seeking feedback to improve recordings

[gritstogroats]

edit sent prematurely. its fucking late here i stayed up all night to avoid work.....

Guitar reverend with railhammer humbuckers i kept the bass contour/high pass filter knob untouched.
Im using Key in gate noise gate. King in yellow overdrive.
Im using Headfirst Evil joe (hot rodded marshall) as one of the sounds recorded twice. then mesa mk 7 for the other.
LCFR150 speakers (thats fane with a lot of low end) and then scumback speakers.

shure sm57 and sterling audio st170 ribbon.

let me know if anything else is important to evaluate or give feedback. and i really appreciate it.

hi guys,
so last year i made some recordings. the only bit of feedback i received was the monkeyman telling me it sounded scooped (not what i was going for....)

Self reflection the recordings were not good. they were not bad either. but not good. Ive been working really hard to make any progress through reading and practicing.
I think ive made progress but i really need feedback if you can please give me anything to work from.

I really dont care if its good or bad feedback. I just want external feedback so i can do more.

Since my last recordings:
1. i learned more about different microphones. now i have a cheapo ribbon mic that adds a lot and i think its much more pleasant to listen to vs. just my sm57 or condensor+dynamic.

2. speakers: a bit of improvement in where i aim the microphone. also have more midforward scumbacks. V30s are still the easiest to get a good sound with and minimal work. but im gungho to avoid and use everything else.

3. most of my speakers are scooped so im now better for extreme eq adjustmnet, blending brighter/mid forward speakers.

4. i just know more know and am testing things out. Personally, split stereo pan adjustments i can tweak better imo. i know how to add more volume to my recording without cranking amp. adjusting. fixing phase. im stil figuring out some things hope to have your feedback. these recordings are quad tracked. first time ive done that. i usually do double track only. i really dont know pros/cons yet.

Here are a few recordings.







heres the "album"s

 

[DrewJD82]

Hey man,

I don’t want to rain on the parade because I can tell you’ve been putting some effort into this stuff, but without having drums and bass to hear alongside the guitars, it’s all a bit pointless. Any one of those tones could just as easily work and just as easily NOT work depending on what the other instruments are doing and sound like.

There’s not even a one-size-fits-all guitar tone for an album full of songs that are similar in style and tempo, Even AC/DC does different shit with the guitar tones from track to track.

You got any of these with the other instruments?

 

[tjnx]

Good start! How are you recording, which daw? The first thing I would work is your timing. In "test iced earth rhtym normalize" for example the chord changes on the left and right channels are often out of sync with each other.

So I think as a pre-production it is good but you need to make sure each take is in time with the click and if not do another pass or edit. With quad tracking you need to be really tight. One trick I use to help with practice is to record a riff at normal speed then slow it and the metronome down by half to see where I might not be lining up.

Tone wise it could be just fine but again its hard to know without context. I think it sounds ok. Maybe do a small section with all instruments, in time, to dial in your tone then really work on getting a tight performance. Gallops & tremolo picking sound good just needs more polish on the changes

 

[gritstogroats]

Hey man,

I don’t want to rain on the parade because I can tell you’ve been putting some effort into this stuff, but without having drums and bass to hear alongside the guitars, it’s all a bit pointless. Any one of those tones could just as easily work and just as easily NOT work depending on what the other instruments are doing and sound like.

There’s not even a one-size-fits-all guitar tone for an album full of songs that are similar in style and tempo, Even AC/DC does different shit with the guitar tones from track to track.

You got any of these with the other instruments?

No rain on this parade. I hear people sending isolated tracks for amps. it didnt click to do the mix dumb mistake.

I have to lay down the bass track. Drums im trying to figure out it was lower on my list, I dont have a drum pack picked out yet.

Thanks. I dont want to piss away or effort away ill see if I can get everything for at least of the recordings. And try to make a workflow.

 

[gritstogroats]

Good start! How are you recording, which daw? The first thing I would work is your timing. In "test iced earth rhtym normalize" for example the chord changes on the left and right channels are often out of sync with each other.

So I think as a pre-production it is good but you need to make sure each take is in time with the click and if not do another pass or edit. With quad tracking you need to be really tight. One trick I use to help with practice is to record a riff at normal speed then slow it and the metronome down by half to see where I might not be lining up.

Tone wise it could be just fine but again its hard to know without context. I think it sounds ok. Maybe do a small section with all instruments, in time, to dial in your tone then really work on getting a tight performance. Gallops & tremolo picking sound good just needs more polish on the changes

Thank you.
Ableton lite live.which I feel like it fucks with me at times for the timing. One time recording it adjusted all my tracks to 120bpm after I was adjusting metronome so I now use an external one.

These are good tip much appreciated.

I was not great with 2x track, quad track timing is tricky. Ill do my first recording. Then ill listen to that recording on headphones and record myself again. Repeat.

Ill record a song or two with other instruments. See how it turns out. Work on the timing and doing another pass.

 

[tjnx]

Ableton lite live.which I feel like it fucks with me at times for the timing.

I think this may be the issue as the parts in between the changes sound in time. You can try reaper for free if you'd like which may help

 

[DanTravis62]

So, as far as the tone, it sounds like there is something missing here - like the 57 is too far off of the cone, and therefore it sounds too "smooth" and like theres a blanket over it

This is the sort of thing that can't be "corrected" with EQ because as they say, GIGO

That being said, you can tell the amp tone is great - its got good bite and sounds killer. It just sounds like its in a separate room. Is the 57 close enough to the speaker? To start out, your 57 should be literally ON the speaker cone. Not 6 inches away from the cloth. I mean LITERALLY AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET IT. It doesn't sound like it's either close enough, or that its centered enough.

Once you get the 57 centered, and you get the super bright attack, then you start inching the mic to the side. Since you are combining the ribbon mic with the 57, and the ribbon mic is naturally going to be really smooth and dark, you absolutely NEED that 57 exactly centered on the cone, as close as you can get it without touching.

As far as quad tracking, you are going to have to get your performance a lot tighter and more metronomically in sync before it will sound how you want it to, but there's something else you need to take into account; once the quad tracked guitars are completely in sync, you are going to notice that you need quite a bit less gain than you have on your recordings right now

All in all, youve got great gear, just needs a couple of tweaks to get it where you want it

 

[gritstogroats]

So, as far as the tone, it sounds like there is something missing here - like the 57 is too far off of the cone, and therefore it sounds too "smooth" and like theres a blanket over it

This is the sort of thing that can't be "corrected" with EQ because as they say, GIGO

That being said, you can tell the amp tone is great - its got good bite and sounds killer. It just sounds like its in a separate room. Is the 57 close enough to the speaker? To start out, your 57 should be literally ON the speaker cone. Not 6 inches away from the cloth. I mean LITERALLY AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET IT. It doesn't sound like it's either close enough, or that its centered enough.

Once you get the 57 centered, and you get the super bright attack, then you start inching the mic to the side. Since you are combining the ribbon mic with the 57, and the ribbon mic is naturally going to be really smooth and dark, you absolutely NEED that 57 exactly centered on the cone, as close as you can get it without touching.

As far as quad tracking, you are going to have to get your performance a lot tighter and more metronomically in sync before it will sound how you want it to, but there's something else you need to take into account; once the quad tracked guitars are completely in sync, you are going to notice that you need quite a bit less gain than you have on your recordings right now

All in all, youve got great gear, just needs a couple of tweaks to get it where you want it

Very much appreciated and I will be paying this all forward.

Ill test my cabinets more thoroughly and my mics. Youre right gigo. Need to get used to click tracking or whatever its called. What im doing with headphones its not working.

Ill work on mic placement too. Im really not sure why it sounds distant or in another room. But will start with placement like you said and getting it real bright.

 

[DanTravis62]

Very much appreciated and I will be paying this all forward.

Ill test my cabinets more thoroughly and my mics. Youre right gigo. Need to get used to click tracking or whatever its called. What im doing with headphones its not working.

Ill work on mic placement too. Im really not sure why it sounds distant or in another room. But will start with placement like you said and getting it real bright.

Yep you're really close - you can tell it's a killer amp tone, too.

Start with the 57 literally on top of the cone, completely centered, as close as you can get it - either to the grill cloth or on the speaker. Then add the ribbon mic; generally when people blend those two they do 50/50, 60/40 57 dominant, or 66/33 57 dominant.

See how it sounds - if it's too bright still, start inching the 57 away from the center. Generally people say there's a sweet spot between the cone and the edge of the dustcap, but that's for 57 only. If you're mixing the ribbon in with it, it's most likely going to be too dark like that unless you are doing some EQ on the back end.

The reason you want the 57 up close and personal is to get the immediacy and attack, and that's the main thing you're lacking right now.

The click tracks are super important when doing the Schaffer style quad tracking - once you start getting results you can, just like schaffer, mess around with 6 and 8 tracks if you can get it tight enough.

Basically the more tracks you add the less gain you need on each individual track to get the fullness and richness.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when you use less gain you need more volume to get sustain and keep it sounding natural.

This type of recording is my wheelhouse and I've been working out the kinks for years and years and have a ton of experience with it.