Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Jordan sent me a mix he's been playing with.

Gives me some ideas . . .

I liked the first mix better...The Chords in the guitar were more pronounced in the first one... (And need to be IMHO, for this type of presentation)

Thanks for your input. I tend to agree. It's guitar rock . . . some place between these two "extremes".

Better imo I still think a second guitar rather than louder. Split em left center and right center.
It's also a better over-all balance... the drummer sounds like he's in the same room now.
Now just fix the few performance issues...
I really dig the break at the 2 min 15 second mark. Nice!

I like the first mix better as well, but needs some work. In the 'shop edit' the FX added to the vocals (like at 2:20, the echo/delay) are good, but there is too much room/reverb in the rest of the vocals, and the guitar has got buried.

There are some timing issues at the start with the bass and drums (probably need to have a click track when recording.)

I appreciate the input.
When we meet Wednesday I'll bring these comments to the band.

Most of the "performance issues" I hope will decrease when we have actually completed the composition and played it more than once or twice.

Click track . . . no . . . we've tried that.
We actually like the natural ebb and flow of a "raw rock performance".
Surely we need to tighten up changes timing / breaks ETC, no argument there.
But as I had indicated previously this was a recorded brain storm session, so yeah it's pretty dusty.

Ok, wasn't aware this was musical creation happening! The timing part is where its all still loose at the start, but when everything kicks in its fine. A click track just keeps everything in time until the drums start.

GuitarMikeB wrote:Ok, wasn't aware this was musical creation happening! The timing part is where its all still loose at the start, but when everything kicks in its fine. A click track just keeps everything in time until the drums start.

Now there is an idea that may have some merit in our studio situation.
We've tried playing with a click backing and none of us ( even our studio experienced bassist ) cared for it one bit. Distracting, like the wife drumming her fingers on the table while I'm eating. LOL

but to use it only as a "set up" ?
I'm a gonna havta try that.

We have suggested it for our (Beatles tribute) drummer as he tends to start everything too fast, but he won't have any part of it.

It's a natural tendency to play music too fast, and a keyboardist or guitarist starting a song by themselves can sometimes have real timing issues - speeding up, slowing down - without realizing it just due to the complexity of the music being played. Of course the BEST players don't have these issues, but I'm talking about the rest of us!

I'm going to bring up all the suggestions and critique to the band this evening at rehearsal.

I sincerely appreciate everyone taking time to listen and comment.

One of my sons is a drummer... he uses his ipod with recorded click tracks at the right BPM for each song he plays. It took him a bit to get use to it but it works for him. He is still a bit of newbie... been playing for 5 years and still learning but his timing is good.

Jahva wrote:One of my sons is a drummer... he uses his ipod with recorded click tracks at the right BPM for each song he plays. It took him a bit to get use to it but it works for him. He is still a bit of newbie... been playing for 5 years and still learning but his timing is good.

That's what we suggested for our drummer - the biggest Beatles tribute band in the area's drummer does the same thing.

Ive always had a problem using a click track, for me when Im recording my own stuff I ussually just play to my drum machine, and layer from there.

The drummer in my band cant stand a click track, when we have recorded we have tryed to use one, but we ussually just let it go, our meter does vary when we record, but for me it kinda gives it a more lively feel.

We had a sub drummer for a couple of gigs, and he had the best meter of anyone Ive ever played with, we would get into the middle of a song and I would try to get him to speed up a bit or slow down a bit. I would say cant you see what Im doing, he said well you started the song, and i just hooked into the tempo you set and held it, LOL!

I don't use a 'click' when recording, but set a simple drum beat at the correct tempo, then record a scratch guitar or keyboard track to it. Then if I want to speed up (or slow down) a certain section of the song, I'll know where it is from the scratch track, and I reset the tempo for that section, and record a new scratch track.

I don't like the clicks... but they are trustworthy... so I lay a scratch git with one and then build the basic drums to it.
At least snare, kick HH... easier to play along to a simple drum beat than click click click clack.