My song "Smoke Signals"

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jamintravis

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Hey everyone! I joined this forum a long time ago, but haven't used it much. I recently just invested a little more money into my recording space. I've been doing my own recordings for years, and I've also had an EP recorded professionally by a friend of mine.

Quite honestly, for the longest time, I was stabbing in the dark when it came to the whole engineering and mixing aspect of things- using what little I could remember from recording with more experienced people and maybe looking up a few things online here and there, but I really didn't understand how to methodically approach things. I've spent a lot of time lately just watching videos on YouTube and reading, and then took some of my newly gained knowledge with me as I went to work on my latest recording.

Just for reference, here is what I'm working with:

Microphones
Digital Reference DRI100 (I have 3 of them- they are like cheap imitations of SM57's. They are pretty good but the casing is cheap and the sound is a little bit muddier than the 57)
Audio-Technica AT2020

Guitar
Martin DX1AE

Interface
Zoom R16

Monitors
Presonus Eris 4.5

Computer
iMac- Intel Core 2 Duo
2.16Ghz/2GB Ram
OSX 10.6.8

DAW
Cockos Reaper
All stock or Freeware plugins + Melodyne

Tracking Room
My "studio" was originally a bedroom, and it has a relatively large walk-in closet that I use for tracking, especially vocals. The closet is treated with Auralex Wedgies (no bass traps or diffusers).

Quite honestly, I'm not in a position to invest any amount of money into improving or adding equipment at this time, so I'm really just looking for feedback on the overall sound and any tips, tricks, or advice on what may have made it sound better. I think it actually sounds pretty good, especially in comparison to my previous recordings (even ones from 1-2 months ago!), but don't be afraid to tell me if it sounds like crap. My goal is to be proficient enough to charge a small amount of money to do recording/mixing for other people.

Here is the song:
https://soundcloud.com/jamintravis/smoke-signals-damned-if-i-do-2
 
I like your songs. You have a good voice and can play guitar very well. I listened to quite a few of your tunes, and Smoke Signals, quality wise does sound better than the rest. I'd like to hear what you sound like in a good room with good equipment and with a pro mix/master. Keep singing and playing, you have some talent.
 
fuzzsniffvoyage said:
I like your songs. You have a good voice and can play guitar very well. I listened to quite a few of your tunes, and Smoke Signals, quality wise does sound better than the rest. I'd like to hear what you sound like in a good room with good equipment and with a pro mix/master. Keep singing and playing, you have some talent.
Click to expand...

Thanks! There are some tracks on there that are from my professionally recorded EP. https://soundcloud.com/jamintravis/sets/of-love-and-loss-ep
 
The vocal sounds further back than the acoustic guitar. It sounds like two different people playing and singing.
 
I thought it sounded pretty good.

I thought the guitars were a little too bright. They're covering the vocal a bit.

Everything sounded too compressed to me. No breathing room - no pulse to the rhythm. Just constant sound. I'd back that off quite a bit.

I thought things were well performed and I liked the "small space" feel to it.
 
Very catchy tune. Found myself playing along with the bass in my hand.
Good use of panning on the two guitar parts. Good harmonies. Space dif between the two I think was already mentioned, so I'll leave that alone.
Lots of hiss at the end and the overcompress isn't helping that much. Agree with MMM about backing your compression down.
Would love to hear this with bass and drums, maybe a little strings thrown in here and there or maybe a vocal ooh or aah to add to the soundscape.
 
Nice and thick yet understandable guitars. Good playing. I hear a lot of hiss too during the broken down parts. There is a background thump around 0:24. Good catchy song and good vox.
 
Oh man, I would have loved to have heard that recorded in a stellar room. Nice work.
 
Thank you for all the constructive feedback, everyone! Hiss during broken down parts is something I've had to deal with since day one, and I really don't know how to A)prevent it from happening in the first place or B)remove it effectively.

As for the thoughts on space/compression issues, I'll definitely take it all into consideration and likely do more work on the mix in the near future. I'm in the process of tracking another song right now, so we'll see how that turns out. Again, I appreciate all of your observations.
 
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