My first MP3....would love feedback

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike BL
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Mike BL

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Hey everyone, this is the first time I've posted in the clinic. I came to the board a few months ago when I decided to start shopping for gear, and everyone's been really helpful. I've finally gotten around to actually recording some stuff, so I'm pretty excited.

This first thing I'm posting was recorded onto a Fostex MR-8, with a single AT 3035 on the drums (a 63 Ludwig kit), at about 6' off the ground and about 8 feet in front of the drums.

Then I overdubbed the acoustic guitar (cheap Cort) and the electrics (American Series Telecaster through a Hot Rod Deluxe).

I know the quality's far from great, but I'd love to hear some comments on the mix or on the recording in general.....or even just tips on how to improve my recordings until I get a mixer and more mics.

For some reason, every time I make an MP3, it's insanely quiet....so if you're kind enough to listen, you'll have to turn up your speakers.

By the way, the song's far from done....still needs vocals and for everything to be fleshed out.

Here's the link:
http://www.nowhereradio.com/mikeanddon/singles

Thanks in advance.
 
Too much room!

I like roomy drums, but this sounds like they're in the other room.

Try placing your drum mic directly above the drummer's head, pointed at the top of the kick. Or just move it closer to the front of the kit, and about even with the top of the kick. Obviously the first method will give you more cymbals & snare, the second more kick.

The mix levels on the guitars are pretty balanced. Definately needs some bass in there though.

The overall level is pretty low, but don't worry about that too much. Most commercial music today is made too loud with special limiting tricks in mastering. I've got a couple discs that are so hot they actually clip the converters on my CD player! Personally I'd rather just turn the volume up if I want it loud.

As long as your tracking levels are peaking over -6db your using all 16bits, so you don't need to track hotter than that. That can actually cause problems at mix time as you will likely run out of headroom if you've got more than a few tracks.
 
Thanks for the response.

I like the roomy sound too, but you're right: it's pretty crazy on this one. We tracked the drums in the drummer's apartment, which is pretty much wide open with all wood floors and really high ceilings. Next time, I'll definitely try the different mic placements you suggested. When I do get my mixer and some more mics, I'm hoping that won't pose quite as much of a problem.

Thanks again.
 
Okay, so I'm going to shamelessly bump this up, then promise to comment on other people's mixes -- even though I have no idea what I really have to offer anyone.
 
Dito on the drums. But I give you a thumbs up for using live drums. Acoustic drums are a difficult thing to record I think. Especially if you are engineering and playing both.

I liked the music. The elec lead reminded me of a Neil Young type scale. (and I like that)
 
Yeah, I've definitely got my work cut out for me with the whole live drums thing, but I've never been much of a fan of programmed drums. It definitely makes things more difficult, but it's pretty fun -- even when you're failing miserably at it. Things should get at least slightly easier for me soon, though, since just a little while ago, actually, I bought a pair of ECM-8000s from someone on the board. Once I get together the loot for a mixer, those should serve me pretty well, I think, at least until I can scrape together another $200 for a pair of 603s or MK012s.

KJAM22: Thanks for the kind words....any Neil Young comparison is fine in my book!
 
It's so quiet for one thing. Sounds like the drums were miced with a single mic from far away.
 
Correct on both accounts. I mentioned both of those things in my first post.

I can't figure out of the low volume is a result of poor tracking or of something I'm not doing correctly while mixing in N-track.
 
Yeh the levels barely register in Winamp.
Did you have your final mix levels up around the red zone?
The song itself is very pleasant - sounds like a relaxed afternoon jam
 
Go into your profile and list all of your equiptment and software in the 'signature' ... or ... make a post here that describes the series of steps you take to record.

Figuring out your final mix problem with respect to volume is the primary concern here, I'm downloading your song now, but I know you have to fix this ... first and formost.

Don't precede any further until you fix this.
 
I describe a good portion of my process in my original post, but here goes again:

Drums: 1963 Ludwig kit mic'd with a single Audio Technica 3035 placed about 6' off the ground and 8' out from the front of the drums.

I recorded drums on track 4 of my Fostex MR-8.

Acoustic Guitar: Cheap "Cort" acoustic also mic'd with the Audio Technica 3035 placed about 12" from the 12th fret.

I recored acoustic guitar onto track 3.

Electric Guitar: Fender American Series Telecaster plugged into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with the volume up to about 4. Same AT 3035 a few inches away from the center of the speaker.

I recorded two tracks of electric guitar and put them on tracks one and two.

Then, after connecting the MR-8 to my computer via USB, I used Fostex's "Wav Manager" program to transport the tracks to my computer as individual wavs.

Using n-Track, I imported eack individual tracks, applied some light EQing, and used the program's "mixdown" function to create a single wave file.

Then, using Musicmatch, I converted the Wav to an MP3, making sure along the way to pick the highest quality for every choice I had.

That's pretty much it, I guess. All the levels seem to be getting pretty high while I was tracking, but who knows.....I could be wrong.

Thanks to everyone else for the responses.
 
hey mike,

live drums are 'always' better than samples in my opinion, so you've got a lot of us beat in that regard already....

as for the volume, the track definitely has tons of headroom left, and the drums could use a little more volume.......some people said they're not diggin the room sound, but i kinda like it....it's solid for one mic at least

nice little jam
 
This kinda has the old Beatles sound to it. When mixing in NTrack bring the levels to almost clipping. I still use Ntrack for tracking and mixing although I have Other more expensive software. Its more compatible with my soundcard and I can get stuff done fast.
I know you will hear a lot about digital distortion but dont let that make you afraid of clipping at peaks here and there. Judging by all the headroom you have on your recording your levels are about half of what they should be. Hope this helps.
Myx
 
Hmm...so I think I figured out why the volume is so low, and it's actually kind of embarrassing to admit: When I was tracking, I had the headphone volume on my 8-track all the way up, so when I recorded something to what I thought would be a decent level, it was totally distorted and disgusting. I wound up turning everything down and recording at a volume that sounded good with the phones cranked all the way up, and not surprisingly, the final mix is ONLY decent when you really crank the volume on your speakers. Makes sense, I suppose.

Powder: thanks for checking it out. Like I said in an earlier post, I really enjoy the live drum thing....thank god the drummer doesn't care if everyone in his apartment hates him.

Myx62: I actually know what you mean about clipping in n-Tracks. In the short amount of time I've played around with it (since posting this MP3), I've realized that having something clip doesn't necessarily mean it's going to sound bad. Thanks a ton for taking the time to listen.
 
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