Hi everyone, gonna be recording tomorrow night in Subang. Just browsing through some tips in this thread.

I know unless you splash out a lot of cash, u won't be looking at a very good recording, but how do i get as close as possible to that? Especially the drums. I wasn't happy with the way the drums sounded the last time around. The studio had Pearl, it sounds good during rehearsal but a bit flat in the final mix.

Would it be irritable for the mixer if i were to tell him to do this, and that lolx. Cuz I'm a bit of a perfectionist u see, and when I hear the playback and not happy about something its kinda hard to put it thru in 'musical' language if u know wat i mean: e.g. I'd just go "vocal higher a bit" or "lead guitar lower a bit" I dunno how to be specific. any pointers??

next question is, The last time i record, I had a good sound coming from the amp when I was playing, but in the final mix, it sounded muddy and dull. with no tone at all. how do i avoid this?

Thanks is advance!

so , more mics then eh? How about the way u play the drums. I mean, during normal practice and gigs you would try to balance it out with the bass and the band right? but does that apply in the recording? would u lose the drum tone by hitting it with less force etc for a rock sound?

We are recording live cuz track by track gonna cost a bomb. but the vocals would be done seperately. I wish I have a keyboardist before tomorrow uwaaaa.a.... aa! I need that background 'coldplay' sound.. nyyyyymmmmmmmmmm.......

Thankx plankton (my fellow Jap Fender fren lolx)

I am going to go and check the studio tonite. Hopefully is spacious like u said. I don't know if the mic for the drums are gonna be plenty tho.

We're just trying out this studio cuz its kinda cheap for recording. If we're happy, we'll do another song and so on2. If not, of to Akar Karya we go!

Sumimasennnn everybody!!!

I went to the studio just now. The drum set is a Yamaha, the amps are an Ibanez half stack (duno model) and Marshall half-stack (duno also). Bass amp duno lol. But the room was rather small for recording and it worries me a bit. I remember somebody said the space must be big enuff. aaaaa....

The engineer showed me some samples of recording. It didn't sound the way i wanted it to be. The vocals were not so good. I am hoping like hell the ones he made me listen to were recorded live together with the band... The drums snare is a bit loose (but he said he could tighten it or use another) Oh yeah, a band used the broken mic effect thing like the Strokes.. cool!

Overall, not very impressed, but since we've booked, might as well try anyway. At least it'll be better than excess studio i hope lolx

Thanks everyone... any tips on the vocal mic would be useful....

uhuh thats the one. Did the recording already. Was quite impressed mainly by the friendliness and the casual manner the sound engineer and his buddy approached the whole thing. Very helpful and knowledgeable.

The recording took longer than expected but in the end it wasnt that bad even though it wasn't what i had hope for.. Still missing that 'punch' in the gut. nvm, at least got a decent recording done. Will go to the same place for the next one simply cuz of the engineer. Like going to the same clinic cuz the doctor knows u - that kind of thing lolx

cb myspace

see if think the recording is ok.. lolx

I did the singing lolx and the rhythm ... one take only for the vox cuz time was running out.

so how do i make the vox to be less 'dry'?

This post has been edited by gizmoduck: Mar 13 2006, 12:41 PM

o ok thanks a lot u guys.. reverb.. will remember that

thanx echo

Maybe during my next visit to the studio i can ask for him to try it out. Put more 'air' and 'reverb' and 'acoustics'.. u mean like a little crispiness to the voice? hmmm.. at first after recording it seemed to stand out too much - sounded like me singin karaoke with bg music lol then I asked him to make it blend it more with the music y'know. So he said he wuz gonna adjust the lower frequency or sumthing like that - ring any bells?

TQ ! TQ !

Will probably record an acoustic this weekend .Wat u reckon lads, plugged or mic?

hi all.. recorded another song.. please listen to it and give comments.. this ne is only 70% done k?

www.myspace.com/cloudburstmyspace

hahaha wow! Led Zep's comments always make day!!! Thanks again!!! "pretty close to perfect"

Actually, like u said, I am definitely gonna add some more stuff (prob violin, some more strings, and percussion - the keyboardist said he wanna add saxophone solo but i told him NO!!!! we're to sound like Brits!!! not RTM!!! ) so the song is somewhat like 70-80% complete..

WAAAHH!!! I got compared to BOTH CHRISSY and JAMEY!!!!! this is like a wet dream

about the recording of the ac guitar, the engineer used this weird looking mic (hehe) i think he pulled it off the drums (i'm not sure) but it has two mics that cross each other (one pointing at the hole, the other at the neck - i guess for the handslide movement sound - creeek creeeeeek haha) and i used my indonesian made Yamaha F-310! go indon mahoganiess!!!

Release? hmm.. dunno yet, only 2 songs so far, maybe 2 more, than we might think of pushing our wares.. if there're ppl who wanna buy em Led Zep gets a free copy!!!

The orchestra was software, but used the keyboard to input. Problem was, the studio didnt have a pedal, so the keyboardist was havin a hard time simulating the strokes y'know?

Dude, my Yamaha sounds nothing like that!!! i was kinda surprised when i heard it for the first time! must have been the software or sumthin. I'll find out wat the mics are, dun'cher worry mate!!

yeah, never really enjoyed metal.. wish i did I think i wanna emulate bands like U2 and Coldplay, now that I've got a keyboardist!!! (rub hands)

Sure pix, I think it should be done soon, although some ppl say its alrite as it is. "Like a good final track of an album" they say. But not for single i think. For that, i need some more additions to it. Would really like to hear your views on it though but i was told not to email the tracks in fear of copyrights bla bla bla.. so says my 'manager' i.e. my uncle. haha thats why i have it on myspace for streaming only. Do you know of any streaming websites i can use instead? maybe i can put it there also.

Led Zep! forgot to tell you that i bought the Yamaha acoustic (F310) for RM250 second hand which i tot was not bad. But i still prefer the sound of my Santa Cruz - if only i can fix the neck and the tuners...

Guys, i might go into the studio tomorrow, so I'm looking for some suggestions to improve the song. the ideas that I've got so far,

1. backing vocals for choruses and some verse - wouldnt it be nice to have a girl do it like in Damien Rice's 'o'

2. maybe more strings like cello (that how u spell it?) and violin - my fren knew of a really hot chick who could play both instruments.. heheh..

3. 2nd acoustic guitar (plucking) from 2nd verse onwards. Wanna keep the first verse empty and then build it up towards an orchestraic end like 'all around the world' oasis and the beatles stuff minus the drums

4. maracas (arrrrreeeeba!!!) courtesy of our hombres from Mexico - during the first solo till the end.

5. slide guitars (but i dun have any players for this)

Please tell me which ones are alrite and which ones arent. cuz i don't think i can put them all in. tak mao rojak! thanks in advance!!!

Mwahaha

yeah, i sang it pix! and i didn't do the solo, can't play solo to save my life herherr.. in the process of replacing the lead gutarist as we speak! lolx Thanks a lot for the wonderful and inspiring review!!!

i agree the orchestra sounded a bit too digital, now that I've listened to it more carefully.. but I don't think i have the money to hire 6 people to play their instruments hahaha and i think the studio is too small for that and Chee Meng (the engineer - great guy) won't have enuff mics kekekeke.. I think I will stick to it for now. But if u have any suggestion pls tell me k? or is it because it needed a better keyboard? or software? i dunno much bout keybs.

Hmm.. i may take ur advice on the windows track. I wasn't too happy with that too. bass was too loud like u said. Plus it was a live recording so the beat was a bit off on certain parts. and the solo.. man.. the solo.. arrggghhh!!! gusfaba.. gusfaba.. and now that i gotta a keybs i wanna put that in too

Led Zep! You jam there too? cool.. I like Meng, the guy is so helpful its like owning my own house elf! Tomorrow i might be goin to akarkarya if i can book it. otherwise its ss15 lar. I'll comfirm tomorrow, please pop in!

ok, now i am working on my 3rd song. I have this riff of 3 chords (capo 8th fret) d, a7?, c. strummed really fast downwards like the 'chocolate' song by snow patrol. Thinking of making it sound extra 'dancy' if yer know wat i mean. like 'clocks' by CP. give a bit of life to the so far subtle and melancholic EP. now, for the keybs, i need some suggestion cuz i duwan it to sound too much like Clocks but still retain that 'cool swagger' that it has. so i was thinkin maybe the (wats the tech term i duno) rhythm plucking will be done by the guitar, on top of a chung chung chung 3 chords hehehe (sry, no formal music training). no distortion watsoever. ok a lot to take in. maybe after i record it u will see and comment k?

p/s still over the moon with ppls comments

Hello Friends

Havent posted in a long time! How is everyody??? Just want to ask:

1. I am recording next weekend, one song will involve a keyboard. Should I stick to the built in effects/synthesizer (whatever u call it) or use the one in the software? My last recording session for the song 'Tulips' i used the software's 'strings' setting and some ppl said it didnt sound organic enuff. Still no cello i'm afraid so stuck with the two options haha

2. Talking about effects for the vocals. What are your suggestion? I am trying to get the effect that Chris Martin uses in the song 'Speed of Sound' there's a bit of an echo i think. If anybody familiar with this please help

That's all for now. If all goes well, will post link to the song as always on my myspace tata

This post has been edited by gizmoduck: Jun 19 2006, 01:14 PM

interested. tell me more

thanks fer the compliments. I LIKE! ITS NICE!

I've got a few songs I need to record. Some acoustics and prob a full band. Its nothing complicated though. When do you think you'll be doing this? if let say, nxt month onwards would be excellent