The BMO Song - Live multitrack, glitch punk

VomitHatSteve

VomitHatSteve

Hat STYLE. Not contents.
I just hosted a massive show with a rotating line up of musicians backing up and singing with my usual nerd punk setup. I also did a multi-track recording of the whole show and am now starting the process of mixing it all down to release.

Here's mix 1 of the first song: The BMO Song - Regdar and the Fighters ft. Chris McDowell (Night Sabers), Mare Farell, and Phillip Brown

Here's what I had to work with
Vocal mic 1
Vocal mic 2
Flute mic
Room mics (My camera's (Panasonic TM15) built-in mics)
Kick mic
Drums OH
Synth drums - bounced directly to the HDD of the laptop
Synth arpeggios - same thing
Guitars and bass - over-driven to incomprehensibility then bounced to a single channel

Obviously, there was a lot of bleed between all of the mics. I did what I could with gates and EQ, but it can still get kind of muddy at times. I suspect it will be tough to give meaningful advice on how to improve this mix, but I welcome whatever you have!

Thanks!

Oh! Lyrics:

You were always there for me
Since 1983
Forget all of the rest
I like you the best

The rest just make me so depressed

So what can I do for you?
I wanna give you everything too.
When I plugged you into the wall.
I knew my inhibitions would fall.

I'm so glad I picked you up at the mall.

BMO!
BMO!
Without you my life would blow.
BMO!
BMO!
I just want you to know.
You may just be a video game to some, but to me
You're my number one chum.

Some people love their smartphones
They all look like a bunch of clones
I'll always have you by my side.
Even when I meet my bride

Your digital heart is just so wide.
...
Some people say I should get a PS4
But I find them such a bore
Kick all that new stuff straight out the door.
Wanna play some classic games, not God of War.
 
Guitar(s?) are noise. Drums sound like they were recorded from the back of a large club room with a bad phone. No bass can be heard. I can't honestly say this is worth your effort to get it much better.
 
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Sounds like you had a vocal mic and a room mic.
1st thing I'd do is some sliding to get the 2nd vocal lined up better in the early parts of the song - sounds like he was early and late at diff points.
The guitars & bass are just as you described and all I'd suggest is cloning then some heavy filtering on one to bring out the bass and similar on the other to bring the guitars forward.
All of the above is really less than a pinch of salt because you're mixes are usually good & if this is the ebest you could pull from what you had then what you have isn't going anywhere soon.
 
I am hearing more room than anything(with the exception of the vocals). I guess I don't know this genre of music very well. Sounds like a bunch of noise with the guitars and flutes just blaring. The background vocals not being structured with the main vox is not helping matters. I can't give solid advice because I have never recorded a live band before....but it Sounds like it could be a good song if it was tracked. Good luck!
 
Yeah VHS - I'm not sure you posted the mix you think you did? Agree with a couple others - sounds like a room mic, along with vocals and (maybe) recorder.
 
That bad, huh? Dang!

As I said, there was a lot of bleed between the mics.

Alright. I'll futz with the mix more and see if I can improve it. (I also noticed that there are timing differences between the 3 clocks involved in tracking this. Hopefully, I can fix that.)
 
Your studio stuff is usually really good. So yeah, by your standards, it wasn't very good. Sorry.
 
Dude... The mix obviously could use a bit of help, but I've gotta say, I was grinning from ear to ear while listening, man. It's kind of like listening to organized chaos. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why I like this song so much, but I'm on my third listen, and still grinning. I LOVE the flute.

As far as the mix goes, there is no bottom end at all, and sounds like it's recorded from a single mic placed in a space recording live instruments and elements.

Yeah, I'll probably listen to this at least 10 times before I stop. Great song, dude. Keep working on the mix.

It's good to hear another one from you, Steve. It's been too long.
 
I think mixing is very subjective and that what you've got is a nice mix for that kind of genre of music. I mean, cmon its glitch punk...not hard rock Guns n Roses f'ing bullshit. It is not suposed to sound perfect and aligned.

If that was your intention you got it right, my friend. If it wasnt, then I agree it is a bad mix.
 
Thanks, all.
sounds like it's recorded from a single mic placed in a space recording live instruments and elements
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Well it is a live recording (hence why some of the delivery is pretty off too). You're just off on the mic count. :D

I was worried about mud, so I cut the low end pretty aggressively. I'll look into getting some body into though.

It is not suposed to sound perfect and aligned.
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Sort of. I'm definitely going for "chaotic", but it's meant to be an organized and precise chaos.
 
Very low fi. I say if you really want to mix this and release it, embrace what you've got and just try to make it sound as good as you can. It sounds like it was recorded in a club. Go with it.

I am guessing that the amount of room/other instruments captured by each microphone are big problems here. I don't think you can really remove this sort of thing with gates and EQ. You could try to experiment with noise reduction plugins to get rid of a lot of that sort of thing. I have had decent luck using ReaFir (if you don't use REAPER, this can still be downloaded and used in another DAW - at least on Windows, not sure about macs) in subtractive mode for getting rid of really bad amp noise. Perhaps something like that can help?
 
I use Reaper, but I haven't experimented with Reafir.

I spent some time messing with clock syncing this evening in the hopes that it would clean things up a bit, but had no luck yet. Boo!
 
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The secondary vocal is too loud. He overtakes the song imo. The timing issues between the singers is really noticeable when he comes blaring in...Problem is if you adjust for timing you could very well have more problems with phase. How much bleed on those mics is there?

The vocals come through pretty clear but I think need to be buried in the mix more. Especially for the type of music.

I think LCR mixing might help here. All mics left, right, or center ONLY.

Somehow it needs more low end. If you have a separate kick mic I would think you could make that thump at least? Super overdriven guitars and bass may not have much low end left in them...

This is not terrible for a low-fi mix. At least I can hear all the instruments I think...

Drum overhead and room mics? Might consider keeping whichever of these recordings sounds best and ditching the other.

Not sure of your thought process going in but mine would be this...What are my best sounding tracks? Vocals probably? Start with those and bring in everything else one by one. Don't bring any mic/track in that you don't absolutely have to have. When you do have to bring in one that doesn't sound so good push it full left/right and eq the crap out of it if you have to. cut cut cut! IE: flute track only very high end if need be.

Maybe leave the low end until last. Get your clearest mix first then try to bump up the lows. Might only be the kick but at least its something.

How many mics did you have? Looks like 6-8 or more? You may have to cut out 50% of those tracks to get a clearer mix. Only you can decide if it is worth it though...

This is a big challenge to be sure! The good news is if you can get a usable mix with this song I would think it might transfer to the whole show. (not completely but I think you know what I mean)

One more piece of advice...don't kill yourself over this. You may have the best mix you are going to get with the recordings you have. My guess is it will never sound great so set the levels, cut out the noise as much as possible, get that low end up a bit and let it go!
 
Yo, Steve. If I came off as sarcastic, my apologies... I wasn't at all. I really did listen to it about 6 times before I went on to other things. That means I enjoyed listening to it. The mix has some problems, but dude... I'm not kidding. I really enjoy listening to it. Great work, dude.
 
That is a meaty response! Thanks, Retro.
Retrohazard said:
The secondary vocal is too loud. He overtakes the song imo. The timing issues between the singers is really noticeable when he comes blaring in...Problem is if you adjust for timing you could very well have more problems with phase. How much bleed on those mics is there?

The vocals come through pretty clear but I think need to be buried in the mix more. Especially for the type of music.
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So much bleed. Our stage volume was pretty rough. The lesson here being that I need to get myself a set of in-ears so that I don't need as much computer in the monitors.

I may be over-compensating for my own tendency to bury the vocals too.

I think LCR mixing might help here. All mics left, right, or center ONLY.
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Huh. Hadn't thought of that. Ok.
Somehow it needs more low end. If you have a separate kick mic I would think you could make that thump at least? Super overdriven guitars and bass may not have much low end left in them...
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Yep. Kick is isolated nicely actually. I'll futz with its tone some more.

Drum overhead and room mics? Might consider keeping whichever of these recordings sounds best and ditching the other.
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That's fair. I was trying to get "crowd noise" from the rooms and snare from the OH.

Not sure of your thought process going in but mine would be this...What are my best sounding tracks? Vocals probably? Start with those and bring in everything else one by one. Don't bring any mic/track in that you don't absolutely have to have. When you do have to bring in one that doesn't sound so good push it full left/right and eq the crap out of it if you have to. cut cut cut! IE: flute track only very high end if need be.
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Alright. My initial though process was get each instrument isolated in its own channel and then mix it like a normal song. (i.e. the flute got pretty good iso with a heavy HPF and LPF.

PoeticIntensity said:
Yo, Steve. If I came off as sarcastic, my apologies... I wasn't at all. I really did listen to it about 6 times before I went on to other things. That means I enjoyed listening to it. The mix has some problems, but dude... I'm not kidding. I really enjoy listening to it. Great work, dude.
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No worries! I always assume that people are being sincere when they say they like my music! :D
 
The link comes up with what looks like a player, but no play button (Chrome on Win7). Downloaded it instead.

This sounds very...live :D

The lead vocal comes through pretty clear, but the backup singer sounds like he showed up late to rehearsals. Guitars need more definition and volume. Snare comes through OK, and so does the hihat. But the kick has no thump, and if there's a bass guitar I don't hear it at all.

Fun song though, and it strikes a chord for this video game nerd (and hey, I liked GoW...I played through it 2 or 3 times!). Interested to see where you take this, even though you're working with less than ideal tracks.
 
Thanks, Tadpui.
It's not a player, just direct downloads. (When I do another mix, and there's 4 files up there, it'll probably make more sense)

Yeah, everyone was definitely a little under-rehearsed overall. (In the BG singer's defense. He wrote the song, but I changed the timing a little)

I'm glad people are commenting on the kick drum, actually. That's one of the easiest things to fix!
 
Ok. I have a second mix up at the same location.

I muted the room mic except at the very beginning and end.
Panned the flute and synth farther out.
Nudged both vocals down a little bit.
Hacked up the BGvox a bit to make them line up better.
Bumped up the mid/lows on the guitars to make them bassier.
I didn't end up adjusting the kick because dropping the room mic seemed to make it pop out sufficiently.

Any further feedback you'd like to give would be much appreciated!
 
My earbuds are crap but they do provide high end balance info. Vocals and drums are complimenting each other. These are the bulk of what I listen for and so it's successful in my book. I'd try and get the guitar in there a bit more as well as the flute if possible, if not no issues.
 
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