My first paid engineering/producing gig

[37point5]

Hey all,

I just recorded this song over the weekend. The artist is a guy named Marcel Tirado, who I think has a good chance of going somewhere in the biz. He answered an ad I put out looking for people to record/produce in my home studio. I've gotten a few responses to the ad, but this is the first song to come out of it, and also the first song I've ever gotten paid for recording.

The equipment is the same I've been using: a Rode NT1 through an ART Tube MP for the vocals, the Oktava MC012 on the guitar amp, those two mics plus an EV 257 and a Shure SM57 for the drums. The acoustic was a blend of the Oktava and the guitar's pickup. The bass went direct into a Tube MP. Everything was recorded through a Delta 66 into Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0. Effect used: Waves Renaissance EQ and compressor, and the Hyperprism Hyperverb.

The song is called "How The Story Goes" and can be found at http://www.mp3.com/37point5

Hope you all enjoy it and can provide some suggestions for improvement. He's coming back this weekend to do another song, so I'll pass along any comments, positive or negative, you might have.

Thanks a bunch!

Ryan

 

[bvaleria]

Er, only 'cos I was in a similar situation once... did the artist give you the ok to "distribute" his song on the web?? (for evaluation purposes or otherwise??)

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound

 

[37point5]

Bruce,

Thanks for your concern. Yes, he did give permission for me to put his song up. He's coming over again on Saturday and we're making an mp3.com site just for him, but until then I've just stuck it on my site.

Just out of curiousity, what was your situation?

Anyway, my deal with Marcel is pretty much that I'm his producer/manager/agent, so he's mostly paying me to get his music heard and to get him gigs. In fact, I'm hardly charging anything for his demo in the hopes that it'll be a good marketing tool to get gigs, which I'll get a cut of.

So what did you think of the song? I'd especially like the opinion of someone of your expertise.

Thanks again,
Ryan

 

[drstawl]

I like the tune and the performances but feel the sound came out with a "harsh" edge to it. I blame the Art Pre.
What sort of space are you recording in?
Large/Small
Dead/Live

 

[bvaleria]

Just out of curiousity, what was your situation?

When I first started out, someone asked me for samples and I freely posted some clips to my website for them to retrieve. (Not quite public access, but not very secure...) Anyways, when the client whose clips I grabbed discovered my "distribution liberties", he was quite upset that he wasn't consulted - especially since it was their own work and all I was being paid for was the engineering, with no rights to the material/distribution/etc... It wasn't a big deal - I promised to remove the clips and everything was fine - but I learned a lesson!

So what did you think of the song? I'd especially like the opinion of someone of your expertise.

Well I gave the tune only a quick lesson on headphones, but anyways...

Overall a nice job and I noticed only a few quibbles during the quick listen... There's a pervasive mid-range honkiness throughout the overall mix - (I couldn't tie it to any one track so it could be monitor-related or room acoustics of your control room.) I found the vocal levels a bit inconsistent - they were nice and strong during the acoustic intro, but then tending to get lost in the mix when the heavier section comes in.

Other than that, instrument balances seemed right on, maybe slightly guitar heavy (but that's a matter of taste!) Also possibly a matter of taste but I found the overall panning a bit too wide - rather than panning stereo track fully L/R, try using the 8 and 4 o'clock pan positions as your maximums.

Good work... what kind of gear are you using?



Bruce

 

[37point5]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Drstawl: Glad you enjoyed the song. Not sure what you mean about the "harshness". Could be from the ART, but then again it could be the "midrange honkiness" Bruce was talking about. I don't know; I'm going to have to check it out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, though. As far as the space I'm recording in, it's a mid-size room (I guess it's a den) with hardwood floors. Pretty live sounding, but I have some dampening that takes the edge of the high frequencies. Plus, I pretty much close mic everything. The only major room sound you'll hear is on the cymbals and the snare. In all, it's a nice room to record in; certainly much better than the ultra-dead room I was recording in a few months ago. Yuck.

Bruce: Thanks for relating your story. I wouldn't have ever thought about that problem, but since I plan to be recording a lot more people (hopefully!), I guess it's definitely something I should keep in mind. Thanks also for your comments on the mix. Like I said, I'll have to look into the midrange problem. You're probably right, though; it probably IS my monitors, since they pretty much suck. I plan on sinking some cash into some good ones in a month or so. For now I'm just using "FreeFilter" to verify that my EQ curves aren't too off anywhere (especially in the bass area, which I'm just about positive I can't hear accurately). I also use it sparingly instead of regular EQ when I master.

Ryan