New Guitars - Softdance

  • Thread starter Thread starter rayc
  • Start date Start date
rayc

rayc

retroreprobate
Hi Folks,
With my main recording comp currently dead, (down & out for 4 weeks now), I've been revising/remixing etc to keep boredom at bay.
The day before the beast died I recorded new guitar tracks for an old song called Softdance. Previously I'd used clean guitars & a cakewalk amp sim along with boogex to get some snarl. I'd, luckily, saved the project to an external drive & have played with it on another computer.
This time round I used my tubecube to attenuate the signal of the amp & was able to crank the guitars into the etone 200w single cone without blowing my head off. On one take I used a Big Fluff (Muff clone) to get some extra distortion as the amp (a Superbass MkII) doesn't have the usual crankbale gain stage of a guitar amp. I used my Bruno for two takes & Epi Sheraton II for the other.
I recorded each of the three takes using a pair of mics. MSH1 & a 57 on one and the MSH & a la Grange on the other two. Not thinking ahead I set 1 mic on the left of the big bass cab cone & the other on the right. This caused phase problems that left me with a muddy guitar tracks then the comp carked it.
I used a tiny bit of delay & set the effect to 100% (no dry) on one of each pair of tracks & that improved things enormously - then a little EQing to create some more sonic difference. I panned the twin tracks away from each other & then mixed.
This is my 1st recording with real, as opposed to sims, tube based distortion.
Does it work?
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4072258&q=hi
 
Guitars sound generally pretty nice. Maybe a little muddy in the low-mids.
 
This mix is a bit muddy...vocals come through well, but the bass and drums seem to have more lows than normal. I'm not hearing much cymbal, nor much snare. Maybe boost the highs some, see what happens.
 
The mix does sound muddy. The bass sounds muddy and the gutiars. But the vox sound pretty good. Have we heard this before? Sounds familiar.

The intro sound close to Blood Makes Noise by Suzanne Vega.
 
The guitars sound great - is this your new #1?
The rhythm is similar but slightly different than the original...I like it....
The bass is sitting okay - very thick and meaty but with definition.
I'd nudge up .....
- the vocals in the first half
- the guitar solo
- the snare or drums in general if stereo track
- sax solo
This is one of my favorite songs you've written, and Terry does a good job too...I think the change to the guitar sound is a nice improvement....

:cool::D:cool::D
 
The guitar mix is kind of wuffly between 300Hz and 1KHz... The drum mix is REALLY rolled off, not a lot of edge at all; it doesn't cut through the wall of guitars... The vox track is nice and clean, coudl be bigger perhaps, could have more bottom. the conga samples, or at least the higher one are too upfront in the mix...

Once you're past the overall EQ curve, you got great tone colors out of the guitars. I envy those nice round distortions; everything I try is too harsh and edgy...

Cool stuff!
 
Thanks for the feedback folks.
Here's a link to a revision based on your recco's:
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4072258&q=hi
Greg_L,
Ta mate. I've pulled a chunk out across 125-230 on all distorted guitars to address your comment - thanks mate.
Dogman,
Thanks - The bottom end is a problem as I had recorded the drums & percussion to a single track & did it badly. I couldn't synch a new bass drum so I ran a low pass filter across the whole single track kit & had to also trougfh a few points to remove the top end of the kit. I then added snare, crash 7 Ride by tapping the drum machinme keys - a bit dicky - needs a decent drum trcak I know. the bass sounds great solo'd - I've taken some bottom end from it& boosted the 3khz peak so it sounds a bit better.
bigbubba,
Yeah it's a rework. Have I addressed the mud? I'll follow up on Vega. Did she record her song before '86? That when I recorded this initially - though I had the two riffs from around 79. Thanks for the perspective.
ido1957,
Cheers mate. I've boosted the vox for the 1st half & the solo too. I'll have to do some more work on the sax. The drums sound worse if boosted. I might have to re record them tap by tap. Yep that's #1 - it's a good replacement for the original (thanks to YOU) plus the Epi. Thanks for the kind words.
Llarion,
Thanks - the rwsons for the drum roll off are explained above. the congas etc still cut through like that after a low pass filter et al - imagine how they souonded ariginally - man I really overdid that back in 86. I like the fatter guitar sounds but I've thinned them due to the bottom end issues. thanks for the generous comments & detail.
Cheers
rayc
 
Hey rayc,

This mix is slightly clearer, I would probably try tweaking the drums in the mids to bring them forward in the mix a little more. They still sound a little buried.
The bass line sounds sweet. The vocals are clear. I liked the interlude/middle 8th.

Cheers for sharing rayc! :)
 
I'd turn all the drums up about 10 db. Cool bass line, and the guitars sound good, but without the drums forward in the mix, it's hard to tell if it really gels or not.
 
Guitars still sound good with some bass rolled off. They have a lot of bite to them and at any resolution retain their character. :)

Bass guitar is much more defined here now, more like the version I have from before. There was less bass on guitars on the previous version.

Those congas really pop out in this remix - I hardly noticed them before. Way louder than the drums.The percussion track is going to be work. If you know the tempo, you could try and reprogram a drum machine track, record it out, and then try and align it to the rest. Or get a live drummer....;)

The vocals are better volume now. They have a bit of sibilance on them - mostly at the beginning. Is there such a thing as an after-the-fact de-esser plug?

Guitar and Sax solos seem pretty good level now....
 
The new mix sounds less muddy. Maybe not muddy at all. But I guess could use slight more clarity.

The Suzanne Vega part is very slight. Not a copy sound. Just the way the bass hits.

The drums could use a Christopher Columbus. :D

The guitars and the bass sit pretty well in there. The sax sounds slightly hidden. Could use a boost.

The extra drums sounds around 1:57 sound pretty cool.
 
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