Production and Mixing tips

[wydsiwyrg]

This recording is a mockup done on fairly low end gear. Could you give some advice on any production tricks that could be done, maybe with weird sounds/percussion.. and also what you think on the mixing and what I could do better.

Equipment:

Kick Drum - D112 -> Focusrite ISA428
Snare - SM57b -> Focusrite ISA 428
OHs - Rode NT5 -> Focusrite ISA 428

All guitars - NI Guitar Rig 2
Bass - Bass POD

Percussion/FX - Reason

Vox/BVs - AKG C414

Hope you can help.

Here's the link as I couldn't get the upload to work!:::

http://www.castledarkly.com/files/gd-cib.mp3

[paulnowo]

I am just listening on computer speakers but something weird seems to be happening in that lowend. It sounds almost like a slap delay on the kick drum or something.

The vocals are pretty good and for a home studio thing, it does the job. The acoustic guitar sounds like a lot of pickup is being mixed in there (or 100% pickup, maybe) which isn't the greatest sound... how about recording the intro vocals/acoustic guitar live so it sounds like a live singer-songwriter recording and then really blowing people away when the chorus hits? It would make the start feel more natural and could bring people into the song faster.

It's a pretty generic rock tune but I'm sure lots of people would like it. Good stuff.

[peeder]

First of all, this is pretty awesome job!

The guitars sound like NI Guitar Rig: Thin and harsh and metallic (and not in a heavy metal sense). That's a shame for such a great production and playing. => Real tube amps!

The kick is way way way too loud. This is a great example of how boosting 50Hz might make you smile but it actually makes everything else sound too quiet. Get a subwoofer to make you smile.

I don't like the mic on the voice. It's a bit dark and yet cold. I hate 414s in general, but as the above poster said, you ought to use it on that acoustic instead of the quacking piezo. The vocal chain distorts on the loud notes.

The voice also needs some more reverb when the band comes in. It's too dry for that large an ensemble: you couldn't fit that big a band into such a small room!

Again very well done!

[wydsiwyrg]

Hi guys thanks for the comments so far. They are very helpful.
Unfortunately I don't hvae a decent set of monitors at home to mix on - so all these mixes were done on Shure E2cs (which have a pretty dodgy bass response, which could explain the bass pumped too high!)

Is there anything I could do to fix the guitars to sound better - short of recording with real amps, it's a shame as we have some very nice amps - but it's a pain to record the amps, and Guitar Rig does offer a lot of flexibility.

I was actually worried that the kick couldn't be heard enough. Would it be better to make it more "clicky" and get rid of some of the subs on it?

The acoustic was mic'd with the 414 and the piezo in was used too, I did mix the piezo higher than the 414, as you could hear the string-slides too much on the mic in.

I don't think the vocal was clipping on input - so it would probably be my mixing!!

I'll make the reverb send jump when the chorus comes in; that should fix that.. I always shy away from too much reverb - as in earlier days I used to use it far too much, so as a result I probably use it too little now, so some advice on that is appreciated.

Do you think I should pull out the piezo mix completely and just use the mic sound that I've got?

I can't hear the slap delay effect that you're hearing - if you could give me a reference point I'll try to listen for it - although at the end I added in some percussion with the mix and that had some low end on it, so maybe the fact that that's quantised, and the drummer is human might make a funny noise? I'll listen for that.

I'm going to do another mix and then put it up and see if you guys think it's an improvement.

Thanks so much for the comments.

[paulnowo]

You should double or triple the chorus vocally and make sure those are mixed as background vocals - that should help the vocals not get washed out.

Also, I wouldn't worry about a clicky kick drum, just take the lowend out of it a bit and turn it down.

I would take out the piezo entirely from the acoustic guitar. It's just not a pleasant sound :)

I think the slap delay thing I was hearing was just my poor speakers reacting to the real bassiness of that kick.

[Ecktronic]

Sounds good.
The guitars at the break down sound great at 2:33.
I dont like the sound of the guitar in the right side where it comes in just before the chorus at 52secs. The guitars sound great after that though in the full mix.

Vocals could so with some clean up in the low mids a tad, and some more compression and/or volume automation so they don't stick out so much at certain times. More high end at 12k could be used and some more presence at 5K also would give the vocals a nice touch.
The acoustic guitar at the start I'm not sure of. Sounds a tad thin, you could maybe cut some of the low mids a small amount and boost the low a bit.


Nice work.
Eck

[wydsiwyrg]

Hi guys,
Thanks for all your comments. I've taken them all on board (I hope); and produced this mix:

http://www.castledarkly.com/files/cib-nl.mp3

Please give me some more comments.
Thanks
Tim