I'M WORKING ON SOME RECORDINGS, THESE ARE THEM

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Freddy V-C
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I'M WORKING ON SOME RECORDINGS, THESE ARE THEM

Post by Freddy V-C »

On my university course we can choose to do a 'Long Study' instead of a dissertation. For most people this takes the form of an album which you either write yourself or record yourself or both. I'm doing both, which means my grade will be split 50/50 between songwriting and production, and I've made some decent headway with recording three of the tracks (out of like ten, although admittedly I've only written six so far).

Drums, bass and one guitar track have been laid down for all three. There are vocals there but I'll be rerecording them. We tracked drums, guitar and vocals all live at the same time, and the vocals were pretty much there as a guide for the song structure.

I've done a rough mix and master just to get an idea of how things are shaping up. Some constructive critique would be nice, ShortScale!

Stylistically I've been aiming for some sort of midpoint between Black Sabbath and Pavement. Whether that comes across or not WHO KNOWS???

LISTEN HERE LISTEN HERE LISTEN HERE

Tech stuff FOR NERDS... (pretty much all this stuff belongs to the uni... my recordings will probably sound considerably shittier when I don't have access to all this expensive gear)

Drums:
Kick - AKG D112 & DIY subkick (essentially a speaker which my mate James reverse wired, I don't really understand how it works but it sounds cool)
Snare - 2x Shure Beta 57 (top and bottom)
Rack Tom - Sennheiser MD421
Floor Tom - Sennheiser MD421 (top) AKG D112 (bottom)
OH (mono) - Neumann U87
Room Mics - 1x Sontronics Sigma 4x AKG 414

The subkick and both snare mics were going through Avalon preamps, the rest were going straight into the desk (Avid Control 24)

Bass:
Tanglewood Rebel 4k DI'd through Avalon tube preamp

Guitar:
Vintage SG > Laney LV100 (various pedals and stuff used, obviously)
Shure Beta 57 right up on the grill, at the very edge of the speaker cone
AKG 414 about a foot away from the amp

Vocals:
(as if you'd really want to cop THIS EXACT TONE)
Shure Beta 57

I prefer singing into 57s rather than 58s for some reason
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sholkham
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Post by sholkham »

Sounds really cool, I wish I could offer some critique but I'm no good with mixing.
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Sloan
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Post by Sloan »

if you have access to facilities, get as many bands in there to record as possible!
i wish i had a space available like that.
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Freddy V-C
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Post by Freddy V-C »

Yeah man, I try to use the facilities as often as possible! The problem is, because Scarborough is such a small place, there are only a handful of decent bands. And pretty much all the decent bands are students on the same course as me, so obviously they're able to record themselves. So 90% of the stuff I do ends up either being my band(s) or stuff on my own. It's still really useful either way.
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Sloan
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Post by Sloan »

Freddy V-C wrote:Yeah man, I try to use the facilities as often as possible! The problem is, because Scarborough is such a small place, there are only a handful of decent bands. And pretty much all the decent bands are students on the same course as me, so obviously they're able to record themselves. So 90% of the stuff I do ends up either being my band(s) or stuff on my own. It's still really useful either way.
ah, that sucks. even record shitty bands if your doing it for free, you will probably learn more about what not to do with shitty bands.
do they have their own backline like amps, guitars etc???

just wondering cause that would make recording shit bands at least sonically better.

i would say record whatever you can whenever you can while you have that available to you. do it for free if you have to, you will learn a shit ton.


recording critique

it doesn't sound to me like you have done much processing of the raw tracks but the track-to-track balance seems good. i'm listening on yamaha hs80m's which are very bright in nature compared to other monitors i've heard and these recordings sound like they are lacking in the high end a bit.


tracking changes i would have made

Drums:
Kick - AKG D112 & DIY subkick
Snare - 2x Shure Beta 57 (top and bottom)
Rack Tom - Sennheiser MD421
Floor Tom - Sennheiser MD421 (top) AKG D112 (bottom)
OH (stereo) - 2x akg 414
Room Mics - 1x Sontronics Sigma 2x AKG 414

The subkick and both snare mics were going through Avalon preamps, the rest were going straight into the desk (Avid Control 24)


Bass:
Tanglewood Rebel 4k DI'd through Avalon tube preamp

send di out to an amp and get some grit

Guitar:
Vintage SG > Laney LV100 (various pedals and stuff used, obviously)
Shure Beta 57 right up on the grill, at the very edge of the speaker cone
AKG 414 about a foot away from the amp

double track guitar (i just like double tracked guitars mostly!)

Vocals:
U87 into an Avalon pre

also i'm not certain of the preamp qualities of the avalon vs the avid stuff you are using, but i would imagine the avalon are going to be your 'character' preamps. as far as i know avalon stuff is known to be smooth in quality, something i would avoid for anything with big transients like drums but would probably use them on bass, guitar, and vocals... since i don't have experience with them hard to tell.
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Freddy V-C
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Post by Freddy V-C »

Cheers for the tips, Sloan!

I've recorded a few more guitar tracks, redone the vocals and added keys.

HERE HERE HERE.

I might be recording my girlfriend's band Avalon soon-ish, so that could be fruitful. I've offered to record bands FOR FREE plenty of before and it never seems to materialise for some reason. Perhaps some people just don't like free stuff?
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Post by Doog »

I like the quite 'flat' drum sound, but I think a little ambience (even just a bus with a bit of short room 'verb) would go a long way. I've noticed over the years that often even the driest sounding of sounds have SOME kind of ambience (check out bass intro to Debaser on headphones) to just help glue things together a little bit better.

Brightness could definitely be a little more forthcoming- the cymbals are getting buried in the middly guitars with no SPARKELZ, and everyone knows excitement lives way up in the kilohertz.

I personally reckon the guitars could be go a little back a bit to make room in the upper mids for the vocal, but I guess this is a personal preference.

Little bit of comp/overdrivey comp on the bass would go a long way too, to help flatten those clangy peaks out a bit and allow the actual fundamental to ring out a bit more. Bass sounds a lot more solid on 'Next Time..' in this respect.

I LIKE THE SONGS TOO!
sunshiner wrote: You don't understand my kindness, drown in shit
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Freddy V-C
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Post by Freddy V-C »

Cheers Doog!

There is some reverb on the snare (and just a touch on the whole kit, in fact), but perhaps I could bring this out a little more.

It's strange that you mention the overheads getting lost, I was worried they might have been a little too loud at some points! Then again I've been guilty of burying overheads in the mix altogether. I JUST LOVE DAT LOUD KICK AND SNARE.

There is some compression and overdrive on the bass already, but (as with the snare reverb) I could probably push it a little further.

Glad you like the songs, also. Over the next month or so I'll be recording another 6-8 songs for the album - POSSIBLY INCLUDING (relevant to your interests) a lounge version of Gareth Brown Says by mclusky.