Intro reminds me of Rusty Cage/Soundgarden. I like that. Drums are buried in the mix a bit much as well as the vocals. The whole thing is a bit muddy. The heavier vocals sound a bit distorted. The overall vocal mix seems a bit too processed. I dig the song but a little more time on the recording could really do it some justice. What was your set up?
Thanks for the feedback!
This is my first full out attempt at recording real drums. I used MXL 603s for overheads MXL 991 for snare and a SM57 for the kick. I used the preamps on my behringer mixer for the drums.
My previous attempts at using the 57 for the kick resulted in a very boomy kick. This time I over compensated and it came out very clicky. I ended up triggering the kick using a free drum replacer plug. So the kick sound is a mix of the real kick from the overheads and a sample.
Guitars are fender hotrod 4x10 with a 57 on one speaker and a modded MXL 990 a few feet back pointed at a different speaker. The two different mics are panned to opposite sides for both lead and rhythm.
The Bass is DI through a bass V-Amp. I wasn't happy with the sound at all once I got into the mix. Way too much low end and no definition.
Vox: Modded 990 again through my TC Helicon vocal pedals. I am actually really happy with the vox especially the backing vox. They are a bit distorted but it's deliberate. I tried several different mics for the lead vox and the 990 seemed to work best. I usually record a wet and dry signal when I record vox but this time I slapped the correct pedal(pitch correction compression) on the dry channel and I wish I hadn't. Overall though I'm pretty pleased.
The panning at the beginning is really strange. Why does it move from right to left once?
It's because the rhythm guitar is panned slightly right so once the lead guitar and drums join in it makes it sound like everything jumps left. I have mixed feeling about this effect as well.
A lot of your drums sounded a little weak. i.e. your snare rattles for too long after a hit, especially on the lighter hits.
Yes! That is annoying the hell out of me! No matter how loud I make them they still sound weak. I think those drums are in serious need of new heads.
I also made a mistake in the tracking process. We recorded a scratch track with the drummer playing to a click. Then we recorded just the drums with the drummer playing along with that scratch track.
Problem was there were drums on the scratch track. I think sometimes he wasn't hitting as hard as he should have because he was already hearing the drums blasting in his ear no matter how hard he hit them.
Do you think the drums sound dead? Would new heads help? What about the cymbals?
The whole track could use more low end. Turn up the bass guitar and/or eq the rhythm guitars a little lower.
The song does sound like it has potential, but it definitely needs some work.
I was thinking it was too muddy. I think it has low end but it's not defined enough. It lacks punch. Which is upsetting because this song really has balls when we play it live.
I'm hoping that new heads on the drums will help especially during the tom driven parts. I'll try rolling a little more off the bottom of the rhythm guitar and see if that helps.
Does anyone else think the bass is too low? Most of my mixes come out bass heavy so I may have over compensated.
Thanks again for the feedback guys!
