Opinions on a song I recorded and mixed for my friend's band

[TheSkyline]

I recored some music for them a week or so ago. I don't have the best equipment, but we dealt with that we had, and after a lot of mixing and EQing, I think it turned out pretty good.
What do you guys think?

www.myspace.com/epicfailure420

I really want to get into producing when I'm older, so any advice is appreciated!

[Tristan Needler]

Where did you record it? The drums sound pretty muffled/far away and the guitar seems to lack definition. I think it's weird that the snare is almost totally in my left ear and the cymbals are almost totally in my right, I'd bring the snare pretty much right to the center and the cymbals quite a bit closer to the middle.

I don't really know about vocal mixing, but it sounds kind of like it was recorded in a very echoy room. They also seem a kind of quiet in the beginning, I can't really tell what he's saying.

The bass and guitar kind of blend together into one sound, but I think metal sound like that a lot so that's not necessarily bad.

[bassdrummer2333]

sounds pretty good for bad equipment. Drums seem weird, very far away and low in volume.

[TheSkyline]

Haha yeah, we only had 4 mics for the drums. And that's weird, because I had the mics right on the drums, I wasn't recording it from far away or anything. But I'll definitely work more on that when I record them again this weekend.
Yeah, the vocals have some weird echo to them, I'll probably make him record them in a closet or something next time. haha
I tried to bring out as much tone as I could for the guitar, but the dude has a line 6, so it's hardly even real tone. haha

Thanks for the advice guys! Hopefully the next song will sound a bit better.

[Tristan Needler]

Did you record each drum mic to a separate track? You should try to bring the kick out more it had it's own mic.

[TheSkyline]

That was my mistake. I had all the mics channeled into one track, I should have done separate tracks.
Definitely next time I'll be focusing on the drums a lot more. Thanks!

[lew_1987]

Agree with everything that has been said, especially the guitar tone being bad. Did you mic up the amp, or plug it straight into the recorder? It seems as though the guitarist is relying more on gain than getting a good sounding EQ (typical of unexperienced players).

[TheSkyline]

I plugged it straight in through the amp to the computer. Yeah, I tried to EQ the guitars as much as I could do get a decent tone out of them, but it's probably like you said. He was worried more about the gain than the tone. Hopefully next time will sound a lot better.

[lew_1987]

I plugged it straight in through the amp to the computer. Yeah, I tried to EQ the guitars as much as I could do get a decent tone out of them, but it's probably like you said. He was worried more about the gain than the tone. Hopefully next time will sound a lot better.

I mean it would help a lot if he just got a better amp... Amps like line 6 often use a lot of gain in their pre-made sounds to cover up the fact that they're just crap. If you mic it up next time, it might make a bit of a difference, as you can get a bit of a warmer sound by micing it up above the center of the speaker. If you use two mics, you can add a bit more dimension to the sound too. Just read up on it on the internet a bit and try some things out.

[TheSkyline]

I mean it would help a lot if he just got a better amp... Amps like line 6 often use a lot of gain in their pre-made sounds to cover up the fact that they're just crap. If you mic it up next time, it might make a bit of a difference, as you can get a bit of a warmer sound by micing it up above the center of the speaker. If you use two mics, you can add a bit more dimension to the sound too. Just read up on it on the internet a bit and try some things out.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he was using a pre-set too, I always mess around with my line 6 to get some decent sound out of it, but when I go back over to record I'll be sure to get the tone as good as it can get. And I'll try using two mics, that will probably give it a more full sound too, which would be good.
Thanks!

[TheSkyline]

The new songs are up now. Listen to "More Chicks". I feel like I did a way better job recording the drums this time. But still, any advice/criticism is appreciated.

[Tristan Needler]

Drums are better for sure, but now the guys voice is only in my left ear haha.

Now all they need to do is learn to play together as a band....

Is there a bass? Because I can't really hear it. And the drums are better quality, but they're also kind of overbearing now, the guitar/bass should sort of sit with the drums, it sort of sounds like they're buried under them.


Edit: Hahahaha "Toby Clark on the drums, y'all"

[TheSkyline]

Drums are better for sure, but now the guys voice is only in my left ear haha.

Now all they need to do is learn to play together as a band....

Is there a bass? Because I can't really hear it. And the drums are better quality, but they're also kind of overbearing now, the guitar/bass should sort of sit with the drums, it sort of sounds like they're buried under them.


Edit: Hahahaha "Toby Clark on the drums, y'all"

Yeah, I swear I sat at my computer all day trying to pan it equally, but the dudes voice was stuck on one side. I guess I screwed that up. haha
Thanks, I'll try to work on getting everything more balanced.

And btw, his name is Cody Clark. hahaha

[Tristan Needler]

Yeah, I swear I sat at my computer all day trying to pan it equally, but the dudes voice was stuck on one side. I guess I screwed that up. haha
Thanks, I'll try to work on getting everything more balanced.

And btw, his name is Cody Clark. hahaha
Hahaha.

Sounds like you had the same problem as the guy a few threads down... you were probably trying to record in stereo, when it was a mono input.

[lew_1987]

Drums are definitely better, but I agree with Tristan about the guitar/bass being too quiet. It needs work, but at least it was an improvement.

[TheSkyline]

Hahaha.

Sounds like you had the same problem as the guy a few threads down... you were probably trying to record in stereo, when it was a mono input.

Yup, I just checked it and your right, I accidently recorded it in stereo. Woops. haha

Drums are definitely better, but I agree with Tristan about the guitar/bass being too quiet. It needs work, but at least it was an improvement.

Yeah, I'll try to even out the volumes of everything more next time.

Do any of you guys know of any interviews or something with producers where they mention how they mix? Some advice from pros would help a lot.

[Tristan Needler]

http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm ;-)

A lot of it is equipment/hardware based advice, but read the sections about compression and eq, as well as panning, volume, mixing, and mastering. Before that though I'd recommend some of the pages on recording and micing techniques. Remember, garbage in, garbage out. Or as they like to say on that site, "you can't polish a turd."

[lew_1987]

I found this page the other day and it's really useful, even if it does focus mainly on vocals:

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=196856

[The Boathouse]

Honestly, the best practice for mixing is just doing it. Record everything you write. Add layers of instrumentation that you might not need. Just whatever it takes so you have to learn how to mix things in properly and make it all blend well. It's a learn-by-doing sort of thing, I'd say.

[TheSkyline]

Thanks guys! I'll be sure to read all the stuff you showed me.