fake plastic trees demo- please critique

[vinestreet98]

hey ppl-

just finally bought legit recording equipment... so this was meant to be more of a test for that... but i did one take of a little bit of fake plastic trees with a second guitar layer (all in garageband) to see how it all sounds. i'd love for your notes. it's totally rough but i think it came out post-worthy anyway for a first take. lemme know how the vocals sound too.

http://www.purevolume.com/maxjordan

i also did a cover of howie day's madrigals...

thanks much!!!

max

[myxomatosis]

not bad

[RunsWithBuffalo]

First off let me critique the sound of the recording as opposed to the performance (which is pretty good)

Tell me about your setup.

I hear some mix issues and also some things that might be fixed with mic placement, compression, panning and proper levels.

The recording sounds distant, yet sometimes distorted which leads me to believe you are maybe using condenser microphones.

Let me take a listen when i get home, i just have shitty earbuds at work.

But list the equipment you used, that would help.

[vinestreet98]

Sure thing!!!

I'm using a Studio Projects B1 Condenser mic --> Behringer XENYX 802 Mixer --> Tape outs --> Sound input of my iMac G5.

I recorded the main guitar track and vocals live. so, while I do have my guitar also plugged into my mixer, the condenser mic obviously picks up a lot of that, too.

In Garageband I use the "live performance" preset which includes Compression, reverb, and EQ. I tend to boost up the treble on my voice, also.

[RunsWithBuffalo]

That's a pretty good setup man, congrats.

A few things. I think you need to check your levels a bit and make sure you are not exceeding 0dB (going into the red). With a mic like the B1, its not hard to do especially on the louder parts of Fake Plastic Trees. For the normal parts of the song, you should be about 8-12 inches away from the mic. When it comes time to belt it, back up and aim your mouth away from the mic a bit.

Also, you should be aiming for about -7dB with your tracks, they can be boosted when you master them. This cushion gives you some breathing room to play witht the mix a bit.

You might also try panning the guitar parts to favor one ear over the other i.e. lead in the left, rhthym in the right, vocals right up the middle.

The live performance setting is alright but i would start with "basic male vocal" and start adding things to customize the sound to suit your voice, then you can save it as "my vox" or something so it will always be there as a preset.

Last but not least: try to get everything in its own separate track. this gives you a lot more control to shape the sound of the song. The eq that is good for vocals is not ideal for acoustic guitar etc etc...

aright thats all i got for now. Any questions let me know.

Good luck.

[vinestreet98]

thanks man!! i'll definitely see into multi track recording and panning (i'm REALLY curious to see how this sounds)

any performance notes?