Back to Vinyl - The Prophecy(recording)

Manfred-Klose

So i've been busy this week with my first major recording(or the best i have done so far......i keep learning out of my mistakes) ?

The recording is for a friends band called "Back to Vinyl" , they combine the sound of the rock n roll energetic vibe with a modern sound.

For the guitars i used my Peavey delta blues(running through a Tube Tamer to get a crancked sound) with the boss SD-1 on a light setting through the pre amp channel, used my squier tele for the guitar track.
(bridge Coil tap with neck single coil for the main riff, other parts in humbucker mode)
Bass guitar we have done with my latest addition to the family, the 80's ibanez blazer bass with one signal being DI and the bass amp being miced with a sm57, blending the sound together, micing a bass amp with a DI actually makes a huge difference.

Comments welcome, recording(for me) and the actual song(for the band)

Back to Vinyl - The Prophecy:
http://www.myspace.com/backtovinylband

Or check em out on facebook:

if you wanna download(6.3mb)
http://www.box.net/shared/yt5jglejev

enjoy!!!!

AlanRatcliffe

One thing that sticks out:

Always pan bass to the middle (or very close) - it's one of the (near unbreakable) laws of mixing. This is because:
- Lower frequencies (below about 500Hz) are non-directional, so they always appear to be coming from the centre anyway (which is why you only have one sub in a 2.1 or 5.1 system), and the lion's share of the bass guitar is below that point.
- Bass frequencies use up the most power in a system, and panning bass to the middle means the load is shared by both channels of the listener's power amp, as well as both speakers.
- the bass frequencies tend to key a mastering compressor sooner if they are in one channel, limiting the dynamics of both channels.
- Finally if you ever do master to vinyl, the bass in one channel will kick the needle right out of the groove (not as much of an issue any more, but seeing as the band is called Back To Vinyl...). ?

One nice trick to get around most of this is to split your bass frequencies at about 500Hz. Pan the lows to the middle and pan the highs wherever you want (you can even try stereo chorusing the high frequencies subtly - gives you a bigger, more diffuse bass sound). Also try compress the bass freqs and leave the highs dynamic. This gives you a bass that sits squarely in the mix at all times, but still breathes.

A similar thing to the last one above, try compress one or other source heavily (often the DI) and leave the other pristine and dynamic.

Manfred-Klose

Thanks for the tips alan, i am learning alot here.

The DI bass(compressed) was panned at about R-50 and the mice'd bass(very little compression) was almost center.
I struggled becuase the bass dominated the kick drum.

One nice trick to get around most of this is to split your bass frequencies at about 500Hz. Pan the lows to the middle and pan the highs wherever you want (you can even try stereo chorusing the high frequencies subtly - gives you a bigger, more diffuse bass sound). Also try compress the bass freqs and leave the highs dynamic. This gives you a bass that sits squarely in the mix at all times, but still breathes.

I will go and try that, thanks.

I am modding my bass soon that each pickup will have its own output, where the bridge will give a J-bass type sound and the standard one a P-Bass sound.
Recording it to different tracks and blending it together.

AlanRatcliffe

Manfred Klose wrote: I struggled becuase the bass dominated the kick drum.

The kick and bass share so many frequencies, and the centre pan position, that they should usually be thought of as one single big instrument. If you want the two to stand apart a bit in the mix, there's a few things you can do:

* Arrangement - If you really want the kick and bass to stand apart, the easiest way is to arrange their parts so they play largely at different times.

* EQ - Hoo boy - a real can-o-worms! Everyone has their own magic formula, which depends partly on the style of music. The main thing is to clear some important frequencies from each so the other instrument can stand out in those frequencies with little to no boosts. It's very important that you learn to use your ears for what works and what doesn't as the important elements are never in exactly the same place - They'll be somewhere in a range of frequencies and you have to learn to pinpoint them. Learning to use a parametric EQ properly will open up a whole new world in finding the exact frequencies.
- Bass EQ - Start with a high pass filter on the bass at 80-100Hz. To add a bit of bite, boost a few dB at 2.5KHz to 4K.
- Kick EQ - Add a little boost in the 60-110Hz range to fatten it up, clear a few dBs in the 200Hz - 800Hz area and add 1kHz - 3kHz if you want some more beater click to come through.
- Both - in denser mixes, you may find that clearing a few dB in both at +/-300Hz will clarify the entire mix.

* Ducking - Use the kick signal to key a sidechain compressor on the bass sound, so that every time the kick signal happens, it triggers a reduction in volume of the bass guitar.