Hey Lounging I listened, how are you doing the drums? this might sound better with a remix where the drums are louder perhaps? Idk. sounds like punk rock! now do a really fast one for me

Thanks for the listen Diego. I have never heard of Half Man Half Biscuit. I'll check them out.

Thanks for the mixing advice moo buckets. The drums and bass are Ableton Live MIDIs. I'm kind of lost in the mixing department right now. What little mixing I originally did was through my headphones. A couple of weeks ago a friend played one of my songs through his TV and it sounded like ass so I'm paying more attention now. I'm trying to strike a balance between my decent headphones and my crappy PC speakers. Poor quality recording equipment probably doesn't help.

I'll see if I can do a really fast song once I finish what I'm working on right now. I'm not sure if my mediocre guitar skills can handle it though.

Invest in some speakers, dude. You can't mix on headphones.

here's what i recommend: mix the drums first, then bass, then guitars, then vocals.

Even good speakers can be tricky because no matter what you use to mix, you'll notice it sounds completely different everywhere else you hear it.

also, if you have a fast drum beat you don't necessarily need fast guitars. experiment with that, too!!!!!! you might be surprised what you find

I would advise mixing the vocals after the rhythm section, and leaving everything else till after that.

Of course that's true, you can't change the laws of physics, but you also can't mix on headphones. You should be aiming to get a mix that works well at a reasonable level on two speakers positioned at each end of the hypotenuse, with you at the right angle of an equilateral triangle.

lol I don't know if I worded that correctly. I need a siesta and it seems funny.

That's an intriguing idea. I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for all the tips. They're much appreciated. I have only been writing and recording for a year now. I'll take all the advice I can get.

Here's my latest. It's a departure from the rock and roll I generally write.

http://www.soundclick.com/player/sin...&q=hi&newref=1

I bought a new mic (audio-technica AT2020usb) which sounds much better than my old Samson Meteor Mic. I'm re-recording my favorites to see if I can get them to sound better. I don't expect pro quality, but I would at least like my recordings to sound decent.

This is one of the songs I re-recorded trying to get it to sound decent.

http://www.soundclick.com/player/sin...&q=hi&newref=1

Figured I'd share my first "song" that I recorded a couple of hours ago with audacity. I don't know what genre it became, probably some sort of melodic metal. Instruments only for now
http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/f...ll/play1131293

Cheers guys

Awesome axe work! I like how you blended the '80s metal feel with the bluesy/southern rock feel of the intro.

What amp/guitar setup are you using?

^Thanks man
I was originally going to make the song in the style of the intro and build on that, but being a metal head - after a while something happened to the notes and BPM.

I don't have much to use but try to make the best of it. For recording, I use a $15 USB interface with ASIO driver and Guitar Rig 5 as amp for distortion and what not, it's really impressive for not being a "real" amp and I'd really recommend trying it for those who haven't. Then Reaper for recording/adding VST and audacity for simple mixing, dropping pitch an octave in the "bass" as I don't have a real one - and trying to synchronize the tracks. Guitar used is my backup, a mediocre Chinese replica of a Les Paul Custom with GHS boomers (my primary one is always B tuned and this is in D, that's why).

Just getting into recording and trying to play more clean. It's a lot of fun, as you know, to record stuff and see how the result becomes!

Cheers Your location makes me wanna cover Anarchy in the UK!

after finding this thread, i joined Soundclick, and entered a competition. the feedback for the song i entered really opened my eyes, and helped me. it sort of pulled me up to a new level of process. so , thanks !

which one were you over there? I've been entering those contests for a year or so now. I've never won.

lounging - the at2020 is way better than the old thing you were using. that acoustic song you did sounds pretty crisp. i think your vocals suit the electric song a bit more though. not that it doesn't work on the pretty lady song. keep this up man, i think these two tracks sound a lot better than the first ones you shared.

might as well share my latest crapsterpiece...

My Shoes (keep not doing them)
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11866860

id at soundclick is : darrrel

i like this

what do you use to record?

did you play the drums?

i used garageband as the DAW, an M-audio Fast Track Pro is the interface, and yes I played the drums! thanks for your ears.

i am a noob. what do DAW and interface refer to ?

for a point of reference, i use Garageband and record using the built in mic on Mac for vocals, drums, acoustic guitar, and plug in electric guitar with ijam. i have been wanting to get a real mic to record. can you post a pic of your setup?

DAW means digital audio workstation. in this case that is garageband.

the interface is the USB thing that I plug microphones into to record voice and guitar and drums etc... this is the one I use:



here's another crapsterpiece, i had other things I wanted to do with it but i said i don't give a **** and uploaded it. on to the next.

Creepy Tom
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11878079

Thanks moo. i've been thinking of getting an interface for better recording quality.

do you have any recs for mics? i'm looking for all purpose.

here's a VU cover i did. i was/am pretty impressed with the quality of whatever the Mac uses to record sound.



http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11725438

i like the raw-ish pop sound in your last song.

@ moo- Thanks man. Mixing is a pain but I guess it's a necessary evil. I've noticed that I'm getting more regular plays and more downloads since I've been paying attention to mixing. Not that I'm getting a ton of downoads but it's still cool. lol You did well on both of your songs. I guess I've never heard of "shoegaze". I enjoyed the dreamy quality of the song. It kind of reminded me of Alan Parsons Project. I liked Creepy Tom. What a great idea for a song.

@ kantu- Your cover was pretty good. Do Satellite of Love next!

@ fanapathy- Do you mean that you play the bassline on your guitar and drop it an octave? I have tried that a time or two and it sounds like garbage. How do you pull that off? I'm stuck using MIDIs for bass.

Hey Lounger I noticed you joined the soundclick forum, that's great. I wish more people posted in those contests, frankly I'm amazed they aren't crazy busy since there's nowhere else online that I know of that does that.

I keep meaning to listen to everything in this thread but I worry I've missed some posts. I'm not really interested in listening to cover songs since this isn't the thread for that. Plus I've never really heard Velvet Underground (gasp).

I've got the day off tomorrow (save 2 hrs) and I hope to demo 5 new tracks. I never work as hard as I'd like to but who knows, stranger things have happened.

I figured I might as well give the contests a shot. Plus, I actually enjoy listening to "underground internet artists". There's some awesome stuff out there that's far better than a lot of what you hear on the radio. It's too bad that a person has to go looking for new, original sounding music.

so, i had a private lesson and learned a few things about garageband! i haven't gotten an interface yet.

do you get a better sound when you play electric guitar thru interface, than going directly into laptop with ijam?

here's my first post lesson "song", it's rough around the edges still, and not complete. i'd repeat 2 more times and add a bridge after 2nd go thru.

im playing everything here except drum kit, and shaker

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11890083

the person i had lesson with said most important thing was to get a rythm track down first to keep time throughout the song. it's a diff experience...love all the percussion /drum tracks in garageband.

Hey Lounging I hear you, there are some really good musicians you'll find in the SC contests. My two favorites are JWL9999 and henwrench. Are you going to sign up for the one that's currently open?

Kantu - Yeah of course, rhythm tracks are like metronomes so they are meant to come first. However I've done some songs with Guitar/Vocal first because the 'feel' of it comes off a bit different and sometimes that's what you want. It can be tricky to record a rhythm track to something that goes in and out of time but it's not impossible!

Also that track sounds pretty good! I've never used iRig before but I'm sure you can get some cool sounds in there, nowadays pretty much everything on a computer has a ton of potential if you can find the right use for it.

Which was the track you submitted in the Soundclick contest? I remember your name but that's it.