Song Mixed on d8b..your thoughts

[tyler8wb]

hahaha thanks for the compliments. ya I really need to get someone in here to sing it. oh ya btw would anyone recommend mastering at a professional mastering studio or in logic?

[Casey_Pittman]

oh ya btw would anyone recommend mastering at a professional mastering studio or in logic?

That depends, what is the end product going to be?

For an album I would say yes. For just a single release I say let logic handle it, just be smart about keeping the dynamics of the song and not squishing the hell out of it just to compete with a commercial product.

-Casey

[FrankH]

Well, Tyler, here's a response you might find amusing:

The thing is flat and one dimensional. There is no air in there…because it's had the life sucked out of it by too many instruments playing basically the same thing….pads being the most guilty. It doesn't tell much of a story as is and as Dan Worley mentions…there is no depth of field to it. There is no foreground, middleground or background. It's a flat barren landscape.

The one thing that's missing that could've added some life to this piece were vocals. It doesn't matter that you have the voice of a 15 year old. You wrote it, you're 15 …you sing it. I don't want to hear someone interpreting a song written by a 15 year old. I want to hear a 15 year old sing it and I especially want to hear the guy that wrote, sing it. That where the uniqueness of the tune is gonna come from. You.

You've got the technical tools to get a reasonable comp take. Just do it and don't whine about it. You might surprise yourself. Sometimes you just have to jump into the deep end.

And that brings me to the next thing. Had you laid in a vocal track (and some backing parts) before you mixed it (or before you added a lot of the "air killers"), you would've had a better idea how to mix and structure the thing to start with. The vocal's inclusion would've given you a better idea how to make mixing decisions that "fit the track".

As for "mixing tips" this is my advice: Do not turn to plug-ins for help at this point. As a matter of fact, turn all the effects off and start listening to the raw tracks themselves and begin a rough mix with the drums, bass and vocals first. Those three things are the foreground. The primary chordal instrument (piano, I'm guessing) should be the middle ground. Everything else is background and maybe not even used at all. Nothing is all that precious when it comes to making a successful mix. And if you have to turn some reverb on, as you get started, try a short reverb (under 1.2 sec). That's another one of those "air killers" you've overused.

The little detail touches (bells and such) make no sense without the context of vocals in place….again, without vocals you'll have no true idea of what kind of trainwrecks might be occurring. You need all the elements present before you progress into a final mix.

So basically what I'm suggesting is…get some vocals in there, preferably yours; turn all the effect crap off and start again. Effects and detail parts that make sense will begin to reveal themselves as you progress through the fundamentals.

Brutal, wasn't it?

Once upon a time, people actually paid me to sort out their messes. Here's a few:

http://www.discogs.com/search?type=all& ... btn=Search

[tyler8wb]

as brutal as that was, that was the exact thing I wanted to here. Thank you so much for the tips. Im probably guessing your an old school analog guy? hahaha i no im kinda a new age guy.. and with us our mind set is if we have the plugin lets just use it for the heck of it...and ive been guilty of it on some of my other songs... basically your response was kinda how I was feeling. I felt it was over processed but all the bells and everything make sense with the vocal track I have. Also the guitar is what is giving that muddy sound as my sm57 broke..(yes i said an sm57 broke) and I had to use a studio projects c1 to record it (which i will never in my life do again because if you heard the raw track you would probably shoot yourself in the face lol.) But anyways thanks for taking the time to write that and hope to here more

[FrankH]

When it comes to things aural…it's "hear"….not "here". I can tolerate most grammatical errors…but that one? In an audio thread?

Your C1 anecdote brings a few things to mind. First: the Studio C1 mic is actually a pretty decent microphone when used properly. There is more to it than shoving it in front of a guitar amp and hoping for the best.

When I read your reply, the first thing that came to mind was: he pointed the back end of the mic into the amp. Easy to do with almost all of the Studio Projects mics… as they provide minimal physical and graphic design clues as to which side is which. I can't tell you how many times I've had to go out into the room and turn Neumann U-47's around after an assistant set them up. (The C1 is very similar in physical design to the U-47.)

Assuming you actually did point it in the right direction, did you take advantage of the two switchable features it provides? The pad and rolloff filter? If the guitar amp was cranked, I would have engaged the pad to keep the D8B's mic pre from crapping out. Regardless of level, I would have engaged the filter @75Hz to knock down some of the mud from the amp. Still muddy? 150Hz setting. Without even considering mic position, that alone should've given you a reasonable recording.

The only other things that come to mind are: your C1 is damaged or you're using a faulty or mis-wired mic cable or…you didn't "exercise" the D8B's mic pre knob before hitting the record button. Because of the age of the D8B…the mic pre knobs can sometimes get funky and need to be twirled back and forth a few times to get them to work properly. This is assuming you plugged it directly into the D8B.

To me, there are two kinds of basic song categories….those written on keyboards and those written on guitars. The nature of these two distinct orchestral ranges determines where the groove comes from. Whichever one you started with should determine where the middle ground is around the bass, drums and vocals. Everything else needs to work around it or compliment it…otherwise you'll get mud.

So…you did do a vocal, eh? Should've been in the mix you posted.

And no, I'm an old school new age guy. I take it you didn't bother to click on the link I provided.

[tyler8wb]

sorry about the grammar issues. Also the reason I dont have the vocals is i hate my voice and had to use alot of melodyne to get it to sound decent. I run my studio projects c1 into a presonus tubepre and then into the d8b and then to my interface. My mic was placed pointing about 3-4 foot away from my vox ac15cc1 and it faced 35 degrees away from the speaker because someone recommended I do that. now this is goign to sound dumb but you had me second guessing myself. which is the front of the mic? pic 1 or pic 2 because I thought pic one was the front

Photo on 2011-02-08 at 15.27.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 1266 times

Photo on 2011-02-08 at 15.27 #2.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 1266 times

[anyhorizon]

Pic one shows the front but both pics seem to be mirror images. Why? Anyway, you'd be able to tell by just speaking into it, assuming that it's cardioid. Omni or figure 8 need not apply.

Peter

[tyler8wb]

thanks peter. ya thats what I thought put im just getting nasty guitar sound out of it.... could it be the presonus tubepre Because my sm57 sound a million times better

[anyhorizon]

SM57 is the killer standard when micing an amp and many other things. Never discount it. Just make sure that you don't mic it too close unless you're after something unique. The amp speaker needs to move some air. It's up to your ears.

Vocals, of course, need something more but even so... there have been songs completely recorded using the Shure stick.

Peter

[tyler8wb]

I will probably be using the studio projects c1 for vocals. Oh and did I mention that im borrowing a neve 1073 preamp (rack-mounted) from someone to finish the recording he just let me borrow it today