My Music: For Tool, Kyuss, QOTSA, and Pink Floyd Fans

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:41 am

Hi. I have finished three songs thus far and I would love some criticism on mix/composition/whatever. This is all home recording through some cheap stuff, some good stuff and with a good source(for guitar).

Take your pick I suppose.

Siren Song - Queens of the Stone Age but more aggresive.

Of Fire and Light - My most original work, hard, soft, trippy, been described as dreamlike.

Nil - my least favorite. Sounds too much like Tool for my comfort, but I put the time in to track and mix it, so I went ahead and posted it.

I would also be interested (if you can stomach it) to hear which mix people like the best.

Thanks for your time.

Here is the link: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=567397

Click the "Hi-Fi" button to listen.

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 6:08 pm

Wow, I'm very impressed with these recordings. I listened to the first two songs. Can you tell me your whole home studio setup and everything you used to record these tracks? One thing, right in the middle of "Of Fire and Light" , I would like to hear the singing/voices a little bit more, it would be nice to make out the words. (would probably make it trippier) But anyway, if you can just tell me all the equipment you used to record these tracks, that would be awesome. I think these are incredible though, great job!!! Very Happy

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:19 am

Hey Skylar, thank you for the kind words. All those views and no replies, I just assumed noone really cared for it.

Anyway, my setup is pretty meager in terms of actual recording equipment(but I love my guitar and amp). So here we go.

Guitars = Ibanez Ghostrider(alder body) -> Diezel VH4 -> SM57 -> Sebatron Thorax -> Tascam US-428

Bass(not a very good sound IMHO) = Schecter C5 -> Diezel VH4 -> SM57 -> Sebatron Thorax -> Tascam US-428

Vocals = Kel HM-1 -> Sebatron Thorax -> Tascam US-428

Drums = Drumkit from Hell 1

All this mixed in Cubasis 2.0(unavailable these days) with free plugs and a demo of WaveArts Powersuite 5.

A complete list of my gear is as follows:

Diezel VH4 Guitar Amp
Sebatron Thorax
1 Shure SM57
1 Kel Audio HM-1
Tascam US-428 digital recording interface
Toontracks Drumkit from Hell 1
Cubasis VST 2.0
WaveArts PowerSuite 5

So, as you can see im not working with a whole lot here. I need a large diaphram condenser, a real bass amp(as im currently running it through a guitar amp and don't like the sound), and real drums would be nice Mad

.

While I don't think it sounds professional BY ANY MEANS, I am actually happy for the time being and don't foresee buying any gear in the near future. Thats a pleasant change! Very Happy

I should note that my amp is more expensive than all my other gear combined and that purchasing it was easily the biggest step up in my recording sound quality. I am a big believer in spending money on the source.

P.S. WaveArts is kind enough to let you demo their stuff for free for a month with FULL FUNCTIONALITY.

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:12 am

Those are some greate songs! But the mix can be improved. Start by lowering the guitars around 3-5db and maybe take the OH's 2db down also. The vocals are good, so use them to bring the song more to life, a 3-5db boost and also try putting some minor stereo delay on them.
I'll have to disagree on the bass sound, I think it suits the tracks well, but you could maybe give it a little low end boost (tho i'm not sure if it's the mix that's missing bass or those crappy headphones i'm using ;] ).

Keep up the good work! I'm really looking forward to hearing more of your work!

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:52 pm

Hey man. Thanks for the advice. It thinks its pretty much right on. Im first and foremost a guitar player so, the band just being me, I tend to 1. turn the guitar up a little loud and 2. write completely guitar driven songs.

Im glad you enjoyed them. I am putting them up in sets of four as I finish them, so it will be a while before I post the next songs, but I will be sure to keep everyone updated and hopefully my mixes will improve a bit.

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:21 am

eonblue wrote:

Siren Song - Queens of the Stone Age but more aggresive.

Sounds alot better than any Queens of the Stone Age song I've ever heard Thumbs Up

Honestly thought it was a whole band with some triggered kicks before I read the rest of the thread, excellent production!

As far as the mix goes, listening on my crappy pc speakers at work it sounded excellent. I guess there might be some minor flaws somewhere in it, but everything that came thru my speakers sounded good. I really like the guitar tone and I don't think I would change its level. It IS a guitar driven song right? ... of course I'm a guitarist too so I get accused of turning the guitars up too loud also. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 6:26 am

hahahahah. Thanks. Err, well, I'll take that as a compliment

The QOTSA songs "I Think I Lost My Headache" and "You Can't Quit Me Baby" are more like Kyuss than their other stuff and are really really awesome. More so than my song to be sure. But hey.

I have seemed to notice that the worse the speakers, the better my songs sound, hahahha. Sounds best to me on earbuds, but, I figured thats what the majority of people would be listening on so...

Thanks for listening and Im glad you enjoyed it.[/i]

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:31 am

Wow I really loved the first 2 songs... Siren Song it sounded alot like QOTSA, to some ppl that might not be a compliment but I'm a huge fan. I feel on this one the vocals need to be brought out a little bit more. I also like how its very aggresive before the second chorus.

For Of Fire and Light I liked the sound that you get on your guitar, what plug in did u use for it or is it a pedal or preamp. I agree with skylar in the middle of the song with the singing/voices, i'd like to hear it a bit more... the last 3 minutes of this song are just great.

Since u think Nil is youre least favorite song I think this one is pretty much better than any of the songs that Ive heard from the new tool album, besides the single they have out. again i love the sound u get out of your guitars.

Overall I thought all of these songs rocked very nice

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:33 am

I like the first track a lot... The drums seem masked a little bit as far as "punch"... but the guitars are huge. Not in a bad way... I like the space you got out of them. What effects/panning setup did you use? Nice and wide.

The vocals have a touch too much low mid on them for the mix... that might be cleaned up with adding punch to the drums though.

Very cool, well done!!!

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:59 pm

Thanks for the replies. Umm, guitars are single tracked then panned hard left and right then I added a little stereo widening with a plug.

As far as those who like the guitar sound, Im afraid the credit has to go to Mr. Diezel there. There are NO effects on the guitar aside from just a touch of EQ. That touch being a low pass filter set fairly moderate and a little bump around 2700. Otherwise, its all amp. No pedals or anything.

The drums are something I wrestle with constantly. These are really the first records I have seriously sat down and tried to make sound good so Im still working lots of kinks out. I think the bottom end needs to be filled out also so on my next recordings im going to do one through the amp as well as do one direct through the Sebatron.

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