Pls evaluate our new song.

Papersen · #1 08-22-2006, 05:52 PM

We (my band and me) are in the process of recording / mixing our new album. This is the 3rd track that´s almost completed.

Some considerations:
The whole song was recorded in our home Studio. It´s quite basic and simple: PC, 12 tracks mixing board, Waveterminal 192M Sound Card, Shure SM58 / Samson C012 ? mics, Marshall 900 head/cab. The bass was recorded right to board or thru a Sansamp Bass Driver.

We´ve done all the recording / mix, using Gigastudio, Cakewalk 9 and Cool Edit Pro. As you can see it´s plain and basic setup.

I´m so far pleased with the "decent" results we´ve achieved, but would like to know what you think about:

- Overall sound / Mixing
- Instruments sound
- Composition
- Execution

We´ll be surely heading to a "real" studio for the final process (final mix and mastering).

Thanks.

NOTE: Lyrics are in Spanish.

Right click on the link at post #12

bassbengoa · #2 08-22-2006, 05:55 PM

Where is it?

Papersen · #3 08-22-2006, 06:06 PM

Nice detail. Fixed.

The_Ryst · #4 08-22-2006, 06:46 PM

Wow sounds proffessional for just being in your home. HOnestly it could pass off as studio quality to me, but maybe my ears aren't really tuned to the fine difference between a really good quality recording and an amazing one.

For some reason I'm thinking Muse when I listen to this. Got a myspace?

DGbass70 · #5 08-22-2006, 07:32 PM

mierda i can't get in! looks like there's something wrong with it.

Dave Muscato · #6 08-22-2006, 07:35 PM

So, are you looking for critiques, or ONLY criticism?

DGbass70 · #7 08-22-2006, 07:39 PM

btw the guy who sings looks a little bit like one of the guys from A.N.I.M.A.L.
i just listened to CONSUMO and it sounds good.

Papersen · #8 08-22-2006, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Ryst

For some reason I'm thinking Muse when I listen to this. Got a myspace?

I´ve never listened to Muse before

. I´ll give them a listen.
No Myspace yet. Thanks for your comments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Muscato

So, are you looking for critiques, or ONLY criticism?

Well, both of them are welcome

Quote:

Originally Posted by DGbass70

btw the guy who sings looks a little bit like one of the guys from A.N.I.M.A.L.
i just listened to CONSUMO and it sounds good.

I´m gonna tell him about that. CONSUMO was from our first record. We recorded / mixed it in a real studio with a producer. We´ve felt so unhappy with the results that decided to record and premix by ourselves.

DGbass70 · #9 08-23-2006, 03:38 PM

i just got to listened to 7VIDAS
very nice, something about the singers voice that reminds me a little bit of Rucco Gandia(singer/bassist) of a band from Puerto Rico named RADIO PIRATA
nice song and nice bass lines

**Blackbird** · #10 08-23-2006, 07:26 PM

Atencao:

As regras do forum sobre linguagem valem pra todos idiomas.

A pagina nao esta disponivel.

bassbengoa · #11 08-23-2006, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbird

Atencao:

As regras do forum sobre linguagem valem pra todos idiomas.

A pagina nao esta disponivel.

What?!

Spanish and English only... at least for me

Vic · #12 08-26-2006, 11:07 AM

Just in case anyone's having trouble with that link (like I did), I'm hosting the mp3 at least for a while.

http://www.vsbass.com/papersen/7vidas210806.mp3

BTW, IMHO, this is a REALLY cool tune!

morf · #13 08-26-2006, 11:20 AM

The voice is too forward in the mix. I'd lower it a bit. The rest seems pretty well balanced sound wise, but you guys need a professional mastering done

Drums dont have enough humph, and the guitar sounds weird, a bit too "raw", the bass sounds good though. As far as soundstage is concerned, all the instruments are crunched together, it really needs some airing, and a professional mastering will bring you those.

The actual song is great though, nice job!

Papersen · #14 08-26-2006, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morf

The voice is too forward in the mix. I'd lower it a bit. The rest seems pretty well balanced sound wise, but you guys need a professional mastering done

Drums dont have enough humph, and the guitar sounds weird, a bit too "raw", the bass sounds good though. As far as soundstage is concerned, all the instruments are crunched together, it really needs some airing, and a professional mastering will bring you those.

The actual song is great though, nice job!

Thanks for your input Morf.
We´ve actually premastered the song in our home studio. I agree with you about Drums and guitars (they remind me of Megadeth when I listen to them). We´re still looking for a good / affordable studio to do the final mixing / mastering.

Vic · #15 08-26-2006, 12:37 PM

FYI, the (short) file should now be replaced with the correct full version. Sorry about that.

Dave Martin · #16 08-27-2006, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morf

The voice is too forward in the mix. I'd lower it a bit. The rest seems pretty well balanced sound wise, but you guys need a professional mastering done

Drums dont have enough humph, and the guitar sounds weird, a bit too "raw", the bass sounds good though. As far as soundstage is concerned, all the instruments are crunched together, it really needs some airing, and a professional mastering will bring you those.

The actual song is great though, nice job!

Umm... I wouldn't want to wait until mastering to fix the drums and guitar; that needs to be fixed in the mix (well, ideally in the tracking stage). And while the voice seems to be a bit loud while listening on my computer speakers, I've heard a number of mixes from South America that are similar - perhaps that's the way folks down there like to hear it.

But I still couldn't understand the words.

WalterBush · #17 08-27-2006, 10:58 PM

It's not a bad mix, but there are a few things I would do differently, as a matter of style more than anything. And let me qualify, this is all opinion.

For one thing, the mix isn't dynamic. Everything stays the same volume throughout, and as a result certain parts suffer. The guitar tone is fine, but the bass is so far forward that the kick drum is almost inaudible. The volume on the bass solo is fine, but keeping it the same volume level throught the entire song stomps on your bandmates somewhat.

I'd say it needs to come down when you're not soloing, although not by too much. The kick drum should be quite a bit louder to my ears, and all the drums could come up a hair. Part of the cymbals being buried may be an artifact of the MP3 compression used, but the snare and kick sounded too low.

The guitar solo is almost buried--at that point in the song it's the most important thing going, but I still hear the rhythym guitar and bass as loud as if nothing else were going on.

The vocals are a bit forward for a metal or hard rock recording, but then, they sounded good, and that could easily be a matter of style. I'm just not used to hearing vocalists in this context that loud in the mix.

Like I said, it's not a bad mix at all, but it could benefit a lot from some automation. I think the bass and vocals are loud enough that what's left over is taken up by guitar, and the drums are being buried, which is a shame, because the guy sounds good and isn't overplaying. Try mixing by starting with the bass and kick drums being equally loud, at about -7 db, and build the rest of it from there. See what happens.

I'd play around with the levels a bit, while you're still using up your time and not your money, and see what else comes up before paying cash to a mixing/mastering house. All of the above is just my opinion, however, and it sounds at least 10 times better than my first attempt at recording my band. Keep it up, and good luck!

BTW, I'd say that you made a wise move doing it yourself this time. With a little finesse, it sounds like you could have a good, solid-sounding recording of good, solid material. Can't ask for much more than that! Great tune.

WalterBush · #18 08-27-2006, 11:09 PM

Hey, I just looked at your gear list!

My first recording for money was with a Waveterminal 192X with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9! Neat!

It looks like you used a drum submix, so you don't have control of individual drums (correct me if I'm wrong). See if boosting at about 80 hz and 1 kHz brings out the kick and snare. As well, set up an effects send in Cakewalk. Put a compressor on it. Send the drum tracks to that effects send, compress the snot out of it so it sounds squished and unpleasant, than mix that in with the original drum sound. Tweak the compressor and levels, and it should give you that nice oomph in the drums that others mentioned without being overpowering. It's a common trick used in many studios in every genre of music, and it works.

morf · #19 08-28-2006, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Papersen

Thanks for your input Morf.
We´ve actually premastered the song in our home studio. I agree with you about Drums and guitars (they remind me of Megadeth when I listen to them). We´re still looking for a good / affordable studio to do the final mixing / mastering.

I dont know too much about the mastering world and the different studios, but friends of mine had their CD mastered by the guy who did Pink Floyd and Queen's masterings, so I picked up a couple of things watching him (he brought his protool station and effects to a studio my friends rented). The results were pretty amazing.

Point of this: a very good mastering isnt cheap, I think they paid close to 5000 euros for the entire CD mastering (would have to doublecheck on that price though), but the quality was amazing. If you really want something done well, go for the big names, the guy was extremely professional and did the mastering according to their opinions and what they wanted. It came out as good as Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms as far as I could tell. Pretty amazing job.

Leeon · #20 08-31-2006, 10:52 PM

a few opinions...
the tones are generally good. the guitar is a little thin. the vocals are indeed a bit up front...not much though. Overall you need to make better use of the stereo imaging available. everything is very centered, open it up a bit and you'll find that the instruments will sit better together. also, ease off on the compression. there's too much right now, and when sending it to get mastered the mastering engineer will have preffered you not have compressed it to hell already. One other thing...the cymbals are really shiny. that's probably because i listened to the mp3 of it and cymbals always sound terrible in mp3's, but it's something to think about. Generally speaking. Don't over do it. If you're going to take it to be mixed and mastered again, you should leave room for them to work their magic. it's much easier to eq and compress a little bit more in the later stages of production than to try and compensate for an overly compressed, and slightly askew eq'ing.
things to think about.