New track.

[bigbubba]

Hello guys,

I have uploaded another track to soundclick. Here's your oppurtunity to repeat the famous phrase, "you suck". Joking aside, please give it a shot if you have time and criticize the mix. What sounds wrong and so on? Feel free to criticize the playing as well.

I know there's a lot of timing glitches here and there. Especially the last verse (around 2:01) played out was supposed to have a little swing but not be totally off time in places. I'm still learning to playing fast.

Around 1:38 the clean guitar goes off time and then just goes away. Basically it was a little messing around I was doing with the whole guitar track and liked it so much that I thought I'd keep it around and see what reviews I get on it.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=419303

The song is DTB. Sorry can't figure out how to link directly to the song.

RAMI, I better not get one of your famous un-Christian reviews. . Just kidding, I hope you know that. I'm sure even you can learn a thing or two from this drummer, eh? Seriously tho, do they still sound like a joke? Any better?

 

[DigitalSmigital]

I like the track...

but the whole thing seems muddled; too much low end and nothing really standing apart except by panning L/R. Good writing and playing. Wow! It's my first instrumental Christian Rock, unless you count Neal Morse's One...

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Hey, I enjoyed this tune

The bass sounds excellent on my system and I really dig the lead guitar tones.

I don't dig the electric rhythm tones as much. They sound like they don't have much presence compared to the bass. Maybe more crunch or volume or even a different tone would sound better IMO. Or maybe bring the bass down some and see how that sounds.

The little speed up parts are great. They give me a little Joe Satriani "Ceremony" verse vibe. I think the best parts though, are the melodies in the choruses, enjoyable part. Thumbs up on that tone

I'd also recommend using an EQ to reduce the 250-400hz range some, that'll reduce "muddiness"

Good work, enjoyed it.

 

[bigbubba]

Everything is EQ'd down by about 6db - 12db around 200Hz - 450Hz. So I don't know what else I can do.

One thing, I EQ before Reverb. Maybe I should EQ after the FX. Is there a preferred way to rig up an FX chain? Should EQ be after Reverb? I'll try that and upload another version soon. - Thanks guys!

 

[xfinsterx]

Everything is EQ'd down by about 6db - 12db around 200Hz - 450Hz. So I don't know what else I can do.

One thing, I EQ before Reverb. Maybe I should EQ after the FX. Is there a preferred way to rig up an FX chain? Should EQ be after Reverb? I'll try that and upload another version soon. - Thanks guys!

Eq then reverb.
Where are the mids???
It sounds as if you put a big smiley face eq setting across the 2 bus.

-Finster

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Yeah actually when I listen again it doesn't sound like it's the mids to me that's causing any muddiness, it just sounds like the bass is a tad too loud. You could try individually adding some mids back to the rhythm guitar, maybe that'll fix the "thinness" I was refering to in my first post.

Cool song I should stop posting though, I'm really tired and probably not making much sense

 

[bigbubba]

Eq then reverb.
Where are the mids???
It sounds as if you put a big smiley face eq setting across the 2 bus.

-Finster

Well, not so much of a smiley face (not intentionally, at least) but more of a subtractive EQ'ing.

What I did was to lower EQ settings, except for certain ranges. Each instrument got its own range where it was left alone. And of course, boosted the 5k plus on cymbals and a little on the snare.

Everything got EQ down on the 200H - 450H, and then the master out got EQ'd down in the same range to reduce the muddiness. 'Coz all my mixes used to sound really really muddy before I joined this board and found out what EQ'ing can do. It would seem I'm overdoing it now.

It does sound a little thin/empty to me but I convinced myself that I was making it sound like Llarion's even tho his mixes sound great and sound polished, not hollow. LOL.

I've updated it. Added a little more mid-range to the clean guitar and to the dist rhythm.

SnakeDog5050 - When you say electric rhythm, do you mean the dist. rhythm? That's just the sound of my amp being directly plugged in to the soundcard. Bound to sound like crap. Nothing is mic'd. Everything is just plugged in directly. That may account for the emptiness also.

The keyboard might also be muddying things up. JMO.

Anyhoo, I've updated the track on soundclick.

 

[RAMI]

Well, I like the drums alot better on this than on your previous stuff. I hear everything, especially the snare. Nice rythm changes in this and very nice melodies all the way through. I don't hear as much muddiness as I expected from reading the posts, but you might have fixed it up by the time I hear this. Sounds good, BigB, a huge step forward in your recording career.

 

[bigbubba]

Well, I like the drums alot better on this than on your previous stuff. I hear everything, especially the snare. Nice rythm changes in this and very nice melodies all the way through. I don't hear as much muddiness as I expected from reading the posts, but you might have fixed it up by the time I hear this. Sounds good, BigB, a huge step forward in your recording career.

Recording career? Wouldn't that be more of a program-it-in career. Thanks for the comments. I feel in the beginning where the drums stop murdering the open hat, and go into hitting the closed hat, the fill there involves a very cheesy sound especially on the toms, no?

Why is it that the overall recording sounds like, it could be made a lot better. Well I guess 'coz it could be. I just don't know how. I still gotta work with the EQ a little bit to give the two guitars a little more on the spectrum. We'll see.

I'm glad nobody hates my MIDI bass.

 

[XLR]

Guitars sound great. I like the sound of the syncopated ac gtr on the right and the way it works off the drumset rhythms. Bass sounds a little too hot to me in the 100-200 Hz range... might sound good if you could bring out the bass' upper harmonics to bring it out without being too loud because the part itself sounds good.

Tim

 

[bigbubba]

Guitars sound great. I like the sound of the syncopated ac gtr on the right and the way it works off the drumset rhythms.

Unfortunately, I have already EQ'd the song enough to probably have changed that. LOL. Never get a good job done on the mix. hehe.

Bass sounds a little too hot to me in the 100-200 Hz range... might sound good if you could bring out the bass' upper harmonics to bring it out without being too loud because the part itself sounds good.

I hear you on the bass being hot in the 100-200H range, but the rest is just plain over my head.

May I ask for a re-phrase, please?

Thanks all. I hope to improve this. I am surprised by the constant re-tracking that a lot of people here do. I find myself doing sometimes a ridiculous amount as high as 200 takes just to lay down one track. Something about setting up the computer to start recording, then hitting <enter> and having to get in the mood for music. Then sometimes, it's just not loud enough for me to keep jamming with it. I lose my rhythm and lose time. I'll try to re-record all these tracks. With me a re-recording _never_ comes out the same.

 

[ido1957]

Hey bigbubba - finally got home so I can listen to this.....First the drums are great - big, loud and punchy with lots of interesting change ups. I would maybe take the backup instruments up a little louder in the mix - guitars/keyboard - not much, just a tad, because I found myself listening a bit to hear them. Bass is just right level wise - you could try a mix with less 100-200HZ like Tim suggests. Bass harmonics - Tim can clarify that better than I can. The leads are cool - I like the tones and distortion - I think I have that same "patch" on my pedal board What does DTB stand for?

Cool tune......

Funny thing happened the first time I listened to this. Out of the blue I heard a big deep voice say Happy Halloween about half way through the song?? Never happened the next times I listened to it though. What was that I wonder? Maybe some kind of pop-up voice thingy. Spooky.....very suitable for halloween though.....

 

[bigbubba]

Hey bigbubba - finally got home so I can listen to this.....First the drums are great - big, loud and punchy with lots of interesting change ups. I would maybe take the backup instruments up a little louder in the mix - guitars/keyboard - not much, just a tad, because I found myself listening a bit to hear them. Bass is just right level wise - you could try a mix with less 100-200HZ like Tim suggests. Bass harmonics - Tim can clarify that better than I can. The leads are cool - I like the tones and distortion - I think I have that same "patch" on my pedal board What does DTB stand for?

I like that the drums sound better to others. The lead dist. is just the amp directly plugged to the computer.

DTB stands for Dekh Tera Badshah. It's Urdu. My Parents are from Pakistan. Translated it means "Look, your King....". The lyrics are saying, "Behold, your King is coming soon....". It's a Christian Hymn. edit: Can't believe the typos a person will make.

Funny thing happened the first time I listened to this. Out of the blue I heard a big deep voice say Happy Halloween about half way through the song?? Never happened the next times I listened to it though. What was that I wonder? Maybe some kind of pop-up voice thingy. Spooky.....very suitable for halloween though.....

I don't do the halloween thingie . The voice you heard was probably a popup. Definitely not a part of my track. Those popups really are annoying. It would happen a lot on KaZaa also back when Kazaa was useable. All of a sudden someone would start saying, "Hey there, want to meet singles in your area" and it would freak the user out 'coz first it's a voice all of a sudden and second, in a family setting you don't what else they might say.

 

[ido1957]

I like that the drums sound better to others. The lead dist. is just the amp directly plugged to the computer.

DTB stands for Dekh Tera Badshah. It's Urdu. My Parents are from Pakistan. Translated it means "Look, you King....". The lyrics are saying, "Behold, you Kind is coming soon....". It's a Christian Hymn.


I don't do the halloween thingie . The voice you heard was probably a popup. Definitely not a part of my track. Those popups really are annoying. It would happen a lot on KaZaa also back when Kazaa was useable. All of a sudden someone would start saying, "Hey there, want to meet singles in your area" and it would freak the user out 'coz first it's a voice all of a sudden and second, in a family setting you don't what else they might say.

Yeah - I had one guy at work send an email to a few people, me included (I think he didn't like us) and it said "I'm surfing for porn" REALLY LOUD when you opened it. I was not amused at the time but I guess it's funny now that it's in the distant past.

Great distortion coming directly out of that amp - what guitar/amp are you using - sounds pretty cool....

 

[bigbubba]

Yeah - I had one guy at work send an email to a few people, me included (I think he didn't like us) and it said "I'm surfing for porn" REALLY LOUD when you opened it. I was not amused at the time but I guess it's funny now that it's in the distant past.

Great distortion coming directly out of that amp - what guitar/amp are you using - sounds pretty cool....

I always thought a program like that would be fun. But instead of saying something nasty, I thought about something that just unmuted the computer mixer and turned the vol. all the way and then just played a scream would really freak people out. But that would be too cruel.

I'm using a Fender Squire with a Crate amp. This is a Crate MX65R. I'm told this is more close to a practice amp. Sometimes the dist. sound from this amp will fit a song but mostly it just sounds really out of place and bone dry.

Anyhoo, I'd better return to watching Ocean's Eleven.