Jul 10, 2011 09:20 pm i can tget any page to work cobber.
Metal Tune - Home recorded tracks to be mixed else where. Feedback wanted!
Posted on Jul 10, 2011 10:48 am
RockWood610
John
Member Since: May 06, 2007
Hey guys,
I've gotten some great help from everyone here, and I really need some feedback; as much and as soon as possible PLEASE! This involves my band spending money for our tracks to get finished, and we don't wanna loose our butts on it!
I'm in a metal band called 'The Anxiety Effect' and we are just getting our first show/pre-production for recording around. We play our first show on July 23rd so we have been mostly focusing on that, but we have been writing and recording rough basement takes since February to gear up for our main recordings.
Since the only thing we are missing online is downloadable tracks of our music, and we have been focusing on our first show and not so much on recording, we decided to record a 2 minuet sample of one of our tunes to share on our pages on the net to buy us sometime until our E.P. is done.
I have some home recording gear, and I have done my own mixing/mastering before on other projects I have been in. Most of the help came from this forum. But I don't have the time or patience to do all that again, and I want our new stuff to sound as best as possible. So we are currently recording here at my home, and sending our tracks elsewhere to be finished.
We are from northern Pa, and have been in touch with a guy who owns a studio in Buffalo, Ny. Its called Outer Limit Recording Studio. Its ran by this pretty cool dude named Ken. Here is the website for his place with all his gear/specs on it:
www.outerlimitrecordingstudio.com/
Now, we recorded all the tracks here in my studio at home and sent him all the separated tracks to him. The drums where triggered with Superior Drummer 2.0, the guitars and bass where all processed through Line 6 gearbox/pod farm, and the vocals where recorded with a lower end condenser mic from MXL.
Ken has guitar simulation software like my Line 6 setup, so we sent him the guitar/bass tracks processed with my Line 6 gearbox/pod farm, as well as the unprocessed tracks so he could do some tones and what not as well.
He has returned to me an almost completed mix/master on the tracks I gave him for our sample track. Again, some of the vocals are yet to be recorded, and the ones that have been recorded where pretty rough. I wanted to make sure he could make due with my room/mic setup. So there are some lines missing in the vocal tracks.
He has not gotten any feedback from us yet as to how we want everything to sound, so for the most part this sample he did is all his doing without knowing any preferences we want as far as how the guitars sound and what not. He said he did a bit of mastering work to it, and its roughly 80% mixed and mastered.
Right now, I am very happy with the low end he has on the track. The guitars I feel have been crushed a little, and don't sound as big as I would like them to. But again, we have not returned any feedback to him just yet, and he said if we where not happy with something our wanted something done differently to not be afraid to say so.
I am posting our original roughs as well so you guys can hear what our guitars sounded like prior to him getting them. And then you all can toss me what you guys think on what he has done.
We are paying roughly $100 to $130 per song to be mixed, and $10 per minuet of recorded audio for the master if we end up doing our whole E.P. with him. For this sample, we have not really hit up on a price point, as he wanted us to hear what he can do.
Our original sample link:
www.speilsplashstudios.bu...ginal_rough.mp3
Ken's Almost Completed Track:
www.speilsplashstudios.bu...ghs/ken_mix.mp3
Thanks for any and all feedback/advice!
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Jul 10, 2011 09:20 pm i can tget any page to work cobber.
Jul 11, 2011 02:12 pm Overall, it doesn't sound bad to me and the price being charged for mastering is fair.
Maybe bring up the guitars a db or two (or drop the vocals a db) to make them stand out more. I'd also add a bit of low end to the kicks (maybe 65-90 Hz range). The only thing I noticed (because I'm a drummer) is that the "hats" were coming through my left ear. Is the drummer left handed? Typically, I pan instruments based on how the crowd hears /sees the instruments from the floor.
What part of N. PA? I was a Carbondale resident for many, many years.
Jul 11, 2011 05:02 pm Thanks Hippie.
We are from the Bradford, Pa area. Small town syndrome bad, so we are sending our tracks to this studio in Buffalo NY.
The price point isn't locked in stone, that was just an estimation on his part, but he said it wouldn't be more then that. And that was again about $130 give or take for a mix, and $10 per min of audio for the master.
I personally thought the guitars needed up a lot, and I wasn't sure about the newer tones he came up with. We'll have to wait until we get the new mix after I finish tracking my vocals. Other then that, I liked what he did for the most part.
I wanted a little more cymbals in the mix, but he said the track I sent him wasn't good at all, and to avoid issues he had to drop them in the mix a bit. Idk, but all I did was export the overhead mic from Superior Drummer 2.0 the same way I did everything else.
I do like what he did with the low end. I think the bass guitar sounds awesome, and the kick drum thumps. I thought maybe a little less attack on the kick would help, as to me, it sounded a little clickly. But I wanted to wait until the new mix with the hotter guitar tracks came in.
Any other and all feedback would be awesome! Thanks Hippie, and keep 'em comin'!
Jul 11, 2011 08:45 pm argh, i still cant get anything but a blank page. Heeellp!
Jul 14, 2011 12:00 am Huh, both the links worked for me...
The first mix sounded muddy, esp in the guitars. the Kick had no room to shine!
But the second mix is lacking umph, for lack of a better word. Fullness maybe? I think it might just be an eq problem.
The eq is a bit weird. I agree with rockwood, the kick is too clicky. And the guitar sounds a bit shrill. And I agree with hippie, bring the vox down a tad.
You guys wanna give me a shot? I'm trying to start mixing and mastering online and make a little money doing it. I'll do this song for free, maybe I'll charge you for the next one.
[email protected]
Jul 14, 2011 12:04 am Oh, and ALL the recording I do at home I use Pod Farm and SD2.0. So if you wanna send me dry guitar (if you still have them) and the original midi for the drums, I can try running them through some patches I've made.
Jul 14, 2011 01:47 pm Thanks for the feedback quickxkid!
The original track I sent you was nothing mixed really. It was just a reference for what our original guitar tracks sounded like.
The second track isn't 100% done either. Ken pretty much did one pass on it to show us a little something. We gave him some adjustments we wanted made, and he is going to work on it.
And I agree, for the most part the fullness of the track is missing, but again, this wasn't 100% done. He took our tracks knowing we where a metal band, and that's what came out of him. He really knew nothing about what sounds we where going for, and for the most part we where pretty pleased. Especially with the low end. I sent him some bands and samples to reference us off of for later.
The track I have posted isn't even a full song really, just 2 minuets of a sample we nailed down for mixing tests, and we where hoping to get it uploaded in its full master to buy us sometime until our E.P. was done.
As far as giving you a try, I wouldn't be against it if it was a freebie to show us what you could do. Thanks for the offer. Do you have any samples of stuff you have done before? And what gear do you have exactly? And we have access still to all our un-processed guitar tracks and midi for the drums. Tracking it here in my home studio, I have access to all of it.
Jul 14, 2011 07:47 pm Yeah, you can hear samples of all the stuff I record on my soundcloud page. soundcloud.com/quickxkid
And gear: Line 6 Guitar Port Interface, Cubase 4. I don't have a pair of studio monitors, I use a good 5.1 home theater system coming from the Guitar Port. I'm trying to make a little money doing online mastering and mixing so I can afford to get a pair, basically using my hobby to fund my hobby. All the mixing and application of effects it done within Cubase.
Jul 14, 2011 08:27 pm Dude, I ain't gonna lie. If this page is all your mix/master, I'm pretty impressed, I'll need to scope it out on my monitors, as I am only on my craptop speakers, but from the highs and mids I am hearing, this is right up the alley of what we are looking for.
I'll be in touch man. You got an e-mail address I snag from you? We can def. talk about ping ponging some messages. You've peaked my interests,
Jul 18, 2011 05:07 pm Dude... his mix sounds shitty. Yours sounds better than his. It's clear he's not really sure what to do with metal, man. How many songs are you mixing through him?
I don't mean to be a dick, I just hate seeing people waste their money. If you can still pull out of the deal, you might consider doing so and finding someone that knows metal to mix this for ya.
Jul 18, 2011 05:10 pm See, that's what we thought too... We're pretty much not going with him anymore.
Actually, the guy that posted above you there, quickxkid is going to be doing it for us now. You can hear a sample of what he did with it here:
www.reverbnation.com/artist/artist_songs/1471528
We are waaaayyy happier with this mix, that's for sure.
Jul 18, 2011 05:17 pm Much better! Glad you found someone who knows metal :)
Jul 18, 2011 05:20 pm Yea. We are also looking into a master studio as well. We're undecided, but the place we got a free sample from had a little more punch in it then the file above. And its only $35 song to get mastered. We're looking into all sorts of stuff to try and get the best recording as possible so we can get regional tour dates with it.
But we are dead set on quickxkid for the mix.
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