First attempt at recording

Hello All,

I just posted my 1st song. It's an instrumental titled "Just after Midnight". I didn't add any effects other than what the patches already had programmed into them. I'm hoping to get some feed back as to what could be done to make it sound better as I'm brand new to recording and have no idea what should be added to tracks after they're recorded. My apologies if it sounds like a mess through your monitors or headphones. I don't even have good monitors as of yet. Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks
http://www.soundclick.com/rhynobyte

I like the smooth jazz feel :-)

This could benefit greatly from some mixing and EQing, compression, reverb, etc... Is that a live kit? Or a drum program?

I really like THESE

Thanks for the tip Robby. I'm hoping next week. I know it's a necessity for recording but man the expenses just keep adding up.

Without being able to hear the sounds you produce in the place you record, I can't answer the question.

What I suggest you do is in the original thread, explain how you recorded this. What equipment used, what kind of room you were in, Mics, amps etc. There are some real savvy techs here that would be far more qualified than I am to answer those questions. The more info you provide, the better people can help.

Ron

rhyno - Since everyone's pretty much commented on the mix, I'll leave well enough alone. I really like the vibe and composition you got goin' on here with this tune! Kinda spacey sounding and it took me back to days of old man.... I enjoyed this. And yes, the mixing and equipment is a necessary evil.

After listening I would pull back on the electric piano in the mix and let it come in not so abruptly.
I feel it would add more to the mood of the piece. No other coments to give in reguard to use of effets as I am also in that learning mode. It was a fun listen.

rhynosynth,

A good way to do comparisons is to make mix downs of the song with different effects. Then pull the different wav files into a new project. You then can bounce back and forth between the different mixes and get a real good sense of the way the effects work. It sounds like a lot of work, but it actually will help speed up the process. I know if I listen to a certain mix too long, I get numb to it. I learned this technique on this forum.

With jazz, think about the environment you want to be in, then build the mix from the rhythm section up. This is a real intimate piece and you could get away with subtle ambience.

Scott

Montezuma - You know after I recorded it I said to myself the bass and the rhodes give it a "riders on the storm" feel (not quite though.. I wish) The good the bad and the ugly? Thanks. BTW my 8 year old loves my dog.

Yeah...check out the organ in that flick if you've never heard it. Sweet as. There's a sensational organ blast right before Angel Eyes throws the shovel at Tuco.

robby - your attempt at humor here is completely inappropriate. It has nothing to do with the original poster's request for comments on his recording which shows a complete disrespect not only for him but for any children and ladies reading these threads.

don't try it, robby. then why would the police care if your comment was about keyboards?

grow up.

Robby,
It's very obvious from your explanation that I am completely wrong here and don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Obviously I should not have jumped to the conclusion that you would have made any kind of inappropriate comment in the open forum.

Please forgive me.

To rhynosynth:
I apologize to you for this hijacking of your thread. I will not respond off topic in this thread again, even if provoked. I will try to listen to your song again when I get home tonight. I do not like making critique comments based on listening to songs on my crappy soundmax and crappy headphones I have at work. most people who have read my critiques know that already, but you might not and I do owe YOU that explanation since I have taken this thread off topic without making comments on your song.

Rhyno....

Good tune.... it shows creativity. As far as reverb.....yeah...maybe add a tad. Since this is your first song posting, I think it's well done.

To address a few other issues: guitars....I NEVER send a dry signal to the track on guitar... I always get the tone, distortion, reverb, chorus, and other effects before tracking it.
Some will disagree.....to bad. I like to know what the guitar will sound like and I know I can get that tone from the amp or POD. I just know that I will be "stuck" with it in the final mix...but that has not been a problem for me yet.
Record everything else dry. Send all the tracks to a sub master and insert your reverb & compression in the sub master for the final sweetening.

My preference for mixing and working on the tracks is not to use head phones. Head phones are good for tracking, where you are recording audio with a mic and you need the room as quiet as possible....use headphones for that. But when working on the mix and inserting effects and trying to achieve a balance between the instruments and vocals, use reference monitors for better results. You can get a decent sounding set of reference monitors for $300-$600. These are not top of the line but they will sound good, and more importantly, give you a less biased sound that either headphones or stereo speakers, which add "coloration" to the sound to one degree or another. When you hear people saying they have a mix that sounds good on their stereo, but not in the car, they probably mixed it on a biased sound source. Ultimately...use what you have and /or can afford. I mixed alot of my earlier tunes from CW8 with headphones.

All that aside...keep working & recording.

Jonbouy,

Thanks man. I appreciate that.

Thanks Hacker,

I plan on recording my guitars soon and I have a good mic hear somewhere ( I'ts been so long since I've used it I forgot what make it is) For electric (overdriven) guitar I definitley need to hear the overdriven tone. Sound advice on when to use the headphones as well. I have a line 6 guitar port around hear as well. I gotta see how that records.I hope it's compatible with my new system. i think it predates the pod. You know I picked it up along with a couple of soft synths a few years ago with the intention of recording but never really got things up and running. But now that there is no band and friends to jam with (once in a while.. it's that age) the time is right.

rhyno

Thanks Foxwolfen,

That's nice to hear. I recorded each track straight out except the drums which I already had programed in my drum machine Maybe a couple of takes for the moog solo. to be honest I really don't even know how to cut and paste yet. I've always been a player. More recentley i just sit and jam to backing tracks off the internet and some jam along cd's. I just got mc4 a few weeks ago and got up and running (with the help of this site) and I gotta tell you I'm having more musical fun now than I've had in years. Both listening to all these great originals and talkin' music. I have my JV 2080 ( which was used for the bass,rhodes variation and moog sound) the yamaha p-150 88 key piano.(used for the piano) an old dr 660 drum machine.( a lot of fun but limited) A fender p deluxe bassa nd a jd 800 synth. I also have the impOSCAR (which I can't wait to record with) NI Vapor and east west symphonic orchestras which I always used in standalone. I gotta do that TTS tuturial #8. You know I was in best buy looking at smoothtop ovens and I saw mc4 for like $35 bucks and said wow that seems like a good deal and here I am. Now I have a problem where I can't go to sleep anymore but somehow I don't feel tired the next day thinking about all this stuff. I'm ramblin again. Can't wait to listen to your stuff as well. This beats the hell out of radio and gives a break to my music collection as well.

rhyno