Mixing suggestions please. 2nd offering,

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Hi Folks
I'm back with another song people seemed to quite like my other effort which to be honest suprised me but thanks for that. As the same question applies to this as in my first offering, I've cut 'n pasted the relevant question in (appologies if you have read it before). as follows...
I play in a simple covers band and I'm trying to produce a basic CD of 3 songs to tout for gigs. It doesn't have to be chart topping quality, just reasonable. Now I know as a live duo we sound pretty good but as soon as I try and record songs we sound like a duller than Mr dull from dullsville. I suppose I may be expecting too much because I'm by no means set up as a recording studio. It is home recording in the true sense of the phrase. A room in my home. This is my set up.

Cakewalk home studio
Pentium computer
Gibson SG
Marshall 50 combo
PA system with recording outputs
Pentium computer
SM58 mic (with pooper-stopper)
Technics electric piano
My slightly dodgy voice

All the backing (drums and bass) is written by myself with Fruity Loops.

This is what I'm doing.

Importing backing as a wav file.
DI the Guitar track through Marshall.
DI keyboard through PA.
DI vocal through PA.
Im adding no effects at all at the point of recording.

Again the track supplied is totally unmixed. It's exactly as it was recorded but I'd love to be able to just add that bit of sparkle in the mix stage. I gotta be honest I really don't know where to start. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks for your help.
Martin

http://www.six22.biz/beetroot/backdown.mp3

AAh. I see what you mean. That could be the nail on the head. Is there any way of somehow putting some 'air' through it? I've tried things like reverb and delay but they just don't seem to do it, unless I'm just using 'em badley.
Cheers Zep

Thanks Mofine,
I think you could well have a point there. The guitar does sound a bit lifeless and 'robotic' as zep has already pointed out which could result from it not being mic'ed up. By the way the link is working. You need to go into the beetroot folder and the mp£ is in there.

Ok,I just went straight to the website.The guitar certainly sounded like it lost some of its tone from direct inputting.Couldn't hear the background music too well over the vocals.Might try increasing the volume of the drums,especially the snare.Bass came out pretty good,but you might try to find a better sample.

Usually the preamps in most soundboards arn't the greatest,to make them more affordable.You can buy seperate preamps that are better,which is important for vocals and bass.But if your just making a demo,probaly not that important.Right now you would probaly want to concentrate on better tone and samples.

Play with the velocity settings on your drum loops. Make each hit a little different. There is also an offset function in FL, which lets you offset the timing, a few milliseconds here and there will add humanizing. You could also apply a small amount of shuffle quantize to get a more human feel. Your link dosen't work for me, but I will listen to it and let you know.
Paul

The link in your first post doesn't work...the last one does...
If you want the Tom Petty wall of guitars sound you're going to have to record them differently...way too buzzy and direct sounding...
also try 2 or 3 git parts and pan them left and right
right now everything is dead center...

RLD

Should things like vocals, keyboards and drums generally remain central in the mix?

Ld Vocal,Bass Guitar,Snare,Bass Drum,down the middle.Pan everything else,even backup vocals.If you have more than one backup voacal you can pan one right,and one left,and see how that sounds.I usually pan the guitars around 30,then the backup vocals before or after.Make a pocket for your lead vocals.It will give your mix a spread,and the instruments won't be competing with each other.I guess the amount of pan is personal preference,just have to play around with it.

I use the drum map in sonar,so it pans the drums for me.Never used Fuity Loops,and it might also pan the drums.The toms,cymbals,ride,and hi hat are usually panned also.You can start with high toms to the left,and pan them all the way down to the right.