First recordings

[Futant55]

I just started my own studio out of my shed in my backyard. I've recorded two songs with my friends band( Blood Red Disciple) They are a metal band from Abilene Texas. The first song Through the eye of the needle is more complete, I hope to only do a few more tweaks to get it to where I want it. The possession was the first song we recorded, but the band wasn't happy with their performance so we might rerecord it. Everything is miced instruments no direct recording or triggers. My local radiostation is going to play it on the local bands show this weekend so I really want to get it sounding the best I can before we hand it over to the them, So any comments would be very much appreciated.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...?bandID=600859

[brandondrury]

Okay, I gave your mix a listen here.

While I'm a little bored with metal these days, the band did play with excitement. You can hear that in the tune and that's worth a lot. Many bands do not.

Let's get to engineering / mixing issues.
The drums are boxy. Your room sounds very much like my room does which is why I don't do drums in that room anymore. (Now if a band wants to record drums, we'll go to the big studio with the Neve and the huge rooms or we'll program them in Cubase).

This "boxiness" is usually caused in the 400-600Hz region. The good news is that you can't just EQ out this area. Essentially, the boxy room adds a layer of snot on top of the tracks that you can't easily remove.

Damn it, the singer is here. I'll reply tonight

Branodn

[Futant55]

Damn that was a cruel tease, I'm gonna try and work on it tonight so I'm looking forward to what else you have to say, Thanks again.

[brandondrury]

Sorry dude. I don't like leaving people hanging, but duty calls sometimes.

Back to the mix.
Without a doubt, the drums are sort of lost under a blanket of boxiness. If this is a problem with your room, the best solution is to get a new room. Treatments only go so far for this sort of thing.

If you room is not 10x12x8 or whatever then it may be in your recording technique, drum tuning, etc. (By the way, if the drums are not tuned up, you are the one everyone will be blaming on the record. Engineering sucks that way).

Your guitars have some fizz to them, which is fine, but it may conflict with what I'm about to suggest. I'm assuming that you are mastering this one based on it's level and such. You may try using a high shelf at 2-3Khz by 2dB or so to get this thing a little brighter and a little more alive sounding. I've got a feeling that this mix was actually pretty cooking on your monitors. You just have to apply "the curve" to it and make sure the drums punch through more.

If the high shelf on the 2Bus doesn't help, you may want to try some parallel compression.

Brandon

[Futant55]

Here is my second shot, tell me if it's any better.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...?bandID=600859

[brandondrury]

The guitars sound pretty good. They are a little fizzy. I'd probably back the gain down one notch the next time, but they are still sound good. They have more of an industrial tone to them than metal, but that's okay. If you want the industrial tone, keep it. Either way the guitars are cool.

By the way, my computer speakers have been giving me hell. It's those damn 1/8" speakers. I'm probably listening in mono right now and who knows if I'm hearing the right side, the left side, or a mono combination of both.

I'm getting this feeling that your drummer didn't hit the drums hard enough. For metal, I want a brutal amount of attack. To get that, you have to have a well tuned kit and the drummer has to attempt to knock a whole through each drum with each hit. There's nothing you can do about that now, but in the future, do not stop until your metal drummers and busting sticks and heads. It's the only way to get that attack (that I know of).

I think your mix is pretty solid. The drums are still boxy, but I think that's your room (just like my room). If you can do drums in a big studio, do it. If you can't, you'll just have to work your way around it. (WHICH SUCKS!!!)

I think this mix is done. Burn the song to cd and give it to the band. It's time to record your next project.

By the way, great job. I saw that you only have $1500 in equipment. You've done a great job with very little gear! To move up to the big leagues you probably would want some more gear, obviously, but I have a feeling that the band is very happy with the project. When people say that $2000 pres are required to make a solid recording, I'll send them to this thread.

Brandon

[dach]

I just took a quick listen to one... Great job.... but... for next time...

the gtr's need less distortion and it's VERY bright - shelve the gtr's down a bit, the drums are pretty boxing as stated before - shelve them up... the cookie monster sounds fine... my biggest gripe is the playing... I'm not saying anyone is not good, but things wold be much easier to gel if the timing was MUCH tighter. Performance should be rule #1. If you guys played REALLY tight and inspired, I bet a much better mix could be gotten.

Next time you record, pay more attention and try to get your BEST performance... mistakes in the recording process don't seem to be as evident when the band is slamming...

[brandondrury]

I should have mentioned this too. There are parts where the band sounds pretty tight, but as a unit they get a little sloppy from time to time. In this setting, no mixing or engineering is going to fix anything but the results will sound "shitty".

My little rule of thumb is if one part of the song sounds good from an engineering standpoint, but then somewhere it starts to sound bad, odds are, it's issues with the performance.

Brandon

[Futant55]

Originally Posted by dach

I just took a quick listen to one... Great job.... but... for next time...

the gtr's need less distortion and it's VERY bright - shelve the gtr's down a bit, the drums are pretty boxing as stated before - shelve them up... the cookie monster sounds fine... my biggest gripe is the playing... I'm not saying anyone is not good, but things wold be much easier to gel if the timing was MUCH tighter. Performance should be rule #1. If you guys played REALLY tight and inspired, I bet a much better mix could be gotten.

Next time you record, pay more attention and try to get your BEST performance... mistakes in the recording process don't seem to be as evident when the band is slamming...

Thanks for the advice. I'm not actually in this band I"m just recording them. I tried to get them to use a click track, but it just wasn't working, because the drummer had never played with one before.

[brandondrury]

While I'm thinking about it, the guitar brightness issue is an easy trap to fall into. I'm not sure why, but it's a tendency for many young engineers to mix guitars with lots of upper mids and fizz.

Ironically, the Royer R121 (an extremely popular guitar mic) knocks most of that out.

Listen to you favorite recordings. Metal guitars are MUCH darker than most people think.

Brandon