Track review - here's something different

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Hi,
I listened to The Gloaming and St.Mary's, very nice. One thing though,
I thought the vocal and piano sounded a little "close" and I felt that
the perspective between the instruments on St.M's could have been more
natural. Why didn't you do the vocals live?
More of the ambience would be nice. It's always a tough call for this
kind of stuff, whether to go all classical on it's ass  ) or to make
it more pop and close mic'd.
The gendre is more Hollywood than Celtic... Put's the fear in me every
time I hear it. )
Regards,
DS

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"Rich" wrote:

>
> ... here's three tracks I recorded last Friday and Monday. The
> mixes were done same day and I've already identified some
> things I want (and some I NEED) to change, but I'd be grateful
> for opinions on all aspects, but particularly from a
> recording/mixing perspective. Since the genre borders on
> classical (with a celtic flavour), there's not much I really want to
> have to do, but I still want a good mix.
>
> Opinions on anything you'd have done different to now, and
> anything that should be fixed would be appreciated.
>
> TRACKS -

<snipped>


My comments regarding the Swallow track:

I liked the imaging.

I liked the mixing levels of the instruments.

The voice when soft sunk below the instruments, when loud hurt my
ears (while listening on headphones).

I felt the instruments tended to blend together in the mix when all
instruments were playing together.

I loved the tone on strings.

The piano had an indistinct sound, sorta like how a piano sounds
with the sustain pedal pressed.

The decay of the vocal reverb seemed longer than the natural room
decay of the instruments.

Thanks for sharing.

(My mother is visiting. She stuck her head in the studio door and
said "That's pretty!")

Good Luck!

-Tim Sprout

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"Rich" wrote:

>
> ... here's three tracks I recorded last Friday and Monday. The
> mixes were done same day and I've already identified some
> things I want (and some I NEED) to change, but I'd be grateful
> for opinions on all aspects, but particularly from a
> recording/mixing perspective. Since the genre borders on
> classical (with a celtic flavour), there's not much I really want to
> have to do, but I still want a good mix.
>
> Opinions on anything you'd have done different to now, and
> anything that should be fixed would be appreciated.
>
> TRACKS -

<snipped>


My comments regarding the Swallow track:

I liked the imaging.

I liked the mixing levels of the instruments.

The voice when soft sunk below the instruments, when loud hurt my
ears (while listening on headphones).

I felt the instruments tended to blend together in the mix when all
instruments were playing together.

I loved the tone on strings.

The piano had an indistinct sound, sorta like how a piano sounds
with the sustain pedal pressed.

The decay of the vocal reverb seemed longer than the natural room
decay of the instruments.

Thanks for sharing.

(My mother is visiting. She stuck her head in the studio door and
said "That's pretty!")

Good Luck!

-Tim Sprout

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Yay, a review! Thanks Dave.

We didn't do the vocals live for a few reasons. Firstly the male singer
wasn't available during the first day, and the female singer wasn't
available during the second day. The strings had a gig on the afternoon of
recording their parts, so we were kind of in a hurry to get their parts
done - they had like an hour and a half maybe to do these tracks plus one
instrumental. Another is that we would not have been able to get any decent
separation from the voice. She has a massive voice. It would have been way
overpowering to record at the same time. In actual fact, we tried tracking
her in the control booth while the group played, and I can hear bleed
through on the mics in the hall! Yeah, she's powerful alright! Anyway, we
tried the second tune (Gloaming) with both piano and voice in together. I
thought the sound was so nice (better than adding plugin reverb), we re-did
all the female vocals in the hall.

I miked the singers at about 2 ft, with a pair of mics at about 20 ft to
pick up the room ambience. I have more to give... I'll try it. I'm not
overly keen on too much reverb.

Genre: Funny... actually I call it Celtic because the songs are
traditional Celtic songs. I have no idea what to call this genre really. I
guess Hollywood isn't that far off if I think about it.

The piano sound on Gloaming is more dead to me than the others. That's
because there was no bleed from the string mics (there are no strings in the
track), and therefore no real ambient mics picking up the room.

Thanks for your input.

Rich



"studiorat" <daveslevin@02.ie> wrote in message
news:1122743790.626202.185980@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
> I listened to The Gloaming and St.Mary's, very nice. One thing though,
> I thought the vocal and piano sounded a little "close" and I felt that
> the perspective between the instruments on St.M's could have been more
> natural. Why didn't you do the vocals live?
> More of the ambience would be nice. It's always a tough call for this
> kind of stuff, whether to go all classical on it's ass  ) or to make
> it more pop and close mic'd.
> The gendre is more Hollywood than Celtic... Put's the fear in me every
> time I hear it. )
> Regards,
> DS
>

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"Rich" <dizNOSPAM@funkydory.ca> wrote in message
news:jOidncj0L6niMnffRVn-vw@rogers.com...
> Sorry if you visit other recording forums that I do... I'm posting this in
> several, because I'm looking for some opinions on a few tracks, but not
> getting many responses. Maybe its the genre that's putting people off... I
> dunno.
>
> Anyway, here's three tracks I recorded last Friday and Monday. The mixes
> were done same day and I've already identified some things I want (and
> some I NEED) to change, but I'd be grateful for opinions on all aspects,
> but particularly from a recording/mixing perspective. Since the genre
> borders on classical (with a celtic flavour), there's not much I really
> want to have to do, but I still want a good mix.
>
> Opinions on anything you'd have done different to now, and anything that
> should be fixed would be appreciated.
>
> TRACKS -
>
> http://www.richiebee.ca/mk/swallow.mp3
> female voice, piano, guitar, two violins, viola, cello
> http://www.richiebee.ca/mk/gloaming.mp3
> female voice, piano
> http://www.richiebee.ca/mk/cape.mp3
> male and female voice, piano, guitar, two violins, viola, cello
>
>
> SOME BASIC RECORDING DETAILS -
>
> Everything was recorded in our very live hall using -
>
> - 9' piano - 2x Neumann KM183's
> - 2 violins, viola - 3x Neumann KM184's
> - cello, acoustic guitar, vocals and ambient mics for vocal tracks - AKG
> C414's (we have 4)
>
> This is virtually all of our relatively high end mic inventory, so there
> wasn't a whole lot of switching around that I could do, but if you'd have
> used mics in a different way... let me know.
>
> The hall was designed for great concert acoustics. For a 120 seater, it
> really does that (all the reverb on these recordings comes from the room
> itself). Unfortunately, it's really not very good for trying to get
> separation between tracks.
>
> The instruments were all recorded together, the voices were recorded
> afterwards.
>
> Thanks for any reviews...
>
> R.
>

I think the vocal could use a touch of compression...2:1 or less..probably
less. That's all I'd change. The piano sounds great.

Mike

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>
> Genre: Funny... actually I call it Celtic because the songs are
> traditional Celtic songs. I have no idea what to call this genre really. I
> guess Hollywood isn't that far off if I think about it.

I know these songs well, I assisted on hours upon hours of this kind of
music.
These songs are the kind of thing tenors like John McCormac, Percy
French, Joe Locke would have done. They are kinda like show tunes,
traditional songs arranged for piano etc. not particularly high on the
old Celtometer...
Try listening to "AR RE YAOUANK" or "Altan" for Celtic.
DS