post-hardcore synthy punk madness

R

rasdestroyer

New member
hi hi
i'm working on mixing down a track i recorded for some friends
who wrote a song for a 20 second comp (as in, all the songs
on it are 20 seconds long)... just wanted to get some feedback on
the rough mix.. no vocals yet, as i'm waiting for the singer/screamer
to send me a track that i can mix into the chaos presently rendered.

listen here!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=594669

for reference:
everything recorded live except the keyboard track
on drums: sm81 and akg c451e (OHs) , 57 on snare, d112s on kick/floor tom
all cabs (ampeg 4x12s and 8x10s, 1 1x15 for the synth) miced with md421 u5
did this in the drummers bedroom with the amps sort of spread around the
hallway pointing away from each other. mixed in sonar 5 with almost no compression!

i think it sounds pretty good so far; i'm a bit wary of the kick drum (too boomy? too clicky?), but otherwise the balance feels appropriate. this is a very wall-of-sound type band live, and i've tried to capture some of that without losing individual instrument clarity

any comments/criticisms greatly appreciated
thanks !
bryan
 
i think 'madness' is the right description for this. please dont take this the wrong way, but perhaps trying to cram as much as you can into 20 seconds isnt the best idea in the world. but if its what you have to do its what you have to do. if youre looking for a wall of sound type feel, you got it. im not hearing too much seperation in the mix, and the kick is barely noticeable on my end. its just a barrage of sounds that dont even really seem to fit together. its like listening to a symphony warm up at quadruple speed. but, this isnt my style, so maybe thats what you want. just my 2 cents bro.
 
no worries

hey, i take no offense! i totally recognize why people might not be into this band (hell, i'm not always that into this band, though i do really like this particular song); the 20 second comp idea is a bit gimmicky, so i guess there are bound to be some really crazy complicated over the top tunes bein written for it. the wall of sound thing is definitely accurate to this band; frankly , they probably sound a lot "clearer" on the mp3 than they do live.
whether or not people like the song is just personal preference i guess... i'm mostly hoping to get feedback about the actual recording (i.e. if within the context of this type of music things are mostly clear/distinct or if it packs punch or has way to much sound in a particular freq range)..

in any case, thanks for your response; i appreciate it!
 
I think the song is terrible - no offence to the band - but you did a pretty good job recording. Thumbs up!

PS. If you want an amazing 'wall of sound' live band, check out Thinkpol www.thinkpol.org
 
rasdestroyer said:
hey, i take no offense! i totally recognize why people might not be into this band (hell, i'm not always that into this band, though i do really like this particular song); the 20 second comp idea is a bit gimmicky, so i guess there are bound to be some really crazy complicated over the top tunes bein written for it. the wall of sound thing is definitely accurate to this band; frankly , they probably sound a lot "clearer" on the mp3 than they do live.
whether or not people like the song is just personal preference i guess... i'm mostly hoping to get feedback about the actual recording (i.e. if within the context of this type of music things are mostly clear/distinct or if it packs punch or has way to much sound in a particular freq range)..

in any case, thanks for your response; i appreciate it!
Click to expand...
well im not saying that i dont like the song, its just that to me, a 20 second clip crammed full of everything doesnt really give me much to work with as far as critiquing goes. as far as i can tell, everything seems to be recorded well, but by only being 20 seconds, youre kind of forced to bring everything right up front in the mix. maybe if anything doesnt seem to 'fit' right, its the keys. they may be a little too loud. then again, there are better ears than mine in here, so wait for more feedback.
 
A bit thick & mid freq overloaded BUT it'd make a good intro to a fun song if some of the mud was removed.
 
hi ray (and everybody else)
thanks for the feedback..

by "mud" do you mean the mid freq stuff or just
the really thick instrumentation in general?

the tricky thing about this song for me is that basically
everybody in the band is playing the same thing, and
and the bass player is actually running a guitar through
his 8x10 and bass head, so there isnt much in the way
of really deep bottom end sound. i ended up sort of
substituting the keyboard melody for the bassline because
it seemed to fill in that part of the freq spectrum more
effectively.

do you think it would help if i boosted the guitars in the
higher frequencies and dropped some of the mids? i'm a
little worried that the keyboard would end up dominating the
song since it does the most travelling between really bassy
and really high pitched sounds...

anyhow, thanks again!
b
 
Yeah mud = mid usually.
Find the really bass like freqs of the keyboard & boost them then cut the same from the guitars whilst boosting the top end.
Try panning a few things away from each other if they conflict.
Hey, try it & if it flies you're laughing if not nothing lost except time.
 
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