Folky trying programed drums and electric instraments

[big_rob_cooper]

Hi Folks
My partner and I have been playing this song for some time as an acoustic folk number and I thought it might be fun to try and turn it a little rocky, this is just the first bit and I have still to record the uptempo bit and her vocals. I'm fairly pleased with the overall sound but would like to hear from others feelings.

Used Ibanez deadnought miced with a rode M3
Strat copy of dudious chinese origin DI'ed into my Focusrite PRO10
Garageband
FX lexicon M200 and Garageband AU pugins .
Drums and Bass both programmed

[brandondrury]

The overall production has a "cheesy" element in regard to the sounds being used on the drums and percussion. It's clear that old school synth sounds were used and that gives it a robotic drum machine kind of sound.

I'd put some real effort into varying the drums to make them sound more natural. By varying the velocity and timing each hit you can create a much more natural sounding performance. (That's the MEGA short version).

While a synthesis based keyboard sounds were all us home recording guys had in the past, now the possibilities have expanded tremendously with samples. I'd check out Superior Drummer 2.0, but I'm not sure if it's compatible with Logic/Garageband.

The triangle and cymbals strike me as being too bright for this song. When the vocals come in you can really hear the high end fighting the vocal.

I like the acoustic guitar sound. I like the vocal sound.

This is subjective, but I'd prefer more ambiance on the acoustic guitar.

[uab9253]

For my taste, and everyone is different, there is too much chorus on the track. That's the one that always gets me, because I overused it when I first got a hold of one. I was in love with the sound, and I'd have put chorus on my chorus if there had been a way.
The rest, I pretty much agree with Brandon. I used to use the Roland TR drum machines, and I could get them a little more real sounding sometimes with a bit of reverb. You can try that if this drum set of tones are the only ones you have access too. I also used to tap in my fills by hand, which made them a little more organic. Sometimes too much so. Nice work overall.

[big_rob_cooper]

Completely agree on the cheesy drum sounds I really am a beginner on this one. My idea is to use the drum sounds to map out the playing then pay a drummer to record in a studio. I'm still along way from this however or maybe find a live drummer online. In the mean time I will look into loops, some come with Garageband.

I'm starting to get frustrated with Garageband and I think I'm reaching the end of its usefulness for me. I had planned to move to logic express but like so many plans another more pressing family expense took my annual meager bonus so will need to wait another month alas.

My main problems with Garageband are the inability to change tempo mid song and you can't bus tracks to different outputs there is only a stereo mix this is a little limiting and I would like to try my hand at doing the final mix on my soundcraft desk

Thanks for your comments I feel quite encouraged.

[brandondrury]

Completely agree on the cheesy drum sounds I really am a beginner on this one. My idea is to use the drum sounds to map out the playing then pay a drummer to record in a studio. I'm still along way from this however or maybe find a live drummer online. In the mean time I will look into loops, some come with Garageband.

Really programming a natural performance is possible but it's a tremendous amount of work. I can do it in about ten hours per song. I really like using the modern samples and I finally broke down and bought an electronic drum kit just so I can have a real drummer come in, knock the song down in 5 or 6 takes, edit, and move on. That takes 30-60 minutes per song and the results are WAY better than editing.

Loops can work but they have their downsides too.

I'm starting to get frustrated with Garageband and I think I'm reaching the end of its usefulness for me. I had planned to move to logic express but like so many plans another more pressing family expense took my annual meager bonus so will need to wait another month alas.

From what I hear, even the budget version of Logic is excellent. Garageband is a good starter program but some people outgrow it. Just don't feel to frustrated by not having the exact tools you want. Keep on hammering it!

I would like to try my hand at doing the final mix on my soundcraft desk

You'll need an audio interface with quite a few outputs to pull this off. What are you using now?


Brandon

[big_rob_cooper]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

You'll need an audio interface with quite a few outputs to pull this off. What are you using now?


Brandon

I have a Focusrite Saffire PRO10 which has 8 analoge out and 2 digital. I've not seen it mentioned too often here but its been a great purchase for me so far, its also expandable should the need rise.
It has two modes Tracking and Soundcard, in tracking mode the outs are configured as four stereo pairs over which you control the mix of play back and live input, useful for feeding a headphone amp with a different mix for each player (I haven't used this as yet for two reasons no headphone amp and two there are two configureable headpone outs and as we are a duo this is enough at the moment).
In soundcard mode each output is independent. This is not very helpful with Garageband as there is only one stereo out which comes out of everything. I have had some sucess playing a soloed track to outboard fx and recording back to a new track in garageband but its a bit long winded, however often worth it as the lexcion MX-200 I have sounds better then my plugins. (I think I can use the lexcion as a hardware/software plugin as well via spdif but haven't had the spare time to look at this yet.)

I two looked at the electric drum kit option and when funds allow I think it may be a good investment.

[brandondrury]

I two looked at the electric drum kit option and when funds allow I think it may be a good investment.

It took me a while too before I could afford one. I still ended up spending quite a bit more than I had planned.

Brandon

[uab9253]

I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to try to use the midi out of my Yamaha DT express kit to drive the drums in EZDrummer. When I first got the Yamaha, I thought the sounds were pretty killer, especially compared to the Roland TR stufff and even the Alesis drum machine I had, but now that I've heard sampled drums, nothing else will do. The Yamaha kit is velocity sensitive, but I don't know how many levels or how well that will translate to velocity samples in EZD. I spent about a grand on the Yamaha when it first came out - around 2001.