Studio Demo.

[Cult_Status02]

Well, I was asked by some local band for a demo of some punk sounds at my studio...biggest problem was that I didn't have an amp, so I put the guitar directly from my effects pedal to the hi-z input on my mackie. Anyway, if you get a chance, could you take a quick listen and let me know if my mix is good. I'm really pretty neutral on it. Sometimes I think the guitars are too loud and sometimes the vocals, and then I just decide it's a great mix. Any critiques are welcomed. How do you think my drums sound? Oh yeah, and do you guys think hardlimiting (not too too much) is a bad move, even if I'm not planning on getting it mastered?

Alright, here's the link: Illegal Tone

The song's called Black Cat.

Thanks in advance, fellers.

 

[Synkrotron]

Listened...

Sounds OK for a demo IMO... all levels appear to be fine.

Although it's a two channel recording it sounds quite mono if you know what I mean. And I couldn't hear any bass at all (is there a bass track in there?).

Drums sound a bit flat to me... difficult to explain because I don't really know what I talking about... How did you record them? two mic's? More? Less? I would have liked to hear more of a stereo effect at least from the drums i.e. toms and overheads (kick and snare obviously stays in centre).

Di'ing guitar is what I do... not ideal but my studio has not had any acoustic dampening at all and don't have any isolation rooms. There will be purists here that say this is a big no-no and if the guitarist plays in such a way that he need to get feedback between guitar and amp then DI'ing is obviously a problem. But from what I hear of your recording, providing everyone is happy with the tone, then I think what you have done is fine.

I've done recordings like this before, trying to get the levels correct within my mixer by listening to the band playing over and over till I think it sounds right and recording to just two tracks but I've gone away from that now cos I just found it too hard to get right. Now I multi-track into my PC so that I can mess with the levels till my heart's content without having the band there.


cheers

andy

 

[Cult_Status02]

Hey, thanks man.

Well, I basically wrote some chessy lyrics, and sat down behind the drums, I used 3 sm57s, one on snare, on in between two toms, one on mid rack tom, and an Audio technica (forgot model) on the floor tom and ride. I have crap nady OHs (2) and beta 52 on kick. I only did hard right hard left with the OHs and called it a day. I decided not to pan toms because I wanted a rather primitive sound. I agree with you on the drums, they just sound a bit...distant. I put some room 'verb on there. I think it may have been a bit much, I mostly used it just to move it back in the mix. The guitar sounds better in this than it has in the past, so I can deal with it. Oh yeah, and there's no bass in this.

I too track into my computer, everything (even all drum mics) are on seperate tracks. I really think I just kind of lazy towards the end of the mixing process (I wanted some damn lasagna!).

Anyway, maybe I'll remix it a bit tomorrow and post up a newer version.

Thanks for the input.

 

[jonnyc]

You should come over to my studio sometime and lay something down. I'd do it in the interest of exchanging ideas. I live just south of st. louis. And I have a pretty decent rig.

 

[mx_mx]

I didnt get what you were talking about at all. Until i realised i was listening to the wrong song.