Tfarny does actually play music!

[tfarny]

Yesterday was my first time (actually all of our first time) recording in an actual studio. I'm on bass for all songs, electric guitar for the weeper "so completely" and acoustic guitar for "come back" our eventual b-side. These tunes have a bit of pro tools fixing but not really all that much - no pitch correction or drum mapping, just a few missed notes corrected and no more than a couple of overdubs per song. It's pretty much just a really good version of our live sound with a few vocal effects. It was heaps of fun, even though our band style is not really close to my own musical tastes, they are great people and it's been a great way to improve musically.

But whatever - I bring you "Until Then!" - http://www.myspace.com/untilthennyc

Love to hear any and all constructive comments and criticism. Now for the gigs!

 

[tfarny]

Oh, and for the tube / modeling debaters, try and guess which instruments/tracks used software modeling.

 

[AprioriMark]

You want recording comments?  I refuse to have public opinions about people's music.  I like it, btw.

-Mark

 

[MUYFUE]

Not bad, man!  :icon_thumright:
It's a very energetic type of sound, which is cool!

 

[tfarny]

Thanks - apriori, any comments which are more useful than 'you suck' are very appreciated, recording, playing, or otherwise. Nobody involved feels like we just made Highway 61 Revisited, believe me.

To me, it seems too compressed and modern except for the slow song and the electric guitars are too distorted, and the backing vocals seem a bit forced. Generally the style (closer to pop-punk I guess?) is not at all what I listen to either.
But on the other hand, it's far crisper in execution and tighter than I expected - I actually have wondered throughout this - am I tight with the drums? Are we a good rhythm section? But that aspect of it seems good. And she's a pretty good singer.

 

[GoDrex]

I like the singer and everything sounds good, except for the distorted guitar tone. It sounds far away compared to the other instruments, which are right there.

 

[Alfang]

I like it , I think all the parts sound great,  I like Come together, the singer needs to belt that out a little more, listen to Aerosmiths version, Don't get me wrong , she sounds fine, but I hear a lot more potential there with her.

 

[nathan a]

I'm listening right now, let's see what I think.

"So Completely"-- I don't like the bass drum sound, something about it seems funny. Great electric tone, digging the harmonics. Band meshes pretty well together. Not sure how I feel about the singer, she reminds me a little of Alanis Morrisette (who I don't love). Is she sharp occasionally on her high notes?

"Come Together" - I agree that the electric tone has too much distortion, but if it were just dialed back a bit I think the 'modern' tone is a pretty interesting approach to the song - different, but not in a bad way. Having the bass so present is nice too. Definitely a 'live' feel on this one.

"Come Back" -- Unison vocals on the chorus are out of tune and tough to take. Nice simple guitar work. Again I really like how 'present' your bass sounds. I wish the other instruments sounded the same really, I feel like I am at a gig and sitting by the bass amp. Love the feedback when the distorted electric and the singer start playing together at 2:54-ish, I just wish the sound were 'closer'!

"For The Girls" - That opening electric guitar chord is EXACTLY the same chord and tone as the opening chord in Bowie's "Moonage Daydream". Listen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE4Mu_cZcIA 
I wonder if you guitarist noticed or planned that?

 

[Alfang]

Sorry, your wrong, the guitar on come together is perfect, in fact the drums and all guitar parts on all tracks are good if not perfect.  You guys are trying to hear something that you want to hear, and your all wrong, sorry.

It's good stuff

 

[tfarny]

Thanks for listening people. Yall are a great crew. You were actually spot on - the distorted electric has the reverb cranked and nobody else does, we all have talked about the bass drum on "so completely" but not found a solution.
Guitar tone for "so completely" is my strat with the area pickups through the ceriatone tweed champ, on about 5, and nothing else at all.
Bass tone is just my warmoth PJ (passive) dimarzios direct in, and scooped the eq a bit.
Distorted guitar is a Les Paul Supreme through a stock Deville, everything fully cranked, and a rat pedal.

Cheers for the good words, Alf.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Edin]

So completely is played in fine vintage manner and I like this. Nice sound but needs remastering...

Come Back...
Second vocal looks like flangered/detuned. Carly is very good singer.
Bass tone is ok. Can You play bass more accurate at Come Back? I think about answers to vocal phrases, scales, filling empty space in the A parts.
Drum fills in the corona... hm, is this BFD2? Needs reprogramming...

For the Girls...
in the excellent British "new wave/punk" manner...
Bass is so decent...

Come together is so powerful. Carly presented all good vocal attributes...

 

[jimh]

Sorry, your wrong, the guitar on come together is perfect, in fact the drums and all guitar parts on all tracks are good if not perfect.  You guys are trying to hear something that you want to hear, and your all wrong, sorry.

It's good stuff

+1.  I like the drivey guitar on Come Together.  It's well played too., But I also agree, she needs to 'belt it out' a little more.

I dont know if you've added any dynamics to the drums at all, but..... In my opinion.....
I think the bass drum could be a little more focussed on Come Together too to help it punch a bit more.  Do this with some EQ boost around 80-100Hz, and a little lift at about 1.2-1.5kHz to bring out the attack of the beater on the drum head .  Then some tight(ish) compression to emphasise the punch and even out beats.(just on the bass drum itself, not the whole kit, obviously).  The rest of the drum mix sounds pretty right to me, as does the whole mix in general.

 

[AprioriMark]

Let me preface this by saying that I like the music, and I'd be excited to record you folks myself if we were local.  There are a few recording/mixing/mastering(guessing that hasn't been done yet) issues that bug the urine sample out of me as an engineer.

First, what's with the tones that this guy got?  The above poster is correct that the bass drum sound is "off."  There is no clear definition between the sonic space for the bass guitar and the bass drum.  That alone will make a great recorded performance more difficult to palate.  There are many schools of thought as far as how to go about separating the bass guitar and the bass drum, but it doesn't sound like it was even considered.  I would beat the guy with a 3 day old fish for this.

Second, nothing was done to smooth out her vocal sound.  Because she's the only one singing in a group instrumentation that would work better for a male voice, some of that sonic space (which could be filled by organ overtones or wet electric guitar sounds... which you did quite well on the song on which you played electric by the way; very tasty) should be filled with either multitracked vocals (not my fav) or a nice fat reverb/delay (my personal choice).  Also, the EQ job on her voice makes her performance sound less intentional than it obviously is.  A big part of that is tone to tape (or harddrive, rofl).  I would have started out with a Neumann U87 and tried a few things with polar patterns and mic placement.  The "richness" of her voice is lost in this recording, and it sounds more sterile than it is.

Lastly, I would have done the drums entirely differently from the get-go.  They need more crispness in the attacks of the heads, hi-hats and hell, all the cymbals.  The toms also are not resonating like I would want them to in an open, sorta sparse sounding group like yours.  I'd personally throw new heads on the toms and snare, stretch and tune them, and use some different mics and mic placement.

I hope this at least helps you see what you want out of your recordings.  You don't have to agree with anything I'm saying.  I'm honestly stoked to hear more from you, and will listen to these songs.

-Mark

 

[tfarny]

Appreciate the feedback, this is all pretty new to me at this level. Just to put in perspective, we did all five songs in one 8-hr session and walked out the door with the mixes you hear plus the .wav files for the final take on each song, for a total cost of like $400. To me that seems like a good deal, especially given the cost of living here.
The takes on EQ and mixing are interesting, I'm going to go back and listen with some of these things in mind.