microphones

travelyan said:
hey OLDSKUL. i revisited unsung, and i fixed the "pumping" i think, and put a little oomph in the bass guitar, and adjusted the drums a little.

http://talkingmeat.com/unsung.mp3

better?
Click to expand...

Definitely an improvement. Everything in general sounds better, the whole mix sounds more "glued" together. The only thing I would change is to pull that kick drum back just....a little. I think EQ-wise you have everything just right - but that kick is just a *tad* overwhelming.

Oh, and at the very end - the toms are a little hot, and a little muddy. I would pull them back 2-5dB at around 220Hz.

Great job otherwise. Now I want to hear your originals.
 
Oh, and whatever you did to the bass is a good thing. It sounds tighter, and there seems to be a little more grind to it now.
 
yep. after i listened to it again today i thought exactly the same thing about the kick drum and the toms at the end, so i'm going to make those changes and save all the EQ and drum settings as my template. with the levels as they are, i can make a full length record that sounds cohesive throughout and that's been my goal from covering various genres. now i understand what i'm doing and hearing whether it's piano, acoustic, electric...

it seems that when i record anything, and then don't listen to it for a week or two and come back to it, i can get the levels and such damn near perfect on the second go round...that being said i think i'm gonna cruise back through the most recent coversongs and apply these settings and see what happens

btw - speaking of piano, any thoughts on http://talkingmeat.com/my_immortal.mp3 ?
 
I'll give it a listen the next time I make it up to the studio.

I have the same experience with mixing - I tend to get too involved on the first pass with EQ and compression, and get the actual levels off a little, and then come back to it after I've had a chance to reset my ears and get the levels right.

The trick to bypassing that process is to throw on a few tracks from a record that's a completely different style, and then a few from a record of the same style. So for Unsung, I would take a break, listen to some Steely Dan, and then come in with some Ozzy. You really benefit from the close-listening skills that wake up when you're mixing; other music starts to become a deep, deep puzzle.
 
Cool song; I like your treatment of it. The vocals sound awesome...you're really getting the hang of using compression. Awesome harmonies.

My only complaint is that there's some buildup in the lower mids. At this point I don't know that you'll be able to fix that without having a dedicated, acoustically treated room and high-end monitors. So that's a pretty good problem to have :) I hear the buildup mostly on the acoustic guitars. It could be the reverb, too...there's a ton of it on this track.

There's also some string noise and pick articulation that I think is being brought out with eq and compression that I don't think you intended.
 
someone else said they wanted to hear it without the vocal FX and the synth so i think i'll mix it again but dry and see how that is... the synth gives it movement especially during the interlude part. i can try to reduce the lower mid frequencies a bit too.

not at all sure what to do about the string and pick noise. i guess new strings would be good. bought the guitar in 2008 and never changed the factory stock strings out. probably need a thicker gauge, something geared for studio recording, but i don't know where to start with that. pick noise is probably mic placement and EQ, maybe i could notch that out, but i don't know where the pick falls in the spectrum and i am also partially deaf so i guess on most of this stuff anyway. any input on what acoustic strings i should buy for playing in this tuning? ideally my original songs will have a lot of reverb and echo going on with the guitar and i want it to be very clean and pretty at times, and very "days of the new" at others, but the current strings are clearly a little too rattly and the slide noise sticks out too much, i can definitely hear that...
 
Pick noise is in several places, but 2.5kHz is a place to start. There's an easy method for "finding" the bad EQ spots:

Take a parametric EQ. Maximize the Q (the "width" of the EQ). Crank it up 15dB, and then move it up and down the frequency spectrum, listening for the problem area. Once you have the frequency targeted, then CUT the eq a few dB (4db is a good place to start), and widen the Q some. I use this same technique on heavy guitars to pick out the "mud" frequency, usually down around 330Hz or so, and put a small dip there to clean up the sound.

I have a UAD2 card with Neve EQs, though, and these EQs have notches on each of the bands. I pick 330Hz on any given electric guitar, bring it down a bit, and it cleans right up :)

Now, as far as strings go: spend $13 on a set of Elixir Polyweb Medium gauge. I downtune for almost everything as well, and these strings work great. They're especially good for recording, because the strings are coated, and aren't terribly bright right out of the box. They also last forever.
 
LOL, love the hyper-compressed drums and the distorted bass. Someone has discovered camelcrusher :)

Sounds good dude, nice cover of this tune
 
Hey trav, beautiful work. I've been into the folksy/indy shit lately, and I would totally pirate your CD. ha.

off topic for microphones but - what's your setup for that beautiful piano?
 
My Immortal and Northern Downpour. You said m-audio midi keyboard, but what are you using in Fruity Loops? (Unless you have magic fingers, I don't think you could make the built in piano sound that good.)
 
Holy shit! I'm a Fruity Loops novice at best, and I'd never even heard of soundfonts until now. Those are fucking beautiful. My musical imagination has been sparked. Strings and piano, woodwinds and harps. Damn. I didn't think I could get something that nice sounding without a lot more work. Amazing. Thank you.
 
Aren't soundfonts from Sound Blasters?

There's tons of free MIDI patches out there...hell if you want some nice sounds get a copy of Kontakt 4 LE, it's $99.
 
The kick drum on northern downpour is a little too clickety. Is that like a metal kick or something? Try a more mellow sounding kick. Snare sounds okay but isn't loud enough.
 
That vocal on Northern Downpour is super intimate. Sounds fucking great. Don't be afraid to push it until you think it's too hot. It could be 2-4dB hotter.

Otherwise...you nailed it. It sounds totally professional. Still not a fan of the kick drum, but it's all a matter of taste. I think you should push all your backup vocals out to the side, maybe, not just the later backups.

Dude, when are you going to put a band together and start playing out? You need to start NOW.

I'll listen to "always" later. Dinner.
 
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