without further adue....GAME ON!!

http://www.nowhereradio.com/claybroome/singles

Tools:
Mackie 32/8
Sonar
MXL990 (OH RIght)
AT30b (OH Left)
D112 kick
V-Amp
Bass direct
58 on vox

Cheers!
Adam
 
Very tight playing, nice. I think there is something wrong with the vocal: recording wise and performance. I cant put my finger on it but the vocal lacks enthusiasm. The instruments are full of energy but the vocal is kind of muffled and lifeless. Perhaps you should put more emphasis into it. You know, accent some words, sing a little stronger. This is rock music right? Put some strain into it. Well that’s my take. Overall its not bad!
 
I liked it. There's a lot of energy in the instrumental performances. As to tjohnston's comments about the lack of energy in the vocals, I think it's probably more an issue of the recording and mixing rather than the performance. While it is probably a good suggestion to put a tiny bit more energy into the vocal performance, I think that the muffled sound is the bigger factor for why the vocals aren't completely working yet.
 
The Vocal is a scratch anyway. The drums are what really counts here. But thanks for your comments. I think he went into it performance wise knowing it was a scratch. You should hear this cat we he turns it on. Check these one out if you have some time. http://www.claybroome.com/sounds.htm

Also. I am very much a guitar tone purist but damn....(shutters) that V-amp sounds pritty good to me. What do you think?
 
The mix is generally very clean. You vox seems naturally compressed, but I think that has something to do with the vox mic used.

Nice bass sound, it has some attack, sweet high end, some punch, and a gentle bottom.

I can understand every word on the first listen, and judging from the content, I would say understanding the lyrics are fairly important.

Because you are generally a 'soft mouth' and 'soft throat' singer, a clean singer, there's a lot of room here for some delay and reverb on your vocal, just a bit, don't overdo it.

You vox currently sits in the center of the mix fairly well, but I think if you bring it up 2-3db, you will have room to sweeten it a bit with some verb and delay.

I like the guitar stranded over in left stereo. But it's to even with the vox level, bringing the vox up ... or the guitar down as case may be, might be very effective, at least some of the time for contrast. Let us groove with the drums sometimes ...

And splitting that drum metal way out to the side is very difficult to do effectively. Making them 'truly' effects instead of instruments might work better. Experiment with a ridiculous amount of delay on a few of them, because what I'm sensing is you are pushing some of that drum metal way out stereo left especially , because you are looking for something ... different ? and that may be effects you are really looking for ... just give it a shot.

I like the words and phrases you are using ... they are original, the actual choice of words and building of the phrases ... is very different.

cool song, thanks for sharing and please remember, the best way to learn is to listen to other board members stuff and make a comment, at first, just a small one, and read the other folks comments and think about them. Then maybe one day you hear in a board member's song, you hear something you read in another member's review ... and you apply it there ... and everyone ... learns.

Welcome to the board ... and I will not be the pot :D
 
studioviols -

Thanks for the warm welcome, kind words, and critique. So i tried your suggestion looking for an effect to see what came of it. Because this kit was recorded basicly with a stereo pair augmented with a kick and snare mic i got a whole heep of crap with the plug ins. Now had I isolated the brass i could see what your talking about. (I'm gonna save that one for later). What you are hearing on that drum track is all room, mic placement, and good tuning. (I wish i new how he does it) If you wanna check out the room go here http://www.ccauditorium.com . Theres a good pic. I did not use any EQ. In fact i put a sticky note on the meter bridge that said "MOVE THE F&%KIN MIC!" I did however compress the crap out of the OH's.

This guy has alot of cycmbols so the wide seperation came natural almost and really I just like the picture. It sounds interesting to me.

Cheers!
Adam
 
dean1964 said:

Also. I am very much a guitar tone purist but damn....(shutters) that V-amp sounds pritty good to me. What do you think?
Click to expand...

I'll be honest with you. It sounds like a V-amp. Needs more life and body. Don't let the purist in you down. Crank your tube amp and mic it :D.

Drums sound really good. Nice job. The splash sounds a little loud though. If you're doing the 3 mic technique you might consider moving the splash.

I'm interested to hear this again when you retrack the scratch parts.
 
The drums sound very solid and I only hear a mild but, tolerable amount of phase in the cymbals. Probably using matching over heads would go a long way to solidifying that issue. Also, I think the kit is reverse panned, as I am hearing more of the snare on the left chanel. Is the drummer a lefty and set up his kit accordingly?

As for the rest of the track, the guitar tone is nice and well played. The vocals are acceptable for a scratch take and song is pretty good at holding my interest.

Good stuff!

Cheers! :)

ps; was that "other thread", one from the analog forum, where Herm and myself were talking about this same 3 mic issue?
 
Yeah man I think thats the thread. I could'ent find it when i started this one. I wanted to put a link up.

The drums are panned from the drummers point of view. Do you think thats a problem? If so why?

I think the phase problem you are hearing is actualy a light thin cymbol having the crap knocked out of it. So it gets that splashy sound. I wish he would thickin it up a bit

fprod south - I was just happy it did not sound like my tube screamer plugged into the mackie. =) Those parts are as good as replace.


Cheers!
Adam
 
dean1964 said:


The drums are panned from the drummers point of view. Do you think thats a problem? If so why?
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a major problem. Just as a listener, I like to hear the drums as if I am in the crowd enjoying the performance.

If you were to reverse your panning on the kit, it would balance out your stereo perspective on the track as there is a lot going on in the left channel with the kit and the guitar and not much happening on the right side.

Cheers! :)
 
Right on. You know.....thinking about it. I don't remeber that being an issue. It is now for sure. I may have a weak monitor. Thanks.
 
About the drums...they sound good but there is one cymbal thats sounds a little funny. It almost sounds like its cracked or something. You can hear it most at 1:31 and 1:39. Kind of a cracking sound when its hit.

Vocals sound good just need to be ar-tic-u-lated a little more and a little less muffled.


Nice tune!
 
Drums sound excellent in my opinion. Maybe the snare should be more central, it does kinda feel to me as if the mix is weighted to the left hand side, with the guitar and loudest drums/cymbals all on the left. To me the vocals are REALLY REALLY quiet, maybe just me but they should stand out.

Just wondering, because the drums sound so great how it was done? It appears you only mention two OH's and a kick, but nothing on the snare? How to you get the general kit to sound so nice and solid all through? A pic would be great if you have one, but anyway well done for just getting it so well :)
 
One other thing, I would consider perhaps a slightly cleaner sound on the electric guitar, the distortion kinda makes it a bit messy, but thats just my opinion. I'd consider using a clean electric for chords, with distorted solo/arpeggios or whatever over it. My opinion.
 
CanopuS

There was a thread on here talking about a 3 mic technique for drums. I can't find it for the life of me. However, this is how it went down for me.

I've got access to a real nice room. Check it out http://www.ccauditorium.com . Once the drummer was set and happy with his set up i went to work around his set up. (As to maximize his comfort.) In my head I made a line right through the center of the kick and then turned it on a 45. Now to the sides of this line is your left/right. The amount of seperation changed with the distance from this line as well as the balance of the kit and just about any other factor you can think of. I just kept moving the mics around untill I like what I heard. Now i mic'd the kick pritty standard. D112 about an inch from the beater off axis a few degrees. I had a real nice sound going but i got scared of not having much controll over the snare. I ran a 57 to augment the OHs and turned the OH away just a little. I did not EQ anything just moved mics untill I liked it. (Trust me....I took some effort not to just grab the EQ.) It also helped that the drums sound great standing in the room with them.

Ill be doing this the same way next weekend. Ill see if i can snag some pics for you.

Cheers!
Adam
(pass me another PBR)
 
Cool thanks. I'll hopefully get round to trying the same with my drummer :) I like the sound of some of your other songs by the way. A very unique style, kinda reminded me of..... Strokes mixed with Coral and..... dunno. It's cool though
 
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