Judge my recording

[Mordor]

So,I finally finished mixing a new song of my band.The song is not completed yet,it lacks solos and some arrangements,but the sound is pretty done.I would like to know what you fellow jcfers think about it.I had the mix on tape and now it has a strange enphasis on the high freqs,the master don't have this problem.Keep also in mind that the drumkit we used is made of cardboard! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Here we go:

Exhuman - Presence of the Master

EDIT: We recorded this song to improve our recording abilities,if everything will be ok we're going to record a full lenght during the end of this year.We did not care for the performance,so you can hear some mistake and no use of metronome!

[Mordor]

Re: Judge my recording

One more thing!I used my hifi for mixing,cos I still don't have reference monitors,so the song could sound like shit in some other hifi! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Inearthed]

Re: Judge my recording

The song sounds pretty good to me. As far as the song itself I'd like to hear it with the leads and the rest of the stuff to fully review it. It keeps you interested and has some pretty good stuff throughout. You guys remind me a bit of that Death; not the song itself, just the feel of the song (if that makes sense).

My only suggestions for the recording is that at times the bass gets lost / is too quiet. It sounds like its doing some cool stuff at times but you can barely hear at some parts. Kick drum is another thing that needs to be fixed (can't really do anything about it now) but it needs to have definition / punch and the sound of it is kinda dead (you had mentioned that your drumkit wasn't that good, so its understandable).

There was a pop / click in the left channel at 3:44-45

What all was everyone using to record? Equipment, mics, etc...

[Mordor]

Re: Judge my recording

Thanks for your reply Inearthed!
We used the following equipment:

M-Audio Delta44,a behringer mixer,shure sm57,studio project b1,samson c01 and a behringer xm8500.All recorded with a Duron 1300ghz and cubase sx 2.
I'll try to pull out the bass tracks from the mix,but it's a bit hard since I don't want to give a dark sound to the song.
Do you think vocals are ok?

I can't do nothing for the kick drum,it sounds sloppy by itself and during recordings mic had not the best position.

[diablomozart]

Re: Judge my recording

sounds good to me...if your bass drum is on a different track, emphasize the mid-range in its e.q....that will make it sharper sounding...also...double track the rhythm guitars and pan them hard left and right for a bigger guitar sound...i use a rockman chorus unit (not for chorus [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] )to emphasize the mid and high eq's on my rhythm guitars and it gives them a nice "sparkle"...d.m.

[Mordor]

Re: Judge my recording

There are 4 guitars tracks,already panned hard left and right!Don't tell me I have to add more overdub! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Inearthed]

Re: Judge my recording

I never mentioned it, but I thought you guys had some very solid / tight riffing throughout the song (and I listened to the song on a different computer with different speakers and it sounded good there too).

Originally posted by Mordor:
I can't do nothing for the kick drum,it sounds sloppy by itself and during recordings mic had not the best position.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's the one thing I don't like about recording drums, if you are even a fraction of an inch off on your placement you a great sound turns into an average one. Whenever I've recorded drums with any of my bands the setup has always taken a LONG time and usually we're not pleased with the end sound in one way or another.

Originally posted by Mordor:
Do you think vocals are ok?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think they sound good to my ear. They definitely fit the music. The higher vocals (in my opinion) are a lot cleaner / better sounding than the lower ones. The lower ones have a tendency to lose the punch towards the end of the the vocal lines (the vocals "fade out" which makes some of the words difficult to decipher). I think the high vocals sound pretty sweet at parts... They remind me a little bit of Daemon from Limbonic Art at times, and at other times they remind me of old school death metal vocals too. I like how there was attention paid to pronouncing the words versus just belting vocals out and not really caring how they sounded as long as they were cool (lots of vocalists have a tendency just to shoot for growling or screaming without really formulating words).

[Mordor]

Re: Judge my recording

Yeah,our singer is very picky at lyrics!I think it is a good thing.I agree with you,lower vocals are so so.Usually we record lower vocals in a different track to add punch in same point of the songs,but since we've done this recording for practice the singer didn't care that much.I'm happy you liked it,usually vocals are the biggest complain of our music.Thanks a lot again!

[metafaza]

Re: Judge my recording

It sounds pretty darn good! I don't think the vocals have to be easily understandable or hearable. Look at all those death bands. Can you understand much? The rhythm sounds are ok, thick and crisp. Bass needs to be brought out more, I agree. POst it again when you re-do the drums. Other than that great work!! [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[Mordor]

Re: Judge my recording

Thanks a lot guys! [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

[Inearthed]

Re: Judge my recording

Originally posted by Mordor:
Yeah,our singer is very picky at lyrics!I think it is a good thing.I agree with you,lower vocals are so so.Usually we record lower vocals in a different track to add punch in same point of the songs,but since we've done this recording for practice the singer didn't care that much.I'm happy you liked it,usually vocals are the biggest complain of our music.Thanks a lot again!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">In my melodic metal band with sorta growly vocals we always get complaints about the vocals. You wouldn't believe how many times I've heard "Why don't you guys just get someone who can sing?" And then I have to explain to them that we decided that we were going for a specific sound and if we just had normal vocals I think the songs would be boring and pretty lame. The biggest thing is that you should always be making music for yourself and not for other people, in my opinion (unless you want to just make money).

[diablomozart]

Re: Judge my recording

if there's 4 then don't add more...lol...actually take away 2 and pump the remaining ones in the mix [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ...see if that helps the bass get thru the mix...d.m.

[achren_git]

Re: Judge my recording

alrite,
I like the vocals, sounds a bit venom-ish. think they might be mixed a bit high/ could do with more reverb? other than that, the drums do sound really odd. i think the cymbals & hihat are mixed too high, and they seem to be panned very oddly- if you listen to the overheads, and fade in the close mics one by one & try to match them with the o/hs panning then it might sound a bit more natural, unless that's what you were going for, in which case fair enough. As far as the bass drums goes, if it's on a separate tracks, there's a few things you could try- gate it with a really fast attack- this can sometimes give you an artificial click which can be quite useful- multiband compress it to bring out the high end & tighten up the low end (doesn't always work, but might be worth a try)- and eq to bring out the click (3khz-5khz range), cut the low mid to get rid of boxyness (250-400hz) and maybe boost the bass end (80hz). i would probably avoid compressing it unless you're really confident about how to set it up, as it usually just dulls the sound. It's easier from the start if the kit sounds good, even a crap kit can be tuned to sound ok if you feel like investing in some new skins (& try moving it around in the room can make a difference too). I know what it's like when you go back to a recording and discover the kick mic wasn't where it should be tho, hence the tips above [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Sorry for the long post, look forward to hearing more of your stuff,
cheers
Callum

[Mordor]

Re: Judge my recording

Thank for the suggestions acren!
Well,I used two overheads,both panned hard left and hard right.My drummer use hit hat and ride in the same side so maybe this can be the problem.Tha bass drum is already eq'ed as you described,I should try to use the multiband compressor....

[achren_git]

Re: Judge my recording

no probs. i really meant the panning of the toms relative to the overheads, but the ride might be confusing me too, like i said, try to pan the drums in the close mics to be in the same place as they are in the overheads (even the snare won't be dead centre) . definitely try the gate with the kick too, then multiband compress. another thing you could try is eq the kick in something like soundforge or wavelab, save to file and then eq again, just keep going till it sounds right. not recommended normally, but for a rescue job it can do the trick,
cheers