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A DIY recording journal.
http://maplifiers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3049
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Author:  Broseidon [ Mon Dec 29, 2014 11:00 pm ]
Post subject:  A DIY recording journal.

Gonna be posting all my new recording biz in here as well as documenting the tracking/mixing process. Will be posting photographs of mic setups and whatnot soon.

These are the final cuts for the Wet Brain tape:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... NG%201.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... NG%202.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... NG%203.wav


Working on some Shucks stuff, and really looking for some feedback here. General vibe we are going for is sort of like Led Zeppelin meets Steve Albini meets Kurt Ballou. Not sure how I feel about how dark this mix is, and I feel like maybe the two guitars don't gel well enough? Granted, I am very happy with the general deal but I would like to hone it. There's 5 songs and I am probably just going to figure out a mix/master template for them all and then buckle down to automate the guitars and whatnot. :red:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... 0MAYBE.wav

Been having a real hard time settling on a mastering aesthetic. Kinda going for something blown up but I also don't want to comprise the clarity of the cymbals when slightly burying them and whatnot.

Author:  chris_d [ Tue Dec 30, 2014 10:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Explain, if you can put it in words, the elements of each of those three(Zeppelin, Ballou, Albini) that you are looking to bring across.

I do hear a little bit of the Ballou sort of influence, interestingly, as the music itself is not the typical flavor that he generally specializes in. Maybe something about the darkness of the mix that you don't dig on, i think. He seems to lean towards some of that; i haven't spent enough time listening to his shit on an analyzing-the-mix angle, to say whether i think it is just that he isn't hyping the high end on cleanish guitars too much, or whether he is just leaning the whole mixes toward the lower middle end of the spectrum(sometimes his mixes sound like all kickdrum(actual mic'ed style) and tomthud with the rest filled in with bass resonance to me).

Wet Brain, i prolly would have gone just a tiny bit more vocal on, but it has a pleasant wall of distortion blackmetal-esque vibe with them where they are now, so i can dig that too.

As an aside, feedback is probably the only thing that chorus is good for. :red:

Author:  Broseidon [ Tue Dec 30, 2014 5:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Zeppelin-wise: Roomy, natural "real" drum sound. Guitars are sorta set in a vintage-y space as well, both use neck pickups solely. Rhythm homie used a Jazzmaster, shred homie used an LP Studio. I suppose, also a mildly lo-fi flavor versus the other two. Which is really the result of the fact that I don't have quite the same gear as some more well-equipped folks. :red:

Albini-wise: Bright, detailed cymbals. Also, playing back into the Zep thing, a sense of the sound of a real band in a room. Albeit, more like a hyperrealistic "idealistic" representation.

Kurt Ballou-wise: Pumping and thumping. :red: Just generally sort of fucked up and exploded. Benefitting from the momentum of that sort of treatment without it compromising the other aspects of what I am going for, I guess?


Also, I maybe should have just mentioned that I have been A/B'ing this thing next to Ovlov's Am for the entirety of the process. :red: :poop:

But the bits besides that were just as substantial in a "my personal mission statement" sort of way.

Author:  chris_d [ Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Broseidon wrote:
Also, I maybe should have just mentioned that I have been A/B'ing this thing next to Ovlov's Am for the entirety of the process. :red: :poop:


I am listening to that Ovlov record now. I thought i listened to it before, but i don't remember it. It is like a 50/50 split of Dinosaur Jr's Dinosaur record, and Weezer's first record, soundwise: pretty cool. With just a light dash of something 90's shoegazey like MBV.

Author:  Broseidon [ Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Yeah, that record is v solid and one of my very favorites of 2013. :huzzah:

Shucks dooder loves the production and wanted me to loosely gauge the recording off of that kinda vibe. Maybe not so much of the lo-fish aspect but the "this sounds like a really fucking loud band" aspect.

Author:  Broseidon [ Tue Jan 27, 2015 10:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Getting close to done, let me know whatchoo think:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %20MIX.wav

Author:  chris_d [ Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Good times, sounds proper unpleasant pissedoff. :huzzah:

Something weird going on with that cymbal in the second half.

(I know it is funny to listen to something this fucking noisy and say that a cymbal sounds weird. But just the same, it sticks out a bit as being wonkily frequency-ranged.)

Everything else sounds righteous to me.

Author:  Broseidon [ Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

I will be sure to mess with that. The OHs on this hardly function as overheads as much a ride/crash close pair. :red: It worked though, this room is hi-hat hell.

Author:  Broseidon [ Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Bettar?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... 0FINAL.wav

Author:  chris_d [ Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Better on that one cymbal through the second half, yes.

Low end seems a bit more crowded on this one though. A little less clear/raw as a mix. Sounds like you bumped the lower mids on the guitars a tad? They are a little girthier but less biting, also eating a bit of the snare, compared to the previous. May just be less compression on the drums though, allowing more guitar into the mix? It is hard for me to say.

This is definitely just how i hear things though, so take it as/with whatever. :idk:

Could prolly bring the vocal up a little bit on this one aslo.

Author:  Broseidon [ Thu Jan 29, 2015 12:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Messed with a bunch of compression on different stuff. Brought it way down on the guitars and swapped out the SSL comp at the front of the mastering chain with an API-2500. Really like this thing a lot, I have been finding myself converting over to using it on almost everything.. :red:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... 0FINAL.wav

Author:  Broseidon [ Thu Jan 29, 2015 12:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Also, the bass is much louder now and that may be some cause for the crowdedness.

Author:  chris_d [ Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

This one sounds solid to me. Could even use a little more vocal, but i think the other ones you poasted from these guys had the vocal way back too, so it matches.

What did you wind up doing to ease off the cymbal? It sounds good here to me, still present, but not sticking out as hard as it was.

Author:  Broseidon [ Thu Jan 29, 2015 1:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

I just eliminated the shelf that was boosting everything above 12k on the OHs. :red: All that's going on in a cut at 3k that's removing something that I perceived as "gong-iness".

Author:  chris_d [ Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Broseidon wrote:
I just eliminated the shelf that was boosting everything above 12k on the OHs. :red:



:red: I do that shit all the fucking time. It got so bad (fucking with EQ stuff so much that i partially or completely break sounds) that i actually stopped using EQ at all for a while there. I have now brought it back in to the "allowable effects", but i really have to watch myself with it. :red:

Author:  Broseidon [ Fri Feb 13, 2015 3:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Finally got around to locating the photos from the Shucks sessions:

Alex's deal:

Image

Colin's deal:

Image

Ryan's deal:

Image

Sam's parts were recorded after and I did not photodocument the stuff. :red: However, it was a Les Paul Studio into a Fender combo of some sort that I cannot recall. :red:

Author:  newholland [ Sat Feb 14, 2015 7:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Broseidon wrote:
Finally got around to locating the photos from the Shucks sessions:


Ryan's deal:

Image

Sam's parts were recorded after and I did not photodocument the stuff. :red: However, it was a Les Paul Studio into a Fender combo of some sort that I cannot recall. :red:


what's the mic array you got goin on here?

Author:  Broseidon [ Sat Feb 14, 2015 2:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

D112 on the kick, i5 on the snare, KSM27s on the overheads. Toms got PR40s on the tops, bottom of the floor's got some random Nady I picked up for free somewhere along the way from a friend. There's a "room" mic under the rack tom vaguely aimed at the side of the kick. Catching some kick, rack reso head and bottom snare with that mostly. Just smashed the shit out of that mic and buried it up the center. :red: There's also an M179 out like, 7 feet in front of the drum kit/5 feet in front of the bass cab. Bass cab had a big blanket wall out front of it to disperse the lazerdirectional shit blasting right at the room mic.

Also, had a DI on the bass. :red: Not that it made any fucking difference really, that tone is pure subbass. Alex used her Fender Dimension on this. It's HH style deal, super fucking fat sounding bass. For some who uses their fingers, maybe not the best set up for a rock band. We both sort of regret that she hadn't used her Jazz. :red: There's always next time though, I think they're/we're tracking another EP in the summer.

Also, I fucked up on the labeling. :red: That's Colin behind the kit, Ryan played guitar.

Author:  Broseidon [ Sat Feb 14, 2015 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Also, here's one of the tracks with the final mix: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... 0FINAL.wav

Author:  Broseidon [ Sat Feb 21, 2015 8:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.

Track off the upcoming Clank. full length, some feedback desired. Are the drums too dry for the other instruments? I can not unwet the 'tars and bass, that is what they are.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %20Mix.wav

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