Old 11-08-2014, 05:00 AM   #1
Wolffman
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Default Band Practice recording .

Hi all

I've been getting together most weeks with a couple of mates and playing some songs and we've been doing a few gigs and we played a small festival last weekend.
People have been asking us if we had any music for sale as well as venue owners and promotors asking for demo's of some kind.
So we thought we'd record some of our weekly sessions for a few weeks and see if we could put together something in the way of some recorded music.

Its been a long time since iv'e put up a song so i thought this was as good an oppitunity as any.

We recorded on thursday night and we got two songs recorded, we would have done more but it rained for about a hour and a half and thats a lot of noise on the tin roof of my shed

Its us playing together in the same room, one take start to finish, no overdubs.

Two mics on the drums, one on the kick and one o/head,
Bass di'ed in and same for acoustic guitar and three vocal mics, thats it.

Here it is, its a song by Keiran Kane called "Table Top Dancer"

https://app.box.com/s/sj8tobypuyowxdblf1ds

Please let me know what you think

Cheers
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Old 11-08-2014, 05:33 AM   #2
pbattersby
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I like the song in general, the story, the vocals / harmony, the guitar, the quality of the recording.

I'd suggest a couple of things. Since the shaker is constant and unchanging throughout the entire song, perhaps drop the volume of it a little.

Also, the drums are constant and unchanging throughout the entire song. It would be more interesting if the drums were more than a single bar repeated over and over again.

Good song though.
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Old 11-08-2014, 05:51 AM   #3
Wolffman
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Thanks Paul, that bloody shaker !

Well, the drummer played it while playing the drums and unfortunatly held it too close to the O/Head mic so its volume is really hard to reduce.
I did try with EQ but it just took too much away from the snare sound and gereraly sounded unatural and weird, so i think where stuck with it unless someone has a method that will not mess with the snare sound.

The drums are very straight but strangely it seems to work well for this song, i will mention it to him and see how he feels about maybe adding more.

Thanks for having a listen and commenting.

Cheers
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Old 11-08-2014, 10:12 AM   #4
m5blackmond
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Guitars + vocals are very good. I agree with the others that the percussion section needs to get a little more interesting. Like if the kick drum followed the bass guitar on a few of those in between notes, it would add just that tiny bit of extra groove.

I honestly didn't think the shaker was too loud, but yeah, because it's constant, it may need to come down (you've already addressed this, I Know).

Cool song for sure though, and a great recording, especially for a full band practice!
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Old 11-08-2014, 07:43 PM   #5
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Your band gels wonderfully, Wolff. Everyone is locked right in. Very impressive that this is a full take of everyone.

Shaker is good with me. Not too loud.

The guitar has such a great groove when it goes into the muted bits.

If you didn't say that it was off the floor, I would have just assumed it came out of the studio. It sounds fantastic.

Only nit is the kick is a bit lost behind the bass, but I wouldn't change it because I can still feel it and I think the production, as a whole, sounds complete.

Nice job! Cool band.
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Old 11-08-2014, 11:30 PM   #6
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I like the sound generally, rhythm section has a pocket. It's interesting how just a couple of drum mics can often catch all you need. But I do agree that the kick is lost, or at least it's hard to separate in the mix (it rocks along so well with the bass). Shaker, it's one of those things, once you notice it it's obvious but what I found was the time was so good I didn't mind.
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Old 11-09-2014, 01:16 AM   #7
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first listen:

The shaker is great but the voice could rasp or be more raspy in a way to compliment the shaker. As it is the voice does not mix with the shaker... this is both good and bad.

second listen:

It is seemingly following the form and chord changing patterns given in a typical song of this type...mmm - which can be said, also, about this "review" of this song.

the returning theme is a great rift to go with, I think you can pull another verse or a new, stanza to this song with out hurting the prowess of the piece..

overall well done..
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Old 11-09-2014, 04:41 PM   #8
Wolffman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by m5blackmond View Post
Guitars + vocals are very good. I agree with the others that the percussion section needs to get a little more interesting. Like if the kick drum followed the bass guitar on a few of those in between notes, it would add just that tiny bit of extra groove.

I honestly didn't think the shaker was too loud, but yeah, because it's constant, it may need to come down (you've already addressed this, I Know).

Cool song for sure though, and a great recording, especially for a full band practice!
Hi m5blackmond, I'm often surprised how some recordings come out quite well even when not much thought or effort was put into the actual technical/engineering side of it all.
Just get lucky sometimes i guess.

I'll discuss your suggestions with our drummer, he may have some ideas on spicing up the groove.

Really appreciate you taking the time to comment.

Cheers

Quote:
Originally Posted by kindafishy View Post
Your band gels wonderfully, Wolff. Everyone is locked right in. Very impressive that this is a full take of everyone.

Shaker is good with me. Not too loud.

The guitar has such a great groove when it goes into the muted bits.

If you didn't say that it was off the floor, I would have just assumed it came out of the studio. It sounds fantastic.

Only nit is the kick is a bit lost behind the bass, but I wouldn't change it because I can still feel it and I think the production, as a whole, sounds complete.

Nice job! Cool band.
Thanks for the positive words on the band KF, its good to hear the hard work is paying off.
Not really sure what you mean by off the floor, but, just so there is no confusion, this was recorded in what is my recording area, which is actually an all metal shed that has some basic lining panels and doubles as my storage / recording area
Then i mixed it in REAPER and used many instances of Turd Polisher Pro
to spruce it up some.

I did try to get the kick to cut through more but i think its how i recorded it, the mic was about 1/2 a metre ( approx 1 & 1/2 - 2 feet ) in front if the kick so there is no beater sound which is usually where the clicky part of the kick drum sound ( which helps it cut through ) comes from.

Thanks again KF

Cheers

Quote:
Originally Posted by hamish View Post
I like the sound generally, rhythm section has a pocket. It's interesting how just a couple of drum mics can often catch all you need. But I do agree that the kick is lost, or at least it's hard to separate in the mix (it rocks along so well with the bass). Shaker, it's one of those things, once you notice it it's obvious but what I found was the time was so good I didn't mind.
Thanks hamish, Were going to record once a week for the next 2 or 3 weeks so i'll experiment some more with the mic positions on the drums to see if i can improve( see reply to kindafishy RE: the kick sound )

Thanks for takiny the time to comment, I appreciate it.

Cheers

Quote:
Originally Posted by m8w View Post
first listen:

The shaker is great but the voice could rasp or be more raspy in a way to compliment the shaker. As it is the voice does not mix with the shaker... this is both good and bad.

second listen:

It is seemingly following the form and chord changing patterns given in a typical song of this type...mmm - which can be said, also, about this "review" of this song.

the returning theme is a great rift to go with, I think you can pull another verse or a new, stanza to this song with out hurting the prowess of the piece..

overall well done..
m8w, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I'd love to be able to rasp up my voice but i strugle to keep my voice in good condition when singing normally so i'm afraid the raspy thing wouldn't really work for me.
Its a good thing i'm not the main singer because if we had 2 or 3, three hour gigs in as many days my voice would be shot and i'd need a week to recover it stems from having bad sinus problems for most of my life.

Cheers
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Old 11-09-2014, 06:47 PM   #9
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first off, i like this! great groove. sits well overall.

read the comments above. shakers are tough. i've done a few songs with em' and find myself spending 99% of the mix on them. LOL... i think given this particular song, it kinda works at the volume it's at. but perhaps, as others have suggested, add a couple fills (nothing too fancy, maybe just snare) and it would take some focus off the shakers. with the drums and shakers both keeping a very constant percussive feeling, i think it makes everything a little more noticeable.

i agree wit Kindafishy above. kick could come up - or perhaps EQ'd to be more "in" the mix.

my only other comment is the mix as a whole sounded a little narrow. might just me - or my listening environment - but just kinda sounded that way.

overall, great groove. other comments are just nitpicking. not often we get to hear a whole real band around these parts... lol. that's gotta count for something! great job!
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Old 11-09-2014, 07:19 PM   #10
Wolffman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mschuster View Post
first off, i like this! great groove. sits well overall.

read the comments above. shakers are tough. i've done a few songs with em' and find myself spending 99% of the mix on them. LOL... i think given this particular song, it kinda works at the volume it's at. but perhaps, as others have suggested, add a couple fills (nothing too fancy, maybe just snare) and it would take some focus off the shakers. with the drums and shakers both keeping a very constant percussive feeling, i think it makes everything a little more noticeable.

i agree wit Kindafishy above. kick could come up - or perhaps EQ'd to be more "in" the mix.

my only other comment is the mix as a whole sounded a little narrow. might just me - or my listening environment - but just kinda sounded that way.

overall, great groove. other comments are just nitpicking. not often we get to hear a whole real band around these parts... lol. that's gotta count for something! great job!
Hi mschuster, thanks for chiming in.

Haha, i've been waiting for someone to comment on the "almost" mono mix ,
because everything was recorded mono, even the drums ( one O/H mic ) it was hard to know what to do with the stereo field.
I panned the harmony vocals left and right and the acoustic a bit right but the drums and bass i felt had to stay centre, it is what it is i think, just a very basic recording.
No problems when i check the mix in mono

Check out my reply to kindafishy RE: the kick problem.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts, much appreciated.

Cheers
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