Band Demo (Chaos in Question)

Sidivan

Fractal Fanatic
Well, after months of work, we finally have a decent sounding demo up on our myspace page. We did everything from recording to mastering ourselves and none of us have experience at it. Thanks to Minnesota State University Moorhead's Audio Production class, the other guitarist received permission for full use of the studio for free, which was a big help.

All guitars are AxeFX, save for a small doubled track on 1 song using a 50/50 mix of the Vetta II's Whamster patch and a synth patch I created in the Axe. You'll know when you hear it.

I understand it could be mixed better, but we ran out of time as the end of the semester is upon us and he had to turn in his key. Let me know what you think, good or bad!

http://www.myspace.com/ciqmusic
 
I'll write something. I'm on many forums and this one has the most difficult people yet... so don't get upset. You don't have to pick a fight... they'll do it no matter what. :lol:

Now, about your songs. I've done a lot of mixing and mastering so I must be honest and say that the mix has many flaws but the songs are really good. I really like the genre and would love to have a band like this!

Mixing basics: EQ and compression. You should have them everywhere. Drums were the most lacking in sound: The kick and snare don't have enough highs so they don't really cut through. (they actually sound MIDI... are they?) Vocals would sound a LOT better with compression.

Beneath These Stones had that solo... You guys play rhythm guitar like any pro but that solo was really sloppy although it wasn't that hard. This is just a productional issue... I would've cut it out.

In the end it sounds like a demo and that's what it is so that's all it has to sound like.
 
Hey there Sidivan, the vocals stood out the most in this track... in the lower register his vocals don't sound good at all... in the mid to higher register he sounded pretty good!!! I'm listening on some laptop speakers... but from here it sounds as if everything is being recorded very far away... especially the drums. The guitar track sounded decent, could be better by added a bit more high end... and the "chung, chung, chung" parts definitely could use more beef...

The songs was pretty cool!!! Keep up the good work!!!!

Wheres_the_beef_commercial.jpg
 
Yeah, first time mixing an entire band. Like I said, first time in the studio for all of us, but tips are extremely welcome especially for mic'ing the drums and bringing the guitars up front.

When I listen to Mortega's clips the guitars are so up front. Mine sound like I have a mic on the otherside of the room.

The lead... Yeah about that... That's a brand new song and I improv'd pretty much the entire thing. I wanted to cut it in 1/2 because frankly I ran out of ideas. I tried to stretch out and reuse some stuff. This ended up pretty much disastrous because I couldn't remember wtf I was doing from take to take. I have always billed myself as a rythm player, but recently started some lead work.

I am glad you like the songs! We have some new ones in the works, but it will be awhile until we finalize and record.
 
Good that my words didn't insult you! I'll give you some quick micing/mixing tips. Mixing/mastering is something you can't learn from one post/one book. You just have to go by ear and you have to give it time. The best tip I can give is to have good tone to start with. Tune your drums! Good drum sounds usually mean less mixing. You'll save a lot of time AND it'll always sound better this way. Then you should listen to other mixes which you like. F.ex. I usually listen to Deftones when mixing drums and KsE when mixing guitars etc. It really helps to train your ears.

Micing a snare drum: you can get a good signal with an SM57 on top. I use another SM57 under the snare drum and blend the two tracks. A lowcut at 125-150hz depending on the situation. Then I usually boost the highs a lot.

Kick drum: there are many ways to do this. Personally I always get the best tone when I've got the mic inside the drum. (in center of the drum facing the beater) Kick requires a lot of EQin so it's no crime to trigger them with let's say Drumagog.

Guitars: I've gone back and forth with panning dual tracks 80% or 100% but at the moment I'd say the 100% left and 100% right will give you the best sound in most situations. Lowcut at 90-135hz depending what you're after. I'd use a ballsier guitar tone since it'll be the root of the mix in the end. My personal preference would be to play as accurately as possible so do it the KsE way: one riff at a time... then PAUSE and double it. Then go start recording the next riff.

KICK, SNARE & GUITAR SOUND ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT IMHO.
 
Some excellent advice on here Sidivan. Tracks were nice enough, but could be polished a bit. If you ever want any tips for how to expand improvisational vocabulary, that is what I may be able to help with.

Rock on!
 
I really like your material and your band. In the end, that is what matters most. Think of the recording/mixing as the presentation. Equally important to the end consumer, but any musician knows it is secondary to the material and the performance. You guys have that part - the most important part - and that's hard to find/create/achieve.

The critiques above are right on the money. Any issues you have at this point are related to the recording/mixing aspect of it. And those things can be taught and learned.

Who engineered the sessions? Who mixed it? Those are the only issues I really hear. The parts (like the solo you discuss) are to me, easy things to redo at any point, especially if you use something like the Axe-FX.
 
We did everything ourselves start to finish. 90% of the writing is the other guitarist and myself. The recording was done by us. I did the final mixing with his help (I had never seen protools before).

The drums were done by the other guitarist as I was at work when they started. When I got there they had 2 tracks done, but they sounded reeaaallly bad. I tried to re-mic some stuff and it helped, but I literally know nothing about mic'ing drums. I only know what I like and don't like about the sound... Not how to fix it.

The monitors in the studio were some mid-low end mackie's, but they had two A7's. The A7's didn't have a sub hooked up though. The major problem was that if we mixed where it sounded good in the mackies, the bass was muddy and overwhelming in the car and home stereo... So we adjusted, burned to cd, listened with a pen and notepad, went back to studio and repeat.

I had to cut a lot of chug out of the guitars as it was the only way I could figure out how to get the horribly mic'd drums to come though. When we get 4 or 5 more songs finished, we're going to go to a real studio, but hey, this was free!
 
That's how you learn man, don't sweat a thing. The material and song are the pot of gold here, the brass ring. 99.9999% of the stuff that matters is the material and the performance.

You got that.

You should spend some time researching what other pros do/have done in recording/mixing and read up if you can. The best things I ever did was hang out and learn by watching/learning from pros in local studios. You donate your time and effort, they put your rear end to work and you learn reams worth of real world recording and mixing. It's an art and a science.

Another really good idea is to book one weekend in a respected studio in your area (other bands can and will tip you off where to go). Don't shop for the 'best deal' just look for the best sounding mixes and a good engineer. Do your best 2-3 songs with him; and be there for EVERYTHING from the setups to the sound checks to the mixing. Watch EVERYTHING, ask questions, and learn. You'll end up with both a very good demo to shop your band for gigs, post to the Net AND learn a LOT more than you'd expect.

Nowadays, another incredible tool is the home studio. With a computer and a DAW program, you can experiment at home and learn as you go. But nothing can replace learning from those who know. It takes a lot of the trial-and-error time burners out of the learning curve. Engineering and mixing are things that you learn by researching to some extent, but you have to learn them as you do them in the end. Nothing can replace experience in these pursuits.

For a first go with a full band, you guys did great. Your next recording project will be better, and after that better still. Keep plugging away.
 
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