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Beerco 1 April 2014

Hi there all,

My name is Andy and I've always dabbled a bit in recording and engineering but most of my work has been as an amateur or semi-pro musician in a pro studio.

I joined a band for fun and we wanted to record some demos to help line up gigs and because I've dabbled before and needed to find (or perhaps rekindle) a new hobby, I decided to produce this one myself. That and it only cost time instead of money!

Having compared this to a number of pro recordings and high end home recordings I know there's issues but I thought I'd post it here and get some comments on what to focus on first to improve the sound quality of my recordings. I'll make these versions public ASAP just to line up the shows but I'm quite interested in upping my game even more.

(Two songs in this setlist, two more still under production)
[MEDIA=soundcloud]softwhite-1/sets/softwhite-demo-1[/MEDIA]

Gear:

Drums were recorded with an H4n overhead with an additional mic on the Kick and snare. Snare seems to have picked up too much hi-hat.

Everything else was recorded through an Apogee Duet either direct (in the case of synths) or using an AT 2050.

DAW is Logic pro X, using almost exclusively stock plugins other than a few freebees that made it on here, probably a little bit of limiting.

Come to think of it, I think the synths and bass guitar might have been recorded in using a Lexicon Omega which I'm not very thrilled with but one of the channels was busted on my Duet and that's the only way I could record two tracks at once.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and get some feedback.

Thanks so much,

-Andy

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Comments

anonymous Tue, 04/01/2014 - 06:20

Observations:

Mix:

Vocals are buried. They need to come out to the front.

I disagree about the hi hat, I think it's a good balance.

Low end is muddy and undefined. Try using a HPF on everything but bass guitar and kick.
(HPF's will vary in settings depending on the individual tracks)

The snare level works in the intro, but becomes overbearing in the verses. Either draw in a volume envelope, or have the drummer play more dynamically to fit the sections of the songs where the other instrumentation is coming down in level.

Imaging is nice on guitars and synth, you have a decent spread with depth and space.

Performance:

Vocals are very pitchy, and lack dynamics. She sounds nervous and lacking confidence.
Overall, there's no real "energy". It's very lackluster, there's nothing that gives any real excitement to the track.

IMHO of course.

Beerco Tue, 04/01/2014 - 06:26

Thanks Donny. Did you listen to both tracks or just the first one?

I did do a low cut on all the tracks but it seems like there needs to be more. The mic we had in the kick was absolute crap so perhaps I'll need to find something else. What I ended up doing was to EQ it to find a nice sounding resonance and then gated it and some other junk.

As to the snare, I'm not sure how to go about enveloping it. The snare track is really snare + hi-hat which might be difficult to isolate. Probably worth trying though.

Vox71 Fri, 05/09/2014 - 10:55

I agree with Donny & CrazyLuke. Vox needs to pop way more. Also as Donny stated the snare needs to be tamed a bit (moreso in the first song than the second), and low-end needs a bit of definition. Apart from that I like the way things sound. Synths & Guitar sound great. I am just a home-recording enthusiast. I don't do it for a living so keep that in mind when I offer criticism. I am making suggestions more as a listener.

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