need some feedback: chaotic mathy punk/post hardcore

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:49 pm

This is my first recording of a full band, and it just so happened to end up being the band that I play drums for. I made a ton of mistakes and learned a lot, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with what we ended up with, considering I'd never recorded a real drum kit before (much less engineered while playing said drum kit).

This is pretty close to the final mix, recorded in my modest home studio with very modest gear. It's just about done with the exception of me needing to go through and kill many, many, many instances of popping on the vocals and and a few clips in the overheads. Yay for learning on the job!

I'll include a link to one song below. if anyone can stomach it and actually wants to hear more, PM me and I'll hook you up real nice like. Comments, suggestions, affirmations and verbal tounge lashings encouraged.

the bearfighter - telephone

radiantbrian · Post by **radiantbrian** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:47 pm

it sounds mostly good. the one thing that popped out at me was the 'right' overhead. the smaller crash and the high hat are both really brash and too loud; to the point of where it makes the drums 'lean' to the right. you could probably tame it a little in the mix, but next time i'd try to back up the mic more and make sure it's not directly aimed at either cymbol.

the bass could stand a little 2k boost and the guitars could use a smidge of subtractive eq in the low end, but otherwise this is pretty good. i like the song too; it's like an updated drive like jehu. nice.

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:18 pm

Thanks for the response -- that's exactly the kind of information I was hoping to get. It really helps to have a neutral third party perspective when I've heard these damn songs so many times now.

I did notice the cymbal differences. I'll see if I can get them to balance out a little more. I think part of it was two different models of cymbal, one being more bright and projective (sabian aax stage) and the other more subdued (sabian aax studio).

The bass has been a nightmare to EQ but I do agree that it needs something up in the mids a little more.

The most important thing I learned from this project: spend the time to get the sounds right as you record them or pay in precious time trying to make them sound right later. Ugh.

-Bret

radiantbrian · Post by **radiantbrian** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:22 pm

The most important thing I learned from this project: spend the time to get the sounds right as you record them or pay in precious time trying to make them sound right later. Ugh.

tell me about it. i'm in the middle of remixing an old record of mine that didn't turn out the way i wanted... jumping through all these hoops and spending $$ making surgical, yet band-aid decisions that could have been prevented from moving a few mics a few inches.

fuck.

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:38 pm

sounds good, but what everyone else said about the overheads is definately true... perhaps, however, the sound of the overheads is not so mucha problem, but they seem a little loud contextually. if you brought down the overheads a bit and used more close mics, i feel like it could hit a little harder... then maybe make a sum buss of all the drums and squash the living hell out of it and blend a squashed mono 'fake room mic' in under the drums to get some of the breathing of the cymbals back. that's what i'd try. just thinking of ways to tame those cymbals.

john

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:53 pm

That's an awesome suggestion and one I will try out for sure. The thing with this particular song is that the drums are moving so fast and pretty busy, so my hits are a lot lighter than they might be on a less chaotic song. I like the idea of taming the overheads a bit though.

Just for comparison, if anyone cares to listen, here are a couple more songs with less crazy drums. I'm guessing they suffer from the same problems:

the bearfighter - get away

the bearfighter - merigold

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:13 pm

I like the songs. I enjoy the Drive like Jehu influence. The mix does sound bad, the guitars sound good. For your first time recording drums they don't sound bad.

I would turn down the overheads a little and turn up the close mics on the drums. The guitars and bass are at a good volume. Maybe turn up the vocals a hair on the first song you posted.

Also I think one thing that might help with the kick drum sound is if you inverted or fliped the phase of close mic on the kick drum. That should make it sound deeper and thinker.

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 1:38 am

Whoops, forgot to reply to this one. Thanks for the honest feedback and suggestions. I did try all the suggestions people made in this thread the other night and it made a tiny amount of difference, but not a huge amount. Ultimately, I think I just did a poor job of capturing the sounds in the first place. Next time around, I'll devote MUCH more time to getting the sounds right. Thanks again for all the help.

InvalidInk wrote:I like the songs. I enjoy the Drive like Jehu influence. The mix does sound bad, the guitars sound good. For your first time recording drums they don't sound bad.

I would turn down the overheads a little and turn up the close mics on the drums. The guitars and bass are at a good volume. Maybe turn up the vocals a hair on the first song you posted.

Also I think one thing that might help with the kick drum sound is if you inverted or fliped the phase of close mic on the kick drum. That should make it sound deeper and thinker.

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 1:12 pm

I ment to say the mix DOESN'T sound band. Sorry about that...

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 1:19 pm

Ha ha ha, the optimistic side of me wanted to read it that way, but I wasn't sure. I'm still learning! Nice to know it was a typo. Thanks though, I do appreciate the help.

-Bret

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:22 pm

Hey it's cool. I have to help a fellow Brett out.

-Brett

Americangeography · Post by **Americangeography** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:20 am

Yeah it sounds really good for a first attempt recording... i wish my first attempts at recording sounded that good... i had gear so i could make current attempts... haha. You guys are from Washington eh. When my band comes down to Washington id love to play with you guys or iif you guys come up to Victoria ever we could prolly help you with a show. Check out my bands stuff here: http://www.myspace.com/americangeography please note that these are shitty jamspace recordings consisting of one crappy mic and no vocals... but they will give you and idea of whats going on. later

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:35 am

Sent you a private message...

Americangeography wrote:Yeah it sounds really good for a first attempt recording... i wish my first attempts at recording sounded that good... i had gear so i could make current attempts... haha. You guys are from Washington eh. When my band comes down to Washington id love to play with you guys or iif you guys come up to Victoria ever we could prolly help you with a show. Check out my bands stuff here: http://www.myspace.com/americangeography please note that these are shitty jamspace recordings consisting of one crappy mic and no vocals... but they will give you and idea of whats going on. later

ataraxia · Post by **ataraxia** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:56 am

vocals are great. sounds like you guys just added the singer though. if that makes sense. like he sings like he's the new guy ..whatever that means. .wait a minute it's says the guirist is singing on myspace. hmm. oh well. i love this, it's my favariot....(damn side note, i totally forgot how to spell favroiitee) jehu esque (lack of better words) thing ive heard here.

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 12:11 pm

Heh, yeah, he is actually one of the two founding members and the main songwriter.

Do you mean that because he starts out kind of weak in the beginning of each song, or just the general shakiness of his vocals? If the latter, that's kind of his style, he kind of has that crazy singer thing going for him. We are going to try and fix the first lines of each song, whenever we get the time. Thanks for the feedback though -- much appreciated and glad you like it.

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need some feedback: chaotic mathy punk/post hardcore

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