dcwave
08-17-2010, 11:01 PM
A couple of years ago I was working with a young teen band helping to get them tighter and a little better sounding. Somehow the topic of recording came up and they said they wouldn't be able to get a decent demo until they bought new gear. I said nonsense. I came back with an Radio Shack mic and my laptop and Presonus interface and a zoom h4.
The guitars were Rogue by Squire strat copies. I think they sold for about $70 at one time. The bass was a squire bass and the drums where a kids tama set. The guitar amps where some Peavy amps with an 8 in speaker.
I played all the parts in.
The mic was used on the amps and I recorded the drums with the h4 about 3 feet above the kit, in front about a foot. Bass was DI into an Art MP tube pre.
The idea was to show that you could get decent results with low end gear if you knew how to use the gear to its strength. Oh - Mix was with stock Cubase plugins.
Fast forward. A singer I work with liked the riff and wanted to write some words. So we recorded him. NT2a into Art MPA with Mullards and I added some ear candy parts in. I also used some samples to give more beef to the kick and snare. I toyed with the idea of re-tracking everything, but decided to work with what I had.
Now the fun - very hard to EQ and compress the instruments. Took me quite while to do. The fizzy guitars were real hard to tame and getting the bass to sit right with the kick and guitars took a few hours.
Here's where I need a fresh perspective:
Low mids - is there too much? I feel like on some systems it's a little boxy at times and a little muddy at times
What about the highs? Too fizzy on top? or Just right?
One thing I learned is that while you can get decent tracks recorded and an okay mix using very low end gear but it takes a lot longer to get the mix to come together.
Hopefully this link works:
http://bit.ly/artEEm
Thanks
The guitars were Rogue by Squire strat copies. I think they sold for about $70 at one time. The bass was a squire bass and the drums where a kids tama set. The guitar amps where some Peavy amps with an 8 in speaker.
I played all the parts in.
The mic was used on the amps and I recorded the drums with the h4 about 3 feet above the kit, in front about a foot. Bass was DI into an Art MP tube pre.
The idea was to show that you could get decent results with low end gear if you knew how to use the gear to its strength. Oh - Mix was with stock Cubase plugins.
Fast forward. A singer I work with liked the riff and wanted to write some words. So we recorded him. NT2a into Art MPA with Mullards and I added some ear candy parts in. I also used some samples to give more beef to the kick and snare. I toyed with the idea of re-tracking everything, but decided to work with what I had.
Now the fun - very hard to EQ and compress the instruments. Took me quite while to do. The fizzy guitars were real hard to tame and getting the bass to sit right with the kick and guitars took a few hours.
Here's where I need a fresh perspective:
Low mids - is there too much? I feel like on some systems it's a little boxy at times and a little muddy at times
What about the highs? Too fizzy on top? or Just right?
One thing I learned is that while you can get decent tracks recorded and an okay mix using very low end gear but it takes a lot longer to get the mix to come together.
Hopefully this link works:
http://bit.ly/artEEm
Thanks