My Bands mp3 check it out

[Annah]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

You guys sound like a very young band to me. I think with some maturing and some seasoning in the business you'll probably fare pretty well. Just don't give up!

Your weakest link is definitely your singer at this point. While he's got the scraggly/growly thing going on, he lacks true brutality necessary for this kind of singing - BALLS. Sounds like he's singing from his head and neck instead of from his chest/gut. He definitely has potential though, at least in my humble opinion.

My thoughts are that if you guys keep practicing and stick together that in 3 to 5 years you could be a brutal force in the metal world.

Stick to your guns!

By the way, I like the Wah guitar solo (the 2nd on, on the left side). It was the best part of the song.

~Annah

[Mr White]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

You bastards!!! Mine isnt the wah solo [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Thats the other guitarist's!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
He is technically the better player, but I have my moments [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks. The first scream isnt that good ill admit that.
We are young, Im the oldest at 20, drummer and guitarist 18, singer and bassist 19.

Our other stuff is better, and that is a shoddy recording, but we just need experience. We've only been together since April, and since the end of May Ive been living in England for the summer (theyre in Scotland) so every band practice/gig has meant 5 hours on a train for me, so things arent as spontaneous as they could be.

That recording was done over about three weeks. Everything was done first, then about two weeks later we re-did one guitar track. We planned on re-doing both cos they were out of tune but we were shattered tired and once we'd re-done one it all sounded ok.

Thanks for your input guys, even though you didnt like my solo [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] (I didnt play it right lol)

James

[lerxstcat]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

Bastards? I'll have you know BOTH my parents' names are on my birth certificate AND they were married at the time! [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] Yes, TO EACH OTHER!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]Soundsl like y'all have potential James. Glad to see you're in a productive band with website and all, and the more y'all work at it the better you'll get! Keep up the good work!

[Mr White]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

Ooh get Rich with all his evidence and proof...
You're all bastards apart from Rich then [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Thanks man, Im going off that song, wait till you hear our other stuff. I hate that main riff cos I dont like playing powerchords, Id rather be playing more technical stuff.

James

[metallicarocks]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

[ QUOTE ]
I wish someone else would give their 2 cents. I don't like being the one part pooper.

[/ QUOTE ]

As for your tuning problems, I didn't notice anything until after the solo. You're tuning too low with too light of strings is what it sounds like. My speakers aren't the greatest in the world, so others will have to back me up here.

(On the note of my speakers) I'm hearing a lot of high frequencies from the drums. The cymbals are coming through pretty nicely, but not much else. DO NOT boost the signal, just give it some more mids, it'll stand out. Leave the cymbals alone for now (if those can be seperated), and boost the mids on the rest of the set. If you boost the signal, you're going to get a crappy sound louder. No offense, but you could try re EQing the set.

I can't hear the bass a'tall. I think this could be adjusted with a bit of EQing as well. Turn up the mids on your guitar amps a hair, and back off on the bass. Have your bassist turn down his bass too, and boost his mids. Trust me on this, you don't want to dime the bass on your bass amp. It just sounds horribly muffled for metal. For hip-hop or stuff like that, go ahead and give the subs a run for their money. It's the only thing semi-musical there anyway. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Pan your guitars a bit. It's hard to tell one from the other. Don't do it sharply, I've found 10-15% to be just about right. One guitar 10% to the left, the other 10% to the right.

Turn the vocals down just a hair. I won't comment on his talent, there are far better and far worse with labels. (Far worse being Atreyu *shudder*) It sounds like he's inconfident, or rushed. If he were sure of what he was doing, he would sound much better. It's hard to pull good vocals in front of the rest of the band when it's just you.

The guitars sound really muddy, there's quite a bit of fuzz and fart in there. When you record, use a POD or other amp modeler or get a better mic, that one just isn't cutting it. It's capturing too narrow of a frequency (to my ears), and it's clipping. The SPL rating on that thing sucks. Always shoot for headroom on the mics, and a wider frequency span than what you need. Can I ask what kind of mic you are using?

Mess around with reverb a little bit. Don't apply too much to the seperate tracks, just a little so that it's barely audible, then apply reverb to all of the tracks so that everything sounds like its in the same room. (That's what I do, I'm sure there are better techniques)
*Reverb only works to its full potential on cleanly recorded tracks. You want a grand sound to fill the stadium, not fart.

Keep it up! You guys play pretty tightly. That's definetely on your side. There weren't any severe timing problems that I noticed. (I heard only slight ones that you guys were probably too lazy to go back and clean up!) Everything was pretty well on the beat. It seems the pulse was a little shaky here and there, but overall pretty good. To cure that, practice and record with a metronome. You guys play together, it seems like you have a good feel and can predict each player's next move. You're a tight set worthy of a good recording. If you have $K's of money in the studio but a band that can't play tightly, it doesn't matter. You get a clear sound of ass.

[Mr White]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

Thanks man I appreciate that a lot.
Our singer's a shy guy and really didnt like recording his vocals just stood with a mic without any band accompaniment even though he had headphones and the like. You've actually picked out the problems that we identified but kinda ignored, a bit like having ugly children [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
We'll be heading into a studio soon, so that'll be better. Our other guitarist uses like 9's and we tune to C# (fucking hate drop tunings but I joined an existing band so...). I use 12's or 11's cos I like the thick bottom end and I prefer thicker strings to be honest.
Also with the bass, Im totally with you on it being too loud. Live, we use a thin as fuck guitar tone and have the bass bringing all the bottom end. Our bassist has been searching for a decent bass tone all the time Ive known him and it changes from week to week. Ill suggest that too him.
I run quite a mid-rich tone, but the other guitarist is scooped as fuck, so we've compromised at that tone. Before, when we played, it sounded like two different band like when one of us did one bit and another came in...
Ah well, just teething problems [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Like I said, we've only been a band since April and only done one gig, but we're getting a name on the local scene [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Thanks though

James

[metallicarocks]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

As for being able to tell the difference between guitarists, you really can't EQ your way out of it, they should be about in the same area (complimenting your tone too, of course). The scoop sound that your other guitarist is using is killing you, that'll just add to the mud. The way to tell between two guitarists is mostly dependent on:

<ul type="square">
The way you play
The guitar you use
The amp you use
Other hardware (FX, strings, etc.)[/list]

You'll want to seperate the guitar sounds by using different setups. If you're both using an Ibanez RG through a 5150, you'll never tell the difference between the two of you, unless your styles are that sharply different. Don't go too crazy on FX, if anything you'll want to keep it pretty dry for now, until you all find your sound and space at least.

Get your other guitarist to use thicker strings. It's causing bad intonation all over the place, especially after the solo section.

When you head into the studio, take a good half hour or so of running through your stuff. Try to do it off the clock, or somewhere close to the studio. Bend your strings severely and shake your trem bar (if you have a stable trem system. If not, don't even use the trem bar in recording until you have to. More on that later). Don't break them or anything, just get them fairly broken in. You'll want to tune a few times at the same location. Just tuning once isn't going to work. It's a good idea that everybody uses the same tuner. As much as all tuners are supposed to read the same, I've got to wonder about that. Make everything dead on tune. This ensures that your strings aren't going to stretch more and cause you to go back and retune and pray that it's on the same tune as the guitars that you've just recorded. After getting everybody tuned perfectly on the tuner, use your ear. Have everybody play the individual strings. After all of that, go through a few chords and listen for inconsistent wavelengths (meaning you're out of tune). Go through a song. Do the individual string and chord tuning check. If it's stable, head into the studio. If not, tune and play through another song. Try to get the guitars to all be in tune by the end of that song.

Try to do all of that stuff at the location but off the clock, if possible. In the likely event that it can't be done, do this at home just before you head into the studio. I can't stress how important it is that you be perfectly in tune. The two most important things when you record are your tuning and your timing. With those two, your building on an excellent foundation.

[Mr White]

Re: My Bands mp3 check it out

Thanks man. Ill really make sure I do this. The bass player uses a tuner, the guitarist tunes off him and I tune off the other guitarist [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] not exactly pro!!!
Everything youve said Ive totally taken in though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Thanks

James