Finally, first recording almost done...

[Tony Ramone]

Alright people, I've finally managed to almost record a complete song (still gotta do vocals and maybe add a different guitar), so I thought I'd post and see if people think I'm heading in the right direction. This mix is pretty rough as it stands, and there are a number of things I plan to change (details below), but I figured I'd post here so that other people could help me catch the things I wouldn't have noticed myself. The only bit of processing I've done so far is just with the built-in multiband compressor to make certain instruments stand out from the rest, I hope it doesn't sound too much of a mush...

Issues:

1) I really don't like the drums - they were programmed with Hydrogen, and that crash is making my ears bleed. I have EZdrummer now though, so I'm gonna reprogram them with that

2) I'm not particularly happy with the bass either - I just couldn't get a nice sound out of it, I should probably get new strings at least before I do any more recording with it.

As well as that, I may have too many layers on the guitars - my idea initially was to have one guitar on the left and another one on the right (with two different guitars to distinguish them i.e. 2 guitar players), but on the night I only had time to set up one for the recording, so I recorded 4 tracks: 2 rhythm and 2 lead and left it. I hard panned the rhythm tracks and slightly panned the lead, but I was thinking maybe when I record the other guitar, do I fade out the lead track during the rhythm parts, or just drop the volume a bit? Also, when you're doubling a guitar track, but you want it to be heard just on one side, how do you work the panning? Do you still hard pan the 2 tracks but just drop the volume on one side, or do you hard pan one and just slightly pan the other?
I realise this post is rambling on far too much so no one will probably listen to the track now, so I'll leave ye to it. Enjoy (or hate, whatever...).

Bash away!

[davisonp]

Reminds me of the sex pistols. Hope that's ok. If it was mine I'm not sure I'd mess with it too much. The guitars sound good to me. Maybe you don't need to redo the drums either just take some top end of them. You can record each drum seperately with hydrogen. You could do your cymbals as a group and just change the eq on them. I reckon it's "ace"

[Tony Ramone]

Thanks dude, don't worry, I don't take offense at the pistols comparison .
I actually have all the drums as separate tracks from hydrogen, but my main problem with them is the lack of variety - every time there's a crash hit, it sounds exactly the same as the last one, it just grates on my ears (and my brain).
Glad the guitars sound ok - I've lost all objectivity at the moment, gotta take a break for a day or so then listen to it again.
Cheers for your comments.

[Chinthaka]

drum and guitar r not played to tempo (i don't know u did it ur own?) n crash is bit much. i think if u hidden it in other drum track it will b ok. post ur final mix i think it will better than this one. basically i think problem is TEMPO

[Chinthaka]

didn't u get metronome to head phone while playing drum?

[Tony Ramone]

The drums are programmed, and I've never done any programming before so if it sounds a bit off tempo, it might be that I missed beats here and there. I know the crash is horrible - see my last post.
The guitar playing was admittedly a bit frantic, and the reason's a little odd: with my guitar amp turned up loud enough to sound any way decent, I couldn't hear the mix coming through the headphones, even after wrapping some insulation around it (I didn't have enough on hand at the time to build a proper "fort", but I think I will), so when I was playing the guitar parts, I had to actually step outside the door to hear the rest of the mix (I have wireless headphones). Unfortunately, the air was teeming with midges, so while I was trying to play I was being eaten alive. You should see my fretting hand - it's covered in hives. Hence the manic guitar playing.

[brandondrury]

The only bit of processing I've done so far is just with the built-in multiband compressor to make certain instruments stand out from the rest, I hope it doesn't sound too much of a mush...

I would immediately take it off and post a mix without it. Multi-band compressors are not there to make instruments stand out. They are there to control levels of specific frequencies and they cause total mayhem and ruin all fidelity you don't know exactly what you are doing. There is a time to experiment with multi-band compression and this stage in the game is not it. Put it down for 6 months. You'll be a better engineer for it.

I have EZdrummer now though, so I'm gonna reprogram them with that

Great! That problem will be solved.

2) I'm not particularly happy with the bass either - I just couldn't get a nice sound out of it, I should probably get new strings at least before I do any more recording with it.

I appears to have a nice midrange to it but no bottom end. I like that kind of midrange for this kind of music though.

my idea initially was to have one guitar on the left and another one on the right (with two different guitars to distinguish them i.e. 2 guitar players),

I like your initial idea better. I think you have a bunch of tracks of guitars that aren't that great to begin with. I know! I've done it too many times before. They have a washed out quality to them that you wouldn't have with just two tracks.

Also, I think the "different sound on each side" thing is over rated. It only works on songs with 2 guitar players. I'm of the opinion that the point of doubling guitars is to make one guitar player sound big. If there are two guitars players, it's very rare to double each one. So instead of getting all wound up about different tones on each side and a bunch of layers, I woud work on getting a single guitar sound that really rocks and doubling it.

I hard panned the rhythm tracks and slightly panned the lead, but I was thinking maybe when I record the other guitar, do I fade out the lead track during the rhythm parts, or just drop the volume a bit?

These are all good options.

Also, when you're doubling a guitar track, but you want it to be heard just on one side, how do you work the panning? Do you still hard pan the 2 tracks but just drop the volume on one side, or do you hard pan one and just slightly pan the other?

It depends on what you want to do. You could automate the tracks and send them all to one side. That'll give you more of a chorus effect. If you just want to kill one side for dynamics or something, I would just mute that one side temporarily via automation.

I realise this post is rambling on far too much so no one will probably listen to the track now

Your not rambling. You are asking the kinds of questions that only get asked here in Bash This Recording. This is why I consider it the fastest way to improve mixes!

Brandon

[Tony Ramone]

Cheers Brandon, thanks for all the tips. I'll get to work on it as soon as I get home, or if I can get a chance to whip out the laptop at lunchtime
worky-worky...

edit: also, you're absolutely right - I hadn't a clue what I was doing with the multiband compressor, I was just fuckin about really. I wanted to put up some sort of a mix before this weekend, cos I'm off for two weeks and may not have internet access during that time. I will hopefully get lots of recording done though.

edit again: all righty-roo, had about 15 minutes free during lunch so I opened up the laptop and had a bit of a tinker with the song. I've taken out all the multiband compression, moved a couple of faders, and put a bit of automation on the intro solo (ran out of time so I didnt do the outro). Listening to it on the crappy PC speakers here, it sounds like I've boosted the volume a bit much during the sutomation, oh well...
As it is, it's still got all the audio tracks that I recorded (including, by accident, a doubled bass track). I'll start pulling stuff out here and there later to see what sounds best (to my ears anyway).
Unfortunately, after mixdown, it was a 30MB wav, and since I forgot to convert it to mp3 before I shut down my laptop, I had to download a converter onto this machine, which seems to only convert half the song then stop, so for now, here's half the new mix. I'm off now to delete what is possibly a virus from the machine .

[brandondrury]

I'm listening tothe latest mix.

I'm hearing zero kick drum. I sense that it may be in there somewhere but not with my ears. You may want a boomy kick without tons of high end definition, but we should still be hearing it more than that in my opinion.

Other than that, I think it sounds pretty good.

Brandon

[Tony Ramone]

Yeah, sorry, I probably didn't boost it enough after I took off the compressor. I threw this together fairly quickly in the canteen at work, using in-ear headphones, which meant I was hearing a lot more bass than might be heard on any other system.
Gonna do some serious work on it this weekend though, must record the vocals tonight cos I'm thinkin' of getting my tongue pierced tomorrow, which means no coherent vocal recording for a couple of weeks at least.