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Recording tips please


ZeromiserY

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not wanting to sound stupid' date=' but what is SISO?[/quote']

Shit in Shit out....SISO

Toms is a great place to record up to a certain standard, they make recording affordable to young bands with a tiny budget, and with a little forward planning, lots of rehersal and a knowlege of your own equipment and how you want to sound, an acceptable demo recording is achievable for little financial outlay at Cptn Toms.

Thats my opinion for what its worth...8)

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with a little forward planning' date=' lots of rehersal and a knowlege of your own equipment and how you want to sound, an acceptable demo recording is achievable for little financial outlay at Cptn Toms.[/quote']

I totally agree. I have heard demo recordings made there by bands that have come to us for a more professional product and given the very low prices he charges and the very short time in which the whole thing has to happen, I feel the bands have got good value for the very small amount of money that they have had to pay.

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I'd stick to 3 songs max, your best songs that you can play well (although have 1 or 2 ready if something doesn't seem to be working). For a clicky bass drum, use plastic beaters, tape an old CD to the kick head where the beaters hit the skin, get the mic in close, use 2 mics on the kick (inside and out) inside for the clicky sound, outside for the thumpy bass sound. Use DI's and/or amp simulators while you record the drums, keep the noise in the room to an absolute minimum, even get strummy guitarists to keep their distance, the overheads can pick up a lot. Keep your headphones as low as possible, but not so low that you struggle to hear whats going on. Throw up a mic in the middle of the room to use for effects, a bit of distortion and compression can turn it into a monster sound...heres an idea on road to ruin which is just 5 minutes of me fucking about, but using automation (which Cap Toms don't have the luxury of mind you) I'm bringing down the close mics and leaving just the overheads and bringing up a room mic with lots of distortion and compression, I'm also changing the guitars to a weaker sound to really let the drums cut through at this part...

http://www.keilan303.demon.co.uk/SOM-middle.mp3

Ok it might suck, but use the time to try out stuff like this...although think some of this in advance. To save time the bassist could record his parts while the guitarist records his. Beg/steal/borrow a bass pod or similar, use a shit hot valve amp with a good cab for the guitar, crank it up loud, try and get the head in the control room and the cab in their ISO booth so you can adjust settings and hear how it is really sounding rather than struggling to hear the headphones for noise coming from the cab. Usually best to leave the vocals to last, although make sure the singer doesn't get bored while the music is getting laid down, bored singers turn to booze and drugs quickly, and this will deterioate the quality of singing. Try and work towards your final mix each time something is laid down, the more the singers headphone mix sounds like the finished article, the better a performance he will give. It's hard to give it your all standing in a room in front of a window, not to sound too cheesey but the more you can get lost in the music and really fell like you're archie mcfluff, the better.

Take lots of notes. If theres any duff noises, get them scrubbed before mixdown. Singer breathing coughing between breaks, lead guitarist playing crossroads before his solo comes in etc. When it comes to mixdown, have the sound in mind and work towards it. If theres time, fart about with different things. If theres some ideas you want to try but are not sure, try them anyway, mix them down to CD and you can go back at a later stage and edit in the best bits, don't think that just changing some faders and hitting play then record on the CDR will provide a great mix. As the songs change elements of the mix should change to reflect this. If the singer is shouting it might sound great to give it some distortion on a delayed signal, but this wouldn't work for a verse etc..

Apart from that...I wouldn't expect miracles...

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Guest Gregor Ascension
the quality a toms is more than good enough for ALL aberdeen bands

i disagree on the principle that 8 hours is not nearly enough time for a band to record a 5 song ep and be 100% happy with it. i wouldnt be happy with that deadline, maybe for one song, but not 5. unless your doing a live recording?

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Shit in Shit out....SISO

Toms is a great place to record up to a certain standard' date=' they make recording affordable to young bands with a tiny budget, and with a little forward planning, lots of rehersal and a knowlege of your own equipment and how you want to sound, an acceptable demo recording is achievable for little financial outlay at Cptn Toms.

Thats my opinion for what its worth...8)[/quote']

I agree!!!

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My band did a demo today. No fancy setup here. A good old 8 Track ADAT recorder was used. We've only been rehearsing the songs for 3weeks. Was still a lot of fun.

Practise practise practise is my only recording advice.

Make sure you sound check a decent drum sound. Put something good in and you'll get something good out. Good mics are a must.

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Guest Gasss

Check what your stereo mix sounds like in mono. Otherwise you might find out for the first time that your fancy stereo delay guitar effect phase cancels itself out to nothing when you hear it on the radio. :down: :down: :down:

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The biggest problem with demos that originate at Toms is the bands seldom invest enough time to record the tracks properly - a 4 track cassette portastudio and a Tandy mic can create great results if you have the time to work them..

Try and get the sound you want from your equipment before you record

Files I've been given to work on recorded at Captain Toms have had the drum mixed to stereo. Pretty much impossible to rescue this later if you need to eq and set the levels individually for each mic.

If you are going to spend the time setting up you equipement and mics make sure you have sufficient individual tracks to mix with afterwards...

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If you want that clicky heavy rock double bass kick sound get the engineer to mike the front of the kick (drummer side) with an sm-57 pointed just off centre from where the beater hits the drumhead____as well as the normal kick drum mic. Then eq and blend at mixdown. Can work great if done properly.

ahem!

On a more practical note' date=' if you want a "clicky" kick drum, try double miking it. Use one mic as normal, and another on the beater side for the "click".[/quote']

How do you spell plagarism?

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