Somne Progressive Eock/Metal. Help critique

[gemini8026]

http://www.kainziw.com/mp3/Rlake.mp3

Everything played by me, so feel free to criticise, I want the mix to be as good as possible.

Is the snare too loud and up front?!?! IT gets washy with too much verb and the song loses structure with it too far back, having issues finding it's spot.

Please help with any lyrical or mix or instrument suggestions, Im not above hearing the worst criticism/suggestion!!

[Superfly]

That was fucking stellar bro !! Excellent work !! Love a nice acoustic groove...

[shadowcat]

Sounds great already!

To the snare: generally it fits pretty well, in the part beginning at 1:45 it sticks out too much though IMO.

If you'd like to share, I want to know how you recorded your acoustic guitars... that's some awesome tone right there! Mics, mic placement, everything please.

[gemini8026]

thanks men!

Shadow...

I need to re-do the acoustics!! I was moving around too much and they lost some of their "brilliance" when I would slightly turn away from the mic!!!! They also lose some sparkle in the conversion from 24 to 16 bit and then the MP3 conversion!

Anyways, here's the specs..

Spruce top acoustic

2 channels both panned hard left and right

NO reverb, except for my room I recorded in. Adding any hall or extra room muddied it up

Light Compression / Light Gate

Studio Projects C1 mic going into a M-audio DMP 3 preamp.

Any extra processing kinda ruined the tone, so I wanted to keep thigns to a minimum, but yet still fit into the mix.

Still needs some tweaks.... but I appreciate the feedback!
EQ has the mids/highs up and the lows were left.. +6 in the upper register and +3db in the mids roughly.

[CharvelRocker]

That was fucking stellar bro !! Excellent work !! Love a nice acoustic groove...

+1

[shadowcat]

Thanks for the info, gemini!

My acoustic is a spruce-top too, and I was totally surprised by your recording because it sounded EXACTLY like mine.

[delt]

You have a really good voice.

First impression: the bass "sticks out" too much, especially in the intro & parts where there's no drums.

Well recorded drums, acoustics, and electric guitars. The snare sounds fine to me, but then again i'm not a drummer (wish i could play drums tho!)

[Robotechnology]

Admirable job... it has been years since I did an EVERYTHING you hear I DID recording. Lots of work goes into stuff like this. Sounds very good!

Just listened to the vocals after the solo and I said to myself that sounds like... and I couldn't place it. Played that part again and I got it. Savatage's singer!

[Endrik]

snare has to be loud and up front, othewise it would suck ass, the only people who concern about loud snare are the guitarists

[gemini8026]

much appreciated fellows. I have some other stuff i'll be posting this week, some more 80's esque metal. I also have a few other tunes, but i dont dare post due to their suckiness seeing as how they were made in hoeps of scoring chixx

You find me a good looking broad who wants to listen to Iced Earth with me, and i'll marry her on the spot! Provided she doesnt have the hiv, nah, even then...

[yard dawg]

You can add reverb to the snare to make it set back in the mix. DOnt go crazy though like they did in the 80s. Try a nice hall verb and only a little

[Endrik]

adding reverb is not the best idea in this context IMHO, prog snare sound has to be dry (except for NATURAL room ambience) and sharp, I would change the snare sound, it's too "roundy" and "middy". More attack and hi-end punch suits better. Listen to King Crimson's album THRAK, Bill Bruford has the ultimate prog snare sound there.

Then I would EQ the shit out of the bass becasue it doesn't work very well in the mix IMHO.