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I hate poor drum recordings!
#1
First off, let me be clear, I did not enjoy the drum tracks. They required quite a lot of love and a lot of effort to be ...well, "good" is an over statement, but adequate, I guess.

It took me forever to land where I landed, and I'm not even sure that it's where I wanna be.

For a leisure project it has taken way too much of my leisure time! LOL

Tips, trick and comments are very, VERY welcomed.

Edit:
OK. so I've made an attempt to bring the snare drum a bit more forward in the mix by increasing volume, adding some low end body Furthermore, I also added some low end body to the snare verb to avoid it being to bright, and I gave the entire drum bus some more NY-love.

Also, I've pulled the guitar solo back a little by introducing a wide and aggressive cut at around 3k.


.mp3    Magicians Nephew - Get Out Of Bed.mp3 --  (Download: 6.63 MB)


.mp3    Magicians Nephew - Get Out Of Bed - v2.mp3 --  (Download: 6.63 MB)


I have a Polish friend, who is a sound engineer. Oh, and a Czech one too.

#nobodygoeshomehummingthekickdrum
#nosubnoshow
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#2
The vocals,rhythm guitars,bass and drums all sound pretty good.The bass sounds pretty hefty and cuts through pretty well.The rhythm guitars and drums sound appropriately big for this genre.

In my opinion,the snare could have more of a "crack" to cut through better.Maybe try boosting at 3k and 7k.I think the delay for the vocals are too forward and its kinda distracting so maybe pull back on the mix for the delay.I think the lead guitar sounds very unnatural,it sounds too nasal and maybe too compressed.For the solo, I think you lowered the volume of everything else by too much,in my opinion the solo should sit on top of everything not drown everything out.

Btw,I uploaded a new version of this song,I found your advice to be pretty helpful and I would appreciate it if you would check it out.

Thank you!
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#3
(18-03-2020, 02:19 AM)Krabbe Wrote: First off, let me be clear, I did not enjoy the drum tracks. They required quite a lot of love and a lot of effort to be ...well, "good" is an over statement, but adequate, I guess.

Interesting -- what didn't you like specifically?

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#4
I think that is not recorded in a professional studio.recorded in Living room
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#5
(18-03-2020, 02:59 PM)Mammy Wrote: I think that is not recorded in a professional studio.recorded in Living room

Nevertheless, couldn't a better mic placement have "fixed" some of the small-room-issues?
I have a Polish friend, who is a sound engineer. Oh, and a Czech one too.

#nobodygoeshomehummingthekickdrum
#nosubnoshow
Reply
#6
(18-03-2020, 10:30 AM)Mike Senior Wrote:
(18-03-2020, 02:19 AM)Krabbe Wrote: First off, let me be clear, I did not enjoy the drum tracks. They required quite a lot of love and a lot of effort to be ...well, "good" is an over statement, but adequate, I guess.

Interesting -- what didn't you like specifically?

Especially the kick and the snare were ... it's hard to describe. To me, a nicely recorded instrument doesn't require a whole lotta processing. Both kick and snare is ... well, far from my definition of nice. And the Kick/snare track is mainly hihat bleed. In general I am not a huge fan of bleed. I know, it can't be completely eradicated. I do however believe that bleed can be contained with intelligent mic placement

I have a Polish friend, who is a sound engineer. Oh, and a Czech one too.

#nobodygoeshomehummingthekickdrum
#nosubnoshow
Reply
#7
(18-03-2020, 02:59 PM)Mammy Wrote: I think that is not recorded in a professional studio.recorded in Living room

Rudy Van Gelder would have some issues with that...
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#8
(18-03-2020, 09:26 AM)jorhaowei Wrote: The vocals,rhythm guitars,bass and drums all sound pretty good.The bass sounds pretty hefty and cuts through pretty well.The rhythm guitars and drums sound appropriately big for this genre.

In my opinion,the snare could have more of a "crack" to cut through better.Maybe try boosting at 3k and 7k.I think the delay for the vocals are too forward and its kinda distracting so maybe pull back on the mix for the delay.I think the lead guitar sounds very unnatural,it sounds too nasal and maybe too compressed.For the solo, I think you lowered the volume of everything else by too much,in my opinion the solo should sit on top of everything not drown everything out.

Btw,I uploaded a new version of this song,I found your advice to be pretty helpful and I would appreciate it if you would check it out.

Thank you!

Thanks for your input. I really appeciate that.

The only compression on guitar is on my guitar bus, a Waves LA-3A, and it's like between -1.5 and -2 dB. I do however have a limiter on the master bus, which could be the one that gives the too-compressed-impression?

I'm not sure that I agree with you on where the guiar solo should sit in the mix. I was brought up with Guns N' Roses' "Appetite for Desruction", a fantastic record, where Slash's guitar is all over the place. To me, that's where a guitar solo should sit in the mix. I know, it's a style thing and a guitar-all-over-the-place isn't appropriate for all genres. In this ... what's it called ... post-pop-punk? ... anyways, in this particular song, I like to have the guitar solo smack in your face. Hence my placement of guitar solo.
I have a Polish friend, who is a sound engineer. Oh, and a Czech one too.

#nobodygoeshomehummingthekickdrum
#nosubnoshow
Reply
#9
I'm messing with this now and the drums don't strike me as being that bad. Or at least not hard to work with. I'm not using the "main mics". I don't know how it was recorded at all but I'm assuming the Kick/Snare mic it probably a mic under the snare that also picking up some kick. I'm not a fan of the snare as is but it's a fair sound. I've certainly heard worse drums. Living room or not. I haven't felt the need to break out samples yet.

In the end not every recording is perfect. As mixers we have to be able to work with and get the best out of all the tracks we get. This seems like a good opportunity to try to polish some tracks we find difficult.
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#10
Just in case anyone missed them there are a couple of links to the drum recording process from the multitracks download page. There's an SOS article that anyone can view, and also a Patreon video.

Cheers!
Just uploaded a mix/master?  Waiting for comments? Why not give back and critique a mix/master, or two!
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