...some general comments...

J

jim

Vocalist - Guitarist
Apr 17, 2001
252
0
16
60
Mystic, CT
vmp.homestead.com
Well I gotta tell ya that I am so TOTALLY blown away with the quality instrumentals you guys are putting out now... it really is amazing. When we started over a year ago, and I was learning how to do this vocal thing too, I was happy if my vocals just sounded 'OK'.

Now you guys have raised the bar SO HIGH that I'm not going to be happy with anything less then perfection for any song I do in the future. (Including the ones I'm working on now). Gone are the days when I could spend an hour with my 'studio' and give you a vocal track worthy of the instruments....

You bastards are really challenging me to put forth my best.... so thanks!! But it also means that my song selection is going to be pickier. If I can't do the song %100 justice, I'm not putting a medicore vocal track on a killer instrumental. The only comments from people at that point would be 'great band!.... but who's that strangling the cat?'

Keep up the good work!!!

You guys do know that Bruce isn't exactly the easiest singer to do, don't ya! If you want to start putting out some even more impressive covers, we should branch out and do some tunes where the singer isn't a deity! I'd suggest you figure out what the goal of the song is before you pick one. If your shooting for a kareoke (sp?) cover, pick anything you want. If you want vocals on it, keep in mind what I or 7th can pull off respectably.

That being said, anyone want to do a Savatage tune with Zak on vox? Anyone, anyone?

 
great thoughts jim..... though anything you singers do sounds fine enough for me..... considering its bruce ' the man ' dickinson tunes...... :)

... id prefer a comprimised vocal than none at all...considering this is a fun vitual band thing rather than actually trying to produce a proffessional demo or something.....

But i hear where your coming from...... i like to give nothing less than my best performance on guitar.... so i can see why youd feel like giving nothing less than perfection with your vox..... ;)

I was actually thinking the other day.... if u compare our best finished tracks,...... with early maiden....... our instrumentals actually sound unbelievably close to those ' ancient ' recording techniques back then...... it blows my mind.... The only difference that sets our finished tracks apart from them..... is the quality of vocals....and by that i mean their techniques seem to capture a more pure track with less interference..... not actual vocal content......

What a huge compliment to be able to compare us now.....to early maiden...... ( or im just on drugs....... lol :confused: :D )

And savatage......???? sorry dude.... never even heard of em.... so maybe email me the song...if it does it for me...i might help out.......

UPWARDS AND ONWARDS.....The IMG...!

( im just babbling here i think.... ill go now....... hehehe :) )
 
nope...not joking....... never heard them/of them...... in fact....4 out of the 5 bands all you lads on here talk about or list.... never heard them/ of them either.....

My musical experience is very limited.......

But i know that maiden, acdc, the angels.. ( angel city in the sates i think theyre called...) ....sabbath and a few others...cant be all that bad to be submersed in......
 
I agree Jim. Ive been having troubles keeping up with the high quality of recent tracks. Now I have a pod it shouldn't be as much a problem. Beast is going to sound very cool.. im telling you that now :D

Ive never heard Savatage either.

oh and Medsy, my band plays long line haha.. yeh I know its not hard :deb:
 
Storm - ahhhhhh,... no thanks.

rabies/crossy - I can't BELIEVE you haven't heard of Savatage! Dudes, WTFO? They are of the same caliber as Queensryche, Maiden, etc. etc.

Check out those 2 CD's I mentioned. They KICK ASS!

(Except for the first song on Handful of Rain. I still don't know how that one got on there.)
 
Jim, you've done a great job so far, on the tracks I've heard (The Maiden stuff). Be proud of yourself, man! You're a talent.

And yes, as long as you have the right attitude (being picky or critical) then you can always progress. Keep the good job and spirit up! ;)

Cheers.
 
Thanks dude!

Yeah the point I'm trying to make is that the instrumentals are becoming SO killer, that I'm confident that you guys could pull off just about anything!

Now that the IMG has progressed to that point, you have to deal with some of the limitations that a normal 'band' does. Which is simply choosing material that everyone in the band can wail on. And of course the limiting factor is usually us singers! :):)

As good as some of these Maiden covers sound, I can just imagine how good a cover of some other band would sound where the singer's range is not so high (at least for me).

Crossy: You got a POD!!!!! You da man! Welcome to the club mate.... your gonna love it.
 
I think the quality of the instrument playing was always there. Its just lately, we have taken the raw stones and really polished em up. We are a lot more critical now of the overall sound and mix...which is what was lacking the most before.

+ The quality of MM's drum recordings alone have significantly helped.

Jim - mail me a sample of those savatage albums if you can. I'll try to find em...but I am still looking for King's X albums....
 
I can't get at Napster or anything like that here. I can try to bring in the CD's on Monday and rip a few MP3's off of them...

As far as the IMG progress, I think that the talent has always been there, but we've made HUGE strides in every other area. Recording quality (thanks POD!), recording techniques, how me manage , mix, and produce songs, etc. How we communicate problems and solutions, etc. Even to the point of people just buying better equipment too. New soundcards, mixers, POD's and processors.

I for one have progressed tremendously since the start (I think...). It's been a very valuable learning experience. And to be able to work on my vocals and recording techniques to instrumental tracks of your guys quality is an awesome thing!
 
A COUPLE OF TECHNICAL ISSUES.....:

Fistly...gidday lads......Hope someone can help me out on a couple of things....

1) I use a marshall head that has an XLR BALANCED D.I LINE OUT (with speaker emulation).......Now my dilema is..... can i run this straight out of my head and straight into my soundacard.....???

If i do...will this cause any damage to either head or cpu...??? Hopefully i can improve on my sound some more...and rid my bleeding problem once and for all...... although only if the sound is an improvement.......

Also.... if a use a cable with an XLR connection on one end....with a 1/4" connection on the other end.....( Also with an adaptor to bring the connection down to an 1/8" headphone jack size to fit in my sound card...).... will this setup still work ok....?? Will i lose the impact of D.I by not having XLR connectors both ends....etc....

Anyone have any experience with this kind of setup....????

2) This is more a statement than anything.......

When i mix and playback my songs.... im using winamp with all eq's turned off.... so i get a flat response......

Can it be that we may be complicating the final mix routine by all using different playback mediums..... some may have eq's on and bass haeavy etc.......So they are going to hear the mix in a completely different light to how the mixer intended.....

There are also other lil things like that.... i have my soundcard set on a spatial ' wide ' setting....which is completely different in sound to when it is off...... (when off...it completely starves the mix of vocal mid frequencies....)

So....im just curious as to peoples opinions....could be everyone is doing perfect mixing jobs..... but when opened on other machines..... its completely different.....!!

Cheers lads...... :)
 
Originally posted by Medsy
A COUPLE OF TECHNICAL ISSUES.....:

Fistly...gidday lads......Hope someone can help me out on a couple of things....

1) I use a marshall head that has an XLR BALANCED D.I LINE OUT (with speaker emulation).......Now my dilema is..... can i run this straight out of my head and straight into my soundacard.....???

If i do...will this cause any damage to either head or cpu...??? Hopefully i can improve on my sound some more...and rid my bleeding problem once and for all...... although only if the sound is an improvement.......

Also.... if a use a cable with an XLR connection on one end....with a 1/4" connection on the other end.....( Also with an adaptor to bring the connection down to an 1/8" headphone jack size to fit in my sound card...).... will this setup still work ok....?? Will i lose the impact of D.I by not having XLR connectors both ends....etc....

Anyone have any experience with this kind of setup....????

2) This is more a statement than anything.......

When i mix and playback my songs.... im using winamp with all eq's turned off.... so i get a flat response......

Can it be that we may be complicating the final mix routine by all using different playback mediums..... some may have eq's on and bass haeavy etc.......So they are going to hear the mix in a completely different light to how the mixer intended.....

There are also other lil things like that.... i have my soundcard set on a spatial ' wide ' setting....which is completely different in sound to when it is off...... (when off...it completely starves the mix of vocal mid frequencies....)

So....im just curious as to peoples opinions....could be everyone is doing perfect mixing jobs..... but when opened on other machines..... its completely different.....!!

Cheers lads...... :)
Click to expand...

Medsy: If you have an XLR Line out, and you're sure that it isn't hotter than line level, you should be able to plug it in to the line in of another device. You can't disconnect your speakers from your amp head, as far as I know, because you have to load the power amp to keep it from burning out. You would need some kind of dummy load to simulate speakers in order to use your head as a stand alone preamp. If your head has a headphone jack, maybe you could plug in some headphones to silence the cabs, and still use the line out.

If you want to connect the line out to your sound card you might want to buy a small mixer with XLR inputs, connect your amp to the mixer and the mixer to the sound card with another cable. It's a little more expensive than using adapters, but it is less of a pain. The mixer will need to have a trim adjustment so you can use it for microphones or line level.
I don't have this kind of setup myself, but I've experimented with something similar before. Hope this helps.

About mixing:
I know that my cpu speakers lack bass and highs so I'm not getting the full sound when I listen back to something. I also try not to add very much eq to anything when I record because I know my speakers aren't capable of reproducing the sound accurately. Some of the mixes that I've downloaded sound bad, but I know that it probably sounded a lot better on the system of the person who mixed it than it does on mine. I think the change from system to system, room to room, etc...does have a huge effect on the way we perceive a mix.
:)
 
I agree with everything you guys are saying concerning the recordings. I think one thing that has helped me is that I don't have to think so much about the "how" anymore. I've gotten used to the process now and I can concentrate more on the sound and actual playing.

Also, I agree with Jim that I too would like to branch out and do some things other than Maiden. I'll always love doing thier stuff, and I think we should still do more, but I'm also interested to hear what we could do with other material and different styles.

Anyway it's been GREAT! :D

CHEERS!
 
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