New demo cd

Aly said:
So, nobody thinks nothing of it ?

That's just great.
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Be patient! I'm listening right now...

The vocal is tracked nicely and sits well in the mix. The drums are a bit distant and flat--except for the cymbals--those are a tad harsh. How'd you mic the kit?

I could use a bit more bass guitar. The main guitar parts get a bit redundant for me--but that's more of a writing thing.

Hey I dig the wah solo at the end and the ritard--sounds nice.

I look forward to hearing some more of the tunes...
 
Thank you sir !

Every single drum part was close miked with a shure dedicated drum mike set.. Fot the cymbals I used shure overhead mikes (2 of them, condensators, left and right over the cymbals, about 5 feet high)) and an additional AKG C1000S dead center at the same height.

I did a remix recently which involved bringing up the bass guitar part and setting back those cymbals.. So i fully agree with your critiques, thanks for that by the way.

The thing is, I don't know why but it tales ages for myspace to put that song on my profile;
I'll put up some more songs but it can take a while.
 
WhiteStrat said:
The drums are a bit distant and flat--except for the cymbals--those are a tad harsh. .
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I agree with this. If I can give you any advice, it would be to read up on micing techniques, especially for drums.

Every single drum part was close miked with a shure dedicated drum mike set.. Fot the cymbals I used shure overhead mikes (2 of them, condensators, left and right over the cymbals, about 5 feet high)) and an additional AKG C1000S dead center at the same height.
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That's not neccassarilly the way to go. The drums don't sound like a kit. It sounds like the cymbals were recorded in a different room than the rest of the drums, or the rest of the band, for that matter. You shouldn't be using "cymbal mics". You should be using those mics as "overheads", and the majority of the drum sound should come from those overheads (2 of them, not 3), not the close mics.
 
The snare in the left channel is bugging the shit out of me. I more traditional method is to leave it up the center. It's making the whole mix sit funny for me.

And the bass has no definition. I can barely hear it.
 
I think the overall mix is pretty good, I just can't hear the bass guitar(even with a big subwoofer) and the drums are kind of weak.

It really sounds kind of like a live band, strangely enough... a live band where the drums aren't miked and the bass isn't in the system. You're verry talented though, it's a cool song.

I know there are lots of different opinions out there about drum miking, my opinion is that you should use a room mic for the majority of the sound and then add definition and panning with individual tom mics and overheads.

An example of that is here(the first song "flawed love"),

http://www.myspace.com/juliamarieband

When we recorded the drums we used a large diaphram condenser just above level with the bass drum, about 6 feet from the kit. And we got almost all of the drum sound from that. We used the individual drum mics to get some stereo image, and the overheads picked up the cymbals nicely.

-James'
 
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Wow thanks everyone !

Valuable info for me concerning those drum mikeing techniques.. I do have room sound in those three condensers I used (2 left/right of the overheads at man's heigth, and the third one up in the middle) so I'm really gonna try bring these puppies up to original level in the mix again. Until now I only used 15 % of their signal in the mix..
But thanks to James and some of you my insights in mixing the drum are changing.
Thanks for that.

Don't bother about the bass guitar, allready increased the level of that one, since it was indeed not present at all. Being the bassplayer myself I didn't wanna get all of the dynamics, so initially I kept the bass too discrete.

Thanks a lot everyone.. It's too late now but in the morning I'm gonna give that new drum kit mix a go.. See where I end up.

Thanks a lot !
 
This sounds like a band I could listen to, and dance to, all night - great vibe... The Pretenders comes to mind....

I found the drums panned to the left channel a bit which like Rokket said, is abit different and not comfortable in the headphones. Bass is a difficult instrument to record - refer to posts by RAYC for good bass recording information...

Cool playing on the guitars and drums and vocals are great! :D
 
Aly said:
Wow thanks everyone !

Valuable info for me concerning those drum mikeing techniques.. I do have room sound in those three condensers I used (2 left/right of the overheads at man's heigth, and the third one up in the middle) so I'm really gonna try bring these puppies up to original level in the mix again. Until now I only used 15 % of their signal in the mix..
But thanks to James and some of you my insights in mixing the drum are changing.
Thanks for that.

Don't bother about the bass guitar, allready increased the level of that one, since it was indeed not present at all. Being the bassplayer myself I didn't wanna get all of the dynamics, so initially I kept the bass too discrete.

Thanks a lot everyone.. It's too late now but in the morning I'm gonna give that new drum kit mix a go.. See where I end up.

Thanks a lot !
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If it was me, I'd do the following things to bring out the bass: (I am primarily a bass player too...)

1. Compression: I start at a 2:1 ratio and slowly bump that up, depending on how much fluctuation I am getting. Bass will always have a lot of wild transients to tame. I usually end up 6:1 or even as high as 8:1 compression. Fast attack, slow release.

2. High pass filter set between 100hz and 150hz. Anything lower than this, and I find that I am burying the kick drum.

3. I boost the percieved volume 2-3dB, depending on the song as a whole and how much I want the bass to drive the rhythm.

4. Distortion: I may add some saturation or distortion to the track (very little, maybe 25% boost in gain) to bring it out if there are a lot of midrange instrumentation. e.g. 4 or more guitar tracks and keyboard/piano.

5. Bass chorus: only if I want a wider, more spatial sound to the bass.

And that usually gives me a very good bass track. Keep in mind, tracking properly is key. I sometimes will go with a DI track doubled with a mic'd amp. But lately, I have been using the SansAmp Bass Driver DI pedal only, and getting great results.

YMMV...
 
I worked on the drums today, so I really hope that they sound better now.
Thanks to some people on this board informing me about box.net, and how myspace degrades the quality of your music (I allready noticed but didn't have an alternative), I loaded these songs up via box.net...

In better quality.. I know the guitar in this songs is really sounding dull, so i might still do something about that. Later on..

Now all I need is a decent pair of ears.. <sigh>

http://www.box.net/shared/k6syny4fxh

Thanks guys and girls, for giving this a shot !
 
A 2 to 5 db boost at 3Khz will give your bass more definition.
rokket has some very handy bass tips in his post - give 'em a whirl.
 
One thing I should have mentioned was that the only drum I do really use the individual mic for is the kick drum. The room mic doesn't pick up the the kick drum very well... I should have pointed that out.

Now, each kick drum is different... but for mine I usually add it to the mix and add a littl 60 - 80hz and then a bit of 2 - 5khz for definition. Others could probably give better advice on it. The mix certainly sounds better as far as the drums are concerned, but the kick drum and bass still seem too quiet. I notice particularly I can't hear the kick drum.

Keep up the good work though, you have a good set of ears.

-James'
 
Pretty cool. Man the singer reminds me so much of Chrissie Hynde.

I think it sounds pretty damn good.
The snare on the left is off and that type of stuff bugs some people. I always mic the snare for that reason. the drums do sound a bit distant, but I don't mind. The intro guitar solo parts might need to be sat back a bit to match. They are a little in your face compared to the rest of the song.

Is there a stereo widener on the vocals or something? the vocals seem set left. The signal does not look that way, so I am wondering if it's a tiny delay on the right making it feel shifted to the left. Along with the snare being left it makes the song seem a little lop sided.

Nice job man.


F.S.
 
Again thanks a lot everyone for helping me out with the drums.. I believe I went up some levels in mixing with this :)

You might wanna check the songs out here :

http://www.box.net/shared/k6syny4fxh

Thank you very much Freudian Slip, for pointing out the use of the stereo widener.. Indeed, I had one on the whole mix at the endstage, but have now removed it as it only cluttered my mix, and I wanted a more in your face sound.. Thanks man, I owe you one !

James, I'm sorry, I can't get those drums of my band as great sounding as you did yours.. But I admit, it was recorded in a BAD room (stone + glass everywhere, nothing to absorb those unwanted frequencies. That's why I went for a closed drum sound, but many people here including you showed me what a great sound you can get by using romm mikes. So, I just used my room mikes a bit more than before, but not all the way..

Thanks for helping out again everyone, you guys are great !!!!

Who knows, maybe someday I might just understand mixing
 
dude,
quick easy solution
GET DRUMAGOG.

it will make the drums sound so much better.

and with guitars i dont know how your doing them but find a walk in closet those give great sounds.
 
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