Re: Mac Mixes!!!!!!!!
 

So here are my first two ProTools projects since getting my 002 one year ago... It took long enough!

Variation, Fixation, and Fantasy after a Prelude by Bach

Sunrise from the Bottom of the Sea

The first is a solo classical guitar piece, recorded in a beautiful, large stone vestibule. Me and a friend used a Baby Bottle and two KM 184s up close, and a pair of earthworks omnis for the room. It turned out ok- perhaps a bit too bright and electric sounding courtesy of the KM 184s. One day when I have some time I might remix it, but it serves its purpose as a demo for the time being...

The second is a psychadelic, sort-of-prog-rock-fantasy for electric guitar and other instruments, based on Jimi Hendrix. It turned out ok for the most part, except I used a "sample" in the beginning from the Hendrix song 'Are You Experienced' that was sort of distorted (from the original album recording). I processed it a bit, and when working in the 24 bit domain it didn't bother me at all, but after dithering, and especially converting to mp3 for the web, the distortion became more noticeable. I don't know what to do about it at this point, but the good news is that it really only lasts for the first minute or so. I perceive it as a sort of harsh edginess to the sound, nothing too terrible, but kind of annoying... All other instruments were recorded with either a 414 or pair of KM 184s. The guitar is a '67 Gretsch Tennessean through a Vox Tonelab SE. Not exactly a Strat through a Marshall, and the country twang comes through every now and then, but it's all I got!

Anyway, should anybody ever care to offer their $.02, I'm always open to suggestions, criticisms, etc...

Peace,
Andrew

Re: Work in Progress
 

Jack Rabbit...really nice....I do hear some 'howelling' licks, and maybe some mandolin too. Give me a little while to finish setting up my studio, and I'll try to send you something.


-Roy

Re: Let\'s hear your latest stuff....right here
 

CHEEZGRITS.....'What happens in Atlanta...stays in Atlanta...'... ...love it...killer bass and kick...nice job.

-Roy

Re: Work in Progress
 

Roy,

Awesome. Not worthy, here.

TBR - Another one
 

Alright,

Here is the first ROUGH mix of the song with vocals. Used the TLM-103 into the X73i. Added Compression in Pro Tools instead of writing it to tape this time.

Guitars were tracked using the Apex 435's into the X73i's and the TLM-103 into the API - 1176 right at the sound hole.

Really like the guitar sounds I got on this. Taylor 614 with Martin Bronze strings.

I gave her a CD with her 5 songs to take on her vacation to sing to. Figured it would help her out some. I think that this is pretty good, could be better and probably expect her to retake it next week. Pretty cool version though.

The other song "Completely" is hers and I used the APEX 460 on her. I think that she will want to retake this one. She hates to record vocals afterwards as she usually sings and plays. Not bad though.


Jen Mitchie - If You Could Only See - Tonic cover

Jen Mitchie - Completely - Original

I think that she is holding back some. We shall see if she wants to do it again.

Thanks,

- Doc

Re: TBR - Another one
 

Hey Doc, couple things on this one man.

1. I don't know if it is her bronze strings, the thickness of the pick she uses, or just the way she plays, but "If you could only see" came out a tad electronic if I may describe it that way like she plugged into a Direct Box and was getting more DB than mic on this one somehow. If she does the guitars again I might try doing a 45 degree off axis placement for one of the 435's to avoid the percussiveness of her playing just a little bit maybe.. Just needs a bit of warming up a little maybe with some tubes, air, or farther back mic placement or something like that to it in a way. Otherwise, guitars were a good capture but she is playing tense sorta...

2. I agree that she is holding back on her vocals. She sounds like she has a much wider range, but I would suggest that you might want to try to coach her to open up a little bit. She sounds like she is nervous in a way like she is trying to purposly sing low and slightly out of her range. With folks like this, usually they have to let go of inhibitions to reach their full potentials.. Maybe putting her in a room by herself when she sings/plays so noone can see her or if you have light dimmers or something might help in this case possibly... she also sounds like she is rushing the lines in IYCOS slightly caus of the nervous thing maybe...

Couldn't get the other track to open up as a wav unfortunately to check it out man.. something about it didn't have a codec when I tried to open it in my Winamp. Sorry to rip her man, but I gotta be honest with my opinion on her that you are doing an excellent job engineering for what you have to work with on this one. She definately has potential, but needs to open up a bit more IMHO... Hope all is cool. peace

Re: TBR - Another one
 

Interesting.... The guitars are all mic's. No direct at all. I did however throw a cool effect WAT LOW in the mix through the eventide that you are probably hearing. Doubled the strum track and basically set the faders to pre so the effect only is present. Way low though so it is hard to hear. The Body mic was off axis as was the TLM-103 too. I agree that she was holding back like crazy. I will put the other "completely" file up. For some reason that ripped as a WAV instead of an MP3. I will fix it when I get home though.

Thanks,
Doc

Listen to the the stuff in the monitors as I really liked the guitar sounds. It was her first week on Martins though. She usually plays Elixirs (crap) and I told her that she wanted medium strings for recording. Better sound.

Doc

Re: TBR - Another one
 

Doc: yeah, might be the effect that I am hearing on there or the fact that she is new with those type of strings.. They just sound really bright and electronic in a way like they need to set in for about a week on that guitar first or something.. I agree about the Elixir strings being crap man.. cool about the other track, I will give it a listen when ya post it man. I will take this one home and give it a listen whenever I get done with moving this week. Got the keys to the new place today so I have to re-setup the studio out of boxes and what not before I can listen on proper monitors which might help also..

Of course, I am still referencing everything that you do now in comparison to the Rothman Beautiful track man... I still say that is the best acoustic work to date between playing and engineering man.. hehe If she is using a thin pick on the track also, a medium might bring out more mid definition to fill out the sound slightly also. Have a good weekend man! peace

Re: My solo CD....
 

Super7,
Finally got a chance to listen....heard 'out of the blue' and 'crystal clear'. Nice job on both...really like the stereo tremelo guit intro sound on 'blue' and the wah solo sound on 'crystal'... sounding good...post more when you get a chance.


-Roy

Re: Mac Mixes!!!!!!!!
 

Hey Rob,
Thanks for taking the time to share your impressions. If you happen to catch this post, I was wondering if you could elaborate on what you mean by being "not consistent tonally." Are you referring to the recording quality, aspects of performance, or composition?

I ran into some recording problems with this piece... Namely, in the second section after the prelude (3'11" into the piece), i strike the strings with my thumb back near the bridge for a percussive effect. Unfortunately, this came out sounding way too loud on the finished recording. There is too much bass and it also sounds like it is in a different space altogether, which makes this part of the piece fare a bit worse than the rest... It sounds unnatural.

When mixing I tried to EQ it out, but this changed the quality of the bass strings too much (which I happen to really like) throughout the rest of the recording. i also tried some light compression, but this too altered the sound of the guitar to a point i found less desireable. The thing that worked best was to automate a plug-in compressor and EQ to kick in in the percussive parts, but I could always here a quiet 'click' when the plug-in came in and out, so i ended up not using it. The only other thing i haven't tried is using a multi-band compressor...

If anybody else has any ideas of things I could try, I'd love to hear about it...

Anyway, Rob, i wonder if this is on par with what you're hearing? This is my main point of contention with this mix, aside from some performance issues Ultimately, I think the best way to avoid this problem would have been to move the close mics (in this case, the KM 184's) back 8-12 inches, as they were the ones that picked up this signal the strongest. Oh well, I'll try that next time- I guess this time around was just a lesson in school of hard knocks

Cheers,
Andrew