My covers band have been done recorded some demo/ sampler tracks...

JayGee

Actually quite pleased with these for one afternoons work and considering that for me at least it was the first time in a studio...

What say the forum?

not_the_dj

Should there have been a link? ;-)

JayGee

Yeah. I'll try that again on something that's not an iPad... :-)

JayGee

Aha! That looks much more like what I had in mind...

I'm the guy panned right on most of the tracks and the solos on Teenage Kicks by the way...

not_the_dj

Sounds good. Great quality recordings, and fantastic if that was just an afternoons work!

Always sounds weird to me to hear Teenage Kicks played at that tempo....but that's more down to my band playing it way too fast ;-)

D28boy

A good first attempt I think...a bit pitchy in places...and perhaps lacking a little fluidity in some lead guitar parts. It's hard work recording isn't it. You recorded and mixed all 4 in an afternoon that's good work. We recently recorded my bands first demo and did 4 in an 8 hour day but that was 3 hours to set up & sound check, 2 hours to play the tracks, 1 hour for backing vox and overdubs and the remaining 2 hours to mix and pack up in! It's been 30 years since I was in a studio and it's changes a lot since then!

JayGee

That was about 6 hours all in for the recording.

Drums, bass, and most of the guitars done "live", vocals, backing vocals, guitar solos, one or two other bits of lead-ish guitar (including the take of my main rhythm part on Superstition) overdubbed. Not sure how much time Adam at Card Trick...

http://cardtrickmusic.moonfruit.com - lovely laid back place where we do all our rehearsals as well as the recordings - highly recommended!

...spent mixing it though!

It really was tremendous fun to do - I was scared stiff going in and convinced that I'd blow every take when the "tape" started rolling but once we'd got going and jammed a bit for Adam to set levels and fine tune his mic placements it was all starting to seem pretty normal/comfortable. Hearing the thing come together bit by bit was fascinating. By close of play I was actually relaxed enough to join in on the "thugs chorus" backing vocal takes, and I normally stay as far away from the vocal mics as is physically possible on stage. :-)

D28boy

check our effort out & see what you think...Personally think with more time the mix could be a lot better

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/25722/bands-first-attempt-at-recording#latest

PolarityMan

I think the drums are a bit far back in the mix and maybe the guitars a little too prominent. Sounds pretty decent for the amount of time you put in though.

JayGee

D28boy said:

check our effort out & see what you think...Personally think with more time the mix could be a lot better

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/25722/bands-first-attempt-at-recording#latest

I actually had a sneaky listen to those before I posted mine, and in fact it was seeing your original post and the responses to it that inspired me to put our efforts forward. :-)

They're very nice, I like the arrangements (and that they're not just straight covers), they sound great and the playings good too! I kind of wish we still had the (temperamental and high maintenance) female vocalist this band had when I first joined because good female singers are still relatively uncommon in rock and it immediately sets a band apart from a lot of others on the covers scene. 

Oh yeah, and I really must convince our lot that we need to do some UFO....  :-)

JayGee

PolarityMan said:

I think the drums are a bit far back in the mix and maybe the guitars a little too prominent. Sounds pretty decent for the amount of time you put in though.

I think for the time we spent, the relatively modest cost[1] and the amount of experience we have in the studio the results are better than I'd ever expected - much of the credit for this probably goes to Adam at Card Trick Music....

This mixing business is proving to be surprisingly subtle. This is actually the second pass, and we all thought that the drums and vocals were too forward in the mix first time round, the levels have only been tweaked a tiny bit the change is dramatic. Adam seems to have done some trickery which has resulted in Lee's vocals "sitting in the mix" (rather than leaping out of it) without making them actually any quieter. Again the drums "sit" better now but are definitely quieter along with it. Still an improvement over the first cut though.

We are apparently getting copies of the original tracks so I'll probably be roping @MattG (who's my son and is studying Music Technology and Audio Engineering at UWE, has access to world-class kit, world-class advice from his tutors, and has done a fair bit of studio work over the last couple of years) to see what we can come up with. I suspect the results may turn out to be different rather than better.... :-)

Anyway, thanks all for the constructive and positive input, it's nice to hear other people say we've done a decent job!

[1] I'm not going to name a figure as I think we might have got a generous deal as a result of our long standing status as customers for rehearsal facilities, suffice it to say it was considerably less than I would have expected...

PolarityMan

JayGee said:

PolarityMan said:

I think the drums are a bit far back in the mix and maybe the guitars a little too prominent. Sounds pretty decent for the amount of time you put in though.

I think for the time we spent, the relatively modest cost[1] and the amount of experience we have in the studio the results are better than I'd ever expected - much of the credit for this probably goes to Adam at Card Trick Music....

This mixing business is proving to be surprisingly subtle. This is actually the second pass, and we all thought that the drums and vocals were too forward in the mix first time round, the levels have only been tweaked a tiny bit the change is dramatic. Adam seems to have done some trickery which has resulted in Lee's vocals "sitting in the mix" (rather than leaping out of it) without making them actually any quieter. Again the drums "sit" better now but are definitely quieter along with it. Still an improvement over the first cut though.

We are apparently getting copies of the original tracks so I'll probably be roping @MattG (who's my son and is studying Music Technology and Audio Engineering at UWE, has access to world-class kit, world-class advice from his tutors, and has done a fair bit of studio work over the last couple of years) to see what we can come up with. I suspect the results may turn out to be different rather than better.... :-)

Anyway, thanks all for the constructive and positive input, it's nice to hear other people say we've done a decent job!

[1] I'm not going to name a figure as I think we might have got a generous deal as a result of our long standing status as customers for rehearsal facilities, suffice it to say it was considerably less than I would have expected...

Actually i wrote that listening to i predict a riot but the sound balance suited purple haze much better. I agree though fantastic results for such a short time period..