Room accoustics and recording

Fran

Yesterday we recorded a demo intended for some decent contacts we've made involved on the website.... http://www.drownedinsound.com/

Our two usual rehearsal spaces where out of action because of the festive period so we took a chance on an upstairs room at a local pub....

on entering the room it was more like a function hall, no furniture, no carpet, dog sh*t on the floor and no heating.

We decided to soldier on and spent 7 hours recording. Today i listened back to the tracks and it sounds like we are playing in a tunnel, the reverb created by the room is horrendous but mostly on the guitars part, so tonight i overdubbed the guitar parts but now it seems too polished and clean!

I'll get some MP3's up asap for you to judge yourselves, meanwhile anyone else had bad recording experiences?

johnniespring

most of my recording experiences have been bad.

Yashin

I fooled the wife into thinking I was converting the garage into a dining room, then promptly moved all my recording #### into it and sound proofed all the walls.

heh heh heh

Aug

Yashin said: I fooled the wife into thinking I was converting the garage into a dining room, then promptly moved all my recording #### into it and sound proofed all the walls.
heh heh heh

...he said, before being dragged into divorce court...

louis

any chance of sliping those 'contacts' my way!? PM if you like! the best acoustic guitar sound comes from sitting facing a corner, for electric, put the main guitarists amp in a small room, put a good mic directly infront of the speaker of the amp, then put an SM57 above that but about 5 cm back

louis

btw, im no techie, nor a student of recording, but from my personal experience, that has always worked best.

vivadeluxxe

Also, if you're close mic-ing with a dynamic mic, its always good to point the mic directly at the edge of the speaker, rather than straight at the centre of the cone. You pick up more natural distortion that way.

It might be an idea to find a reverb setting similar to the room size you recorded in, and adding it to the guitars u recorded at home, to help them fit with the rest of the mix better...

vivadeluxxe

BTW Fran, if you ever need a demo recording, and you can get over to Manchester, I charge a pretty reasonable rate 😀

I've got access to a really good studio called theCutting Rooms which I can get at mates rates...

Just a thought...

slythe_frontman

Dude, pm me with some prices if youd be willing to do the same for me. Ive wanted to go into the cutting rooms for ages!

Fran

vivadeluxxe said: BTW Fran, if you ever need a demo recording, and you can get over to Manchester, I charge a pretty reasonable rate 😀
I've got access to a really good studio called theCutting Rooms which I can get at mates rates...
Just a thought...

Thanks Viva...i'll check that link out later on.

The singer has invested in a fair bit of equipment, so he's learning as he goes along. I'm ok with this coz i've got little interest in recording, i'm more interested in the gigs. But obviously its got to the point where we need a decent demo, the last one we did (on the link below) does'nt do us any justice and is'nt up to scratch to approach people in the music industry with.

Like i said we're making progress with the band and if things begin to look very promising i would definitely put money into a studio session.

mezzio13

Yashin said: I fooled the wife into thinking I was converting the garage into a dining room, then promptly moved all my recording #### into it and sound proofed all the walls.
heh heh heh

agreed.

Fran

Here's a couple of tracks from the first recording, the guitar is ok on here but the vocals seem too distorted....

http://www.soundclick.com/themightypoemrocket

The second recording is the one i've overdubbed on but have'nt got any of that to give you a link yet. 🙄

Doog

Have you got access to the individual tracks still? Or was it all done to 2 track live? I may be able to remix (as in tweaking the sound, not a happyhardcore version of it) if you wanted it tweaking?

mezzio13

Great stuff Fran, reminds me of old us punk like Kinfedance or Out Of Order, maybe a bit of Necros thrown in for good measure.

As for your recording environment, I do think it took a away from all of the sounds overall. The drums sound a bit washed out, and with a little better isolation I think you could have greatly improved the sound you captured. Did you guys record this live, it sounds as though there might be some bleed through, but I am at work and my speakers suck here.

Regardless I liked it, good stuff.

Fran

It was a live five track recording, the spare fifth track was a mic which just picked up unwanted noise so i overdubbed on that track and got rid of my original guitar track.

The singer tried going straight into the desk with vocals as well as the fifth track mic placed near the PA speakers....its all a bit complicated i know.

Does that original recording sound anygood to you Doog? We think the vocal is way distorted, the new recording is a lot better....when i get hold of it....

Fran

Thanks Mezz 😉

Yeah, there is a lot of bleed through, i'll get the finished newer mix up as soon as i can.

Fran

Doog said: Have you got access to the individual tracks still? Or was it all done to 2 track live? I may be able to remix (as in tweaking the sound, not a happyhardcore version of it) if you wanted it tweaking?

Thanks.

I'll find out exactly what we've done, get our best mix up to here and then see what you think.

Doog

Fran the man said: It was a live five track recording, the spare fifth track was a mic which just picked up unwanted noise so i overdubbed on that track and got rid of my original guitar track.
The singer tried going straight into the desk with vocals as well as the fifth track mic placed near the PA speakers....its all a bit complicated i know.
Does that original recording sound anygood to you Doog? We think the vocal is way distorted, the new recording is a lot better....when i get hold of it....

Are both mp3s on the Soundclick page from the same session? I'm not sure which is which..

I really reckon it could do with some tweaking to do the songs justice. There's far too much bass guitar and cymbals, the current mix totally overpowers the kick and snare (which the drums should be ALL about) and guitar.

Like I said, if you've got access to the individual tracks and can get them to me online as wav or very decent quality mp3s (192kbps at very least), I'll be more than happy to EQ/compress/filter etc and mix them for you so you'll be more happy with it.

Sorry if any of that sounded condescending. It just seems kinda pointless to me not to make any recording as good as you can. The songs are cool, I just reckon a better mix would better do them justice.

Fran

Fran the man said: It was a live five track recording, the spare fifth track was a mic which just picked up unwanted noise so i overdubbed on that track and got rid of my original guitar track.
The singer tried going straight into the desk with vocals as well as the fifth track mic placed near the PA speakers....its all a bit complicated i know.
Does that original recording sound anygood to you Doog? We think the vocal is way distorted, the new recording is a lot better....when i get hold of it....

Yes, they are from the same live recording.

I'm not sure if you could access individual tracks because i had nothing to do with all that side of things, we are rehearsing tonight so i'll ask some questions. Basically all i've done is from a CD of the songs converted them to MP3 and uploaded them.

If i can i'll email you some of the songs. To be honest i think some 'outside' influence/opinion could be just the trick!

Fran

Right Doog...he used a Yamaha AW16 Work Station (16 track/8 input) that records onto hard drive.

He said it couldnt see how it would be possible to email the recording to remix. That's all i know.

We are gonna spend plenty of time on getting a decent final mix, but thanks for the offer 😉 you can be the judge of it when i get the final mix up on the soundclick link!