Real Drums

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Stratomaster

Stratomaster

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New house, new studio, real drums after many years of my condo midi drum studio. So this is my first drum recording and it shows, I'm expecting to get better with experience and experimentation. So the song has a basic mix, I'm actually singing which is a rarity, I've never sung in front of anyone and don't consider myself a singer so prepare yourself...Thanks for any listens or comments on the song, mix or drum recording/mixing tips you may have. Also, how do you all make the soundcloud player showup? I can't seem to make it work.

Strat


https://soundcloud.com/novabasa/galloping
 
bring the vox up 4 db and the low bass too.

did you leave space for a solo?

very tight playing and i like that guitar ring at the end.
 
Don't ya just love real drums! I do! If they aren't "real drums" THEY CANNOT BE CALLED DRUMS! (SORRY FOR YELLING)

..I agree with Manslick about raising the vocals, and perhaps crisping them up a tad would help.


For the soundcloud player: When sharing use the 'EMBEDDED' code.

Cheers.
 
Not bad at all. Kind of has a Tom Petty-ish vibe to me. Your voice sounds good too, smooth, and fits the song well. As already said, the vocal seems a little low in the mix, and could maybe use a little high-end sparkle with some EQ.

The drums sounded decent, too. Again, a Tom Petty John Cougar like vibe is what I was feeling, even with the drum sound. Hard to say exactly what to improve, as I've never recorded real drums either. If anything, they might have been a little "dark" and could also use some high-end sizzle, but I'm nitpicking there. Nice job!
 
Hahaha...I expected this to suck based on your modest description. Nothing wrong with the vocals or the drums, in my opinion. Levels need some work, but it's a basic mix, so I won't bore you with stuff you'll likely fix. Interesting song, well done.
 
Hey thanks very much for your time guys-

Manslick-Turning up the vocals, I will give it a try-and you got me thinking I should do some kind of guitar fill between the verses there-if the basement isn't too cold I may give it a try today.

Pub-Oh yes yes yes I do love real drums-I've been cooped up in a condo with neighbors only feet away for about 8 years, I even had complaints about me playing my midi kit with headphones on, so yeah I'm living the dream.

Johnny-Thanks-yeah I threw the kitchen sink at the vocal before I even played it back-eq compression distortion +reverb, its a spring reverb at that.I was going for a Lou Reed style I guess..Recording drums is a pretty big undertaking! We still have no real isolation between the kit and recorder so you don't know what they sound like until playback.

Thanks Chris Harris-I've never sang publicly, happy to admit that some people just don't have a good lead singer voice, but if you want to get #%$ done you just got to do it. Thanks
 
I liked the drums. They sound good. No soundcloud swirliness either. Maybe just give the snare a little 5K. Just a little. And maybe bring up the overheads a little.

Vocal sounds nice.

The bass could use some warmth. If you did any boost of the low end, I'd back off it.
 
Stratomaster said:
I'm actually singing which is a rarity, I've never sung in front of anyone and don't consider myself a singer so prepare yourself...
Click to expand...

I like hearing this and then finding out the singer is actually really good. I thought your vocals were excellent. Great natural tone to them. Yeah, kinda like a Tom Petty vibe to the vocal and music. I def hear that. Thought the drums were a bit louder than the rest. Makes the vocal seems a little underneath. But hey, you were focused on drums this time and self-conscious about your vocal? Maybe an unconscious effort. :) nice work
 
Sounds like you've captured a nice clean representation of the kit. The vocals sound good to me too. On headphones nothing sticks out as needing too much attention. Nice recording job. Good tune too
 
Triple M, asdrushkiwt and Bulls Hit, thanks for listening and the encouraging comments. I did a remix based on comments here

raised vocals more than I wanted to
raised bass
added some top end to the kick and snare and played with the overheads until it sounded decent to me
panned acoustic and electric guitars a bit wider

Ran through the vintage warmer 2 for a few db of gain and to boost the low mids the way it does

I want to try the embedded soundcloud player as well so here goes

Thanks all
Strat

https://soundcloud.com/novabasa/galloping2

* still cant embed the player I get a bunch of height 100 text url true false gobbledy gook
 
Oh yeah. Brought the whole thing to life. Time for some fills. I'm at the same exact stage on my song. It's here in the forum (I think this one) as the electronic drums conundrum. In fact, I just had my Gas Co buddy install a Mr. Heater in the studio so I could be toasty.....

Looking forward to version 3
 
Sounds really good. Tight. Cool groove. You DO sound a bit like Tom. :)
Listening to the 2nd mix. Really sounds good. Clean. Everything where it should be. A bit of clean up at the beginning and end, a little "air" and "push" from whoever does your mastering, and this will be very nice!
 
Re mix sounds great. The only thing I long for is a bit more presence from the lead vocal in the chorus, kind of gets lost with the background vocals and bass sort of doubling up. Just my opinion though, you may like it that way. The comment earlier likening it to Tom Petty is spot on. Really like the groove and the song.
 
It all sounds clear and crisp. Your playing is very even which should make mixing easy.

I feel like the snare is leaving everything else behind. It's driving the song so you can't turn it down much without losing something, but I think the kick and vocal need some room to contribute.

There seems to be a lot of energy at 5-8kHz in the overhead.
 
I like it a bunch. And as others have said, it has a Tom Petty vibe. And with me being a huge TP fan, saying that is a compliment :)

Onto the mix. Needs a little, drums are a bit loud, or vocals are a bit low. Hard to say, only listened on earbuds.

Drums are nice and organic but could use a tad more verb, sound very dry.

One thing that stands out to me is more production than mix, but could be a mix issue. Not really sure.

But the choruses are much weaker than the verses. Maybe because the lead voc is overshadowed by the bknd vocals?

At any rate I think you have a good tune with good performances, just needs a little more work.
:D

Edit:
Just listened to v2
Much better overall.

Chorus still a bit weak, almost like you're getting shy about singing and having the backgrounds fill up the slack.

But heaps better.
 
Thanks again people for the helpful comments,

Dwayne C- Hah-I'm pushing for a kerosene heater, our basement ceilings are literally 12+ ft high

Broken H-Thanks man-Yeah I really need to start referencing more as I mix-I literally never do it and when I finally play my mixes vs commercial it's always a holy %$#^ listen to that top end they got moment.

musicturtle-I agree with you about the chorus-it does drop in energy there-there's a second vocal take doubling during the choruses with a ton of verb and I failed to push the lead up to compensate. I was kind of picturing this like an uptempo velvet underground song? Tom Petty is surprising to hear. The drummer guy swears I sound like Elliot Smith, who I didn't know too much about. Thanks!

bouldersoundguy-I agree, the snare and kick--the kick sounds pretty ugly solo'd-we may of had the settings off on the api lunchbox or a bad mic placement or both. We're trying different stuff out. The snare sounds out of phase and/or too much hi hat bleed and gate settings can vary the sound hugely I'm finding out. And yeah I rolled the snare practically out of the overheads so the high end is over represented. Good ears! thanks.

RFR-Thanks for the ears-I've tried a few ways to verb the drums and have not been satisfied, I verbed the kit from the drum bus and the snare separately and couldn't find anything that I liked but I agree the kit needs to be in some kind of space-and again I agree that the chorus energy drops vocal wise-I really didn't notice it until I heard the mp3 a few times-the vocals are loud for the first verse then drop-that will be my first order of business today.

ClearedToPlay- Thanks for the listen and encouraging comments, the forum really did me a service, one of the few benefits of having my daw hooked online. I literally went through the comments and adjusted haha-it's almost cheating.

Going to remix but not repost this, thanks everyone.

Strat
 
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