The "All 57 Song"

[Madguitrst]

What a bunch of complete arsehole behavior.

You're a disgrace to this forum.

No, I don't know Kel, but I have read his posts before and he has never been anything but respectful and helpful (if help is requested).

No I don't know you and I don't care which of you is the tallest midget in the circus.

Yes, I'd like to read something a bit more constructive in the future.

Kindly take a time out and consider your actions.
You'll grow up better people for it.

[red cross]

*sits back and munches popcorn*

[helmuth]

The point of the experiment was to show one can make a good recording using nothing but a 57, it's not about all the fancy gear, right?

I think that very point gets well proven when people forgets about the gear and starts talking about the song instead. Just to bad it had do get ripped apart. I really think the whole thing went along just fine, POINT MADE, not just the way intended to.

[Ethan Holdtrue]

one thing I noticed is there are almost no cymbals in this recording.

[I'm Painting Again]

To the recorder of the song if your on here..is there compression on the track? it sounds like there is to me and theres no mention of it in the notes..does the daw machine you were using have like a soft limit or something? that could explain it..other wise I would have to say the playing skills are exceptionally great dynamics wise on that track imho..

It seems this thread has got peoples goats by the things which is funny because there are so many more "real" things in this world to be activist about..I just want to say again that I thought the sound quality was like meh..but for the time and the gear involved it really does show you how inexpensive gear, arrangement, musical talent, and a little practice at recording can yield nice results that communicate the song in a pleasing way and how without the music and humanity in place no amout of gear is going to make you the next Engelbert Humperdinck..

[vvv]

I thought the recording was quite adequate to be a demo and listenable as is; almost amazing for 3 hours, a couple 57's and a Pod.

I also find that, if I quit grabbing my balls, I like the song, too.

Full Disclosure: I, also, hang at the VS Planet (as vvvm), where "kel" is a cool and helpful presence, as are Dot and Kid Surf...

[witesol]

to shift focus back to recording for a bit I'll ad some additional information;

16 tracks were recorded. out of the 16, 3 were not sm57, two could have easily been..and probably sounded better anyways. the POD track should have been an amp and 57 which is a standard procedure anyhow. No stretch for that application. In hindsight, seeing where this track has gone I could have spent even an extra couple hours engineering. The drums weren't mine and sounded decent, more than good enough. But a drum key and some mic placement time would have yielded some bonus..and perhaps less repair EQ. Engineering a real drummer would have made the process much simpler. Many mentioned phase issues with inconsistent snare hits. That's simply a velocity issue. Pilot error. More experienced engineers would spot that instantly. There wasn't a lot of compression used. There are onboard comps in the 2480 and I did employ them on the kick, snare and lead vocals as well as bass, to taste within the rather quick time spent. The snare comp was trying to make up for inconsistent playing to a certain extent. There are very little phase anomalies(sp?) and 3:1 rules were loosely adhered to. 57s make for rather poor overheads. their prescence peak around 4-6k makes for a sizzly sound, especially combined with cheaper cymbals. I did add air on top. there are plenty cymbals by the way.I just didn't play that many. The hat is in there but the acoustic does groove along locking into the hat groove, as it should be. Probably a little too much reverb, which is usually not how I mix. The kick really isn't that bad. I did listen the next day and made some changes to it, simply turning it up did most of the fix. Had I known where this might go online I would have spent a little more time tracking, mixing and have it mastered, then encode at anything better than 128 kbs. Taken at this level, I'm still proud of it and stand behind it's value, given the time involvement. I'm honored to be some enlightenment, inspiration, reality check and even a target for discussion(insult). I'd like to say it took some guts to post this song but that would be giving myself more credit than deserved. Thanks to Dot, who ran with the post.

I will say that until you put your name on, and heart into something for the "world" to criticize, you have less of a foundation in which to offer opinion, at least in my estimation.

[witesol]

To the recorder of the song if your on here..is there compression on the track? it sounds like there is to me and theres no mention of it in the notes..does the daw machine you were using have like a soft limit or something? that could explain it..other wise I would have to say the playing skills are exceptionally great dynamics wise on that track imho..
.I just want to say again that I thought the sound quality was like meh..

I tried to answer that above. Do you have something of yours to listen to?

[trodden]

whitesol,

I think the recording is ace in consideration of the gear used. 57's and a 2480, totally. I could not even come close to that quality.

here is a song i recorded 5 years or so ago. My friends, they were a new band, some of them never playing specific instruments they were playing before, (drummer is a guitarist etc.) well, they needed a demo so we rounded up all the mics we had in the practice space we shared which were all 57's and two 58's, my mackie 1202 mixer and my ashly stereo comp (which was all of the recording gear i owned at the time, besides a yamaha four track!!!!). Then borrowed a friend's Fostex 8-track 1/4" reel to reel (shit), monitors and her mackie 1202 mixer along with the 57's she owned and a symetrix compressor.

we had the gear for a weekend, did a lot of drugs of all kinds, and drinks of even more, had a fucking great time, which led to no sleep of course and bashed this madness out!!! we later dumped into protools for free to add the back up and 2nd vocal track, with an sm58.

you're right, sm57's make shitty overheads with badly tuned drums and crappy cymbals. totally.

not even close to pro, but who the fuck really cares? i don't. I've learned a lot more since then, as well as the drummer. the growing/learning process in full documentation..

with that, i present "Black Veil" by Misericorde

http://www.helstab.com/music/trodden/blackveil.mp3

[stinkpot]

wow, this is surprising on many levels and not at all on others.

First of all I appreciate folks listening. Thanks. Furthermore, this song wasn't meant for this forum. It was for VSplanet where I am a regular poster. Dan was kind enough to think it had merit and ran with the concept, unbeknownst to me. It was sort of a shock to see my full name on a post in forums I don't frequent. No worries Dan.
Do I care if you liked the song? Not really. Was I trying to record the hippest song ever with 57s? No. It was for my wife. Sappy yes. Some of you have forgotten there are faces that go with the songs. Do you think it just showed up by someone faceless, not reading, no person behind the MP3? I see my name along with: (paraphrased) "piece of shit and vomit and other pointless insults ", in a gear forum no less. Sad actually. I'm often self deprecating but I don't need the extra help thank you. I suppose this forum will mirror a reasonable cross section of human behavior out in the regular world and there will be assholes, indifference, the clueless, along with folks that have something constructive to add. It was only sad that I saw little about recording, little constructive. After listening to some of the song material by some posters in this thread I can only be grateful they didn't like it based on what I heard. This may have been a quickie, thrown together song, unmastered at 128kbs, but it would never go on my site as my best work. The above posters don't have an excuse really. They are recordists/artists putting their best foot forward on their sites ...I would hope they'd have better recordings. I do like listening to where someone is coming from when they post strong opinions.

Almost all of you don't know me, what I do, how long I've done it, how well I do it on a day to day basis, with whom and most important, what kind of people I am. But, I sure get a pretty good idea about some of you. Rather dissapointing really. What's this forum about? Oh yea, Gear talk. It couldn't have been clearer in the original VSplanet post that it wasn't a "how do you like my song post".
If anyone wants to comment on the gear, the recording, the process, The effects, EQ, compression, the mix, the acoustics, mic placement or anything remotely relating to recording I'll gladly engage. If someone thinks it sounds like crap, that's OK too. But give me a foundation on which to measure your opinion.
thanks for taking the time to listen, carry on...
kelly

Hey man, I think you did a great job on the recording. A 57, a song, 3hours, done and done. It sounds really nice.

The song is the song, the recording is a totally different subject - which is what we really should be discussing.

[I'm Painting Again]

To the recorder of the song if your on here..is there compression on the track? it sounds like there is to me and theres no mention of it in the notes..does the daw machine you were using have like a soft limit or something? that could explain it..other wise I would have to say the playing skills are exceptionally great dynamics wise on that track imho..
.I just want to say again that I thought the sound quality was like meh..

I tried to answer that above. Do you have something of yours to listen to?

stuff I engineered in my basement ove rthe last couple of years:

http://www.helstab.com/music/bees/artis ... k%2007.mp3 (95% live - vocals overdubbed/banter left in for effect at end)

http://gingerbird.net/the_vibration4-87.mp3 (first band I ever recorded - 2003)

http://gingerbird.net/Memphis_Mortician ... ashman.mp3 (demo for swiss label)

http://gingerbird.net/GoldenBats_SeaDeath.mp3 (my music also)

http://gingerbird.net/Pecados/muddybanks.wav (100% live!)

[witesol]

Hey Beard O' bees, thanks. but I went ahead and listened to some of your stuff already.
once again, I appreciate the listens and comments.

[trodden]

To the recorder of the song if your on here..is there compression on the track? it sounds like there is to me and theres no mention of it in the notes..does the daw machine you were using have like a soft limit or something? that could explain it..other wise I would have to say the playing skills are exceptionally great dynamics wise on that track imho..
.I just want to say again that I thought the sound quality was like meh..

I tried to answer that above. Do you have something of yours to listen to?

stuff I engineered in my basement ove rthe last couple of years:

http://www.helstab.com/music/bees/artis ... k%2007.mp3 (95% live - vocals overdubbed/banter left in for effect at end)

http://gingerbird.net/the_vibration4-87.mp3 (first band I ever recorded - 2003)

http://gingerbird.net/Memphis_Mortician ... ashman.mp3 (demo for swiss label)

http://gingerbird.net/GoldenBats_SeaDeath.mp3 (my music also)

http://gingerbird.net/Pecados/muddybanks.wav (100% live!)

did you use just 57's on these?

[Walrus44]

Not to take anything away from the 57, people. We have 13 in our studio, but, Kel is a regular at VS-Planet and the cat is just loaded with talent as a musician, producer, and engineer. I'm convinced he could get the same results with a Radioshack Realistic Dynamic.

Seriously, the dude has chops and passes it on - any chance he gets. Hence this thread. Nice work, Kel!

Walrus44

[FunkyBeat]

Radioshack Realistic Dynamic.

Ahhhhh... what memories! That was my very first mic back in 1983.