Granite Ruin demo

[Taylor_dB]

I dunno if Chi's said, but he's had the songs remixed a bit to try and tone the guitar down a bit. I dunno if it makes it worth checking out again - it's nothing drastic, but I think it makes it sound a little more together.

As Scott (guitarist) said, it sounded better in the studio and then we got it home and listened and thought "Hmm...something not quite right there." We're working on our sound though, I'm fairly certain most bands don't just hook up and then alluvasudden have everything nailed. Also, I agree we need to tighten up a wee bit - before we went into record we could hammer out any song without any problem but I think on the day there was a little studio virginity setting in a wee bit.

It is just a demo, sure some demo's end up sounding amazing, but this is just a rough idea of some of our stuff so we can get out there and gigging and what not. Also, for criticism like this - perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, you can't please everyone as someone said previously but we can damn well try and please a few extra next time we record.

Anyways, someone said something about the lyrics/vocals? Want to elaborate? I didn't write all the lyrics, but I have to say I'm really proud of the Baby All Gone reference so I'm hoping it wasn't that and it was maybe some lyrics one of the other guys wrote. And please no comparison with Debassed, cus that's lower than low, heh.

Anyways, all the feedback is much appreciated - try and say why you don't like something as opposed to just saying you don't like it, or alternatively, if you like something then try to elaborate.

On that note, is there any positive feedback? Even if it's just that you liked a tiny bit of a little section of a song?

[Taylor_dB]

Oh, and no bashing of Tom's please - for the money, I think they do a really decent job and there was rarely a dull moment during the recording process (although I was reading Secret Invasion at the time *SPOILER WARNING* Hank Pym?! A fucking Skrull?! What the fudge?! Oh, and we got a Gatecrasher - he loves a party!)

[unbroken]

but I have to say I'm really proud of the Baby All Gone reference so I'm hoping it wasn't that

unfortunately, it was those lyrics...

:O

[davewarden]

I thought stuff like this had died a horrible death a few years ago?

Too me its too nu-metal and generic.

Vocals sound alright but some of the lyrics are really bad.

My two cents

[Mac Atom]

every guitar that gos through captian toms mic sounds shite. i had it when statue recorded there twice and statue dont sound fuzzy live. anyone that says that captian toms are good are lying' date=' [/quote']

What an absolute crock of shite. You put a crappy sound in then you get a crappy sound out, simple as that. Why do the guitars on the MMW sampler track sound really good? Because they spent time making sure that the tone was perfect before micing up and they knew what they wanted.

Too many bands go into a studio with no idea of how they want their guitars to sound, they say "Oh this sounds really good at home in my bedroom so it'll RAWK!!11" but its actually all scooped to buggery and weedy sounding and so when the engineer mics up their amp it sounds ding. Is this the engineers fault?

If you are going in on the cheap (which many bands do and get perfectly good results) then make sure you make it clear to the engineer at the time that there is a problem as they'll be more than happy to try to sort it for you. Don't wait until other people start telling you it doesn't sound good and then moan about the studio on a message board.

Spend the time in the studio getting the sound you want and get it right when it matters, before its up on an internet message board getting criticism for a terrible guitar sound.

[unbroken]

+1 (mac is the winner)

[Taylor_dB]

Well, to be fair, we recorded a song and thought the guitar sounded gash, so we went and played about with the settings (engineer included) and then in the studio it sounded pretty fucking beefy. Once we got it home that beef seemed to have gone off - probably should have wrapped it in tin-foil and put it in the fridge. So what happened in between I don't actually know.

Ach well, "My baby all gone..." still makes me chuckle quietly inside at least. Heh.

[Mac Atom]

Well, to be fair, we recorded a song and thought the guitar sounded gash, so we went and played about with the settings (engineer included) and then in the studio it sounded pretty fucking beefy. Once we got it home that beef seemed to have gone off - probably should have wrapped it in tin-foil and put it in the fridge. So what happened in between I don't actually know.

Ach well, "My baby all gone..." still makes me chuckle quietly inside at least. Heh.

Was the playing with settings done after the recording or did you record again? i.e. did you do the best you could by tweaking eq etc?

In that case its ALWAYS best to go back to source, the guitar has to sound close to what you want the end product to sound like. In my experience, trying to tinker with eq and compression etc at the end is pretty pointless (and can be absolutely infuriating) unless the source is nice and meaty.

Just a thought, did you try different mic placements and configurations? Try this thread on the Andy Sneap forum for HEAPS of advice on recording metal guitars: Recording Metal Guitars

A lot of the time the phase or placement of the mics can completely change your tone. Its something I've only recently played a round with but by following some of the tips on that forum I've improved my results loads. Especially for combatting that trademark hissy/fizzy crap that plagues metal guitars.

[Hog]

My favouite metal tone....

ESP guitars with EMG 81's, 5150, not too high on the gain and let the right hand do the work (fnar fnar)

[Chi 666]

yeh check out the new mix of the songs, i think it sounds pretty good like. please no more about the guitars please coment on the songs:up:

[sr_guitar]

Was the playing with settings done after the recording or did you record again? i.e. did you do the best you could by tweaking eq etc?

In that case its ALWAYS best to go back to source, the guitar has to sound close to what you want the end product to sound like. In my experience, trying to tinker with eq and compression etc at the end is pretty pointless (and can be absolutely infuriating) unless the source is nice and meaty.

Just a thought, did you try different mic placements and configurations? Try this thread on the Andy Sneap forum for HEAPS of advice on recording metal guitars: Recording Metal Guitars

A lot of the time the phase or placement of the mics can completely change your tone. Its something I've only recently played a round with but by following some of the tips on that forum I've improved my results loads. Especially for combatting that trademark hissy/fizzy crap that plagues metal guitars.

Cheers for that! Much appreciated! Will make sure I dont sound so shit next time haha

Oh n Taylor, I like your lyrics. "my baby all gone..." is a sure-fire classic! Makes me laugh. N thats the important thing. Making sure I'M happy! hehe

[Dan G]

Mac speaks a lot of sense. And just to back up one of his points, post-tracking mixing techniques (e.g. EQ/compression) can only do so much. You need to have a good tone to begin with, i.e. the guitar tone needs to sound good in the room you are recording in.

And I mean GOOD. If you think 'my-budget-Ibanez-into-my-metalzone-and-line 6 combo' is good, then the first thing you need to do is shoot yourself in the face.

If the guitar sound is genuinely good in the room, but crap when coming out the mixing desk speakers, examine the quality of the mic.. (is it a shure SM57? They are generally considered the best for recording rock/metal guitar and every studio should own one).

Also, where is the positioning of the mic in relation to the speaker on the cab? The forum mac suggested has lots of good tips on this. The mic positioned an inch of the grill cloth, and very slightly off the centre of the best sounding speaker on your cab is good start.

Are you double tracking your guitars? The guitar sound will likely by weak if you recording your main rhythm guitar parts twice, and then stereo-panning them left and right.

It also must be said that to get great tone to begin with, you need 3 things:

1) To have good gear, which unfortuately is expensive. The amp in particular is massively important.

2) You need to be able to set it up properly. (i.e. buying a Mesa triple rectifier is pointless if you're just gonna put the gain up max, cut all the mids, or use a zoom multi effects board instead of the mesa's distortion)

3) Then you need to be able to PLAY properly, and tightly too. It's amazing how much tone is in the fingers.

If you don't have the above, then you will ultimately sound shit. That's not to say that you need to be as good as Steve Vai and own a 10,000 rig... a decent player can make an average set-up still sound pretty damn good.

[Dan G]

The guitar sound will likely by weak if you aren't recording your main rhythm guitar parts twice, and then stereo-panning them left and right.

I missed out the all important "aren't" in my previous post.

[WoodyRATM]

3) Then you need to be able to PLAY properly, and tightly too. It's amazing how much tone is in the fingers.

I agree with this 100%.

[The Grooviest Viking]

I think it sounded alright. Nothing amazing but alright.

The bass is the shiz though

[Ganderson]

I think it sounded alright. Nothing amazing but alright.

The bass is the shiz though

The bass is lacking a lot of presence. I dont know an awful lot about this sort of thing but it sounds like the bass is missing exactly that - bass. I'm hearing an awful lot of fret noise and not enough note. That could be down to poor strings, poor playing, poor action on the guitar, i just dont know. But if u think its the shiz then thats what matters right?! That could have been the sound you were looking for. After all the bass is considered the hybrid between percussion and melody.

[RobJM]

Sounds OK to me , barring the drums , a bit distracting from the overall sound, sounds a bit 'biscuit tin' if you know what I'm trying to say , not that i'm any expert.

Of course, ripping your music and putting it on myspace may have done god knows what to the sound, unless the originals sound the same.

[The Grooviest Viking]

The bass is lacking a lot of presence. I dont know an awful lot about this sort of thing but it sounds like the bass is missing exactly that - bass. I'm hearing an awful lot of fret noise and not enough note. That could be down to poor strings, poor playing, poor action on the guitar, i just dont know. But if u think its the shiz then thats what matters right?! That could have been the sound you were looking for. After all the bass is considered the hybrid between percussion and melody.

I was kidding the Bass doesn't sound that good. It's barely audible through most of it. And has a not very good distortion on it(my fault). But it was cutting through even less without it.

I just few the demo as a way people can hear a rough version of our stuff. Nothing more

[Ganderson]

I was kidding the Bass doesn't sound that good. It's barely audible through most of it. And has a not very good distortion on it(my fault). But it was cutting through even less without it.

I just few the demo as a way people can hear a rough version of our stuff. Nothing more

thats fair enough. i have noticed that most, if not everybody, has talked about the sound and nothing about the composition musically. i'm guilty of that aswell. it should seem obvious to people when you put a rough track up that you arent looking for shallow comments about the sound of the guitar or whatever. instead you are looking for feedback on the writing before you go and record it propper.

in my opinion the vocals could do with a bit of work physically and lyrically. not much wrong with the guitar riffs, if i was being really picky you could maybe add some variation. same with the drums, a bit too straight for me. apologies for being so vague.

[The Grooviest Viking]

thats fair enough. i have noticed that most, if not everybody, has talked about the sound and nothing about the composition musically. i'm guilty of that aswell. it should seem obvious to people when you put a rough track up that you arent looking for shallow comments about the sound of the guitar or whatever. instead you are looking for feedback on the writing before you go and record it propper.

in my opinion the vocals could do with a bit of work physically and lyrically. not much wrong with the guitar riffs, if i was being really picky you could maybe add some variation. same with the drums, a bit too straight for me. apologies for being so vague.

I feel the same way about the drums. Its in dire need of fills. But we did just try and get as much done in as little time as possible. So there wasn't alot of time for flair. Theres a lot of bits in there which were supposed to have lead parts over them, but we didn't have a lead guitarist at the time. From a point of view of listening to them and not playing them I find now that There will be Blood and especially From the top are quite dull to listen to. But that can be changed.

I like how the vocals sound and they were all done in one take. Again just so we could get to mixing as quickly as possible and because they sounded good for what the demo is supposed to be. I think we'd come off better live though.

[berni907]

what an absolute crock of shite. You put a crappy sound in then you get a crappy sound out, simple as that. Why do the guitars on the mmw sampler track sound really good? Because they spent time making sure that the tone was perfect before micing up and they knew what they wanted.

Too many bands go into a studio with no idea of how they want their guitars to sound, they say "oh this sounds really good at home in my bedroom so it'll rawk!!11" but its actually all scooped to buggery and weedy sounding and so when the engineer mics up their amp it sounds ding. Is this the engineers fault?

If you are going in on the cheap (which many bands do and get perfectly good results) then make sure you make it clear to the engineer at the time that there is a problem as they'll be more than happy to try to sort it for you. Don't wait until other people start telling you it doesn't sound good and then moan about the studio on a message board.

Spend the time in the studio getting the sound you want and get it right when it matters, before its up on an internet message board getting criticism for a terrible guitar sound.

haha, fucking told!

[Captain America]

fucking old

I think is what you meant.

[The Subtle Arts]

I think is what you meant.

Pwned.

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