Want some thoughts too :)

raithza

Hi,

Just want some opinions on a track that I'm working on.

The current recording is all instruments separately but one take each, so there are a few mistakes. I stuff up the guitar solo quite badly, and had some trouble playing with only the metronome. The idea is to use this as backtrack to properly record each instrument/section. So for now I'm mostly looking for comments on the song itself rather than mix/performance.

http://www.box.net/shared/qc59e2z7gf

I'm worried that the song might be a bit short? But longer and I fear it might get a bit repetitive. And the guitar solo seems a bit 'thin' after the much more epic harmonica solo. Maybe switch the two around or something?

I think the guitar sounds quite cool as is. Maybe some eq to reduce the boominess and make room for vox? although I do want it thick. Bass still needs a lot of work (acoustic bass recorded with a mic and boosted/filtered). Any advice on reducing fret noise/string slapping? Vocals/harmonica are untreated.

This is the first song I'm recording so any helpful suggestions will be appreciated ?

vic

Not bad at all....try keeping time with your foot, then you dont have to watch the metronome which could be distracting you from "performing".
Love the harmonica....what make and model is it ?
Try doubing the lead section with the harmonica solo and visa versa...what I'm saying is fill the harmonica part with a bit of lead and lead part with a bit of harmonica.....?

AlanRatcliffe

There's nothing wrong with a three minute song - for years the 3 minute song was the standard length of popular songs (because a 7" 45RPM single could only hold about three minutes of music). Anyway, there are enough elements in your song to stretch it out with a little reorganising/repetition if you want. You could take the first part of the slide solo part and repeat as part of an extended intro, do more vocal comping at the end, etc.. Any number of things...

Don't worry about incidental bass noises - its part of the sound and helps the bass cut through a mix. As long as they are in time, they actually work to add a bit of life and percussion to a track like this, the same way plectrum noise works with guitar.

As far as the recording goes - not bad at all for a first recording. Far better than my early attempts. ? I know it's not your focus at this stage, but a something to consider for later:

Bass instruments should always be panned to the middle or within about 5% of it. This is one of the "hard" rules of mixing, and there are a few very good reasons for it. The original reason for this rule has now largely fallen away - panned bass will kick the needle out of the groove of a vinyl record - but there are other reasons that still apply. Firstly, regardless of source, we perceive frequencies of 80Hz or lower as coming from the centre anyway, so a lot of the meat of a panned bass track (or kick drum) will still sound like its coming from the middle and placing other instruments there too can muddy up a recording. Secondly, the bass part of the frequency spectrum uses the largest part of a sound system's power and panning to the middle spreads the load between both channels of amp and speakers, leaving more free headroom and power.

So I'd pan bass up the middle, guitar to one side (not to far - with a simple arrangement of just three instruments at a time, you don't want to go too nuts, If you want to fill out the space to the sides, do it with a touch of reverb) and vocals/harp to the other side. Other than that, pull back the volume of the rhythm guitar a bit and bump the bass more.

raithza

vic wrote Not bad at all....try keeping time with your foot, then you dont have to watch the metronome which could be distracting you from "performing".
Love the harmonica....what make and model is it ?
Try doubing the lead section with the harmonica solo and visa versa...what I'm saying is fill the harmonica part with a bit of lead and lead part with a bit of harmonica.....?

Thanks for the comments... The harmonica is some middle-range Hohner, not sure of the model.

I thought of adding some harmonica during the guitar solo... a 'shuffle-pad' vibe.. like in a lot of Muddy Waters songs. think Champagne and Reefer especially.

Keeping time with my foot does help - i started doing that later on ? thanks for the tip.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote There's nothing wrong with a three minute song - for years the 3 minute song was the standard length of popular songs (because a 7" 45RPM single could only hold about three minutes of music). Anyway, there are enough elements in your song to stretch it out with a little reorganising/repetition if you want. You could take the first part of the slide solo part and repeat as part of an extended intro, do more vocal comping at the end, etc.. Any number of things...

Don't worry about incidental bass noises - its part of the sound and helps the bass cut through a mix. As long as they are in time, they actually work to add a bit of life and percussion to a track like this, the same way plectrum noise works with guitar.

As far as the recording goes - not bad at all for a first recording. Far better than my early attempts. ? I know it's not your focus at this stage, but a something to consider for later:

Bass instruments should always be panned to the middle or within about 5% of it. This is one of the "hard" rules of mixing, and there are a few very good reasons for it. The original reason for this rule has now largely fallen away - panned bass will kick the needle out of the groove of a vinyl record - but there are other reasons that still apply. Firstly, regardless of source, we perceive frequencies of 80Hz or lower as coming from the centre anyway, so a lot of the meat of a panned bass track (or kick drum) will still sound like its coming from the middle and placing other instruments there too can muddy up a recording. Secondly, the bass part of the frequency spectrum uses the largest part of a sound system's power and panning to the middle spreads the load between both channels of amp and speakers, leaving more free headroom and power.

So I'd pan bass up the middle, guitar to one side (not to far - with a simple arrangement of just three instruments at a time, you don't want to go too nuts, If you want to fill out the space to the sides, do it with a touch of reverb) and vocals/harp to the other side. Other than that, pull back the volume of the rhythm guitar a bit and bump the bass more.

Thanks Alan - always a wealth of wisdom.