Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

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glagola1
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Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by glagola1 » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:38 pm

I made this recording in my basement with a Motu 896hd and some cheap ass mics. I used Cubase to mix. Let me know what you guys think.

http://www.theliverhearts.com/audio/02% ... 20Lift.mp3

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by JSKEARNEY » Tue Nov 30, 2004 5:05 pm

I like it quite a bit, very Built to Spill (back when they more creative and still good).

Nice guitar tone. You music is very simular to the kind of stuff I like to do.

jk

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glagola1
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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by glagola1 » Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:18 am

Thanks man. I think that when we decided to record ourselves it was ambitious but we took our time (did it at least 4 times) and that's something we couldn't do in a studio. Some things I'd like to improve on in the future would be the bass tone (less middy mud) and the vocals. They are kinda thin at times.

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by hofmann » Wed Dec 01, 2004 3:06 pm

This is a cool song. It reminds me of the Treepeople in the way that the guitars are intricate and raw sounding. Man this shit sounds really good for cheap ass mics! I've heard stuff that doesn't sound half this good recorded with u87s and Super nice pres...Good job on the recording, and the songwriting. Did you do anything to the vocals or are they just sung into a dynamic mic? They fit well in the mix, in my opinion...
"Suck it up and win the race."

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glagola1
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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by glagola1 » Wed Dec 01, 2004 4:52 pm

Thanks!

I used a cheap chinese LDC for the vocals with some compression, eq, and a reverb plugin. One guitar has a sm57 on it and the other has the LDC and a CAD SDC. The drums were recorded with the same LDC as a single over head and the CAD mic pointing at my butt (I'm the drummer). SM57 on the snare with the kick and the toms being recorded with this Peavy live mic set.

We basically tracked the two guitars and me live to get a good scratch track. Once we were happy with the tempo and feel of the scratch track I replaced the guitar on the left with an over dub. The drums were recorded several times and I ended up keeping the kinda noisy sounding take that was done in the concrete room. It made them more live sounding and seemed to fit the song better than the dry, clear sounding, drums that I recorded in the dead room. The only original part from the scratch track was the lead guitar which seemed to work really well with just the SM57. I can't beleive it but I recorded the bass tracks with an SM57 too. Yikes.... I'd like to do that over.

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by waitingroom » Fri Dec 03, 2004 7:38 pm

I love the song! Definitely sounds like something I'd play. The recording sounds good, but personally I'd raise the vocals and the drums a smidgin in the mix. The vocals remind of the way the singer from ATDI (Cedric?) sounded when he wasn't screaming. What kind of guitars and amps did you use? Keep up the good work.

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glagola1
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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by glagola1 » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:41 pm

I agree about the drums. Somehow, in the mastering they got a little quieter and the guitars got louder. Oh well, pretty typical I guess. I think they're telecasters with traynor amps but don't quote me on that. :lol: I just play drums.

Thanks for listening.

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by beebe » Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:04 pm

I'm in the band too. Thanks for all the awesome comments! You guys are too nice.

The LDC mic was a superlux... cm-h8a I think.

The reverb plugin was free from SIR. It's convolution. Probably all of the impulses we used were from noisevault (also free). The 30 by 30 room seemed to fit our sound pretty well... the larger halls just swamped the processor.

The guitars were a Telecaster through a 4X10 80 watt Traynor, and a Toronado with a Duncan Seth Lover bridge pickup through a 2X12 80 watt Traynor.

Peace.

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by dolor44 » Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:57 am

Sounds good--especially the drums--a good ear goes a long way man

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by dolor44 » Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:59 am

Sounds good--especially the drums--a good ear goes a long way man
Are you guys in Atlanta??

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glagola1
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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by glagola1 » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:48 am

Yeah. We're playing the 10th, this Friday at Lennys.

www.theliverhearts.com has all the info.

Thanks for the ear thing. I was thinking that since I play in the band and I know what it sounds like when it's good maybe I could work the recording until it sounded similar.

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by texlop » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:53 pm

Wow, I like it. Everything sounds nice and indie like. I can't say anything that I didn't like about it or needs fixing. Good Job
For some good new music check out The Medusas

listen to some of their Mp3's at Pure Volume

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by sentinel » Wed Dec 29, 2004 11:47 pm

wow.


All instruments are crisp and clear, but still with an edge.. but really, I'm surprised at the definition because it seems muddiness is the problem most people face when starting out(in attempt to make everything sound heavy)... good job guys!!


My band is going to record 6 songs in Jan and I'm a bit nervous since we're trying to do it all ourselves(up till mastering that is) and everything seems a bit intimidating, untill I heard this and realized that recording your own band yourself can actually be a good thing. Like you say, who would know better than yourselves the sound everyone in the band envisions?

But as a drummer myself I'd have to say I'd dig just a tiny bit more kick drum(or maybe it's these crap computer speakers) since I always dig more kick.. ;) What sort of mic did you use for that? It's a nice satisfying *thwack* instead of an attempt to force a an unrealistic sounding sub-sonic boom that everyone is so used to these days....

Anyhow many props. Let me know if you have any advice on mixing or monitoring(since waring out the ears can be a problem with both recording/playing at the same time)

Rob

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glagola1
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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by glagola1 » Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:10 am

Thanks Rob. The learning curve was incredibly steep and we tried several different recording techniques. It aggrivated a couple of the band members but one was there to help. Just beware that it will take a while to get sounds you're halfway satisfied with.

I agree about the kick sound. Here's the deal with the kick: I used a Peavey kick mic that comes in the 300 buck kit set of 5 mics and cables so the quality of the mic is questionalbe but that's not really an issue. MIC PLACEMENT was the biggest thing in getting a tone. I'm recording 3 more songs right now and they are coming out much better but I think I'm going to have to redo the drums. Anyway, I have a regular type of kick drum with plastic beater. The front head has a hole in it. On the recording you heard, I put the mic about 2" away from the face of the outer head and near the middle away from the hole. At this location you get lots of low end but hardly any attack as you may have noticed. On my new recordings I wanted more attack so I put the mic on the edge of the hole and pointing down at the bottom of the inside of the shell. By leaving the mic half on the drum head and half on the hole, I still get the low end boom but by allowing the mic to "see" the shell I am getting a respectable amount of attack. I'm even having to eq out some highs on the kick to get to a natural sounding thwack which I like a lot because on the mix you heard I ended up boosting the kick highs but still didn't even get the attack I wanted... blah blah blah.

Patience and methodoligy seems to work. Just start recording your drums before you take off with the band. Get an idea of where mics sound good to you and try to iron some of that stuff out before you involve everybody else if you can. Then work on getting each guitar tone to translate...

I don't know, just have fun and be ready to drive yourself crazy. The problem is if you like the results you'll get hooked and want to use your band to practice recording all the time. :)

Matt

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Re: Please critique my recording... indie rock stuff

Post by VI66 » Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:23 pm

Really a quite stunning recording along with a solid thread. This song and thread should, in my opinion, be one of an "recording poster child" winners as it says so much. Good recordings aren't so much about the gear you have as they are about the amount of hard work, sweat, and heart that goes into them.

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