[Boris Lau]

Hey all,

I've recorded one of several jam sessions that I host with my band. In
one set two rappers joined in, and I've tried to mix a few tracks for
them as demo.

http://www.borislau.de/files/jam_rapper.mp3

What do you think of the sound, what could be improved?

I've used moderate compression (1:1 - 4:1) on the individual tracks,
mostly with attack times not shorter than 40ms to keep the punch.
On the sum I've applied a bit of limiting.
It's not as loud as professional live albums that I listen to. I don't
want to squish it, but I guess it could be a bit louder. How do I
achieve this? Is there more to do on the individual tracks, or should I
work on the sum (Multi-band compression, more limiting)?

Thanks for any advice!

Boris

--
http://www.borislau.de - computer science, music, photos

[Don Pearce[_3_]]

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:25:38 +0100, Boris Lau
wrote:

Hey all,

I've recorded one of several jam sessions that I host with my band. In
one set two rappers joined in, and I've tried to mix a few tracks for
them as demo.

http://www.borislau.de/files/jam_rapper.mp3

What do you think of the sound, what could be improved?

I've used moderate compression (1:1 - 4:1) on the individual tracks,
mostly with attack times not shorter than 40ms to keep the punch.
On the sum I've applied a bit of limiting.
It's not as loud as professional live albums that I listen to. I don't
want to squish it, but I guess it could be a bit louder. How do I
achieve this? Is there more to do on the individual tracks, or should I
work on the sum (Multi-band compression, more limiting)?

Thanks for any advice!

Boris

Making it louder proved very simple - I turned up the volume. Please
don't compress it any further, as a certain amount of pumping is
already evident.

My biggest problem with it is that although it is clearly stereo,
there is no sound stage is evidence; everything is clustered close to
the centre.

Other than that, I would say it is very good. All the instruments are
clearly differentiated from each other.

d

[Boris Lau]

Hi Don,

Don Pearce wrote:
Making it louder proved very simple - I turned up the volume. Please
don't compress it any further, as a certain amount of pumping is
already evident.

thanks for your advice. Maybe I have to take the limiter in the sum a
bit back, and do more compression in the tracks instead?

My biggest problem with it is that although it is clearly stereo,
there is no sound stage is evidence; everything is clustered close to
the centre.

yes, I don't have a usable room stereo pair. I could of course spread it
out more, but I wasn't sure how to do it:

- Bass, Kick and Snare should be center I guess
- If I turn the overheads fully left and right, the drumset is wider
than the stage, which sounds very unrealistic...
- Vocals are slightly left and right, more off-center?
- Keys and Guitar and left and right, more to the sides?
- Percussions are leftish

Other than that, I would say it is very good. All the instruments are
clearly differentiated from each other.

Thanks for your comments

Boris

--
http://www.borislau.de - computer science, music, photos

[Don Pearce[_3_]]

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:55:56 +0100, Boris Lau
wrote:

My biggest problem with it is that although it is clearly stereo,
there is no sound stage is evidence; everything is clustered close to
the centre.

yes, I don't have a usable room stereo pair. I could of course spread it
out more, but I wasn't sure how to do it:

- Bass, Kick and Snare should be center I guess
- If I turn the overheads fully left and right, the drumset is wider
than the stage, which sounds very unrealistic...
- Vocals are slightly left and right, more off-center?
- Keys and Guitar and left and right, more to the sides?
- Percussions are leftish

That should be ok. Don't go fully left or right unless it is a Beatles
tribute band! But you can spread the instruments much wider than they
are now without sounding artificial.

Leave the overheads as they are. The drums don't need to be any wider
than they are now. Did you "create" a drum group that sounded right on
its own before anyone else started playing?

d

[Boris Lau]

Don Pearce wrote:
Did you "create" a drum group that sounded right on
its own before anyone else started playing?

Sorry, I don't get your question.

I have a stereo drum channel in my mix that groups all drum tracks, if
that's what you mean.
For live sound we've only used the Kick mic, since it's a small
restaurant we were playing in.
Unfortunately there was no real "recording sound check" during setup on
"stage", where stage translates to "corner of the restaurant". I just
did a quick line check and a short test recording to see if all mics are
roughly in an ok spot.

Boris

--
http://www.borislau.de - computer science, music, photos

[Don Pearce[_3_]]

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:34:21 +0100, Boris Lau
wrote:

Don Pearce wrote:
Did you "create" a drum group that sounded right on
its own before anyone else started playing?

Sorry, I don't get your question.

I have a stereo drum channel in my mix that groups all drum tracks, if
that's what you mean.
For live sound we've only used the Kick mic, since it's a small
restaurant we were playing in.
Unfortunately there was no real "recording sound check" during setup on
"stage", where stage translates to "corner of the restaurant". I just
did a quick line check and a short test recording to see if all mics are
roughly in an ok spot.

Boris

What I mean is this. When you mike up the drums, you put in the
overheads, adjust the pan pots to make the kit the right width, then
bring in the snares, toms, cymbals and kick to add the definition and
slam. You pan each of these to match the position they occupy in the
overhead pair. Once this is all done, you assign the whole thing to a
group which is all you touch subsequently during the mix.

Ok, I see that for live sound you only add the kick, but the principle
still applies.

d