Can someone with good recording experience bash this recording!?

[adgemstudios]

Hey.
Please take a listen to this recording of my mates band.
Im very new to recording.
Everything I've learned has been through this site and other people!
I've maybe recorded 5 songs max, and this is the latest one.

Can anyone give me any tips to improve the quality?
Im using:

MOTU MK2

SM57 close mic'd on cabs
DI'd bass
STAGG drum mics
SE Electronics mic

Some things iv done to the mix:
Gated kick/snare
Compression on kick/snare/overheads

Theres a sample snare over the top using KTDrumtrigger.

I've also quantized the drums by using the scissors tool, slicing up the audio,....you know how it goes.

Limiter/EQ/envolope shaper on drums bus.
Limiter settings INPUT 4.5ish, OUTPUT 0

I recorded the guitar track, doubled it up, panned them L/R, then doubled up them, so i have 4 tracks.

Compresson is each track, EQ/Compression on guitar bus

Heavy compression on vocals

Very slight EQ/Limiter on master bus.
Limiter settings, INPUT around +4.5, OUTPUT 0.

I cut out low freq's on alot of the tracks until it changed the sound, then backed off abit, everything apart from kick,toms,bass.
Apparantly this can make it sound less muddy?

When I was recording the drums, the signal peaks were hitting around -15/10 db's. Then when they were recording, was normalizing to -3dbs to boost the gain.


So aswell as maybe turing up/down instruments, what else can I do to improve my recording technique? 1 thing i've noticed, is everytime my band (ispystrangers - NEW TRACK UP ONLY UNTIL 26TH!!! on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos) have been to the studio, they always get a wicked snare sound. Mine always sound muffled, not sharp and crisp.
Not matter how I EQ, I cant seem to get something sharp.
I'm also finding it hard to bring the kick out in the mix.
I've been cutting away some low freq in the bass and boosting the same area in the kick. Not really having much luck!

The mp3 iv posted has been put into a cd, ripped off (m4a) then i converted it to mp3, so im not sure how much quality has been lost.
But take a listen!

Anyway, thanks for reading.
BASH AWAY
x

[jjb]

I'd prefer the guitars panned even more. And a bit more volume on the lead voice. Yes, the snare is still un-crisp. I can only guess that the source of the snare is the problem. If it isn't crisp to start out with, you tend to fight an up-hill battle. As for the kick, that's always tough. Sometimes I'll record a separate track with a synthesized kick and make sure my bass doesn't live in the same frequency space. Hopefully others will chime in.

jjb

[fHumble fHingaz]

I'll bet if you turn up the overheads high you're hearing a good crack on the snare & and a good smack on the kick... If that's the case, you'll probably find that when you turn up the overheads high enough for it to make a difference to the kick & snare sound, the cymbals will be cutting your head off... This works better with a separate room mike than with existing overheads, but you could give it a go anyway - you could insert a compressor sidechained to "listen" to the kick & snare tracks in the overhead tracks. If you compress it fairly heavily & boost it, it will activate when the kick & snare hit only, (theoretically) bringing up the volume of the overheads at those moments only... I was experimenting with this just last night, so you may want to try it.

Also, perhaps try a saturation plugin on the snare & kick - I've found that something like the freeware Tessla SE can do wonders for that extra "edge" on the snare & kick.

Actually, it sounds like you could do with more overheads in this track anyway - the cymbals are a bit low in the mix. Hope this helps.

[adam0568]

sounds pretty cool man!

i agree with the others though. you got thud on the snare, but you need crack. id say you need more high end on everything. bass could use a dupe track with some distortion as well.

[adam0568]

hey dude would it be cool if i imported this in cubase and tried adding a couple plugins to it? dont worry if its not!

[adgemstudios]

Nah thats cool go for it!
How can I get you the files?
Does this site allow you to attach them?

[adam0568]

i just messed with the .mp3 here. it's probably not ideal but neither is applying a buncha plugs across the whole track! i just wanted to play around with some plugins on an outside song (which was pretty sweet by the way).

i'm sorry for butchering it too....im still getting the hang of this.

thanks man

[adam0568]

here are some screenshots


did i mention i dont have monitors?

[adgemstudios]

Yeah that sounds alot better.
The vocals sit alot better in the mix aswell.

Are those plug-ins your using all freeware?
If so can you link me?
Could you explain a little what you did to the track?
It sounds alot louder than the one i posted aswell.
Can you explain how you achieved that?

To get my bus's louder, ive been slapping cubase's limiter on, keeping the output at 0dbs and boosting the input.

Is this the right way to get it louder?
Or am I completely off the mark?

Should the loudness be brought up by importing the exported mp3 back into cubase and messing with it like that?


I had a play around with the kick aswell, stands out alot more in the track now. I think I maybe should of pushed the vocals up abit more.
But its still not as loud as the one you've done, and my bus's we're hitting 0dbs. So im abit confused!
I feel I can learn alot from you!
Still not getting a good crack on the snare, but to be honest, the raw snare wasn't amazing anyway.

Easier to understand rather than looking at your screenshots.
Thanks for helping me out tho, means alot!
x

[adam0568]

hey man i'll post a detailed response tonight, gotta go to a class right now. btw your band's myspace sounds killer! what do you play? i've heard a ton of great bands from the UK lately!

are you on a Mac or a PC?