Drums + Bass

[Beardhead]

I'm currently working on mixing some tracks, which are just drums, bass and vocals. I'd appreciate some comments on the attached mix. Thank you very much.
Claus

[watson_studios]

I think the mix is great. I don't know if you were planning on adding guitars but I think it stands very well without them. The texture and stereo image of the bass is very cool and fills out the song well. Can you explain what you did on the bass? Is it a single track? It sounds like you could have duplicated the bass track to add different processing (overdrive, octaving,etc.) I sensed slight tempo changes here and there but the bass & drums were always right on together, tight.

The vocals are OK, but the lo-fi effect gets to be a little much used thru the whole song - I would use it a little more sparingly. If you don't want to go to a clean vocal sound , then try a different vocal texture - maybe a wide-doubled effect just to give the song 2 vocal flavors instead of just one.

This is one of those times where people could get really hooked on the song the way it sounds now and not like it as much if guitars or other instruments are added. Just a by-product of showing early progress & mixes.

Great job.

[Beardhead]

Originally Posted by watson_studios

I think the mix is great. I don't know if you were planning on adding guitars but I think it stands very well without them. The texture and stereo image of the bass is very cool and fills out the song well. Can you explain what you did on the bass? Is it a single track? It sounds like you could have duplicated the bass track to add different processing (overdrive, octaving,etc.) I sensed slight tempo changes here and there but the bass & drums were always right on together, tight.

Thanks a lot for the kind words.
There won't be any guitars added, in fact, the band just consists of two people with the bass player singing.
The Bass amp was a Hartke 4000, the cabinets were a Marshall 4x12" and a Hartke 4x10". The bass player uses a lot of Boss effects, like chorus, octaver, sustainer, distortion, overdrive etc. Both cabinets were recorded in a very damped room with two mics each, so four tracks in total, which I combined to one in mixdown. Bass was overdubbed twice. One track is dead center with -6dB, the other two 60% left and right with the same sound at 0dB.
The three bass tracks are routed to a subgroup ITB with EQ, multiband compression and the UAD 1176. There is also a small delay and reverb on the bass.
There is only one bass track in the outro, however, which is shifted in time on left and right.

It was recorded without click, the players are no professionals, thus the time changes. I think it would have been a lot worse WITH click.

I actually like the lo-fi vocals (btw, it's an overdrive with 1176 all buttons mode), however, we'll probably redo them with a bit more passion. I will also think about your suggestion and try different effects for different parts.

Again, thanks for the comments.

Claus

[kats]

I think it really cool, but the whole time I found myself thinking theres not enough body...a bit bright, I think its the drum mix.

[Beardhead]

Originally Posted by kats

I think it really cool, but the whole time I found myself thinking theres not enough body...a bit bright, I think its the drum mix.

Thanks. I thought that too when I listened to it again this morning... have to do something about that.

[clan]

love it. vocals indeed need some variation imho. How did you record the drumkit?

[Beardhead]

Thank you. The whole thing was recorded in a small house. Drums were set up in the living room, wooden floor, stony, uneven walls, quite low ceiling (about 2,10m). A fireplace in the corner (with fire in it). No flutter echoes. SM57 into RME Octamic on Snare, D112 into RME on Bass, e604s into RME on Toms, KSM 137s on Ride and Hat into RME (turned them down in the mix), KM184 into DTC as overheads, CMC5/MK4 for Room into TLA EQ2.
In the mix I also used the TLA into the Tube Tech SMC2b into the DTC.

[dim light]

I really like the DTC on snare and kick closed mik'd - Worked great with old Shure vintage 57'ish EQ mik. Sounds great. I think there is something unpleasing with the bass though - like a short room sound that sounds closed and hyped.

Cool music I enjoyed it!