First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

[Phantasmagoria]

Yeah, this started off as a collab 'single' with my band's vocalist. He's been bugging me to do something simple and rocky that he wants to try & actually "sing" over.. (as opposed to growling) so I finally got down to it a couple of days ago. Anyway he had AC/DC or Molly Hatchet in mind & I had Trouble (the band) so it ended up being a bit of both. Now he thinks it's heavy/doomy enough to be a regular band track of ours, so that's probably the way it's headed :lmao:

We just (sort of) lost our drummer, in the sense that he moved out of town a few months ago though he still travels in for gigs when he can, so I programmed the drums for this song. Also played bass 'cause our bassist is out of town/on vacation for a while too. All that remains is the vocals...he might do that (and get things fine-tuned/cleaned up etc..) at the awesome new studio our regular sound guy just built. Either way my work with this track is done..it's a bit rough around the edges but probably the best I can do at this point in time :laugh2:

It's the first time I've actually recorded a full-length song in Reaper as well..most times I use my loop pedal. (...tracked my rhythm guitars with the loop pedal this time too :laugh2

Equipment used: My Laboga The Beast Classic 30W amp, 2001 Charvel Pro series, Ibby SR370E Bass & MT Drummer 2 for the drums (I think it was Dankstar who linked me to their free drum software ..thanks dude, it's come in handy )

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Tweaked the bass track a bit.. (turns out it was a bit misaligned as well)..bass playing/tweaking/mixing is'nt my strong point

I might have some idea's yet, but overall I think this mix is more in the sweet spot than that last one. Everything's a bit clearer & the drums sound like Vinnie Appice is giving them a go. In any case I'm just messing around with things until we hit our sound guy's new studio for the vocals...then he can take over the tweaking/editing :lmao:


V2

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

....and finally V3

Don't know if this is done much but I had the thought of using 3 bass tracks instead of just the one..so I made two straight copies and panned them hard(ish) L-R, with the original in the middle, (luckily no phase issues!) reduced/reset their levels and it actually sounds pretty cool..nice fat wide growly mids.

Drums are back the way they were before to make room for the big mids...

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

I will check this out when I get a chance!

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

This is really the only one to hear ...I'm 100% satisfied with it

Got rid of all the crappy FX (compression/Limiting/EQ/hi-lo pass filters etc) that I'd just slapped unnecessarily/excessively everywhere :lmao: and stuck with just a bit of delay & reverb.

Concentrated on having everything properly aligned & getting my levels right. Then hit it with a mastering preset for loudness ... boom! ..the whole thing came to life :bigthumb:

Loving how it sounds now!

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

And just for kicks, 'cause we still have'nt started on recording vocals..


V5: :bigthumb:

just fiddled with the bass a bit ..dunno if it sounds any better (..or even different) ..at this point I'm just messing around :laugh2:

 

[DankStar]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Sounds cool! Glad the drums worked. What mastering plugin?

 

[El Dunco]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Nice tone on the guitars. How did you record them? It sounds like there may have been some latency issues (some interface drivers can do that) or something on one or both of the rhythm guitars during recording. One is just behind the other and it almost sounds like a delay through my speakers. Not trying to be mean, it's really bugging me and I'm sure you'd want to know, I wouldn't bring it up if it didn't seriously affect the listening experience for me. Time-wise, something just isn't right. Maybe have a look at everything in the DAW and make sure it's all lined up.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Sounds cool! Glad the drums worked. What mastering plugin?

Thanks! Yeah, the drums worked great and were super easy/quick to throw together.. did'nt really edit them at all except for shifting their pitch down a bit on the whole track to better match the rest of the stuff going on..

I used Landr (online mastering) ..it gets the job done. But the whole thing will probably be redone when we hit the studio for the vocals..

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Nice tone on the guitars. How did you record them? It sounds like there may have been some latency issues (some interface drivers can do that) or something on one or both of the rhythm guitars during recording. One is just behind the other and it almost sounds like a delay through my speakers. Not trying to be mean, it's really bugging me and I'm sure you'd want to know, I wouldn't bring it up if it didn't seriously affect the listening experience for me. Time-wise, something just isn't right. Maybe have a look at everything in the DAW and make sure it's all lined up.

:beerchug: I used my loop pedal lol..just the guitar into the amp (no fx) & then out to the looper using a Celestion IR (forget which one ) from my Mooer Radar pedal.

Yeah I screwed the timing up on the guitar/bass tracks because I had'nt stuck the drum loops together tightly (there were gaps here and there that I did'nt notice until I zoomed in and checked a while later :laugh2. I though there was a descrepancy between the looper's drum track tempo & the Mt Drummer 2 drum software tempo I used later. But it was those gaps.

Tried compensating by editing the the guitars..(adding a bit here/snipping a bit there) but things got sloppy 'cause I did'nt have them properly aligned to start with & then I hacked the **** out of them. . Anyway the good news is I saved all the original tracks so I'll get our sound guy to re-mix/put things together from scratch when we hit the studio.. :lmao:

Thinks I've had my fill of mixing for now...

 

[El Dunco]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Gotta hate when one mistake leads to snowballing consequences. Hopefully it will all get fixed up and I'm sure it will sound great when it's in time.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Thanks :beerchug:

..and yeah, hope so

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

:BUMP: 'cuz I just gave this another go for kicks..

Swapped the drum kit for the Ugritone "Riot Drums" kit I just bought (Raw as **** = sounds awesome to me!) & just jammed a couple more guitar tracks using one of my GE300's tone capture's ..this was just a rough check to see what it would sound like with the Ugritone drums ..I'll probably re-do the guitars & have to EQ/tweak the drums a bit (already did...but Ill fiddle about some more). It already sounds quite a bit better than what came before I think :bigthumb:

 

[El Dunco]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

That's more like it! My favourite rhythm tone you've come up with and great doomy riffs. A little bass and it will be perfect.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Thanks :beerchug:

Yeah the bass needs to come up a bit..

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

I re-did a bit of the bass track with more drive & practically maxed the EQ on my Behringer BD121 bass pedal...did I get it right? Or does it still suck??? :lmao:

If you think it's messed up (too high in the mix/too low/too boomy etc..) any/all suggestions are welcome :bigthumb:

 

[AmirH]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

My favorite composition of yours so far. I look forward to hearing the completed song with vocals!

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Why thank you kindly sir :beerchug:

It might take a while yet ...but the vocals will be in the finest cookie cutter tradition as it has always been (see below) :laugh2:



Should be fun trying to record/produce his vocals....I've done it before but only for our super lo-fi 'gurglegoregrind' project ...he takes a different approach for that one :lmao:

 

[AmirH]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Lol. Cheers bro. Older forum members (at least Jolly if he remembers me) can attest to the fact that this used to be exactly my style. Anyway, didn't your want to do non-growled vocals originally though? Did that change, or did I misinterpret?

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: First try at recording/mixing a song for my band....

Yeah, that's right :laugh2: ..I actually wrote the song (with a bit more of a rockin' groove than our usual fare) because he (my vocalist buddy) wanted to try something different/Motorhead-ish he said. But now he's got cold feet & say's he's just going to stick with the tried & true kinda stuff as usual :lmao:

I'm cool with that..I'm pretty fond of his "blackened-death vokills' as he calls them :laugh2: