Ooh Ahh Ooh!

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:50 pm

What do you guys think of the mix on this one?

It's from a CD I'm doing for a band called "Kelley And The Cowboys"

My studio is a 20x20 separate building (acoustically treated) with 8ft ceilings, no separate rooms just four 6 foot by 6 foot gobos for the tracking area (I can move them around .. make little "rooms") and I use 3 more 6x6 gobos to block off the "control room"

I use a standalone 32 track Korg D3200 for tracking and mixing, and also have a DAW with Protools, but I just prefer twisting real knobs and moving faders for mixing, so just use the DAW and a buncha different software (cooledit, audcity, soundforge etc.) for odds and ends and .wav editing.

This was all tracked live, no overdubs , and was a toughie because due the nature of my space I get a fair amount of bleed with an amplified group playing at almost stage volume ...

4 mics on the drums, 2 using my version of the recorderman technique, a kick and a snare mic.

Bass was an upright with 2 pickups, one at the neck for a bit of string slap and one at the bridge. Neck pickup went DI and the bridge pickup went into a vintage ampeg bass head with a 4x12 cab that was mic'd

Guitar was a late '60s model tele and he ditched the amp he brought and used my line6 spiderIII 75W modeling amp which was mic'd

Enough chit chat .. on to it!

http://www.naomisfancy.net/nfdownloads/Ooh_Ahh_Ooh.mp3

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:05 pm

This is cool.

Spatially it sounds like the drum kits right in front, the bass is behind it then the singer is away in the back.

Were you aiming for this?

I'd prefer it the other way around, but only because I like the singer. Razz

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:39 pm

Greener wrote:

This is cool.

Spatially it sounds like the drum kits right in front, the bass is behind it then the singer is away in the back.

Were you aiming for this?

I'd prefer it the other way around, but only because I like the singer. Razz

I wasn't aiming for that .... hmm .... I actually have the bass panned about 25 -30% right to equalize out with the guitar player on the left.

Maybe I need to squash the vox a tiny tad more and bring em up a few db?

How bout this one?
www.naomisfancy.net/nfdownloads/Love_Me_Love_Me_Honey_Do.mp3
(The same band's take on an old Patsy Cline song)
Do things sit better spatially in this one?

Same setup, exept I only used 3 mics on the drums (My version of recorderman overheads, and kik)
And I squashed the vox just a tad more on this mix.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:13 pm

"My studio is a 20x20 separate building (acoustically treated) with 8ft ceilings, " /quote

Have you ever considered installing a wall in this square building to make it more rectangular?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:47 pm

"Honey Do" is different, sort of like bass/git/drums with vox on top.

Good stuff.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:53 pm

Space wrote:

"My studio is a 20x20 separate building (acoustically treated) with 8ft ceilings, " /quote

Have you ever considered installing a wall in this square building to make it more rectangular?

Yes, probably a control room, but that will be in the future, as I have a bunch more gear I need to aquire that is more important to spend $$ on than a wall to me right now.

As it is, I have 7 6'x 6' gobos breaking up the square space quite well ... they only leave 2 feet between the top of the gobo and ceiling, and I can move them about in different configurations depending on what type of group I record.

I realize that a square space isn't the best situation for a studio but at least it's not a cube, and is broken up quite a bit with gobos.

And to greener:

Thanks much! they are a really good band .. all I did was sit and twist the knobs.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:46 pm

I have a thing for rockabilly chicks, platinum or black hair, Betty Boop tatts...

The way they sing is just cool as.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:09 pm

You're recording ain't bad. I really love the vocals on both songs. Your guitar sounds the way a guitar should sound on a rockabilly song. Though it's the drums & bass that needs to be tweaked. The upright bass, needs to have a little more fullness & bounce to it. So a little EQ & compression should do the trick.

Although you have a tight intimate sound on the drums, they just don't have any "space" to their sound. They sound like Tinker toys up close. So you need some air & space around the kit. To mimic what you needed to have acoustically, which you don't have, can be accomplished with a very short, plate like reverb on your Recorder Man overheads. Maybe even the bass drum? This will create a stereo ambient field around the kit yielding a feeling of stereo ambience space. But before you do that, you may want to compress those overheads? Just like you compress the vocal. With some compression on the bass as well and you're there.

One more and you've got it.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 1:24 am

Allright, Remy I took your advice on this mix I did tonight of another one of their songs.

http://naomisfancy.net/nfdownloads/Hungry_For_Love.mp3

I may have gone too light on the plate 'verb for the drum overheads, as I am always afraid to overdo it with FX.

Did it bring any more space to the kit?

A little compression really made the bass sit in alot nicer with the kick and evened out the levels nicely.

Compressing those overheads really brought out the kick, something I had been struggling with.
BONUS!
Thumbs Up

Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:29 pm

She's hungry for love I'm hungry for more! You nailed it! Very listenable, quite nice. Yup, in the old days, they used plenty of compression, to keep the recorded signals higher than the analog tape noise floor. Authentic sounding vintage. Everything sits right.

Glad you enjoyed. I did too.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:26 pm

Sweeeet!

Thanks Remy for, as always, the spot on advice.

When these guys came in the studio, like an idiot I boldy told them "oh yeah I can get ya that old school sound offa all this digital gear" even though I had never recorded an actual whole band with drums, amps etc.

All I've done was acoustic music LOL

Some cojones on me eh?

If it weren't for the likes of Remy ... idiots like me could end up with their butt in a sling with a band.

They were tickled to death with the mix.
Thanks again!

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