Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge 3 songs I've mixed / mastered for a local band

I'm in the process of recording, mixing and mastering 3 demo songs for a group of local and very talented young musicians. It's ongoing, as work is never done until it's too late!

Lend my an ear and tell me what you think!

http://soundcloud.com/perceval-1/sets/weed-demo-songs/

Not a musician, but the songs' progessions seem a little inconguent, like there are segments that don't match the song. I'm obvious not qualified to comment and my tastes are achaic, I do know these are technically talented musicians, that's obvious. No offense intended, hell I'm the guy that thinks, with few exceptions, the Beatles are bubble gum.

This band used to do covers, and these are their first attempt at writing their own songs. They asked me to record them and I didn't interfere with anything... there are times I wanted to, but I figured this is part of their learning process.

I, too, am old school, and there are a few things I would have done differently, but this is not my band, and they are MUCH younger than me! they might have some more inputs on contemporary music ... more than me anyway!

That's the sound they wanted for their first try... I already want to re-mix / re-master the whole 3 songs. I want to come up with something different to listen to, and offer them which new parts they like and which old ones they want to keep.

They're young, I'm not, you are right they know what they want and probably know their market. I must say there were no parts of the songs I didn't appreciate, just that different segmnets eemed not to go together. See I told you was unqualified.

All great bands started out as great cover bands.

Nice!

There is a little performance issues here and there, a little shaky and that can be because they are young. It doesn't seem that they believe in their own performance. Teach them to play with confidence!

For the technical thingys, I feel that the guitars on the first song (demo1) is a little too reverberant. Maybe HPF that reverb return? The vocals is a little too dominant over the music. Makes it a "vocalist showcase" instead of a band effort.

Demo2 has a different snare going on, sample replacement? It works though, better than the first. Makes it the drums feel a little more important. The vocals is a little pitchy, and it seems a little too dynamic. Compress or automate the vocals a little bit more. The guitars works here, really ambient. A like them, reminds of A perfect Circle.

Demo3 has the best vocal of them all. A little muddy in the lower mids, cut a little at 400 hz, and boost a little air at 10-12 kHz and they will be fine. Guitars seems a little to fizzy, it might be intentional but I feel like lowering the 1-2 kHz a little and high-pass them. Again the performance is a little shaky, but that is only practise practise practise. Like the end guitar lick is like 5% over the guitarists ability right now.

Great job though! The overall balance is really good, the tracking seems spot on, and I am nitpicking. It's great as far as demoes go! The mastering part is really good, you got the levels up, now pumping or other artifacts that I can hear on my lap. Good job!

I didn't now there were more recording/mixing geeks here?

Thanks for the feedback Rune! Much appreciated!

hmmm... recording/mixing geek? not yet! I'm just crawling through the learning process!

Yes, they are still very young, and it was their very first attempt at recording something track by track... and like most young kids these days, they are a little lazy and it's easy to hear it. I didn't push too hard on them this time, but there is a lot of room for improvement, I know... and on my part too!

Oh, the drums are mine (just not me playing, I lent my kit to their drummer), they are a DIY e-drum set I am triggering with Toontrack's Superior Drummer as a VST.

I'll have a go at the songs with your suggestions. Already, I have a few things I want to do differently... kinda reminds me of my architecture or ad design days... it's never done until you run of of time!

Thanks a lot!