Skip to main content

New song for album I'm working on one man band deal gets tedious but is rewarding
At4047 mic into gap pre mk2 and Apogee Duet
Bass direct some guitars direct some miced with sm57

(Dead Link Removed)

Comments

kmetal Mon, 06/23/2014 - 11:53

On I ipad I clicked download and it streamed it for me.

Nice overall arrangement and recording, reminds me of JET, who I would use as a reference track cuz there stuff is excellent, recording wise.

itd be more useful to hear a full fidelity one, not an MP3. but thats tough to get around w/ streaming, so watev, but in my case i dont have to worry about virus's, so itd be useful, if i was at the studio, obviouly the tablet is limited in bandwidth.

besides that two things i hear are the hi hat gets unruly (loud) at times, especially when he opens the foot up, while most engineers hate sloshy hats, im okay ww them here, just too loud,they shouldn't be that far in front of the snare on the chorus and stuff. is that an artifact of limiting? did they do that on the mix itself? im guessing u used some sort of mastering stuff like a brickwall limiter/maximiser?

other than that, id put a LPF on the vocal distortion, i know its there as part of the vocal sound, and as an audible/obvious effect, itt just digital doesn't have the natural roll off that analog distortions do of this nature (think overblown pre-amp or 1176), and it just gets grainy and ugly. so a nice LPF will clean that up.

perhaps that vocal distortion was masking the hats, and you didn't notice, hence having them too loud? but its probably the drummer/ and or limiting easily excitable creatures they are, many tend to forget to hit the drums harder tha the cymbals, which on stage isnt that bad cuz the snare and kick is usually micd, in the recording room, its a different sttory. if you have to, ride the hat mic, and if you really have to, you might have to get surgical w filters and volume automation on the overheads, if there are any. sounds like you used triggers/samples, so this shouldn't be too involved.

also, the kick isnt cutting thru much on these tiny ipad speakers, the it it does oono some other recordings, maybe a lil boost in the 1.5-3k, or 8-10k range, for a bit of point on the kick, for the cats listening on ipads, and phones.

other than those minor things, well done, catchy, w energy, in tune vocals, and something that has its own 'sound, as opposed to a typical plain/sterile clean cut 'studio' style recording. i enjoyed it.

RemyRAD Mon, 06/23/2014 - 20:25

I thought that was an excellent recording and mix. Definitely down and dirty with a great nasty punch. Cool for forward sounding rock 'n roll with lots of focus. Great punch. In your face. I love the vocals. On the money!

I think this is the only time I found the 4047 likable? So I think you did a great job! It had a great kitschy musical hook to it. Which I really don't hear much of these days. It's real good!

It all seemed very nicely for me.
Mx. Remy Ann David

anonymous Tue, 06/24/2014 - 02:41

I enjoyed that. Nice song, well performed too. I'm not nuts about the lo-fi vocal all the way through the song, but that's a production preference, not an engineering critique.

I would like to hear the kick and snare panned more to the center, and I think your toms are spread pretty wide, but again, that's a personal taste thing.

Well done.

d./

anonymous Wed, 06/25/2014 - 06:09

Yes. I am hearing what you are talking about.

I think that what you may be hearing is the "harmonic" that you are creating by combining two sounds that share the same general frequency range....I'm referring to the strums of the acoustic - which falls on the downbeat ( the 1) - along with the synthy downward-oscillating tone you are using, which also falls on the 1, and it might be creating an aural illusion that something sounds weird with the guitar, or, vice versa.

It sounds as if, when these two instruments are played together, that you are actually creating a third tone - a "ghost" tone, if you will - that sometimes occurs when you combine two different instruments that share the same fundamental range. Occasionally, these can result in some very cool third-order sounds. Likewise, they can also be distracting. I guess I'm trying to say that there are good ghosts, and there are bad ghosts. LOL.

You could isolate both tracks to analyze.... if this does turn out to be the case, then a little Q sculpting might help, or, possibly even working with panning to separate the parts from each other a bit may also work.

I'm not saying unequivocally that this is what's going on... I'm saying this is what could be happening. You won't know until you solo up those two tracks, both separately and together, to check for any issues.
If you're not hearing any problems listening to them separately, then chances are it's the result of the combination of these two instruments that is creating the "weirdness" you are hearing.

IMHO of course. :)

d/

anonymous Thu, 12/11/2014 - 06:10

I really like the song (Ok Man)... locked down nice, cool groove, hooky.

Did you have this mastered?

If so, I'd like to hear the difference between the original pre-master mix and the mastered version.. this version sounds a bit, uhmm.. a bit dark. Although, I love that the dynamics are respected.

The lead vocal is tucked into the mix perfectly... as are the backing vox. I'm not usually a fan of distorted lead vocals, but in this context, for this song, I think it works great. It was done very well, most of the time when I hear intended distortion on a vocal track I cringe because there's always that 3.5k frequency that makes it so brittle... but in this song, it was done very well and it's smooth. Nice job.

Yup. I'm digging the song. I just think it sounds a bit dark... although I'd rather hear that than a bunch of hyped-up harsh hi mids and hi's any day. ;)

Nice job, Pack.

edit... I just listened to it again.. and noticed what you did with bass line, dropping out in some sections. I love this. The song has an actual bass part! I'm diggin it.
-d.

anonymous Thu, 12/11/2014 - 06:17

PS... you need a real video that shows the band ( if you don't have one, grab some friends and put one together for the video!) The random (stock?) footage you are using doesn't help to support the song.

Cows, old baby dolls and construction equipment isn't cutting it. Sorry...just being honest.

You don't need to show the band throughout the entire video, but here and there would help a lot. And make the cutaway footage more appropriate for the song. ;)

Fargus Thu, 12/11/2014 - 07:50

thx donny you are the only person that has noticed the bass drop out in first verse really appreciate the kind words. There is no band it's just me playing everything and singing. The clips all relate to the song if you know what the song is about. Also cowbell! not a fan of videos that show the band I feel like the music should be the focus not the artists fashion. Tool is a perfect example of this all there videos don't have the band in them.