My first post here

[mysticjim]

Hey there,

Only just discovered this forum, I'm registered on a few other more general music forums, but thought this would be a good one for getting feedback on some of the heavier stuff I record.

Right, I'm Jim from Bristol, UK, I run a really small, part-time music studio, I cater mostly for the demo/student band market in my area. Its definately not Abbey Road, I'm on such a tiny budget - my studio has rather poor acoustics, you won't find a Neve console in my control, hell - I doubt one would even fit through the door! I record direct to PC through an RME Fireface, I don't any expensive pre-amps and most of my mics are bargain basement. I started the studio because all the other local ones seemed incredibly expensive, a lot of local bands rarely could raise the funds to use them, so naturally, most of the bands I record tend to be very poor and have really beat up equipment!

Well, thats the backstory, basically, I've done a session for some good friends of mine last week, this is the first mix, they were well chuffed. They probably won't be to most peoples taste, the singer's voice tends to divide opinion! They describe themselves as experimental modern metal, they rock hard and shout a lot.

I'm not too fussed if you like the song or not, myself I think its alright, perhaps a bit too long, could do with a bit of variation - like the drumming but think the guitar playing could be a bit tighter - but really I'm looking for opinions on my recording and mixing. I've never had any formal training in recording, I used to be that guy in the band who owned a 4-track and religiously recorded the rehearsals, and gradually I've progressed from playing to producing. I've been doing this for about 3 years, my first mixes were shockingly bad, but gradually I've learnt a lot, made loads of mistakes and learnt from those too!

This track represents a bit of a breakthrough for me, particularly the drums, I've been struggling to get that modern metal sound, but today I've taken a step closer!

I really hope you guys like it, any opinions/feedback most welcome.

http://stashbox.org/362677/PRS%20mix2.mp3

And of course, I hope to check out other peoples on here regularly and try and give a bit of contructive feedback myself.

Anyway, nice to meet you all, take it easy.

Jim

 

[mysticjim]

Anyone?

 

[The-Zeronaut]

Welcome!!

Sounds really good to me
but i dont like the snare its too thin (at least for me)

Could you post settings or tell us the process of recording and mixing?

 

[mysticjim]

Hey, a response!

No worries, here is what happened.

Tracked drums in isolation with singer/guitarist doing guides, no click track used as I really hate them!!!!

Drum miking;

A cheap and cheerfull Samson bass drum mic on the kick, placed very close the skin, near the beaters, I was after a modern clicky sound. I did have to eq in some mids the get more click on the way to the recording interface, that Samson mic is a bit dull sounding on its own.

SM57 on the top of the snare, and this time the drummer was kind enough to let me place it pointed away from the hihat, and was able not to hit it!

One of the generic dynamic mics from the same Samson drum mic set that the kick mic came from on the bottom of the snare.

Another 3 generic Samson mics on the toms.

a pair of matched CAD condensors on the overheads, in a spaced setup left and right of the kit over the cymbals.

Bass - a DI and aforementioned Samson kick mic on the speaker.

Guitars, one guitar went through a smallish Peavy solid state combo, I miked with the SM57 and an old AKG dynamic that a friend lent me ages ago, both about an inch from the grill, and hopefully. Other guitar on the left of the mix, used a marshall HMG head through a vintage 4x12 cab, I say vintage - old and slightly knackered would be a better description! I used the same mic combo on what I perceived to be the healthiest sounding speaker!

Vocals - used my trusty Neuman condensor, straight into the preamp on my RME Fireface interface, I can't afford an expensive vocal pre-amp.

Kick is about 85% what was recorded, plus 15% a sample with the lows sucked out to provide a bit of definition on the beater click.

Only used the top snare mic track.

Kick, snare and toms are softly gated with Floorfish VST.

Most things in the mix run through the NoName EQ vst and one of a big selection of mostly freeware compressors. My current favourate in Classic Compressor.

Snare has a small amount of verb, however the whole kit has an ambience reverb placed on it. Whole kit has been slightly brightened by an Exicter plugin.

Interesting that you find the snare sound to be thin, no-one has mentioned that before, although the amount of drum reverb has been raised a few times.

Jim