My home recordings... please review/suggest/critique

[monoverb]

3 songs

http://www.thevanityfair.com/vanity/music.aspx

Recorded onto a FOSTEX D-90
Via a Mackie CR-1604
4 mics on the kit:
Beta52
SM57 on snare
Oktava MC012's overhead
BASS D.I. from an Ashdown 300m Head.
SM57 on the guitar cab...
All synths direct into the board...
used the Pre's in the Mackie.


bounced everything into protools via a Digi002 for mixing.

Have upgraded a LOT of this stuff since.. but I do love my D90.
Sentimental reasons...it was my first big purchase for a rap group I was in like 12 years ago. I think it does exaclty what it was made to do....and quite well, considering the technology involved.

I learned so much during these sessions...would not change a thing.
Most unhappy with the bass..... got a POD since then to remedy that.

[JASIII]

on my shitty laptop speakers the piano sounds a little too loud on the first track, cool song though. i dug the guitar parts near the end

the guitar textures on all the tunes are pretty cool

the last tune reminds me a lot of that coldplay song that was popular a while back. guy's got a decent voice.

[kayagum]

I told you I'd listen to it

Decent arrangements, some cool sounds, indifferent on the lyrics (but that's just me).

I don't know if a bass POD would improve the bass (sounded pretty good to me)

Drums sounded a bit flat... more overheads, less snare/BD? Dunno what you had for a room, but maybe a bit more space?

[monoverb]

Yes!! Thank you (both)...A bigger room is the one thing I never even considered...good ears... the room was TINY.. like 10 x 12..and you heard it. I didnt know it made a difference...thank you so much for listening,

The drums were a disaster mostly becsuse on the 1st two songs we bounced from 4 > 2 tracks and had some possible impedence issues... the third song opened up a bit more becsuse the dums went into the mix still as 4 tracks.

Need a bigger room....
more rent
more gear
more time.



story of my life.

[monoverb]

oh! and the kick in the 1st song is a trigger as the one in the recording didnt really have the thump factor we were after.

[kayagum]

A low budget solution to the drum room is to have a drum room mic (even in your small room), and compress it. You can find Alesis microlimiters for next to nothing, or even stompbox compressors.

There was a recent thread of recording cliches, and this was one of them. I think if you did it more for taste than for showing off, you can add some depth to your drum mix without sounding too Albini-like.

Another advantage of using the overheads as the primary drum source tracks is that you have less risk for phase issues. Part of the thin sound may be due to phase problems.

A great article on home drum recording by Andy Hong (TapeOp gear editor): http://kimcheerecords.com/articles/

Good luck with your future recordings- you're off to a promising start

[MichaelAlan]

I like the second one. Sometimes, I put a mic somewhere on the other side of my house as a room mic. It makes the room sound really big if the delay is long enough. I usually have to eq out some harsh tones though.

mike

[monoverb]

so can we talk ribbon mics?? The OKTAVAS ...I am SO happy with those and they were cheap...is there a ribbon that will get me a comprable room sound for the same budget price? All the ribbons I looked at were 400$ and up... If thats what i HAVE to spend, then ok...but maybe theres a bargain ribbon out there?

[waitingroom]

I enjoyed all the songs. It's all arranged and mixed very nicely, and I agree that the bass sounds perfectly mine to me. Drums could overall use a little work. Good work though.

[VI66]

I like the fish tune a bunch. I like the feel of it. Can't beat vocal harmonies.

[comfortstarr]

I like the echo and the bunnymen (or is it Cure) synth thing in the background of the verse on the second song... or maybe that's the chorus... whatever.

I think the snare needs some help in the fish song.

These are all really good.

Amazing what some here can accomplish at home.

[monoverb]

thanks for the kind words... it was really a learning process.. we are in the "studio" now doing 3 more songs. The info I get here is really incredible, and it's amazing what just a few tips can do for the sound of it..especially drums. I did get a Bass Pod..and it does takea lot of the guess work out of recodring bass...and sounds fairly natural is you ask me.

I have never tried mic + DI ofr bass (2 tracks)...will do that when I get my new Mac this spring...something about using the POD that feels like....CHEATING???