There's a first time for everything..............

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ausrock

ausrock

Well-known member
<------------wanders in and throws himself at the mercy of the crowd:D.........well it is the first time I have put anything up for review.

OK, let it suffice to say that this mp3 is not the "finished" product, as apart from the drums all other tracks are scratch/guide tracks........actually most have already been re-recorded.

Drums for better or worse are Roland V-Drums. The drummer used a "Loop" kit, then at approx., 1 min 17 secs changed to a "Stage" kit. Personally, I think the "Loop" kit sounded thin and empty.......something I'm working on fixing, and let's not talk about V-Drums cymbals....eeewwww.

Anyways, here the link; http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2061&alid=-1

All comments, good , bad and indifferent appreciated.

:cool:
 
Very nice tune! Vocal is spot on. I don't know about the drums at the beginning though. I was kind of disappointed until 1:20 when the snare finally got some gass. Just a production issue. After the 1:20 point, the mix sounds real good to me but I hear something that's either a wind blast into a mic or spmeone hitting one at :47.
This is a damn nice recording over all.
 
TR,

Thanks for the comments......much appreciated.

The band had been asked to do a video clip by a guy who was doing a film-making course, as his "major" project, so this track was the scratch track that they "played/mimed" to. The drums were already down, but the other tracks were rushed just for the filming.

Re the drums..........having two totally different "virtual" kits has made life interesting..........it's one of those occasions where live in the room, the change-over sounded fine, BUT that "Loop" kit just loses it in the mix. What I have done is duplicate the Kick and Snare tracks, set up one pair eq'd etc., for the first section, then set up the dupes for the second more dynamic part............all I have to do now is record these onto two new tracks and just get the change-over between the kits synched. Hopefully the first section will then cut it with the second.

I will ultimately put the new mix up on NWR along with 1 or 2 other tracks.

For the record, after all my time here on HR, and 40 odd yrs of playing guitar, this is the first real serious tracking and mixing I have actually done, and I'm not getting paid because my son is the band and the rest of the guys are like an exrended family

:)

ChrisO :cool:
 
ausrock,

Here are some comments for you.

Intro was hissy, dirty and burdened with white noise. When the song proper kicked in that all went away. The intro sounds like a different animal all together and I was happy with the drastic improvment when the song kicked in.


Nice vocals for sure!!

I'd try lowering the bass by 2 db or so. It jumps a bit and seems to dominate the drums. What about panning the trippy rhythm git harder to the left and giving it some more volume in the mix. I'd push the "fill/distortion git" to the right.

Can you get more "umph" out of the kick or are the drums a dead issue? The bass and drums aren't really connecting (not that I can bost of any success with these things whatsoever:)

The exit was abrupt. Fade the aformentioned trippy rhythm git out more gently.

Great vox.
Nice song.
Very promising tune and well on it's way.

Thanks for the listen.

Peace,
Theron.
 
Damn, nice job! Great playing, great singing, and I dig the intro - the transition from the "kid in the garage with a casette deck" to the polished sound of the band. It seems to me that the overall mix could use a slight "glisten" to it via some eq, but I'm hesitant to say that since I was only able to make the lo-fi link work (the other one gave me the "invalid data" message) and I know how much lo-fi mp3s can distort the actual sound quality.

Real good job.

Chris
 
Thanks guys......all comments are being taken on board.

Groucho,

Out of curiousity, I had a listen to it on lo-fi and there definitely is some degradation in audio quality..........the fact that my PC speakers are the crappiest "el cheapo" models wouldn't help either..........but at least anyone listening would pick up on the core of the song.

To be honest, I was more interested in the reaction to the song than I was to my tracking and mixing, as ultimately, it's the songs that will make or break it for the band.

:cool:
 
Wow, I got caught up in the song and forgot to pay close attention to the mix. I didn't hear any noise or distortion on my end. At least not enough to distract me from the deliverance(should I say this word being from the South) of the song. I heard a lot of bass, but that's okay because I love a lot of bass. The vocals were great, no doubt about it. A very fine job!
 
Nice job. I'd hope the lo-fi hiss at the beginning was intentional. Maybe not? I personally think the effect doesn't suit a song like this.

Aside from that, productionwise, I thought this was a real good job all around. Things sit well together. Nice singing and nice bass playing.

I liked the music. The lyrics, or subject matter, of the song were fairly uninspiring and "well used." Kind of like a rewrite of a rewrite of a rewrite, etc.

But a real good production.
 
File doesn't open for me. Can you enable download so I can do that instead of stream?
 
you have to log on to NWR to download it...it wouldnt stream for me either.....

I really liked it...the beginning sounded a bit muffled on certain things???? if this was a production thingy, forget it:D

other than that, very cool stuff...definitely my cup 'o tea....


MIKE
 
Boy I wish my real tracks sounded as good as your"scratch tracks".:(
 
ausrock--

Great vocals, and a very nice reverb on 'em. What kind of compression/what settings on the bass? It just seems like the threshhold or something is off... ex. on some notes, the bass booms on others, it sounds compressed way down...

The acoustics during the chorus sound really good. During the intro, I'm not in love with the tone.

What is that wah wah thing? Just a guit? Very subtle and tasty..

Cymbals are sounding a bit like mine... too hissy :( Could be the brite sounding 'verb they're being sent to? Or, maybe you've shelfed 'em above about 8K?

Some detail panning & EQ could clarify the more involved sections better. Nice song. Thumb is in the up position :)


Chad
 
Is this "chistian rock"?

Aus.. Give us the final result.. These scratches sound muddy and dull.

No question this is skilled musicians playing.
 
Hey Aus,

Very nice song man! The first thing that stood out to me was the bass part. I really like the part and its performance. It could use a little work to get it to sit in the recording, but its almost there........ and like i mentioned..... great performance. Vocals also, very nice man..... and very nicely recorded.
My bitch would be the drums, but im guessing you know that. I dont care for the snare thats being used, but i guess thats just preference. Very nice song man .
 
Langley...... :) :)

Triple M,

The hiss apparently came from the Roland V-Drums "brain-box" and wasn't deliberate.............obviously it will be eliminated for the final mix.


Emeric,

I think Gidge answered, but I will check my settings at NWR.

Gidge,

Thankyou :)

Participant,

Compression was whatever my ears said was right at the time:) . The wah thing was just a Dunlop Wah, Les Paul and JCM900 w/- Quad. Cymbals are V-Drums...............no shelving.

Meshuggah,

NOT "christian rock"

For the record the equipment used is as follows;

Soundcraft Spirit Studio 24/8 console
Fostex D160 16 track, 16/44.1 recorder
Studio Projects C1
Shure Sm58’s
Behringer ECM8000’s
Yamaha REV 5
Digitech Studio Twin
PreSonus ACP8 compressor
Tannoy Reveal Monitors

Regards,

ChrisO


:cool:
 
Your vocal is the winner in this one. I've only listened a couple of times, so I won't comment on the song itself, b/c that's just lazy. I know that's kinda' what you're shooting for, so I'm sorry. When you do this full throttle, I'd throw in some more accent crashes in the stacotto (sp?) parts of the verses maybe.

Again, your vocal wins hands down. The rest of the mix sounds "small" to me, but if you put a gun to my head, there's no way I could qualify that statement with anything helpful. "TRY MAKING IT BIGGER!!" ... yeah, that's real damned helpful. Anyway, maybe I'm just wanting the guitars to cut through and hit me in the face more, but DON'T cover up that vocal.

Nice,
-nobody
 
Cool, cool cool.

One thing that I've realised is that in "assessing" all your responses, I have to consider the different listening environments all you people possibly have, as well as the questionable mp3 degradation factor...........but at the end of the day, virtually every point made here is somehow valid and worth thinking about as I approach completing the "finished" tracks for this song.

Thanks to you all.

ChrisO :cool:
 
Very nice tune. Great voice. My finished vocals should sound as good as his scratch. Man what a voice.

The opening reminded me of Lindsey Buckingham.

I thought the overall mix was just fine; my only comment would be that I didn't care for the timbre of the snare. Sounded more like a bongo drum. It was very high pitched and lacked a bit of "umph".

They have a good thing going there with that tune.
 
ausrock said:
Cool, cool cool.

One thing that I've realised is that in "assessing" all your responses, I have to consider the different listening environments all you people possibly have, as well as the questionable mp3 degradation factor
Good point. I originally listened on headphones, where the hiss at the beginning was more noticeable. Today, I listened through some JBL's that have a frequency response that's flatter than a pancake. It sounds better on air than on headphones. Incidentally, I almost always listen to tunes on here through various EQ settings once I've given it the once over with a flat EQ. This one was improved more than most tunes when I boosted the highs and lows... (the equivalent of sticking it in my car, or hitting the "loudness" button on a CD player...lol).

Anyway, I know what it is that makes it sound small to me. It's the chorus...The dynamics change (which is cool), but the mix doesn't change enough for me...The drums and the distorted gits need to come up in the pre-chorus and the chorus for it to sound "bigger."

Incidentally, I think the tune's good, if I didn't mention that. :D
 
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