Suggestions Appreciated

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gibs

gibs

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Yes please make small. Timed out twice, gave up, wanna hear....gibs
 
Yeah, a guy I work with has been trying to get it all day with no luck. Thanks for trying though. I will put up a smaller version tonight and post a link the first thing in the morning. Please try it again when I get it up.
 
This is my first song posted.
It is a cover song called "Crazy" by a band from Atlanta,GA called Memory Dean. I'm working on some originals now but I wanted to get this posted and get some suggestions on how to improve my recordings. The setup I used to do this is as follows. Audix OM3xb dynamic mic, Mackie 1202, Yamaha 724 XG soundcard, Cakewalk guitar tracks, LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI. I copied the rhythm guitar into two tracks and panned them hard right and left. I panned the lead guitar slightly to one side and the backup vocal slightly to the other side. I boosted the high and low frequencies and cut the mids on everything to varying degrees using the cakewalk graphic EQ and I used the light compression preset of Blueline's, blue compressor on everything. I used a little reverb on everything and a little delay on the vocals. I would appreciate any suggestions on how I could improve this mix. Also I'm trying to decide on what I should upgrade first between a condenser mic or a better soundcard. Which of those two is likely to have a greater effect on the quality of the sound?
 
I should probably mention that I encoded this at 320 kbps which resulted in a 7.4 Mb file. So if you are interested in hearing it but don't want to spend the time downloading all that, I'll upload a 192 kbps version tonight.
 
Hey- add the smaller file but don't take down the 320 Kbps version- it sounded great. There was a strange artifact on the vocal that made it sound raspy in spots, but that guitar was mighty crisp. Was that a capo or did you just play it in F# without a "cheater"?
 
The guitars sound good but the vocals sounded a little harsh, maybe a combination of compression and the dynamic mic, don't know for sure. The overall sound was good so I would think the next step would be a good condenser mic and don't EQ the voice at all unless you are going for an effect. I would make different panning choices for the voices, but thats a preference thing. Nice recording.
 
I put up a 128 kbps file at
It is only 2.97 Mb. Thanks for the comments guys. I did use a capo on the 4th fret for both guitar parts. As for the raspiness of the vocals, I'm pretty sure that's just my voice. It is always that way but I did have a cold when I recorded those tracks so it was probably a little worse than normal. I am leaning toward a condenser mic for my next purchase. I wish I could find a place to rent one so I could try it out and see the difference, but so far I haven't had any luck with that.
 
Nice tune, nice acoustic guitars and generally well mixed. For me personally it was a little too stereo - I generally like to keep things a little more even... lead guitar in the centre and if you wanna pan back up vocals I'd have two tracks hard left and right rather than just one track on one side. This is obviously just the way I like to hear things so pay no attention if you you prefer it your way.

I think a nice condensor would really hit the spot with your vocals and acoustic guitars and make the track really stand out. If you've only got vocals and acoustic guitar then I think definately the condensor is the way to go.

My only the other slight complaint is that generally I don't like having just guitars and vocals for a song - personally I'd have drums and bass kick in on the second verse. Does the original have drums or bass?

I hope you don't take offence to any of these comments - they are just some thoughts that crossed my mind while listening to the track and as the music I write is drastically different you might not wanna pay attention to what I've said - I guess these are just something to think about. I was always think in a recording/creative environment no suggestion is a stupid suggestion because it gets you thinking in new directions and gives you new ideas that probably most of the time don't work but sometimes is just the thing a song is missing.

Keep up the good work!!!
 
Thanks for the comments Cooperman. Don't worry about offending me I'm looking for criticism. The original song was only guitars and voices with a tambourine thrown in. I'll probably try some drums and bass on it eventually though. As for the backup vocals and lead guitar, I agree that they aren't quite right. There are definitely some level adjustments that need to be made. I'm new to recording and so far I've opted for quantity over quality. I've been trying to record enough songs to burn to a CD instead of spending a lot of time getting everything just right on each one. This the only song that I am somewhat satisfied with right now though. Thanks again for listening.
 
Good acoustic sound and playing...I like all vocals in the middle but that's just me..it's hard to get additional vocals to come in seamlessly to a lead vocal...sometimes it's a matter of consonants, etc, but usually, if the add-ons start off at a slightly lower volume, the transition isn't as harsh, as seemed to be the case on the word "there" when it was used...you've got a good voice and it seems like you were just beginning to play around with the arrangement of the voices and then stopped short of a finished product..vocals are a bitch, I know, and it gets boring but try to mess with 'em..even add more...catchy tune and lyrics...cooperman's right about the percussion in my opinion..do some more stuff, man....gibs
 
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