M
malgovert
Member
Hi - I would truly relish opinions as regards mixing/tracking/performance - on the last 3 songs in particular. Thanks.
Malg.
www.mp3.com/malgovert
Malg.
www.mp3.com/malgovert
Buck62
噛んでくれ
First of all, the songs themselves are very good.
Performance-wise, I thought the playing was pretty good.
Okay, now for the recordings... (here's the relish and onions you wanted...
)
Catcher in The Rye:
The canned drums are too loud, especially the snare.
The lead guitar should be louder.
Too much reverb and chorus on the vocal.
Long Time Waitin: (...my favorite of the three)
Canned drums, snare is better, but those canned "claps" have gotta go. They would sound much better if you recorded REAL hand-claps.
Real horns would be nice, too.
Too much reverb and chorus on the vocals.
Not too thrilled on the thin-sounding keyboards.
Jump:
The "fret-scrape" on chord changes is a bit annoying. Better mic'ing technique would help.
The bass is almost non-existant.
Canned drums are too loud... again.
Too much reverb on the vocal, but less chorus, so you're getting closer!
Keyboard tone could be better... it needs to be "fatter".
Please don't take my critiques too harshly... I'm comparing you to a professionally done recording on high-grade equipment.
On the upside, I thought there were times in the song "Jump" (on the high notes you sang) that you sounded amazingly similar to David Bowie. I was thinking how cool it would sound if you actually tried to copy his vocal style for some of your songs.
Also, I'm interested in knowing what equipment you used to record these songs....
Buck
Performance-wise, I thought the playing was pretty good.
Okay, now for the recordings... (here's the relish and onions you wanted...
)Catcher in The Rye:
The canned drums are too loud, especially the snare.
The lead guitar should be louder.
Too much reverb and chorus on the vocal.
Long Time Waitin: (...my favorite of the three)
Canned drums, snare is better, but those canned "claps" have gotta go. They would sound much better if you recorded REAL hand-claps.
Real horns would be nice, too.
Too much reverb and chorus on the vocals.
Not too thrilled on the thin-sounding keyboards.
Jump:
The "fret-scrape" on chord changes is a bit annoying. Better mic'ing technique would help.
The bass is almost non-existant.
Canned drums are too loud... again.
Too much reverb on the vocal, but less chorus, so you're getting closer!
Keyboard tone could be better... it needs to be "fatter".
Please don't take my critiques too harshly... I'm comparing you to a professionally done recording on high-grade equipment.
On the upside, I thought there were times in the song "Jump" (on the high notes you sang) that you sounded amazingly similar to David Bowie. I was thinking how cool it would sound if you actually tried to copy his vocal style for some of your songs.
Also, I'm interested in knowing what equipment you used to record these songs....
Buck
G
Gargamel
New member
Buck62 nailed it right on the head.
"On the upside, I thought there were times in the song "Jump" (on the high notes you sang) that you sounded amazingly similar to David Bowie. I was thinking how cool it would sound if you actually tried to copy his vocal style for some of your songs"
Very cool indeed.
"On the upside, I thought there were times in the song "Jump" (on the high notes you sang) that you sounded amazingly similar to David Bowie. I was thinking how cool it would sound if you actually tried to copy his vocal style for some of your songs"
Very cool indeed.
M
malgovert
Member
Thanks Buck62 - although I am not sure I could emulate Bowie's style throughout - especially if I was trying consciously to do so. Still the comparison is flattering.
Far from taking the comments harshly - I value them enormously - to be honest these songs represent my first attempts at recording - though each one took me a long time to do. Been writing stuff for over 20 years, but never really got to get much of it down on tape. So although I am generally pretty pleased with them, I am eager to know what I should to improve them. Sort of come up against a dead-end, if you know what I mean...
As for equipment - NT3 mic, Alesis compressor (yes, that one), Behringer 1602A, Soundblaster platinum s/card, genelec monitors, tanglewood acoustic, cheap washburn electric gtr fed thru line6 POD into PIII 650, cwpa8 and sound forge 4.5. Drum files come from a CD marketed by Vamtech MA, called Drumtrax.
btw, what is it about the drums (and claps) that *tells* you they are 'canned'? I mean, how can you know? (and I thoguht those handclaps were so cool!)
Malg.
Far from taking the comments harshly - I value them enormously - to be honest these songs represent my first attempts at recording - though each one took me a long time to do. Been writing stuff for over 20 years, but never really got to get much of it down on tape. So although I am generally pretty pleased with them, I am eager to know what I should to improve them. Sort of come up against a dead-end, if you know what I mean...
As for equipment - NT3 mic, Alesis compressor (yes, that one), Behringer 1602A, Soundblaster platinum s/card, genelec monitors, tanglewood acoustic, cheap washburn electric gtr fed thru line6 POD into PIII 650, cwpa8 and sound forge 4.5. Drum files come from a CD marketed by Vamtech MA, called Drumtrax.
btw, what is it about the drums (and claps) that *tells* you they are 'canned'? I mean, how can you know? (and I thoguht those handclaps were so cool!)
Malg.
C
CyanJaguar
New member
for the eqipment, it very good
I listened to long time waiting. Cool song. I like a lot the vocal harmonies. I also think that the percussion is cool.
THe only thing I can hear is not enough kick or bass guit.
peace
I listened to long time waiting. Cool song. I like a lot the vocal harmonies. I also think that the percussion is cool.
THe only thing I can hear is not enough kick or bass guit.
peace
C
Chibi Nappa
New member
The biggest tippoff is the perfect rhythm/consistant sound on every hit. Real drums don't make exactly the same sound at the same volume each time you hit them. Even if you get around that by actually performing the drums on something like a Roland-Vdrum set using multiple samples for the same snare etc, there are still stubtle differences. The biggest difference I can think of is in the nature of how the sounds are recorded. Midi drum samples are recorded individually. When you trigger a hi hat, that is all you get. A lone, individual hi hat sound. A full midi "kit" is played back as a collection of these individual lone sounds. No bleed, no phasing. A real drum kit all mic'ed up has every drum bleeding into every other drum's mic. Not only that, you don't mic individual cymbals. The overheads pick them up. Heck, the concept of even having overheads to capture the whole kit sound is just vastly different than the midi concept of triggering samples. It would just seem to me that something recorded and played back using techniques that different would have to come out sounding different as well, even if the midi sequence is playing samples recorded from the same kit.
Hey, mabey if you really wanted to go for realism with your canned drums you could set up 4 speakers or so in a room playing back the midi drum sequence and attempt to mic them up like a real drum set and mix with that! Couldn't hurt to try.