Perpetual Progressive....your thoughts?

[HomeNoiseRecord]

My first mix with my new soundcard. Iv spotted some flaws already, such as overall quietness and some lead bits not sticking out as much as they should but overall im happy with the end result. This song was intended to have vocals but i might keep it instrumental after all. Any suggestions? p.s. having a bit of trouble increasing the overall volume without clipping, sure il figure it out tho

http://soundcloud.com/homenoiserecords/abdicator-perpetual-progressive-2010-demo

cheers in advance

 

[studioplayer]

Dude. Is that a picture of your file. Damn. There's no wave. Just one big flat blob. No wonder it sounds distorted and clipping. The whole song is pushing the red. Make sure you have all your levels with some headroom when recording. This is from an article - "If your stereo mix looks like a 2 X 4, it is either too compressed or mixed too hot" You have a 2x4.

A good example of the loudness wars!!

There's ways to get loud without clipping and over compressing. The playing sounds good but I can't listen to it too much without wanting to turn it off. Mainly because of the distorting.

A good article worth reading - http://www.silverbirchprod.com/mast-prep.php

 

[HomeNoiseRecord]

i think it must be a bit over compressed then, according to cubase none of the tracks were clipping. maybe i should calm down on the guitar distortion

 

[Nakatira]

WOW that sounded squashed

I dotn see it being Progressive, more hard rock imo.
And without vocals or any melody line it gets quite boring

Nice guitar skills though, allthough I could do with a little less Boss overdrive

 

[JordanD]

oh im stoned i like this. im surprised someone with a king crimson would not have found it progressive because it sounds like that when they were older. but also the beginning reminded me of one of the few tool songs i heard, but i dont think it was copying because it was really different, but i can see you might have heard the same song i did.

i like it! you can feel it in the heart! good job!

 

[jeffmaher]

Yeah...what those guys said. I can hear the bottom breaking up...and digibuzz in the top end. Not only squashed, but audible distortion...over the top. Otherwise, pretty nice...film music or something.

 

[HomeNoiseRecord]

Thanks Jordan! i think i know what you mean about the intro, maybe something off the Lateralus album, im not sure what tho, it wasnt intentional anyhoo.

Jeffmaher what would you recommend? All I did was to sort out the levels, used the cubase module compressor on the drums (probably where i went wrong) and exported it as a wav. Then used audacity to try and bring it to 0db with a touch of compression over the whole track to keep it even. forgive my uselessness but im guessing this was a bad idea!?

 

[jeffmaher]

I'd suggest getting a mastering software package, mixing your raw unboogered trax to -6 to -3 db....getting the sound right at that point, and using a real mastering protocol product to master it. Or just don't level it up so hot that it gets distorted. If CubeBase indicated no clipping of the stereo mixdown [are you SURE there was no clipping when the stew was mixed?? A commonly overlooked thing...] then the problem arose in the Audacity editor. Right?

Then used audacity to try and bring it to 0db with a touch of compression over the whole track to keep it even.

Did you use the 'normalize' function on Audacity to just zero the peaks without more compression? Maybe try that with the WAV mixdown...see what it sounds like w/o the added squish. And blast the result in phones, and listen for breakup. If you hear it, go back a step and re-mix.

 

[studioplayer]

I'd suggest getting a mastering software package, mixing your raw unboogered trax to -6 to -3 db....getting the sound right at that point.

Then used audacity to try and bring it to 0db with a touch of compression over the whole track to keep it even.

Good advice from Jeff above. Watch the gain on the guitars. You can usually use less than you think because once you start adding more guitars, bass etc. it gets pretty dirty fast.

Dave

 

[xfinsterx]

Probably due to the aforementioned over-compression, but the bottom end is very loose. perhaps roll off some low from your guitar sound....or try dipping out some 95 hz.

 

[HomeNoiseRecord]

thanks for the tips guys, ill try all this out. I got wavelab with my soundcard so ill try finishing it in that