Trying something new

[trumpino1]

I’ve been reading up on stereo acoustic recording (from Whitestrats post) and thought I would try to use it in this song I wrote a long time ago. The song don’t have any vocals on it and I would like to post songs when they are finished, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in my vocals so I thought I’d just post it any ways. I’d like to know if there is anything that stands out with the way I recorded the guitars and the way I panned them or anything else.

This has the same old crappy drums from the drum machine I have which is another thing I will work on eventually. Anyways I appreciate any comments on the song.

http://www.box.net/shared/znv67giimv

 

[PDP]

Sounds good. The kick may have a little too much click top end. I love the growl on the bass guitar, great sound. Working on the kick may make more room for the cool bass sound. Playing sounds good. Enjoyed it.

 

[trumpino1]

Sounds good. The kick may have a little too much click top end. I love the growl on the bass guitar, great sound. Working on the kick may make more room for the cool bass sound. Playing sounds good. Enjoyed it.

Hey thanks for the comment and listen PDP. There may not be much I can do with the drums because I don't have any MIDI interfaces so it's just two tracks straight from the machine. I may mess with it a little more and see what I can come up with though. Once again thanks for the comment.

 

[heatmiser]

Nice one trumperino! This is sounding pretty good man. I think I agree with PDP's observations for the most part. Too much click in the kick. The bass playing is way cool and I think the sound of it works, but it is maybe a little too busy at times to fit together tightly with those drums.

I actually thought the crappy drum machine sounded pretty good on this. I think you did well with what you had. The cymbals are so distinctly panned that they stood out a little too much to me. I wish they could bleed a little more naturally with the rest of the kit, but again, not a bad sound at all for a drum machine.

I guess your focus here was the guitars, sorry, but they sounded fine so I kinda focused on other things. Good job.

 

[trumpino1]

Nice one trumperino! This is sounding pretty good man. I think I agree with PDP's observations for the most part. Too much click in the kick. The bass playing is way cool and I think the sound of it works, but it is maybe a little too busy at times to fit together tightly with those drums.

I actually thought the crappy drum machine sounded pretty good on this. I think you did well with what you had. The cymbals are so distinctly panned that they stood out a little too much to me. I wish they could bleed a little more naturally with the rest of the kit, but again, not a bad sound at all for a drum machine.

I guess your focus here was the guitars, sorry, but they sounded fine so I kinda focused on other things. Good job.

Hey cool Heatmister. I really appreciate the listen and the comments. The bass part was played by my cousin and we did several takes before I finally just said this is good enough and I did a little editing to make it fit as well as it does. I have to calm him down on some of my songs because he really likes to try and get all technical and stuff and it really gets to be a mess sometimes. LOL.

I'm glad you thought the drums were pretty decent on this one and I may see what I can do with that kick drum, you are both right about the clickiness to it. I also pan the two tracks from the machine hard right and left so maybe bringing those closer to center would help. IDK.

Thanks I'm glad the guitars sounded fine that is a great thing to hear. Actually my focus here is on anything that stood out so you nailed it man. Thanks again for the comments. Looking forward to another one from you soon.

 

[kcearl]

the guitars sounded great, the bass as well, it was moving around a bit and kept poking its head through the guitars...nice little jam and definitely something you could build on..the solo would sound excellent on a nylon string guitar, real flamenco feel..good playing Justin


the drums sounded pretty bad to me..sorry, very obviously a drum machine in amongst some nice instruments ...but I thought the beat was spot on and matched the flavour of the sketch to me otherwise

 

[trumpino1]

the guitars sounded great, the bass as well, it was moving around a bit and kept poking its head through the guitars...nice little jam and definitely something you could build on..the solo would sound excellent on a nylon string guitar, real flamenco feel..good playing Justin


the drums sounded pretty bad to me..sorry, very obviously a drum machine in amongst some nice instruments ...but I thought the beat was spot on and matched the flavour of the sketch to me otherwise

Thanks alot KC. I might tinker with this one some more down the road and see if I can come up with some more ideas to build onto the song. It's way more right now than it was back when I would just sing and play to it, but it could use some more production too.

Excellent idea on the nylon for the solo. I'm gonna have to get another classical guitar. It's about one of my favorite sounding instruments, that or a 12 string.

Yeah the drums are what they are, I'm glad at least the beat sounded good. That is pretty much all I use a drum machine for anyhow. I do have a set of drum mics now and a place to record real drums. So maybe one day I'll have something with real drums on it. That is going to really be a challenge especially when I always read about how hard it is to record drums.

Appreciate the comments.

 

[austinm08]

I think the mix sounds pretty good. Panning sounds fine.

 

[trumpino1]

I think the mix sounds pretty good. Panning sounds fine.

Thanks for the listen and the comment. It is much appreciated.

 

[squibble94]

Sounds pretty good. The bass sounds cool. I think the playing needs to be a bit tighter. There are spots where everything is everywhere. I like the kick and snare, but those cymbals are cheesy. If you replaced those, it would sound a lot better.

 

[fzit0]

I like it, but the snares sounds a bit weak.. It should be more "punchy".. but I like it.. Also you should check the timing of the drums and guitars.

 

[Greg_L]

Whoa that mix is super bright and tinny. There's no bottom end. I'm gonna have to disagree on the bass comments. It's a mess. I'm all for a bright and plucky bass, but it's still gotta have some bottom end in there. This bass is all highs and mids and the playing is super sloppy. If you're gonna be that busy, you gotta be tight. It's like yall are playing different songs. The guitars sound clean, but again, there's no body to them. It's all mids and highs. The drum machine aint helping, but you use what you got.

 

[K-dub]

Whoa that mix is super bright and tinny. There's no bottom end. I'm gonna have to disagree on the bass comments. It's a mess. I'm all for a bright and plucky bass, but it's still gotta have some bottom end in there. This bass is all highs and mids and the playing is super sloppy. If you're gonna be that busy, you gotta be tight. It's like yall are playing different songs. The guitars sound clean, but again, there's no body to them. It's all mids and highs. The drum machine aint helping, but you use what you got.

Yep ... agreed w/ G. It immediately got my wince meter going.

Most of the impression is coming from the bite in the gits ... they're all mid-rangy and bright.

It's tracked clean, but I'd dial in more meat.

K-

 

[trumpino1]

Sounds pretty good. The bass sounds cool. I think the playing needs to be a bit tighter. There are spots where everything is everywhere. I like the kick and snare, but those cymbals are cheesy. If you replaced those, it would sound a lot better.

Thanks for the listen and comment squibble. Yeah I like the sound that the bass has and I would have loved if he could have nailed it and he would liked to have too, but this is the best take I got before he got a job traveling, so.

The drum machine I use is a Boss Dr 5 and I've used Boss distortion pedals before and thought they were ok, but this thing don't have a whole lot of cool drum sounds on it. All of the kits are kind of wack. If I had the extra money I would get one of the better sounding drum software like some people on here use, but I guess I have to just keep on keeping on with what I got for now.

I really appreciate the input though.

 

[trumpino1]

I like it, but the snares sounds a bit weak.. It should be more "punchy".. but I like it.. Also you should check the timing of the drums and guitars.

Thanks fzit. There are several timing issues between the guitars and the bass, which are probably multiplied tremendously by the never misses a beat drum machine.

Anyways I'm learning and that is the funnest part for me.

Thanks for listening and commenting. It's really appreciated.

 

[heatmiser]

The drum machine I use is a Boss Dr 5...

Hey, I have a Boss DR 550...same unit?

Did you simply use the stock sounds? You know that you can modify them within the unit to some degree and you can also layer multiple snare and kick sounds over one another to get more complex, maybe more realistic tones.

Also, you can always play around with effects after the fact.

Yes, it is something of a losing battle with these things, but with some effort, you can get some pretty cool sounds even though I agree with you that stock sounds are wacked.

 

[trumpino1]

Whoa that mix is super bright and tinny. There's no bottom end. I'm gonna have to disagree on the bass comments. It's a mess. I'm all for a bright and plucky bass, but it's still gotta have some bottom end in there. This bass is all highs and mids and the playing is super sloppy. If you're gonna be that busy, you gotta be tight. It's like yall are playing different songs. The guitars sound clean, but again, there's no body to them. It's all mids and highs. The drum machine aint helping, but you use what you got.

Thanks Greg. I really appreciate you having a listen and after checking it out I hear what you're saying. I pretty much took all of the bottom end off the guitars, don't know why. It didn't sound too bad I didn't think, but then when I added stuff on the master (I'm just learning mixing so I can't call it mastering) to make it a little louder, it really made it stand out. I might just have to re-track the bass parts without so much going on with the playing, but I appreciate him trying and if he could have nailed it I think it would have been pretty cool.

I really appreciate the input and I am going to put yours and everyone elses advice to use.

 

[trumpino1]

Yep ... agreed w/ G. It immediately got my wince meter going.

Most of the impression is coming from the bite in the gits ... they're all mid-rangy and bright.

It's tracked clean, but I'd dial in more meat.

K-

Hey thanks K-dub. Yeah I think I agree with you two also. I don't know why I eq'd those guitars the way I did. I guess because there was just so many guitar tracks and I wasn't used to anything like that. I was messing with it a little while ago and I think I'm heading in the right direction now.

Thanks for the compliment on the tracking it's the hardest part of the process for me. Trying to double everything and then messing up and having to start over. It really gets me in a bad mood quick. LOL. But the whole fun of it is learning, so it's all good.

Thanks again.

 

[trumpino1]

Hey, I have a Boss DR 550...same unit?

Did you simply use the stock sounds? You know that you can modify them within the unit to some degree and you can also layer multiple snare and kick sounds over one another to get more complex, maybe more realistic tones.

Also, you can always play around with effects after the fact.

Yes, it is something of a losing battle with these things, but with some effort, you can get some pretty cool sounds even though I agree with you that stock sounds are wacked.

It says DR-5 dr. rhythm section.

Yeah stock sounds. I bought this thing off ebay about 10 years ago. It didn't come with a manual or anything and I just started using it again about the time I joined this site. Yeah it definately is more of the user than it is the machine I'll guarantee that.

If it's alright can I pm you about this thing and get a little advice on some of the features. I don't expect you to teach me all the ins and outs, nor do I want to take up too much of your time, but I don't know much at all about this thing other than getting it to do beats. I remember you said somehting about decays and other settings, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

 

[heatmiser]

It says DR-5 dr. rhythm section.

Yeah stock sounds. I bought this thing off ebay about 10 years ago. It didn't come with a manual or anything and I just started using it again about the time I joined this site. Yeah it definately is more of the user than it is the machine I'll guarantee that.

If it's alright can I pm you about this thing and get a little advice on some of the features. I don't expect you to teach me all the ins and outs, nor do I want to take up too much of your time, but I don't know much at all about this thing other than getting it to do beats. I remember you said somehting about decays and other settings, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

That is absolutely fine...fire away!