You Want Love? the first track on our new album

[foxje79]

Hey everybody,

I know I do not post or reply nearly as much as I probably should. Its partly because I am still pretty wet behind the ears as far as recording and mixing is concerned. Also, I am a full-time student and musician who is trying to record, edit, mix, and master his band's next release; very busy.

Anyways, I have been mixing these tracks for several months. I have been mixing along the way. So, when I got the drums recorded, I started to mix and EQ those, next I recored the bass, and edited, mixed, and EQ'd that, and so on.

I am lastly recording vocals. I feel like I know the least about this process. I understand mic technique and have a rough idea of acoustics and treatment, but have no treatment where I recorded, aside from a bed sheet and bath towel I hung on the walls.

I have read online that most engineers prefer using preamps and analog compressors for recording vocals. I have neither of these. I am only using the plug-ins provided in Logic Pro 9 (EQ, compression, limiter, reverb, and distortion).

Any advice or criticism on the overall mix that anyone wants to give are completely welcome. Thanks!

 

[ido1957]

You're going to rip your vocal chords singing like that all night lol....That first rhythm guitar is a cool way to start but it seems a bit distant. How did you record everything? Other than the guitar it all sounds a bit "roomy" if that makes sense. I like the performance and the writing is great.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

You've probably got some sort of preamp already. The preamp is what brings your mic level up to a level where your A/D converter can send it to your computer. (i.e. it's the gain knob on your mixer or interface.)

The guitars and drums are pretty solid. There's a few points where the only bass guitar that cuts through seems to be string noise.

I agree with Ido about the roominess. You can really hear the room that you recorded the vocals in. You might want to either mic the vox closer or treat the room so that there's less room noise and reverb picked up. (Or you could record in a larger room to get nicer room 'verb naturally)

 

[foxje79]

Thanks for the solid advice, guys. I was wondering if recording closer to the mic, at a minimal gain, would rectify the issue. Thanks for the compliments, too! I am wondering one more thing. What's the best way to make the drums really powerful and clear? I read somewhere that doubling them in an aux stereo bus, and re-compressing that channel gave the desired power to the drums. Any thoughts?

 

[PrideOfNation]

Thanks for the solid advice, guys. I was wondering if recording closer to the mic, at a minimal gain, would rectify the issue. Thanks for the compliments, too! I am wondering one more thing. What's the best way to make the drums really powerful and clear? I read somewhere that doubling them in an aux stereo bus, and re-compressing that channel gave the desired power to the drums. Any thoughts?

Careful about getting closer to the mic as you might get the proximity effect (louder bass tones) and that's no good in a lot of cases. There are $100 isolation shields that can do a good job of blocking room sound. Or hang some sleeping bags as a makeshift booth. More tips here:

20 Tips On Recording Vocals

As for the drums, the technique you're describing is called the "New York drum trick", and it can be quite effective. Q. What does 'parallel compression' mean?

 

[Simman]

Thanks for the solid advice, guys. I was wondering if recording closer to the mic, at a minimal gain, would rectify the issue. Thanks for the compliments, too! I am wondering one more thing. What's the best way to make the drums really powerful and clear? I read somewhere that doubling them in an aux stereo bus, and re-compressing that channel gave the desired power to the drums. Any thoughts?

No silver bullet answer to getting good drums. How do the drums sound in the room? If they don't sound good standing/listening in the room then they will not ever sound good in the mix. Drummer, room mic placement get you good sounding drums. Not sure of your setup but you can get good sounding drums with just 3 mic. do some research on the recorderman overhead setup, add a mic on the kick and snare and you should be good to go. As far as the mix goes keep working on it.

 

[Tobe]

Good effort. I really like the garage band sound of the drums. The intro guitar sounds weak and missing clarity at first, but it's really nice when the full wide guitar sound kicks in.

The singing is good and sounds like its in the same space, but oddly out of place. It sounds like some kind of telephone distortion effect is pushing it back in the mix and taking away any presence.

 

[foxje79]

Good effort. I really like the garage band sound of the drums. The intro guitar sounds weak and missing clarity at first, but it's really nice when the full wide guitar sound kicks in.

The singing is good and sounds like its in the same space, but oddly out of place. It sounds like some kind of telephone distortion effect is pushing it back in the mix and taking away any presence.

Yeah, I put distortion on the lead vox, but it made the signal too hot, so I scooped out some of the lows. Maybe too much? The hardest part of mixing, for me, is taking the right frequencies out of the right instruments, and boosting the right ones in the right instruments. Iy! Interestingly, the drums were recorded in a much larger room than the vocals, but neither had any acoustic treatments (except in my apartment I hung a bed sheet across one wall and a bath towel on another wall; it still wasn't enough). Hmm...