Yay! My latest recording is complete
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Posted on Jan 31, 2004 07:28 am
PorpoiseMuffins
a.k.a. Porp & Mr. Muffins
Member Since: Oct 09, 2002
Hey guys-
I just put the finishing touches on what I consider to be my best engineering/mixing/mastering job to date. I've been mixing and re-mixing for a week, but I'm still open to suggestions, and would like to hear them! Tell me what you think of the sound quality and composition.
This one is just my brother and I. I did drums, bass, and backup vocals. My brother did guitars and lead vocals.
www.nowhereradio.com/arti...547&alid=-1
Oh-- The title of the song is "In Your Presence"
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Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jan 31, 2004 12:10 pm Excelant tune Porp, nice and straight forward. The only gripe I would have is the guitar in the right channels is maybe just a bit to loud. It isnt harsh all the way though only in some spots and toward the end. Do you have panned hard right, if so maybe try just a smidgen toward the center again adn see if that helps. It just jumps out when it is panned that hard. Otherwise I liked the overall sound of the tune, the vox were clear all the way through. I also like the switch between the quite and hard sound.
olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
Jan 31, 2004 12:42 pm Man that's great Porp! Very cool song, and great mix. So many religious songs all sound the same, this one is fresh and has a genuine rock sound to it, great job! I hear the part Noize is talking about it's just a little out of balance with the left guitar, but it's certainly not hurting the mix IMO. Amazing how well you have everything sitting in the mix, I can hear the kick, the bass is great, drums, everything.
I think I'm doing pretty good till I hear one done up as nice as this and then I realise how far I still have to go :)
Dan
Jan 31, 2004 04:36 pm Thanks, guys!
I'd like to be able to say we wrote the song, but we didn't really :) We'd never heard the song recorded before, so we thought we'd give it a shot. Not many people know the tune. We did write the intro and bridge and the whole song structure is our idea.
That's interesting that you mention the guitar in the right speaker. I haven't noticed that issue, myself-- but I could be deaf from listening to it so many times! The left and right guitars are both playing pretty much the same thing in the chorus, which is why they are both panned 80% respectively, to get that full sound. They were both recorded one right after the other with no mic or preamp adjustments, and were sent to the same bus in Sonar with the same EQ and compression. Could it have something to do with the crash cymbal (which is also on the right side)? I think the guitar might be panned a bit to hard in the softer parts where the right side is the only distorted guitar playing. Thanks again for listening!
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 01, 2004 01:14 pm I will give it another listen a bit louder in awhile. I gotta do a bit of shopping and when I get back will give it another listen. I did listen at a lowe level so maybe that played a part in what I heard as well. Let ya know in a bit.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Feb 01, 2004 10:27 pm Mr. Muffins...You did it again! Sweet! I have played the song and you have brought new life to it! You have a gift. So when do you take to the public? I have a few albums of a praise group that tours with funding from the Lutheran church. One young lady stayed with Sandy and I while performing here. We hear from her on occasion from all over the globe. I say this only because your music is of that caliber. I truely pray that you can find a way to share your music on a larger scale.
Feb 02, 2004 03:18 pm Wow... Thank you, Walt! That's cool to hear that you've played the song. Do you know who wrote it by any chance, or do you know of any other recordings of it? I really appreciate the positive feedback!
I am the drummer for a worship event at my church that takes place once a month, and my brother is one of the guitarists, but we tend to stay away from tunes quite this heavy-- especially since we have female vocal leads. I learned this tune from the youth pastor at the church and have played it on a college retreat for Campus Crusade for Christ, at which it became quite a hit. So our recording is circulating within the local CCC group, but that is about the extent of it :)
I wanted to ask- What is sort of the standard for Mp3 compression? 128 seems popular. I don't want to loose too much quality over the internet, but I don't want a gigantic file...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 02, 2004 05:25 pm 128 is the standard you will find that is most acceptable. Anything less and it starts to degrade thw audio terribly, anything more and you start getting elephant size files.
Feb 02, 2004 05:33 pm Okay, cool. I'll keep that in mind, Noize.
Not to be pushy or anything, but did you get a chance to listen to the song again and check out that guitar issue?
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 02, 2004 11:17 pm Oh crap, I didnt get to it. Its a bit late here now so I cant crank it up. But I will do so as soon as I get home tommorrow afternoon, which is about 3:30PM Central time. I will give it another go and let ya know back in this thread.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Feb 03, 2004 10:33 pm Mr. Muffins,
Sorry, It's been about two years since I have played with the group regularly. Can't recall the author, and we never did record it. Just played it for service a few times. The group took an odd twist a couple of years ago. The drummer and flutist (husband & wife team) moved a good distance away. I was getting overloaded and had to choose between groups. Same time a keyboardist returned from an extended stay overseas. When the shake up settled the keyboardist had cornered the paster's ear and now the group is old school drone organ meterless...every song sounds just like "onward christian soldier" with different words. Not my world vision of music in any theater. I still keep in touch with a couple of the musicians for occasional secular stuff we do. I will ask if they remember the author.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 04, 2004 09:13 pm Porp, sorry for the delay in the reply work has been killing me. The only time it is a little over the top is during the hook part (times are aprox: 00:51 - 01:23 and 01:36 - 2:10) when it is competeing with the vocal and the acuastic guitar. It is definately not way over kill but it seems that it could either have a bit of the high mid cut just a pinch or just the level brought down just a pinch to make it sit more at home. I tried it out in the headphones and it didnt seem as obvious. I also tried a sweep of the mids with about a 1.5 to 2 dB cut and it seemed to blend it at about 820 Hz give or take a couple Hz.
Now that said, I did that with the mp3 playing through my desk, I didnt load it into an editer or anything so I might be just swatting flies here. But just my thoughts.
And when I did play it louder through the moniters it did sit just a bit better, but again that is the mp3. Anyway, love the tune as is, you have done a great job with it and a very rockin one at that.
PS: I tried to search the writer of the tune out with no luck either. I will keep trying as time permits. My son is good at hunting this stuff dwon, myabe I'll let him give it a try.
Feb 04, 2004 10:33 pm Okay, yeah-- Now I see what you're talking about. I agree that the electric should come down a bit there, or maybe the vocal should come up-- or both. Or the EQ tweak you mentioned in the high mids. You might notice that the guitar tone kind of shifts during those parts, which is from the use of a wah pedal during recording. Thanks for the tips-- always a big help, Noize.
-Porp (a.k.a. Mr. Muffins)
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 05, 2004 09:07 pm That explains why I couldnt get a lock on the frequancy to notch out. It is very slight indeed, I guess I noticed it in the back of my head but it just went by me.
cooloFrisco's Most UnderratedMember
Since: Jan 28, 2003
Feb 14, 2004 07:51 pm This is awesome. I'm listening on lofi and it still sounds great. The whole mix is just really well. If I were to have any gripe at all it is maybe the vocals are a little nasaly for my taste (not that I should be one to speak). I'm not too much into religion, but I am into music, and I really, really, really, think this is a well recorded and well mixed/mastered piece. Good job.
Feb 15, 2004 11:11 pm Thanks a lot for checking it out, Coolo. I really appreciate the compliments. It's great to hear, man.
TheTincanbugsloppy dice, drinks twiceMember
Since: Aug 05, 2003
Feb 16, 2004 08:10 am ok, I checked out the song this weekend. Nice playing, guy!
I'm typing up a review from memory as I cannot access your song from work - they blocked that site.
I thought everything was excellent. I was impressed by the guitar tracks especially - you play well, and everything really fell together both time- and timbre-wise. Nothing in this track sounds out of place. I do agree with Noize2U's first comment re: the loud guitar. Otherwise, excellent job.
Feb 28, 2004 03:15 pm man how are you getting those choruses to sound so punchy? its the drums and the bass. whatever you're doing there is packing a chorus punch. this is something i need to learn how to do. i guess you're using thin guitars? they still sound large and distorted, but its almost like the drums and the bass are merging with the guitar to make one large sound. i noticed that in nirvana recordings too. the guitar there isnt always cranked up to 10 yet it still sounds BIG. that's something i need to learn, as my recordings are still too heavy on the guitar while not having the right kind of punch. the result is that they're noisy. how is this done?
sounds like a great mix to me. i think someone said theres more sound on the right channel...i'm detecting that too. otherwise great.
Feb 28, 2004 03:36 pm Well, I'm glad that you're detecting that in the chorus, because that's what I was hoping to achieve! First of all, the amp is a Line 6 Spider 1 on the recto setting miced up with a '57 in the corner of the speaker. It's a real good sounding amp in the first place, which is the most important thing. I rolled off a lot of the lows and a bit of the hi's in one spot to make room for the vocals. The bass is cut some at 80 hz where the bass drum is boosted, and the bass drum is compressed and EQ'd with the mids cut, hi's and lows boosted. I worked a while on the kick drum to get it to punch through the rest of the mix. So, basically, everything is EQ'd to fit and then it was a matter of using compression and reverb and such. Mastering with Ozone is what really brought the whole thing together though, with a good deal of maximization (Not so much that it makes it sound squashed, though) on the right settings. I also did a bit of EQ matching on the entire mix by taking a mix that sounded like what I was going for, applying the curve, and tweaking it to sound natural.
Feb 28, 2004 08:51 pm nice. i'm gonna save these tips. thanx!
