A little feedback please - demo recording

We're trying to get a demo together for the acoustic version of our band which consists of just myself and the other guitar player. Being the cheapskates that we are when it comes to shelling out books for a really good recording, we've decided to see if we could do a reasonable good quality recording ourselves with the gear that we have.

The set up we used for our session last night is to run the guitars and mics through the Bose L1 and set that up pretty much the same as a gig. Then we used a Tascam portable recorder to record the songs. The next step was to "wash" the best of the nights' sessions through Audacity. We did several songs and several versions of each to scrape as many barnacles off as we could. We couldn't get them all, but the idea is to see if the quality is good enough to put on a CD in order to solicit some bookings.

I'm playing my PRS Archtop through a POD XT Live for the magnetic pickups and running straight to the board for the piezo system. This lets me toggle to either a more electric tone or acoustic. The other guitar is an Alvarez of some type. It's a rosewood body with a spruce top and a very nice guitar. That is plugged directed into the board as well.

With that in mind, I would appreciate any constructive comments. Bear in mind we're basically running one-track so do-overs require us to play the entire song.

http://files.me.com/rickythompson/umo3x6.mp3
http://files.me.com/rickythompson/5q4arw.mp3

RickT

I would up the tempos a click or two, and bring the vocals WAY up front. Also, sometimes I hear the backup, sometimes I don't. The more harmonies the better for this kind of thing. Good luck!

I would up the tempos a click or two, and bring the vocals WAY up front. Also, sometimes I hear the backup, sometimes I don't. The more harmonies the better for this kind of thing. Good luck!

Thanks for the input. We'll keep working on it.

RickT

Rick I listened to both songs and you guys sound good. I would raise the vocals and this would work for a Demo to get gigs. It is nice to have a slick Demo but the main thing is that you can sound like you demo performing live. Many can't and in my opinion that is misrepresentation. Have fun!!! Darwin

Rick I listened to both songs and you guys sound good. I would raise the vocals and this would work for a Demo to get gigs. It is nice to have a slick Demo but the main thing is that you can sound like you demo performing live. Many can't and in my opinion that is misrepresentation. Have fun!!! Darwin

Thanks for listening and thanks for the input. On the "raw" recording, the vocals are pretty much out in front, but after applying some post processing compresssion, which raises everything in the mix, the guitars become more pronounced. I think I'm going to have to figure out how to get the compression dialed into the mix and, hopefully, that'll remedy the situation.

By the way, how many guitars do you have on that wall behind you? It looks like a pretty nice collection.

RickT

I thought the songs sounded great. Perhaps the recording could have been better but the general idea is evident, that you guys are very good guitar players and vocalists. I suppose the necessity for top-notch/slick(?) recordings would depend on the type of venues that you're looking to play in, yes? For most night clubs, small venues, etc., I'd think that such a recording would suffice. For packing in a 10,000 seat theater, well, you might want to spend the bucks. Great job on both songs. I especially liked "Take it Easy". There's a shared, sort of laid back, theme to the two songs. Good luck on your gig bookings.

Caveat: I have no experience in such things, aside from others in life that may be applicable.

Hi,

The music and playing sound great. Really good. So the only thing I could possibly comment on is the recording techniques used. I'm kind of an amateur when it comes to recording techniques but I've been doing quite a few of them and learning about the techniques about as much as I've been learning about guitar.

Here's some things my amateur ear notices in your recording:

* "Let It Be" is recorded better than "Take It Easy", but that's probably because it's slower and the guitar's volume is lower. It could still use with some more vocals.
* On "Take It Easy" the guitar(s) seems to drown out everything, which is normal on a recording. Live and in person this'd probably be awesome sounding, but on the recording you can't hear the backing vocals at all and the main vocals get drowned out periodically. If the singer is playing the guitar then you're screwed and probably just have to play softer or sing louder.
* I'm not sure how you recorded this, but I think it's with one mic. Try using at least two mics, one for the room that's able to pick up all the instruments, and then one (or maybe two) for the vocals that's closer and doesn't pick up the instruments.
* If all you have is one mic, then try playing in a bigger room, and use distance as the way you get your "mix". For example, on "Let It Be" you can take the amp for the guitar and move it far away from the mic, then use volume. Even if it's acoustic, if you can use an amp you can get a good layout and still make it sound like you're doing an acoustic jam. The singer can be closer to the mic, right next to the bassists, but percussion is a bit further out, etc. Don't take that as exact advice, just an example.

* On both takes you overcompressed the mp3 file. Not sure how you made it, but see if you can give it a quality level of 2 or 3. It sounds like yours is around 8 or 9, which totally destroys the important sounds found in an acoustic mix. Things like room reverb, the shimmering on the guitars, would all get lost at this compression level (mp3 compression that is).

Hope that helps.

Nice!
Gret job overall. I think the comments about bringing the background vocals up on "Take It Easy" are valid. I'm hearing a lot of compression, which as zedshaw pointed out is probably from MP3 compression.


I think as is, it's good enough for a booking agent. When you're trying to get gigs, you definately want your recordings to reflect how you sound live. It's wise that ya'll don't have any overdubs or extra frills that you couldn't reproduce live.

Nothing else springs to mind. I think the tracks are basically good. Just up the vocals a bit, and watch thecompression. Good luck!

I do a lot of live recording, and there is always problems with the vocals sounding muffled or lower in the mix. One way you can get better sounding vocals is record right off the board. You should be able to patch right off the board into your recorder. Or if you want to preserve that "Live" sound you could do a "Matrix", with two recorders. Do both and mix them together in post. That gets a little trickier, but can be excellent results.

Here's one that's mixed on the fly, straight off the board to my Edirol R-09:

Funky_Chicken.mp3


Most of all, have fun with it.

Pat

Rick,I have 22 on the wall and 17 more. It is a hard decision to choose which are to go on the wall. I am not a kid anymore and never had funds to do this until recent years. I am lucky and it is so appreciated now. Had things when I was young that I should have taken care of and kept but haven't we all!!!!--- Darwin

I thought the songs sounded great. Perhaps the recording could have been better but the general idea is evident, that you guys are very good guitar players and vocalists. I suppose the necessity for top-notch/slick(?) recordings would depend on the type of venues that you're looking to play in, yes? For most night clubs, small venues, etc., I'd think that such a recording would suffice. For packing in a 10,000 seat theater, well, you might want to spend the bucks. Great job on both songs. I especially liked "Take it Easy". There's a shared, sort of laid back, theme to the two songs.

I have to agree with my fellow Angeleno Mr. Roundel here. You sound good. It's not perfect, but it's a demo. Gets the point across, which is what you want.

Playing "Let It Be" takes some guts. Good luck to you!

Hey Rick! Sounds great! I won't comment on the vocals since so many already have, but another thing that sticks out on my end is that the overall output of the mix sounds a bit weak. In other words, the signal I'm getting requires me to crank up my speaker volume more than with most recordings I hear. Without really knowing how you're mixing things, I think I'd try to drive the inputs a little hotter on the recorder - especially the vocals - so that they're just short of continually clipping with an occasional clip being ok. Then, when you transfer the tunes over to CD, you can still keep the signal as hot as you can in order to obtain the most output once it's burned to the CD. Perhaps I'm way off track here, but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

Thanks everyone for responding. There are lots of good suggestions in there useful to anyone wanting to record their music. I'm going to tweak the input settings on the Bose Tonematch Engine to see if I can get a better sound from the source. I think moving the mics further from the sound column is another good suggestion that should allow us to dial up the recording signal and pick up more of the natural sound of the room.

I'm not sure when I'll have time to do the setup again as we've got some bookings coming up.

RickT

Good show, Mr RickT.
I could hear the vocals much better on "Let It Be". There were times I couldn't hear the harmony vocal on the "Take It Easy". On both, I felt the instruments overpowered the vocals just a bit.... but not a lot!! The one thing that DOES come thru is that you both are good instrumentally and vocally. As you can imagine, I've never had anything to do with a demo; so this might be good enough as it is. If I had a club [don't I wish?] and I was listening to demos, I'd want the best representation of you well you can sound. I'm not suggesting you get into a studio, but if there is a way to dress this up with software or somehow do another version with mics closer to singers, I think the quality difference might have a payoff.

Hell, if I had a tavern, it would have a stage in one corner and a good sound system and I'd hire ya on the spot!! I'd also sell imported beers on tap.

Jay