Dad3353

Hasn't kicked in yet, but I now have sore fingers and strange looks.

You may regret having written this in the future..!

My first electric guitar, late '60s, a Thinline Hofner President, Florentine cutaway, just like this one... . Sold to buy a Burns Bison (madness..!), which didn't stay long. I've other (fine...) Hofners, but a Thinline President like the above I'd buy again instantly. A joy to play (which I didn't realise at the time, daft stupido that I was...), but, alas, rather a rare beast, so difficult to replace. Anyone got one going spare, by any chance..?

Ah, DW. Jolly Good Stuff. My kit, bought in the very early '70s, is a Camco; they were bought by DW, and have the same round lugs, and the same superb sound. Good choice, and well played. As for the cymbals: as I wrote, it may be best to get the opinion of someone else, but it's better to be a touch too cautious, as they can become aggressive and wearing quite quickly. To judge from the overall drum sound, I'd say that the distance is pretty well spot on; a little EQ tweaking would bring out the 'shine', or a drum bus mastering preset if the whole kit is in a group on the desk. Less Is More, however; there's no flagrant problem. Carry on as before and you'll not be far wrong.

Not much 'error' here, lad. That's excellent execution, tight enough arrangement for the genre, well sung (again, in keeping...) and well mixed. I've heard many studio sessions much, much worse that that. How to improve it..? Maybe a spot of post-prod Fx for the vocals, doubling the voice would be good (can be done 'live', now, with 'trickster' voice pedals. BV's would add, if there are others willing to step up to the hot plate. No need to be Caruso, just reasonably in tune. BV's add a lot to this sort of rock. Excellent drum sound, so kudos for whoever tuned the kit. I can't hear much in the way of cymbals, but that's probably my advancing age and retreating hearing, so no worries. Best check with others to be sure, though. All together a very efficient 'visiting card, so well done all involved.

PM sent...

They were asked for a piccolo bass, but mis-heard and made a Picasso.

Good morning, Stubs, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

What, like a Precision bass..?

Good evening, Andy, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here still, and lots to learn and share.

Keep it simple, for now, and add bells and whistles little by little, as the mastery develops. I'd start by using two overheads, snare and bass drum, and leave the tom mic's alone for now. If they're recorded, that's fine, but get the overheads to do the 'heavy lifting' (including stereo separation...), and only add tiny touches of toms once the drum mix is done, to see how they can affect the whole. They're not essential; many studio engineers don't use 'em at all, even if they're 'on the desk'. Keep it simple; Less Is More..!

For inspiration, listen to Lenny's. ... ... Then do the opposite. ...

Not much use for spears, I fear, either. Not for me; I'm Out.

Night'n'day, lad; night'n'day..! That's a very credible mix..! No more of the old jollop for this evening, then, but keep the recipe that you used here, plus the other stuff talked about, and you're on the right track. If you're not doing this stuff in 'studio' conditions (appropriatly-sounding room, high-end monitors, top-notch 'cans'...), don't worry about fine details. Go for the 'low hanging fruit', using tried and tested simple techniques, and trust your ears..! Give it another listen tomorrow, then listen to the video track, and you'll hear for yourself the difference. Good Stuff, well done.

Which one would Michael be, I wonder..? ...

OK, then everyone would be playing ahead of the beat. So..? A metronome would show the difference, but without that...

Empathy. Playing 'behind' or 'before' doesn't involved any change of tempo, merely the placing of the beat, not its speed. Take a very extreme example in a reggae 'one-drop', where there's no 'One' beat played at all. The 'One' is there, but not stated as such. Playing around the beat is similar; the 'One' is there, but not explicitely.

Unknown to me, and not my usual 'cup of tea', but kudos for the splendid performance and uber-clean recording. Good Stuff; thanks for sharing. An extra 'Clap-clap' for the drums; very tight.

Good afternoon, Alan, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. Would that be a v12 Caterpillar, by any chance..?

You're in good company here, along with Beethoven. I, too, am 'hard of hearing', what with being old'n'all, and it does, indeed, pose extra difficulties when recording and mixing. A tip, that you may find useful..? I find it helps considerably, when mixing, to have a few reference tracks; that's to say, songs that I listen to, and know well, preferably in the same or similar genre to the track I'm mixing. This gives me confidence that, if I can hear it in my mix as being somewhat like my reference track, I'm not too far out. I'll admit to not being of uber precision; I don't do 'tweaks' of 1 or 2 db (I can't hear them...). My audio scalpel is calibrated at 3 db; that's the amount I raise or lower stuff when balancing out the instruments and vocals. Top engineers will have a different approach, but they have ears like bats, and I don't, so I do with what works for me. Just a thought; hope you find it useful. Getting a good 'take' of a drum kit is not an easy affair (I'm a drummer...). The first, and perhaps the most important, step is having the drums themselves tuned properly, with good drum heads (Evans is your friend...). It often helps to use a touch of dampening, to reduce overtones and ringing (again, depending on the genre of music...). The favourite, classic, snare technique is to lay one's wallet on the snare head; a little piece of duct tape from the rim to the head of the toms helps, too. Mic positioning is important, and needs experimenting for optimum. It's a luxury to have each piece of the kit individually mic'ed; a good kit will sound right when recorded with just the overhead (one is enough; two can be better, but has its own issues, too...). The individual toms would be used only as a complement, really. It makes mixing the drums far easier, using the overhead as principal source, and adding bass drum and snare to reinforce the tone. Leakage is far less of an issue with this set-up. That's enough for now; hope some of this helps. Good luck with the project; you're doing fine.

Just on that one point, things are not so simple. There are 'automatic' bids in place (they can be made visible...), which show the bidder 'upping' his bid until the auto-bid is defeated. There are more than 7 bids (at time of your post...). Just sayin'.