Just finished a band's demo - need critiquing

[Gwii]

I just finished a demo for a band, and I would really appreciate some comments and critiquing.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6864464/Seeing the Apathy Through Your Teeth.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6864464/Where's the Good in Goodbye.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6864464/Denial.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6864464/The Past Becomes the Present in My State of Mind.mp3


Drums were done with SD 2.0, guitars were recorded with a PODxtl, bass was done with DI with amplitube. The only thing I didn't track was vocals. I did all post processing, editing, mixing, and mastering. This was the first time I've recorded a band that was not my own, so it was an interesting experience. Comments from some of the more experienced people here would be very helpful.

Thanks

 

[-Loco-]

with better production the songs could be better. It sounds really really raw man. Screams sound weak. Need to get rid of some of the ambience from the kit mics!

 

[Terminus]

The drums dont sound very processed, they lack the power associated with processing. The band isnt bad fwiw. Some decent harmonies going on. This demo actually makes them sound worse than they might sound live. I'm only counting the instruments into that equation, the vocals are not in tune whatsoever but the guitar solo is actually not bad, and neither are the drums with some work mix and edit-wise.

 

[Gwii]

Someone else recorded the vocals. The takes weren't that good, so I edited them the best I could.

This demo was done pretty backwards too. Originally I was only supposed to track guitars and that was it. So guitars were tracked before anything else, and then their other friend tracked drums and vocals. He did a horrible job, so I ended up rewriting all the drums in SD, and did a lot of chopping/turd polishing with the vocal and guitar tracks.

So keep that in mind I guess. Thanks for the comments so far.

 

[-Loco-]

Still man you can get much better results from superior than this. Really work on your drum mix.

 

[Gwii]

Anything specific that I should work on with SD? I'm still pretty new to using it.

 

[-Loco-]

What I do:

Output all of the mics to different outputs. I'm assuming you''ve done that already with this track.
Work with each individual element. i.e you're given 3 different mics for the snare. Adjust the track for each mic on your DAW till you get a sound you like.
Usually I start with compressing the top snare and e.qing it for the snap. The 1176 mic i use for the 'beat' so I typically boost around 200/250Hz on that mic.
The bottom i tend to put an expander on to get rid of some of the rattle. I also usually e.q out some of the annoying resonating rings that you can get from the snare just by using a wide boost and sweeping through till I find the right spot
then eliminate it with a big dip at a quality factor of about 6.5. Some of the ring is good though because it doesn't make the snare sound too sampled. The room mics all play their part too and imo the mid and far mics really help to bring out the realism of the snare. Remember you can detune the snare too. I like using the piccolo pitched down to 0:00.1 because i think it's too snappy with not enough depth at it's default tuning. Just say to yourself 'today i'm going to work on a drum mix' then record 2 tracks of guitar and a bass. Simple riff... and then tweak the results and repeat until you are happy. The kicks aren't very good for metal but they are workable, and i like to layer those kicks with my own kick because they provide a nice natural feel underneath a super-scooped and clicky metal kick like kick10 in the SSD bundle.

 

[Gwii]

I have all the mics set to different outputs.

For processing each mic, do you use the internal effects/mixer in SD or do everything in your DAW (or a mix of both)? And do you use the bounce feature of SD to have every mic on a separate audio track, or do you just process the VST tracks (from each SD output)?

I'll try your other suggestions. Thanks.

 

[-Loco-]

It's pretty standard to just use your DAW's plugins/external plugins to mix. The only tools in s2.0 that I find myself using are the transient boosters on 2 of the snare mics,being careful not to over do it. IIRC the 1176 track is a pre-compressed sound of the snare which was processed through a real UAD 1176. Bounce is for bouncing down individual wavs of each drum track once you have gotten all the settings you're after (pre-mix). I put all my tracks out neatly,with all the outputs, including seperating the ambient mics. Then group tracks accordingly. Parallel compression is something that can really help you out with drum mixes. I found this article very useful, but don't try parallel compression until you've got a drum sound you are more happy with, and be careful not to overdo it because you can get phase problems. http://www.faderwear.com/guides/

go to the 'Need a fat drum sound?' article, and have a look around. Don't get stressed, no matter what...it's so supposed to be fun and creative..like drawing or masturbation. Take your time, don't fatigue yourself..and come back to things.

 

[d00d00]

It's pretty standard to just use your DAW's plugins/external plugins to mix. The only tools in s2.0 that I find myself using are the transient boosters on 2 of the snare mics,being careful not to over do it. IIRC the 1176 track is a pre-compressed sound of the snare which was processed through a real UAD 1176. Bounce is for bouncing down individual wavs of each drum track once you have gotten all the settings you're after (pre-mix). I put all my tracks out neatly,with all the outputs, including seperating the ambient mics. Then group tracks accordingly. Parallel compression is something that can really help you out with drum mixes. I found this article very useful, but don't try parallel compression until you've got a drum sound you are more happy with, and be careful not to overdo it because you can get phase problems. http://www.faderwear.com/guides/

go to the 'Need a fat drum sound?' article, and have a look around. Don't get stressed, no matter what...it's so supposed to be fun and creative..like drawing or masturbation. Take your time, don't fatigue yourself..and come back to things.

I had to quote this just for the masturbation comparison. That shit is funny. And as for the songs, the vocalist sucks as well as the lyrics, which kinda kill it for me. The kick drum gets completely drowned out alot, and the sub drops are ridiculous.

 

[-Loco-]

Try grabbing some other kick samples in the drum samples meta thread, and layer them or replace them with the superior one! They are workable though, i'm pretty sure Bulb from Periphery has used the superior kick in most/all of his old stuff before they got signed.