General Music Chat

No not that kind of favor LOL! I have been working on fixing some recordings and just uploaded them to my player! The kids have screwed up this computer and I can't tell how they sound after uploading. My question is can one of you folks listen and tell me if the mixes are worth a crap? Thanks in advance they are songs 1 and 2 on my player Katie and Europa

I'm not hyper critical on another musicians mix.


That said . . . sounds damn good to me.

Levels are much better, I did a side by side of your "Europa" to mine and my version is just slightly hotter. Good job.

I'm not hyper critical on another musicians mix.


That said . . . sounds damn good to me.

Thanks George for giving it a listen! I am looking to determine if there is distortion, overuse of effects, if there is balance in the stereo field, volume, can you hear the crispness of the drum cymbals, are the notes in the bass line recognizable. Any critique would be welcome (don't worry you won't hurt my feelings)

Levels are much better, I did a side by side of your "Europa" to mine and my version is just slightly hotter. Good job.

Thanks Jimmy! Your opinion is one of the most valued and much appreciated! You might find this comical, usually I have my (poor wife) post the music! This is the first time I have taken my music from the recorder and posted it ANYWHERE! Keep in mind I couldn't even turn a computer on 6 years ago! The wife is at school finishing her degree I gotta give her kudo's for that!

EUropa: (Just my IMHO ... Bass and Drums should be separated a little further (SPread the Drum on R & L) and bring the lead Guitar closer up front. ) Your playing is absolutely superb, Jeff...

Katie: Bring the lead guitar closer up front. Especially since this is the feature of the song (your guitar virtuosoty...) . AGain, playing with mad skill

can you hear the crispness of the drum simble's

Cymbals...can't hear cymbals at all...or just barely on either. Odd to correct your spelling, that doesn't happen often...

Katie - Good mix, snare drum a bit thin. Sounds almost like a pie pan. Add some mids and bass, cut back the treble. Level is fine. Snare on Europa sounds better but snares are looser.. Bass maybe a tad hotter, more treble there too, maybe less bass and more mids too for a bit more punch. Guitar a bit thin but guitar level is fine. Add mids to bring out bass and overtones more. (most guitar players are surprised how well a bit more mids brings the bass out) Some pickup tweaking might help too, I pull the treble end of my pickups down further from the strings, especially on bridge pickups, to avoid really hot treble, and move the bass end closer for more body. Sometimes the opposite has to be done for the neck pickup. Helps keep things from getting too thin.

Bass drum muddy. Add treble and mids, pull back bass. Same as bass guitar, that adds punch and eliminates flabby or cardboard sound. No cardboard here, just too bassy and no punch.

Europa - Pretty much the same, bring cymbals out, snare drum lots better, not as thin and tinny, same as above for bass and bass drum. Echo maybe just a tiny tad hot on guitar, levels fine. For anything Santana does I go for a much fatter guitar sound. I got lucky years ago though, and got a Harmony single pickup guitar that pegs Santana's sound pretty well. Don't have to adjust at all, just plug it in. Pickup is positioned where it would be between neck and bridge pickups on a Les Paul though, which makes a huge difference. Otherwise I have to set the amp for any other guitar, max out the bass and push the mids...I think he probably maxes everything...He also plays his amp maxed out so he's always right on the edge of feedback. Watching him on a couple of TV things every time he turns up the guitar it almost instantly goes into feedback if he holds a note for a couple of seconds. But that's the tone to shoot for with Santana stuff. And it's not easy to peg...

More dynamics would help both songs too.

Overall, pretty good. Excellent playing, mixes very good, to my ear mostly minor tweaking here and there. Bring the cymbals out, fatten up the guitar and snare a bit, I'd leave the effects alone, everything is pretty good as is.

I am at work listening,

Katie I think the drums could come forward just a tad. I think that would fatten up the snare and make the cymbals more inteligable. I can't believe how hard this song was to mix. DAYUM other than the drums there are only 5 tracks you would think without vocals it would be easy. I am thinking it is easier to mix a distorted rythm guitar than clean guitar with more chords By far the hardest song I have mixed. I am going to record another original this weekend as it is the last weekend I will have off from gigging for some time.

Europa, I have all instruments panned hard left and hard right the lead guitar is at 12 oclock centered. I am overall happy with this one!

Thanks so much for the listen and critique. Next time I'll try to post on a night other than Monday night football. Oh yeah Bud Adams and the Titans (formerly Oilers) Ha Ha Take that! I was a HUGE Houston Oilers fan. I gave up watching football when they left me heartbroken! Last Sunday was SUCH SWEET REVENGE!

Thanks again all!

Katie I think the drums could come forward just a tad. I think that would fatten up the snare and make the cymbals more inteligable.

Intelligible...I brag on your spelling and you crap out on me...hmmm....

I have to disagree there. Drum volume is fine except for cymbals, snare is plenty loud. Bring it up enough to bring out the cymbals, snare will be too loud. Tone is what needs fine tuning on snare, not volume...sound, not loudness. If cymbals weren't mic'd separately, that might explain why they don't come out well. They don't carry well same as on stage. Highs get soaked up by everything in sight, and cymbals are all highs. If cymbals were mic'd in an overall ambient room sound manner, it might be difficult to bring them out. Mic'd separately you have individual control over levels.

Anyway the snare level is fine, it's the tone that needs tweaking. Thin and tinny sounding, like he's playing on a pie pan. Fatten it up, but it's the tone controls that will make the difference, not volume or mix level. Bring it to the front more and it will still be thin and tinny. Cymbals should be on their own track, otherwise it's not easy to get them into the mix at a good level. My preference, everything on its own track. That means a dozen mic's for a drum set, but you have infinite control.

Katie I think the drums could come forward just a tad. I think that would fatten up the snare and make the cymbals more inteligable.

Intelligible...I brag on your spelling and you crap out on me...hmmm....

I have to disagree there. Drum volume is fine except for cymbals, snare is plenty loud. Bring it up enough to bring out the cymbals, snare will be too loud. Tone is what needs fine tuning on snare, not volume...sound, not loudness. If cymbals weren't mic'd separately, that might explain why they don't come out well. They don't carry well same as on stage. Highs get soaked up by everything in sight, and cymbals are all highs. If cymbals were mic'd in an overall ambient room sound manner, it might be difficult to bring them out. Mic'd separately you have individual control over levels.

Anyway the snare level is fine, it's the tone that needs tweaking. Thin and tinny sounding, like he's playing on a pie pan. Fatten it up, but it's the tone controls that will make the difference, not volume or mix level. Bring it to the front more and it will still be thin and tinny. Cymbals should be on their own track, otherwise it's not easy to get them into the mix at a good level. My preference, everything on its own track. That means a dozen mic's for a drum set, but you have infinite control.

Agreed, I played all instruments on Katie except drums I used discreetdrums. They are canned drums and come already mixed left and right stereo tracks. I can play around with the eq on them.

Europa, I used backing tracks and played only lead guitar. I used my Schecter C1 Classic. All instrument amplification via the Boss COSM and are in the recorder.

GuitarMikeB I figured out what I was doing wrong in the mixdown process thanks for the offer of helping! I know You are one of the "good guys"

When you get a chance check out those 2 songs I am interested to hear your critque!

Katie

I think it's a mistake to pan the lead right up the middle, but then...
I dunno what you are using to record with, and whether it is a stereo track or mono track, etc.

If it's mono straight up the middle, it's always gonna sound too small or thin I think.

If you wanna go old school, you could double your solo. Two Mono tracks - Pan one about 11 o'clock, the other at 1 o'clock. Just for shits and giggles.

I don't have any real gripes about levels other than that.

OK I see..I thought you were micing individual instruments. Different story entirely. That also explains the different snare sound. I could tell the snares were definitely looser in Europa. (Playing with picky drummers in high school band has its advantages...having a good ear does too...that also sucks sometimes...if it's slightly out of tune I know it and it drives me up the wall) I can also hear little things a lot of people don't pay attention to. Tuning is the main reason I keep several guitars onstage. I can tell I'm out of tune when other band members say it's ok. That guitar's gone...till break...

Discreetdrums...software? I'd see if you can either play around with the EQ or see if it has a different drum set with a better snare sound. (but that would probably mean starting over.) Good to know for next time though. My favorite is a marching snare with tight snares. Onstage you wouldn't believe how good it sounds. For bass sound I like to get as close as I can to the bass notes on a grand piano. Nothing better...check out the bass on "One of These Days" from Pink Floyd's Meddle album. The first 30 seconds. That's one of the best sounding bass parts I know of, pretty close to grand piano bass. That's where treble and mids come in. And a Fender P bass...

I wish I had all the instruments available to play everything myself...mainly don't have bass rig and drums. I have guitars, a Wurlitzer electric piano, sax, flute, xylophones (2), recorders (3), mandolin in need of work...a bass rig, drum set and decent electronic keyboard would be great (synth sounds and so forth). I have all the parts in my head for Last Train, just don't have access to the instruments to do it with. Need a banjo though, I have a part for it that works great. Tried it once, but couldn't take the thing home to record with...

You might also check into the drum sounds on a n electronic keyboard, some of them do pretty well for recording. But you only have the basic rhythm track, hard to get any fills. "While we Cry" on my profile was done that way. I played everything else.

Thanks so much for the advise Pete! I ALWAYS learn so much from you and your opinion is among the MOST valued on this SITE! I wish you could hear this song coming over my KRK ROKIT 5's that snare is HUGE! I must admit I am partial to a Brass snare!

The Discreet drums cd came with the BR1180 of which is almost identical to the more recent BR1600! There are about a half dozen BAD @$$ drummers playing an analog kit and digitized through what I believe to be a DAT machine. It is very much like having a drummer in front of you that can read your mind LOL! I can tell him what I want. Having said that I am talking to a cd. Still they are canned drums and EXTREMELY limiting. This technology is VERY outdated but still feeds my creative P-brain!

As out-dated as this rig is it still records to WAV I have been talking to the drummer in Mission Imposter and he is ready to help me with the drums. So we are going to be sending WAV files back and forth! I am thinking if the Human race survives 12-21-12 there will be some awesome tunes coming from H-town meanwhile stay tuned because I am recording another original this weekend!

One other thing I thought of, as far as checking out your songs. I burn anything I record to a CD, then listen to it on every stereo I can find, especially in cars. If it sounds good in a 20 year old Buick with a cheap stereo, it should sound good anywhere. I go try and get everyone I can to pop it into the stereo, the computer, the car CD player, you name it. I want to listen to it under every condition I can, and in as many different stereo systems possible.

The one I referred to above, "While We Cry" was done by the ancient "ping pong" method, going from my reel to reel to a dual CD Burner then back to the reel to reel. Drums and bass were done at the same time, that set up the rhythm track so everything else could stay in time. The only thing I didn't like was the guitar sound. My Strat broke a string, no spares (got taken by surprise), and I had to use the Peavey Patriot, which sounds brighter and more like a Tele. Rhythm guitar was the Strat. Bass on a Fender but not P bass. Once it was finished, I took a CD around and listened to it everywhere I could. That song was ok, but 3 or 4 others were redone later when I found they didn't make the grade. Believe me it's not fun telling someone we have to redo this one when you have to ping pong it...I recorded the lead on "While We Cry" at around 3 AM after at least 8 hours in the studio...5 of it working on that song.

I'm not entirely positive this is true, but the story I got was that the Beach Boys drove around listening to the "Good Vibrations" album tracks in a Volkswagen until it sounded good in that thing, on the same principle. If it sounds good in a plain jane car radio, cassette player in that case, it should sound good anywhere.

So try that out. Burn it to CD, take it everywhere and listen to it on everything you can that will play a CD from home stereos to walkmans to car cd players and don't forget cheap computer speakers.