My band, my tone, need some tips [metal]

[Fong249]

Hey all, havent been around in a while...

Been working hard with the band, writing and recording our songs... You can hear them at www.purevolume.com/cenotaphva

Our recording process is as follows:
Record drums w/ one mic picking up guitar/bass for ques
Record guitar
Record bass
record 2nd guitar

I've been going from my MTD Zephyr 5 (tuned really funny, ACGCF) into my Ampeg B2R into a Ampeg SVT 410HLF, with a Shure SM57 micing the cab right infront of one of the cones. Then, that mic is hooked up to a computer and recorded into garage band.

Basically, my tone is meant to be aggressive, its meant to be heard, and felt.


Any opinions would be very welcome.

[Adam Barkley]

Originally Posted by Fong249

Hey all, havent been around in a while...

Been working hard with the band, writing and recording our songs... You can hear them at www.purevolume.com/cenotaphva

Our recording process is as follows:
Record drums w/ one mic picking up guitar/bass for ques
Record guitar
Record bass
record 2nd guitar

I've been going from my MTD Zephyr 5 (tuned really funny, ACGCF) into my Ampeg B2R into a Ampeg SVT 410HLF, with a Shure SM57 micing the cab right infront of one of the cones. Then, that mic is hooked up to a computer and recorded into garage band.

Basically, my tone is meant to be aggressive, its meant to be heard, and felt.


Any opinions would be very welcome.

The mix is awful. Music needs to be louder and the vocals need to be lower. Drums and guitars lack "power." I guess the whole recording does.

The Awakening: You need more mids or you need to be higher in the mix; all I hear of your playing is some trebley clank and some low rumble in the sections where the guitars are playing upper register stuff.

Infected: Same as the Awakening.

Skin Burn: The snare sounds absolutely dead (terrible). I actually heard you clearly in the intro and then the guitars came and drowned you out. The change to the strummy part of the song isn't that solid. That could be done better.

Abomination Rave: Again too low in the mix. The guitarist's second solo is very sketchy.

I think by and large you are too low in the mix. I'd add more mids and raise your bass track a little higher. Not bad, but the tracks could benefit from more bass.

Peace,
Adam

[Fong249]

thanks man. Definitely going to address these issues in our next few recordings. I do definitely have a little clank when I play... But I always feel like im getting overpowered. Do you have any advice for recording the guitars and bass without getting ambient boom in the background?

Also, any other critique would be helpful!

[Masher88]

yeah, the mix is terrible. There are very noticable playing mistakes althrough the songs. Master the technique of the "Punch-In" for recording.

Maybe try renting or borrowing a Preamp for your bass tone(like and Ampeg SVP or a Sansamp RBI)...something with some overdrive. You mentioned you wanted it to be aggressive.

[Kronos]

Here's my .02:

The drums sound like they were miked with overhead mikes. Each individual drum needs its own mike for them to cut through nicely, and each individual drum must have its own track. That way you can mix each one individually. If they were miked individually, then you have a lot of mixwork on your hands to do. Cymbals require EQ work. And there are a few mistakes that can be punched in (as far as the double bass is concerned)

As far as your bass sound goes, one name comes to mind when I listen to it: Tony Choi. He had a similar sound when he played for Cynic before Shawn Malone. It doesn't really sound well with the type of metal you're playing. Kinda clanky. As far as bringing yourself more forward in the mix, you could record 2 separate bass tracks. One that carries the lows, and one that carries the mids/mid highs. Mix them well with both songs, according to what each song needs and where it needs it. As far as ambient noise goes, that's a soundproofing issue. A lot of this is remedied by a really good DI and recording direct if you can't afford to soundproof everything. One thing to remember, what makes you cut through is mids.

Guitars have a decent sound, but they need to be rounded out a bit more. Too much high mids in the sound, as far as I can tell. There are a few mistakes here and there, but those can be punched in.

Aside from the mixwork, I think you guys are pretty talented. If you ever come up north, I'd come out to see you guys. Hell, I'd love to play a show with you guys.

[Matt Till]

I think your tone could work in a better mix... but right now you sound like... Fieldy

Seriously, it's just a bit of a rumble and a high click... very Korn, and I'm SURE your band doesn't want THAT vibe. I'd say turn the treble down and the mids up.

[Fong249]

Thanks for all your input! I think one problem i had with the clankiness is because i was tuning down to drop C without doing any adjustment to string height... i've kinda ironed that out a little bit. I still like the clank rumbling the open C, cus it kinda makes me stand out a little bit. I have to admit, i've been playing with almost maxed treble and bass, with a heavy cut to the mids. That will certainly be adjusted. That being said, we're a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds, and its kinda tough to be able to buy some studio time.

Punch Ins are near impossible at the moment with our setup via garage band... we usually have to do each song whole and take the best takes... if you get what i mean. Any advice in recording software would be great.

The drums are miced w/ one mic over head, one in the bass drum... our drummer is picking up triggers however, and we hope that that will help isolate and iron out the drums a little more.

As for me, im thinking a head upgrade would be nice. I feel that the B2R isnt cutting it for me, its just not warm enough. I was thinking either a thunderfunk or a GK 1001rb or if i can afford it, a 2001RB.

I also think that for christmas, i'm going to be askign for a Sans amp preamp... havent decided whether i should go for the pedal or the rack.

Thanks again!

[Kronos]

Pro Tools seems to be the most popular choice for computer programs as far as recording goes. Our stuff was recorded in Pro Tools. I don't know if it's Mac compatible (you obviously have a Mac since you have Garage Band).

Garage band has tons of space where you can use different tracks. Try recording a "ghost" track (a guitar track that won't be used in the final mix) along with the drummer. That way the drummer has something to play along with (unless you guys have your stuff written out and want to use a metronome).

After you have all the drums recorded, do about 2 or 3 guitar tracks. Then do your bass track.

During the whole process, you can find the spots on the tracks where there were mistakes. You can cut those parts out, and have whatever instrument it was that made the mistake play over top of that part. It's that simple.

[Fong249]

we actually do have several pc's available to record. We've been doing things with 1 - 2 mics tops, because we only have one input, we split it once using a lexicon mixer but found that the signal was making unusual static. Protools is definitely an option.

[hbarcat]

Originally Posted by Fong249

we actually do have several pc's available to record. We've been doing things with 1 - 2 mics tops, because we only have one input, we split it once using a lexicon mixer but found that the signal was making unusual static. Protools is definitely an option.

If you're using a maximum of 2 microphones to record your band then there is a definite limit to what you can achieve in your finished product. If you can aquire a total of 4 mics (preferably at least two of them condensers) and the means to record 4 simultaneous tracks to computer then you'll be MUCH better off. Assuming that purchasing more mics is out of the question, you can get the most out them sound quality wise by using those two tracks to mic and record the drums completely isolated from the other instuments; take a lot of time experimenting with different mic placements and listen to the results of each experiment. Depending on the type of mics you have you can sometimes get better results micing the drums at a distance to get the whole room sound with the drums. Once the two tracks are into your computer you can then use your software's EQ and compression (or both with multiband compression) presets to make them sound more like drum tracks normally do on recordings. Adding the bass, guitar, vocals and other tracks is pretty much as you've been doing it, but you often get better results with the bass by going DI or line out from the preamp to the computer. This also keeps room noises out and lets you record without using headphones.

There are now many multi-input computer interfaces available, and not just from Pro-tools, from $100 for a 2 input unit and $200 and up for a 4 to 8 input unit which will give more flexibility in recording since control over each track translates into much better results in sound quality.