Rock! Pop! Folk! It's light and it sounds nice

[dynomike]

My brother came home for the holidays and I recorded a few songs for him to give to his girlfriend. I played bass and drums on this track and all 8 tracks of guitar are his own... the vocals are his too. We also recorded a more upbeat song but I'll upload that one once you've all had a listen to this..

I think it's my best mix yet. I did a rough mastering job, and I think it may be a little bright, but you can see. Scott also persists that the drums are too loud.. but I like them in the foreground.

No reverb and very little eq = good mix!

http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~sdkuehn/sc ... foryou.mp3

mike

[axial]

sounds good! his voice sounds like, uhhh....

[dynomike]

uhhh...

[axial]

i think it counting crows?

[dynomike]

yeah, i've heard that one before...

[wing]

i like the drums... nice room sound, has a warmth to it i think. however, on that note, i could use more kick!

[j.johnston]

Counting Crowes meets Coldplay. Great vocals, good song, good recording.

I would love to hear about the tracking and mixing of the song. Was it done in a home studio? What widening stuff did you use on the vocals? What was your recording medium?

[dynomike]

my modest setup was as follows:

kick-sm91 (a foot back from front head)
snare top - sm57
snare bot - beyer 201
overheads -apex 420 (LDC's)

stereo acoustic with apex
acoustic overdub apex (left)
acoustic overdub beyer 201 (right)
electric - beyer 201 and direct
bass - direct

voice- apex 420

i'm recording straight into sonar 2 with a motu 2408 and a behringer ada8000 for pres... pretty shitty digital setup, when it comes down to it, but it does the trick.

there's no eq on anything except a tiny boost to the lows on the kick.

i have all the vocals autotuned, but no reverb, chorus, doubling, etc...

the "broadening" you may be referring to is that i ran the lead vocal, as i often do, through a plugin called "amplitube" with a little drive which gives it a little bit of a shimmery, breathy sound.

the drums were actually mic'd fairly close, but they sound very soft just because i'm playing softly. Are you being sarcastic about the kick Jonathan? It really is kinda loud...

glad to hear you like it though! i'd like to hear more critique if you have specific likes/dislikes.

mike

[wing]

Are you being sarcastic about the kick Jonathan? It really is kinda loud...

glad to hear you like it though! i'd like to hear more critique if you have specific likes/dislikes.

no, well, i guess i just mean it's kinda real dry and therefore quiet in my mind. does the kick have a pillow in it? it's just really flat and dry. i guess i by "more kick" i don't mean more volume, i just mean more KICK.... like more ooomph in the drum sound. but it's not bad per say, especially if that's just how you like it!

i think in any event it's a good drum sound. really dig the snare.

[assfortress]

I think it sounds really good. The kick level sounds good, thats the only thing that sounds like it needs a little more eq'ing. Nice though. Your drums remind me of Pedro the Lion.

Matt.

[Baltimore]

Hey Dynomike!

I really like the song. The vocals and acoustic guitars are so warm and clean... really excellent. Look forward to the next one you post. The drums sound great too.

Be well.

Baltimore

[SlabOLab]

yeah, nice sound! how much of the drum mix comes from the overheads vs. the close mics? I like the cymbals sit back

[psychicoctopus]

Good song you've got there. I did find myself distracted from the vocal by the kick drum. The tone of the kick seemed to poke through above everything. I'd like to hear it with the vocal up 0.5 to 1 dB. BTW I'm listening on headphones.

[dynomike]

Thanks for the feedback everyone...

I love Pedro the lion, so thanks for that, whoever wrote that...

The snare sound is mainly overheads, actually. The close mic's just round it out. My kick does sound a little dry... I probably should have used a more directional mic (my sm91 doesn't have much of a proximity effect) to get more bass from the front head... but I was consciously trying NOT to eq anything, so that made it difficult.

The overhead mics are quite low, which attributes to the warm tones of the snare and toms, and laid back cymbals. Thanks again for the kind words.

mike

[Everybody's X]

I love this! Please give me more!
Also what setting are you using on amplitube?

This is good shit mang
next time you put something up email me everybodysx@everybodysx.com
seriously.

I really don't hear Durits in it but I listen to counting crows a lot