Song recorded on my BR-600

Garth-S

Hey guys and gals

I recorded this quite a while ago on my BOSS BR-600 recorder, using the acoustic sim, bass sim, the onboard effects, and drum machine. I didn't use the built in mics, but rather a Shure PG58 dynamic mic.

http://www.box.net/shared/a2l3o360wc

Would appreciate any advice that you have ?

FatBoy

Wow, I really liked this one, I think it is an awesome tune. Needs a bit of work, something sounds a tad off but ya I have no idea what lol. Hopefully the more knowledgeable ppl will be able to give more advice, but great work dude!

AlanRatcliffe

Great! Love the "lap steel" guitar - what's that, a slow gear effect, or do you have a lap steel? The bass sim works surprisingly well - maybe just the low level you have mixed it, but it fits in well. Overall, a good song and nice production with lots of space.

You need to push your vocals a bit, especially towards the end. Try to build up the vocal performance as the song progresses - I'm not talking a fullout rock scream, but just something to give your voice a bit of an edge, to take away some of the "Tracy Chapmanesque sotto voice" thing (sorry - can't think how else to describe it ?).

What I don't like is the acoustic sim. In this kind of context with space in the production, you can really hear each sound well and the AS comes across very fake. Try and layer a real acoustic. Keep the AS track, but bring it in subtly only halfway through the song (or later), just to thicken up the natural acoustic sound and create more of a build. Otherwise, try leave it out for the verses and bring it in for the choruses.

Drums overall need a bit more reverb and dropping in level a bit - they are a bit too upfront as they are. Replace the cowbell with a Clave. Cowbell's great to cut through a rock mix, but it ends up a bit too present in something like this. The Ride cymbal is also too obviously a sampled drum machine, so if you can take that down more than the rest of the kit, it will be less obvious. I don't think you can rout single drums to their own FX with the BR-600 can you? If you can, try a touch of distortion on all the cymbals to get rid of the sampled cleanness. EQ a bit of the high end off them too (otherwise changing the drum reverb for a darker patch sometimes works).

You're not using the stereo soundfield effectively, most things are clumped in the middle. Pan the guitars out from the middle a bit, putting the "acoustic" slightly to one side (opposite the snare, which is panned slightly away from centre). Then move the slide guitar out even further and put the echo/reverb opposite it. That'll pad out the available space, without getting in the way.

Spyke

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
You're not using the stereo soundfield effectively, most things are clumped in the middle. Pan the guitars out from the middle a bit, putting the "acoustic" slightly to one side (opposite the snare, which is panned slightly away from centre). Then move the slide guitar out even further and put the echo/reverb opposite it. That'll pad out the available space, without getting in the way.

Is there a rule of thumb for the stereo spacing? Or is this all defendant on the track in question? I set mine at -20 and 20% respectively on the two guitars.

Garth-S

Wow! Thanks for the feedback.

Alan, I totally agree with your take on the acoustic sim, I actually think it quite horrible, but I love your idea of using it on top of a real acoustic to create a build.

The "lap steel" sound is actuall a really cool built in effect on the BR600, I was messing around with it and thought it fitted in well. It kinda just fades the sound in to give it that slide effect.

I have found that with the bass sim, you can only play the bottom E and A strings, the higher up the scales you go, the more crud the sound is. It kinda warbles and sounds horrible if you start hitting higher notes, but for laying down ideas its great.

I'm definately going to redo the vocals with the built in mics, they are much clearer and more "crisp", thanks for the advice on building them up.. I will most definately try that out ?.

I agree with you on the drums Alan, but the editability of the sounds is very limited on this device so i'll see what I can do to try out some of the stuff you suggested. Excuse my ignorance, but what is a clave?

I was a bit rushed on the recording so I never had a chance to use the stereo properly, so i'll definately use your advice Alan.

Hopefully I can redo this soon, I'm so keen ?

AlanRatcliffe

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a clave?

Two hardwood sticks used in afro-cuban music:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claves

AlanRatcliffe

Spyke wrote: Is there a rule of thumb for the stereo spacing? Or is this all defendant on the track in question? I set mine at -20 and 20% respectively on the two guitars.

Thee are no hard and fast rules to panning, other than lower bass sounds must go into the middle and don't clump everything together. Otherwise, it depends on what you're mixing: how many sounds you are mixing; if they are mono or stereo; if they have reverb or delay on them; if they are lead instruments or not; if you want sounds to mask together or stand out, etc.. We all work out our own way of doing it based on what kind of instrumentation we use.