Need you to critique seperate tracks

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Blor007

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Hi guys, I learned alot since I attendet this forum and I really want to thank you for this.
Enough with the suck-up, time to get to business :P

I got a mix here, and this needs to end up a cd wich will be printed 1000 copies, so it is verrrryy important that it sounds great.
(We can't afford mastering or going to studio)



http://users.pandora.be/blor007/Folderken/
This is my webspace, right-click to download.

These are the seperate links
Bas
Complete Song
Drums
4 Guitars
Voice






Any comments/Tips/Advice will help ALOT !!!







Gear:
Drum:Tama Rockstar Classic

KickDrum :Shure BETA52
Snare: SM57
Floor tom: SM57
JTX-C505:Tom1
JTX-C505:Tom2
Overhead: Shure SM94
Overhead: AKG C-1000

Effects:Stereo field rotate (Waves 5.0) set on overheads width: 3.0
Compression: Snare: -15 threshold 5 attack 20 release


Basguitar: Fender Jazz Bas /Direct Out on randall amp

Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Studio on Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier 4*G-12T75 speakers in Marshall case

Against the grill: SM57 in center
SM57 pointing @ center from 45 degrees

2 guitars played 2 times(so 8 guitar tracks):
1st guitar panned: track1-2:R40 en track3-4:L40
2nd guitar panned: track 5-6:L100 en track 7-8:R100


Vocals: Studio projects C1
Waves 5.0 vocal Compression (-10 Threshold)



Recorded in seperate takes on Cool edit Pro 2.0
with staudio soundcard 8 direct in's.
 
I streamed it from your "Complete Song" mp3 link, the second one down. It's only about 30 seconds long - is that right? This isn't my type of music but as I listened...

Anyway, very unusually for this genre, the guitars are much too far back in the mix. They also sound thin - a Les Paul will normally fill an entire frequency spectrum all by itself ;) and so this is quite strange. Especially with 8 guitar tracks. There is virtually no bass. So it all sounds a bit thin and harsh.

Vocal goes quite badly - painfully - out of tune in the chorus bit.

[edit - sorry - realised I hadn't read your original post properly - tend to go straight for the music :) Hope an overall mix comment is useful anyway)
 
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I listened to everything individually before listening to the whole mix.

Drums - Not bad. I think youve got phasing issues on the tom mics though. They are barely audible. Sounds really scooped.

Bass - Kind of a cool sound. Sounds scooped

Guitars - Way scooped. Wheres the meat on those things?

Whole Mix - Vocals were way out infront of everything else. Work on panning a little more. I would double the guitar part and pan them pretty hard so its thicker. The guitar is way too scooped man, it sound wussy and far back in the mix.

Cool to see some punkers still around.

danny
 
I'm also truly disapointed by the guitars,
I can't understand what i'm doing wrong


I used 2 SM57's , 1 pointed at the dustcap 1 pointed at the dustcab from 45 degrees.AGAINST The Grill.
I used lots of distortion and less distortion.
I played the guitar 2 times
so 4 guitars and 2 mic's = 8 tracks.

I panned the Heavier distortion to the left Lower to the right.
And visa versa with the other guitar.

I panned the (1) guitar L100-100 and R100-100
The other Guitars(2) L30-40 and R30-40

Guitar 1 to create a broad stereo image to create contrast, but even the 2 guitars played together sound a bit powerless imo.


Anyone got any suggestions to improve it?
 
Blor007 said:
I'm also truly disapointed by the guitars,
I can't understand what i'm doing wrong


I used 2 SM57's , 1 pointed at the dustcap 1 pointed at the dustcab from 45 degrees.AGAINST The Grill.
I used lots of distortion and less distortion.
I played the guitar 2 times
so 4 guitars and 2 mic's = 8 tracks.

I panned the Heavier distortion to the left Lower to the right.
And visa versa with the other guitar.

I panned the (1) guitar L100-100 and R100-100
The other Guitars(2) L30-40 and R30-40

Guitar 1 to create a broad stereo image to create contrast, but even the 2 guitars played together sound a bit powerless imo.


Anyone got any suggestions to improve it?

what does your eq on your amp look like right now? since your doing so many guitar tracks anyway, maybe just use one mic.
 
It's a Dual Rectifier right? Sounds like you got the gain all the way up. Bring it down about halfway. If it's already halfway, half it again from where it's at. Mic straight in at the inner edge of the cone (2 to 2.75 inches from dead center of the speaker). I find that punk guitars like this are best to not do the angle mic'ing deal... straight in. Catch that tone man, don't let it pass by. Crank the amp, let the power tubes present the tone, let the gain barely contour it.

It's early, I'll explain better later.

Listen to Good Riddance you'll see, it's how thier tone sounds. It seems like that's what you are going for.
 
My amp settings were: Bas around 1-2 (7o'clock). Middle at 9-10 (5 o'clock).
Treble at 4 (10 o'clock).


The problem was when i needed to let a chord sound through with 1 hit for a long time ,it fades away too quickly with too little distortion.
It needed to sound trough for like 6 seconds, and it faded to quickly with too less distortion. (hope this makes sense for you :))
So I needed to crank up a little more distortion just to let the chord sound his way trough.
But then that distortion sounded a bit dull so i used 2 different distortions, 1 heavy and 1 light.


Anything i did wrong?


Ps: Anyone who want's to help a total newbie out can add me on blor007@hotmail.com , cheers ;)
 
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That's a matter of sustain on the actual guitar. If you are using gain cranked up to add sustain, that's not going to sound natural. How bad is it with less gain and more natural tone? In the end you'll be happier with the natural tone even if the chords aren't sustaining as much as you want. What kind of guitars are you using?

You'll laugh but Spinal Tap had a valid point when Nigel points out that his Les Paul has so much sustain that you can play a note, go grab a sandwich and come back and it's still going.
 
Blor007 said:
My amp settings were: Bas around 1-2 (7o'clock). Middle at 9-10 (5 o'clock).
Treble at 4 (10 o'clock).


try turning your bass up to almost the same as your mids.(like maybe 6 or 7) i don't really know how good that will sound, but it's worth a try. if it's too much low end. you can just roll it off in the mix.

and i'd still try using just one mic.

as for sustain. you can try a compression pedal. or you can stand right next to your amp when you record that part of the song.

or you can dub in that part and this is a weird thing that les pauls do. if you turn the tone knob all the way down on whatever pickup you're using, it sustains forever. i don't know why it happens, but it does. so what you could do is maybe turn the tone all the way down on the guitar, then turn the highs up a bit on the amp.
 
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