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Take a listen and give me some honest feedback

D

drcool

Jan 9, 2008
66
0
#1
So I have recently recorded a few songs with my band. 4 piece band (guitar, bass, drums, singer) and we just recorded in our drummers basement. He has some decent recording gear but it is still a step below studio quality.

Link Removed

We have played a few times for people we know and they all say they really like us but I want some outside opinions and input from people who don't know us and will be honest.

These first two songs still need a bit more work and we have a couple more almost ready to go up but these two should at least give you somewhat of an idea what we can do.

So please take a listen and give me some honest feedback. Much appreciated.

Joe
 
#3
It's not my kind of music, so I don't have much to say that would be constructive, but one thing is that the drums have an obvious "cheap room" sound (I know you said it was recorded in the drummer's basement, so no surprise). It's either the actual room sound or just a bad room reverb sound. If it's the room, I would re-record the drums dryer - that is, deaden the walls and floor around the drums. Then put in some more spacious reverb, but with the wet reverb sound much lower than the dry sound. If the drums were recorded dry, and it's just your reverb unit/plugin doing that, I would tweak it. The drums sound very much like they're in a basement. Sounds good other than that.
 
#4
Thanks for the feedback. We have been working on trying to get the drums to sound better and have been playing around with mic placements, type of mics, effects, sound treatments for the room, etc and I think our more recent recordings sound a bit better but you can still tell they were done in a basement.

Any other thoughs or opinions?
 
#7
This is easy to listen to. Nice songs. You've already commented on the drums. To my ears, I'm hearing some pitchy vocals at the Chorus - nothing major. I like this style of song when it's done well. You're heading in that direction. Work hard on fundamentals. A football team can't throw touchdowns unless the O-Line blocks very well (fundamentals). Sorry - got off on a football rant. Figures - having withdrawals at the moment with my Cowboys out:)

What's your bass recording chain?
 
#8
harlon said:
This is easy to listen to. Nice songs. You've already commented on the drums. To my ears, I'm hearing some pitchy vocals at the Chorus - nothing major. I like this style of song when it's done well. You're heading in that direction. Work hard on fundamentals. A football team can't throw touchdowns unless the O-Line blocks very well (fundamentals). Sorry - got off on a football rant. Figures - having withdrawals at the moment with my Cowboys out:)

What's your bass recording chain?
Click to expand...

Going direct out of my GK 400 RB IV head into a firebox (not sure what brand) and we are using Tracktion software (from Mackie). We tried a few different things (direct in, some different mics and placements, etc. and going direct out of the amp sounded better than the other options). Not sure what effects or mixing stuff has been done to the bass. Someone else is doing all of that.

Hopefully within the next month or so we will have a few more songs mostly done. Seems like we are getting better with each recording we do so by the end of all this we might even have something worth listening to.
 
#10
This isn't my kind of music either but if I can give my 2c. The first song just says Coldplay to me. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I like the guitar sound but as has been said already the bass doesn't shout out loudly enough. IMHO the drums need to flow a bit more, yes a bit stiff. Your line up gives plenty of room for that to happen. Even having the drums leave a bit more space might be effective. The Chilli Peppers use that line up well. Keep up the work, you're certainly on the way but keep trying new things to find that X factor.:)
 
#11
Hey...thats in my genre (finally). Not bad first go round...a little muffled on the 2nd tune...but PC speakers arent for this kind of critique, eh? I'd like to hear the singer belt it out a bit more...sounds like he's got the pipes for it.

Cant expect David Crowder production and mastering levels at this point right?

My Lifeteens would go for it for sure....(I keep feeding them "whitebread" Tomlin tunes)

Keep writing drcool. You'll be big someday.
 
#14
Good first song. Nice melodic songwritting, which I like. The guitar was to up front in the mix and the bass was buried. Drummer needs some work. If the drummer was more authoritative, it would make a huge difference in the final product. But all in all, good work!
 
#15
Good to get this feedback guys. It will help us moving forward.

BTW, we got two new songs online now. You Fell by the Wayside and Highest, Holy Name. Link Removed or http://www.reverbnation.com/moderndissent . Take a listen and keep the feedback coming.

It is crazy how much difference there is listening to these songs online and listing to the raw MP3 or WMA files. Online the files get so compressed they lose a lot. Also the difference between my computer speakers (pretty good speaker system as far as computers go) and my truck stereo and my home stereo is pretty dramatic.
 

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