Members flaming turd Posted April 13, 2006 Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 so we started recording our demo. basicly, i am not real happy so far with the sound of it, but this is our first time around soo... looking for comments on the writing, recording quality, tips on how to make it sound better, etc. i know the clean tone is god-awful, what about the rest? we used a presonus firepod, sm57 for the drums, studio projects c3 for overheads and some vocals, sm57 and sm58 for guitar. guitar is gibson les paul studio gothic with emg 85 in the bridge for most if the songs. also used a mccarty standard for dome. amp is a hughes and kettner triamp MKII with a mesa road king cab. i know the playing is very poor at parts, i just haven't had time to re-record the tracks, was wanting different inputs on the recording method for the guitar. we miked it straight on, right on the edge of the dust cover. really looking for whats wrong with drums, guitar, and vox, and how to start fixing it. thanks, for any help. http://www.myspace.com/findtherealband Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted April 13, 2006 Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 I've heard much worse for a demo. The first thing that strikes me is a lack of balance. For example, the kick drum overpowers everything yet we can barely hear the snare. And where is the bass guitar? It's hard to mesh the guitar and drum together without it. Also, you might wanna do some "hi-passing" on the guitar and vocal tracks to remove some of the mud (hi-pass filter anywhere from 60 to 120hz, let your hears be the judge) Have you double-tracked guitars? It sound mono and 1 dimensional. Track a second guitar and pan each one to its side, this will leave more room in the middle for the vocals and make the guitars sound 3X bigger. The guitar sound itself seems pretty good. But without double tracking, some hi-passing and a bass guitar to mesh it with the drum, it comes out thin. As for the drums, it lacks a bit of ambience. You might want to put some reverb on the snare and toms (something subtle). As mentionned earlier, the snare is buried, bring it up a bit (hopefully, the hi-hat are not bleeding too much in the snare mic) Vocal-wise, I have to be honest and say I'm sure he can put out a better performance. It's a bit unequal. I'd say retrack and take your time, like a song per day max. He should listen to his voice through the cans as much as possible so he can hear what's being printed to the digital "tape" and adjust. The singer in my band is an amazing live singer, but the studio is a different beast, we spend a lot of time getting his voice right. Also the C3 + Firepod pre doesn't seem to be the best match for his voice. If you could afford to borrow/rent a mic or two and a preamp or two, this could prove benefic. What some people do is book a studio for a couple hours and do test tracks with every mic the studio as on hand, then you can just rent that specific mic. A mic I think could be a good match is the Shure SM-7 (disclaimer: this is just a suggestion, I actually never used the mic, I'm basing this on other stuff I've heard being recorded with the SM-7).As for the preamp, something a bit warmer would be cool. I'm not talking about a noisy Behringer or ART unit, but something based on a Neve design, or with a properly implemented tube (high-voltage, not starved plate like the Behringer or ART stuff).This is not essential, it's like icing on the cake. You can turn out something interesting with the C3 and Firepod I'm sure, just need to take the time, record in a nice sounding room (a room with a nice ambience, or at least without bad ambience). And pay attention to reverb settings so you don't get the typical "cheesy demo reverb sound). Reverb seems easy, but it's the thing that I hate the most doing! It's always too much or not enough! Anyway, hope this help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flaming turd Posted April 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 Originally posted by Hardtailed I've heard much worse for a demo. The first thing that strikes me is a lack of balance. For example, the kick drum overpowers everything yet we can barely hear the snare. And where is the bass guitar? It's hard to mesh the guitar and drum together without it. Also, you might wanna do some "hi-passing" on the guitar and vocal tracks to remove some of the mud (hi-pass filter anywhere from 60 to 120hz, let your hears be the judge) Have you double-tracked guitars? It sound mono and 1 dimensional. Track a second guitar and pan each one to its side, this will leave more room in the middle for the vocals and make the guitars sound 3X bigger. The guitar sound itself seems pretty good. But without double tracking, some hi-passing and a bass guitar to mesh it with the drum, it comes out thin. As for the drums, it lacks a bit of ambience. You might want to put some reverb on the snare and toms (something subtle). As mentionned earlier, the snare is buried, bring it up a bit (hopefully, the hi-hat are not bleeding too much in the snare mic) Vocal-wise, I have to be honest and say I'm sure he can put out a better performance. It's a bit unequal. I'd say retrack and take your time, like a song per day max. He should listen to his voice through the cans as much as possible so he can hear what's being printed to the digital "tape" and adjust. The singer in my band is an amazing live singer, but the studio is a different beast, we spend a lot of time getting his voice right. Also the C3 + Firepod pre doesn't seem to be the best match for his voice. If you could afford to borrow/rent a mic or two and a preamp or two, this could prove benefic. What some people do is book a studio for a couple hours and do test tracks with every mic the studio as on hand, then you can just rent that specific mic. A mic I think could be a good match is the Shure SM-7 (disclaimer: this is just a suggestion, I actually never used the mic, I'm basing this on other stuff I've heard being recorded with the SM-7). As for the preamp, something a bit warmer would be cool. I'm not talking about a noisy Behringer or ART unit, but something based on a Neve design, or with a properly implemented tube (high-voltage, not starved plate like the Behringer or ART stuff). This is not essential, it's like icing on the cake. You can turn out something interesting with the C3 and Firepod I'm sure, just need to take the time, record in a nice sounding room (a room with a nice ambience, or at least without bad ambience). And pay attention to reverb settings so you don't get the typical "cheesy demo reverb sound). Reverb seems easy, but it's the thing that I hate the most doing! It's always too much or not enough! Anyway, hope this help. that does help, alot. we also used a sm58 for vocals, what do you think about that mic? there is no doubletracking or panning, i'm still learning the ropes, so to speak. you can't hear the bass because we don't have a bass player yet. working on it. thanks alot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted April 13, 2006 Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 I'm usually not a huge 58 fan for vocal recording. Have you tried the Studio Projects mic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flaming turd Posted April 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 Originally posted by UstadKhanAli I'm usually not a huge 58 fan for vocal recording. Have you tried the Studio Projects mic? the c3? yeah, i said that in the original post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted April 13, 2006 Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 Originally posted by flaming turd that does help, alot. we also used a sm58 for vocals, what do you think about that mike? there is no doubletracking or panning, i'm still learning the ropes, so to speak. you can't hear the bass because we don't have a bass player yet. working on it. thanks alot. Experimenting with every mic you own is the first step. I don't what what tracks were cut with what mic so I can't say which one sounded the best. Doubletracking guitar and panning them to each side is probably the easiest and most effective way of getting a huge guitar sound, plus it helps the vocal sit in the mix (since it's in the middle). When I'm cutting a demo and I don't have a bass available, and play the bass line on my guitar (using single notes, no chords of course) and pitch-shift it an octave lower. With proper equing and compression, it's surprisingly effective, as long as it's not too apparent in the mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flaming turd Posted April 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 Originally posted by Hardtailed Experimenting with every mic you own is the first step. I don't what what tracks were cut with what mic so I can't say which one sounded the best. right, i just was wondering what your thoughts were on that mic for vocals were. thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted April 13, 2006 Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 Originally posted by flaming turd the c3? yeah, i said that in the original post. Yup, you sure did...I missed the "and some vocals" part. So did you prefer that over the 58? What was your opinion? That's what I was drivin' at.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flaming turd Posted April 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 Originally posted by UstadKhanAli Yup, you sure did...I missed the "and some vocals" part. So did you prefer that over the 58? What was your opinion? That's what I was drivin' at.... hmmm...i'm not sure, we didn't take the time to listen to them individually as much as we should, but as i remember, the c3 was warmer than the 58. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted April 13, 2006 Members Share Posted April 13, 2006 Originally posted by flaming turd right, i just was wondering what your thoughts were on that mic for vocals were. thanks for the help. Depend on the singer, the room, the song, the stars alignment When I track my singer through a 57 or 58, I'm always annoyed by the cardboard sounding top-end, but sometimes it fits perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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